Page 530 - Using MIS

498 Chapter 12 Information Systems Development

Collabora tion exerCiSe 12

Using the collaboration IS you built in Chapter 2 (page 74), collab- Because we do not know Baker, Barker, and Bickel’s de-
orate with a group of students to answer the following questions. tailed requirements, you cannot develop a plan for a spe-
Wilma Baker, Jerry Barker, and Chris Bickel met in June cific system. In general, however, they first need to decide
2012 at a convention of resort owners and tourism operators. how elaborate an information system they want to construct.
They sat next to each other by chance while waiting for a pre- Consider the following two alternatives:
sentation; after introducing themselves and laughing at the a. They could build a simple system centered on email. With
odd sound of their three names, they were surprised to learn it, each company sends property descriptions to the others
that they managed similar businesses. Wilma Baker lives in via email. Each independent company then forwards these
Santa Fe, New Mexico, and specializes in renting homes and descriptions to its own customers, also using email. When a
apartments to visitors to Santa Fe. Jerry Barker lives in Whistler customer makes a reservation for a property, that request is
Village, British Columbia, and specializes in renting condos then forwarded back to the property manager via email.
to skiers and other visitors to the Whistler/Blackcomb Resort.
Chris Bickel lives in Chatham, Massachusetts, and specializes b. They could construct a more complex system using a Web-
in renting homes and condos to vacationers to Cape Cod. based, shared database that contains data on all their prop-
The three agreed to have lunch after the presentation. erties and reservations. Because reservations tracking is a
During lunch, they shared frustrations about the difficulty of common business task, it is likely that they can license an
obtaining new customers, especially in the current economic existing application with this capability.
downturn. Barker was especially concerned about finding cus- In your answers to 1 and 2, use Microsoft Visio and BPMN tem-
tomers to fill the facilities that had been constructed to host plates to construct your diagram. If you don’t have those tem-
the Olympics in the prior year. plates, use the cross-functional and basic flowchart templates.
As the conversation developed, they began to wonder if If you do not have access to Visio, use PowerPoint instead.
there was some way to combine forces (i.e., they were seeking
a competitive advantage from an alliance). So, they decided to 12-6. Create a process diagram for alternative a, using
skip one of the next day’s presentations and meet to discuss Figure 12-8 as a guide. Each company will need to
ways to form an alliance. Ideas they wanted to discuss further have a role for determining its available properties
were sharing customer data, developing a joint reservation and sending emails to the other companies that de-
service, and exchanging property listings. scribe them. They will also need to have a role for
As they talked, it became clear they had no interest in merg- receiving emails and a role for renting properties to
ing their businesses; each wanted to stay independent. They customers. Assume the companies have from three to
also discovered that each was very concerned, even paranoid, five agents who can fulfill these roles. Create a role for
about protecting their existing customer base from poaching. the email system if you think it is appropriate. Specify
Still, the conflict was not as bad as it first seemed. Barker’s busi- roles, activities, repositories, and data flows.
ness was primarily the ski trade, and winter was his busiest 12-7. Create a process diagram for alternative b, using Figure
season; Bickel’s business was mostly Cape Cod vacations, and 12-8 as a guide. Each company will need to have a role
she was busiest during the summer. Baker’s high season was for determining its available properties and adding
the summer and fall. So, it seemed there was enough difference them to the reservation database. They will also need
in their high seasons that they would not necessarily cannibal- a role for renting properties that accesses the shared
ize their businesses by selling the others’ offerings to their own database. Assume the companies have from three to
customers. five agents who can fulfill these roles. Create a role for
The question then became how to proceed. Given their the property database application. Specify roles, ac-
desire to protect their own customers, they did not want to tivities, repositories, and data flows.
develop a common customer database. The best idea seemed
to be to share data about properties. That way they could keep 12-8. Compare and contrast your answers in questions 12-6
control of their customers but still have an opportunity to sell and 12-7. Which is likely to be more effective in gen-
time at the others’ properties. erating rental income? Which is likely to be more
They discussed several alternatives. Each could develop expensive to develop? Which is likely to be more ex-
her or his own property database, and the three could then pensive to operate?
share those databases over the Internet. Or they could develop 12-9. If you were a consultant to Baker, Barker, and Bickel,
a centralized property database that they would all use. Or they which alternative would you recommend? Justify
could find some other way to share property listings. your recommendation.