Page 138 - Using MIS

106 Chapter 3 Strategy and Information Systems

Singing Valley resides in a gorgeous mountain valley and visit last winter. He wanted to know if, indeed, his wife had
is situated a few hundred yards from a serene mountain lake. It recently been to the resort, without him. Of course, Singing
prides itself on superior accommodations; tip-top service; deli- Valley had no way of knowing about customers it had insulted
cious, healthful, organic meals; and exceptional wines. Because who never complained.
it has been so successful, Singing Valley is 90 percent occu- During the time the automated email system was opera-
pied except during the “shoulder seasons” (November, after the tional, sales of extra activities were up 15 percent. However, the
leaves change and before the snow arrives, and late April, when strong customer complaints conflicted with its competitive
winter sports are finished but the snow is still on the ground). strategy so, in spite of the extra revenue, Singing Valley stopped
Singing Valley’s owners want to increase revenue, but be- the automated email system, sacked the vendor who had de-
cause the resort is nearly always full and because its rates are veloped it, and demoted the Singing Valley employee who had
already at the top of the scale, it cannot do so via occupancy brokered the system. Singing Valley was left with the problem
revenue. Thus, over the past several years it has focused on up- of how to increase its revenue.
selling to its clientele activities such as fly-fishing, river rafting, Your team’s task is to develop two innovative ideas for
cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, art lessons, yoga and other solving Singing Valley’s problem. At the minimum, include the
exercise classes, spa services, and the like. following in your response:
To increase the sales of these optional activities, Singing
Valley prepared in-room marketing materials to advertise their a. An analysis of the five forces of the Singing Valley market.
availability. Additionally, it trained all registration personnel Make and justify any necessary assumptions about their
on techniques of casually and appropriately suggesting such market.
activities to guests on arrival. b. A statement of Singing Valley’s competitive strategy.
The response to these promotions was only mediocre, so c. A statement of the problem. Recall from Chapter 2 that a
Singing Valley’s management stepped up its promotions. The problem is a perceived difference between what is and what
first step was to send email to its clientele advising them of ought to be. If the members of your group have different
the activities available during their stay. An automated system perceptions of the problem, all the better. Use a collabora-
produced emails personalized with names and personal data. tive process to obtain the best possible problem description
Unfortunately, the automated email system backfired. to which all can agree.
Immediately upon its execution, Singing Valley management d. Document in a general way (like the top row of Figure 3-10)
received numerous complaints. One long-term customer ob- the process of up-selling an activity.
jected that she had been coming to Singing Valley for 7 years e. Develop two innovative ideas for solving the Singing Valley
and asked if they had yet noticed that she was confined to a problem. For each idea, provide:
wheelchair. If they had noticed, she said, why did they send • A brief description of the idea.
her a personalized invitation for a hiking trip? The agent of • A process diagram (like Figure 3-11) of the idea. Figure
another famous client complained that the personalized email 3-11 was produced using Microsoft Visio; if you have
was sent to her client and her husband, when anyone who had access to that product, you’ll save time and have a better
turned on a TV in the past 6 months knew the two of them result if you also use it.
were involved in an exceedingly acrimonious divorce. Yet an- • A description of the information system needed to
other customer complained that, indeed, he and his wife had implement the idea.
vacationed at Singing Valley 3 years ago, but he had not been f. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of your al-
there since. To his knowledge, his wife had not been there, ternatives in part e and recommend one of them for
either, so he was puzzled as to why the email referred to their implementation.

CaSe Study 3

The Amazon of Innovation

On December 2, 2013, Amazon.com customers ordered 36.8 in Everett, Washington, at 12:26 PM and was delivered at 3:56
million items worldwide, an average of 426 items per second, PM that same day. (Some of Amazon’s major innovations are
with more than half of the orders from mobile devices. At the listed in Figure 3-18.)
peak of sales for the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, Amazon You may think of Amazon as simply an online retailer, and
customers purchased more than 1,000 of those units per min- that is indeed where the company achieved most of its suc-
ute. The last local express delivery was ordered by a customer cess. To do this, Amazon had to build enormous supporting