Case study 1 UPS

1. Since UPS is a parcel service that deliveries packages, we can say that the inputs of UPS
would be the package information, signature from the customer, delivery, location,
pickup, billing, as well as customer clearance documentation. When it comes to the
processing part, it is being transmitted to a central computer and the data are stored for
retrieval. The data are organized in such a way that it can be tracked by the account of
the customer, driver, date, and other criteria to improve the efficiency of delivery the
packages. Finally, the outputs of UPS would be the delivery times, package recipient,
packages for a specific account, driver, route and the overall report for management.

2. UPS uses multiples technologies such as Delivery information Acquisition Device(DIAD),

wireless communication, ERP, Barcode scanner, GPS tracking device. UPS implement
these technologies to align with their business strategy that promises “best services and
lowest rate”. These technologies not only make their parcel service’s cheaper but also
improves their overall efficiency. For example, DIAD can be accessed by wireless
network which allows the drivers to know more detailed information. Moreover, UPS
using these technologies can also increase their flexibility in their business and helps the
business to combine the manual part of tracking and verifying the address and other
stuff technical stuff done more easily.

3. UPS focuses heavily on improving their efficiency of their operation and they have
invested and used systems to increase their performance. Packing Tracking System is
one of the examples that UPS uses to monitor and re-route package throughout the
delivery process. Another strategic business objective that UPS information system
address was to provide best customer services to their customers. UPS spend more that
1 billion dollars every year to keep high level of customer services. Moreover, they have
another strategic business objective which is to lower their cost. UPS uses information
system to reduce their operation cost and keeping their costs low to compete with their
competitors.

4. It would be disastrous for UPS and they will not become the biggest package deliver
company. Without the UPS’s information system, the company and their operation
would not be as efficient. These technologies that UPS are using provide customer value
and it helps the customers to complete their tasks more efficiently. The main job of the
information system is to maintain their services level high but also with a lower cost.
Without these technologies, UPS cannot compete with its competitors.
Case Study 2 “Should Companies Embrace Social Business?”

2-13:
In terms of management, all employees regardless of their age, background, religion, race,
gender need an incentive or a reason to use social software. But in reality, most companies are
not providing incentives to the employees which can be seen as there are only 22 percent users
of the social software believe that technology is needed and helpful to their job. When it comes
to organization part, companies who tried to create the internal social network have realized
that the employees who had been used to do business in a certain way can be difficult. Also,
around 50 percent of the survey respondents claimed that internal social networks had a little
impact on employee’s retention and the speed of making decisions. For Technology, ease of use
and better job efficiency have more value compared to peer pressure in order to increase the
motivation to adopt the social networking technologies. The biggest reason why most IT
professionals think their own internal social network are not so good is because low adoption
rates of the employees. For this to work, the content on the networks must be up-to-date, easy
to access, and etc.

2-14:
Red Robin has succeeded in employing the internal social network. They have 355 restaurants,
and 20,000 employees are working in them. Red Robin uses the social networking to give their
employees to interact with the customer because the company believes that actively engaging
the employees would increase their loyalty and motivation. Not only this, but Red Robin
constantly takes the employee’s comments into account to improve their company. They also
have decided to use Yammer (a platform for people to make conversations, share and upload
files) which allows the employees to communicate with their managers and get feedback.

On the other hand, NASA’s Gooddard Space Flight Center failed to implement the internal social
network. First, they created Spacebook which is a custom-built enterprise social network to
help small teams to collaborate and work with each other without having to e-mail the bigger
groups. It has many functions such as discussion forum, file sharing, user profiles, and group
workspaces. Nevertheless, Spacebook did not succeed because it did not focus enough on
people and the network did not take organization’s culture and politics into account. The main
issue was that the employees did not realize how the network would help them to do their
jobs.

Sometimes, the management overlook the importance of their employees and focusing too
much on the network. Ultimately, the employees are the ones who are working and bringing
value to the company so if they do not find these new network systems attractive, the company
won’t succeed. Therefore, companies must take employee’s feelings and opinions into
consideration for majority decisions like these.
2-15:
In my personal opinion, I think all companies should implement internal enterprise social
networks because it is a useful strategy to reduces costs, time and improve productivity for the
company. People can simply share documents and information online and communicate
through this platform and it will save them a lot of time and energy compared to the old-
fashioned way which involves deliver the hardcopy of the document manually and using phone
calls that cost money. However, it is imperative that companies come up with ways to
incentivize employees to adopt the new system and companies should communicate the
benefits of this new system to the employees so that they are more willing to accept it.