Analysis on Midsouth It Case
Analysis:
After going through complete case study of MSCC, following items seems like the key issues for its Information systems failure and instability: 1) Lack of IT expertise within the organization:
The decision makers like Lassiter, Wilson and members of executive staff, who had authority to choose software package to be used in MSCC, were not specialized in any of the Information Science/ Computer Science/Consulting background. 2) While evaluating a new software for MSCC, they should have looked at the reputation of company like companies finances, market capitalization etc: Whenever decision has to be made among various software vendors there are several points to be taken into consideration like: Companies Finances (includes cash flow, market capitalization and other financial matters too, MSCC could have consulted a financial advisor in the company or any independent consultant outside the company) Employee Retention of the consulting company because MSCC should make sure consultant who will be working for them would stay at least till the tenure of project. Consulting company’s expertise in the business of the customer they are going to develop software. MSCC should have evaluated consulting company’s relationship with existing clients. 3) Should have paid good attention while reviewing the contract: Due diligence was not given while reviewing the contract, no one from the senior management reviewed the contract thoroughly and didn’t even thought it worthwhile to have a look by their attorney. Contract is a legal document which should have given thorough look before signing it and accepting the terms. 4) MSCC should have consulted a company who had expertise in writing a software for Chambers Of Commerce Industry 5) MSCC didn’t had detailed plan for execution
If we look at entire tenure of MSCC Information system from 1989 till 2010, they never laid out any roadmap for their Information system. They keep on trying different software vendors without having a plan in place. 6) Put more emphasis on cheap software
MSCC was always concerned about their budget and relying on cheap software vendors where they end up paying lots of extra money and unstable Information system at last. Well, it’s a known fact that in any business we have a budget and deadlines to complete a project, but one should also give a fair look to the company reputation that’s writing software for them.
Conclusion:
Conclusion drawn after reading the MSCC case study is as follows: 1) Always have an IT roadmap for your company, which should clearly demonstrate what will be your business need for at least coming 3 years, which will envision you to jot down IT requirements clearly meeting your business needs. 2) Once you have IT Roadmap in place, go for the best vendor who has expertise in that business area. Do lots of research for selecting