MIS 300
The Cast:
A. Ms. Arlene Alpha, founder, CEO and President
B. Mr. Bob Bernstein, CIO, equivalent to a VP for info systems
C. Ms. Carla Castille, VP Production
D. Mr. Dumont Doolittle, System Manager
E. Ms. Enola Eng, Receptionist and part-time Business major at Okidoki
University
F. Mr. Fabian Fantastico, a saleperson from Lithe Leathers, an Italian leather
manufacturer.
The Facts:
Enola Eng has a problem. She's glad to have this problem, but it's a problem nonetheless. Her problem is her brother-in-law, Fabian Fantastico, who works as a sales rep for Lithe Leathers, an Italian leather manufacturer. Enola's worked for Alpha Batter Sports, Inc. for less than a year while she is finishing her BA in business at Okidoki University, in the suburbs of Bigtown, where ABS is located. When Fabian married her sister Julie, Enola was really happy for her and was looking forward to visiting Julie in Milan, where Fabian whisked her off to after a whirlwind romance and wedding. But now that Enola is working for ABS, Fabian has realized that here would be a wonderful place to sell leather to, since his company, Lithe Leathers, sells exactly the kind of leather needed to make wonderful baseball gloves, one of ABS's premier items.
The problem is that Lithe Leathers is really only a very small shop, specializing mostly in supplying leather goods to specialty shops in Europe. But a backlash against the fur trade has crept over into leather goods ("People still wear shoes, don't they?" roared Fabian's manager, in musical Italian, of course) and the market for Lithe's products has dropped a bit. Fabian's grasping at straws here a bit. But his portfolio of samples is soooo very beautiful, thinks Enola; let's just let him have a try. So Enola booked half an hour of Ms. Alpha's limited time with Fabian, worrying all the while that when Ms. Alpha found out that Fabian was her brother-in-law, she'd be in deep trouble. Still, Fabian was family, right?
The meeting hadn't gone all that badly...or all that well, depending on your point of view. Ms. Alpha was impressed with the quality of the leather and Fabian was his usual charming self and the end result was that Fabian has to make a presentation to the ABS production team in a week to demonstrate that Lithe Leathers can deliver the goods on time and at a certain price. The problem is that it's not clear that they can.
The Problems:
1. Lithe can only produce enough leather for 100 gloves a week; ABS has
capacity to produce 400 a week easily. It costs a lot to set up production
for gloves and if ABS can only run at 1/4 capacity, the net cost per glove will
be very high, higher than alternative suppliers, who can supply in bulk.
2. Lithe can guarantee the leather for 100 gloves a week on average. In
addition, Lithe is willing to let ABS use Lithe's production systems to track
the leather production to make sure of exactly what is coming, sometimes enough for
sixty, sometimes enough for 200. And there is a chance of increasing
production to an average of supplies sufficient for 200 gloves per week if ABS
is willing to put some money up front so that Lithe can buy more equipment.
3. In the past, ABS has been stung by suppliers who have reneged on promised
deliveries. Having advance warning of fluctuations in supplies would be a
great plus for ABS.
4. Although ABS is relatively modern in its use of IT, it has never worked
closely in a "data relationship" with a supplier. IT has been limited to
handling ordering, receiving and warehousing. Bernstein, Castille and
Doolittle are eager to give this a try, because they see some benefits for
future relationships with other suppliers.
5. Nobody has the time in ABS to pursue this. Alpha, Bernstein, Castille
and Doolittle are up to their armpits in work and cannot devote more than a few
hours here and there to it. Furthermore, Bernstein, especially, is
strapped for people because he is putting in an ERP system which has enough bugs
to feed all the mockingbirds in Mississippi. In fact, Bernstein had just
said "But we have nobody to put on this....except...." He was thinking about
George Google, his weakest programmer, the one that made everyone wince when he
announced "I'm here to help."
The Opportunity:
Listening through Ms. Alpha's door and realizing that her brother-in-law's deal was about to fall through, Enola summoned up her courage, remembered what she'd learned so far in her business courses, drew upon the fund of advice she'd received from her grandmother and decided to offer herself as the liaison. Why not? She spoke a bit of Italian from her few weeks abroad visiting her sister, she had had MIS 300 at Okidoki U., and she wasn't the least bit afraid of technology, which she used all day (OK, some of it was doing on-line shopping, but a lot was teaching herself Access and Excel and putting together some nifty little programs like the one she used to refer callers directly to the right people). Besides, this might result in a trip to Milan to see her beloved sister again. So now was the moment.
Of course she never reckoned with Fate, who, at that same precise moment decided to prompt Castille to open the very door that was being eavesdropped upon by Enola's left ear listening to Mr. Bernstein. This, along with Newton's Laws, not to mention some of Murphy's, caused Enola to execute something pretty close to a bad triple Lutz into Ms. Alpha's office, motivating Carla Castille to finish Bernstein's sentence "...nobody, except..." with "...Miss Eng?"
"Yes, me," was all she utter from her position roughly laid out on the floor as if ready for embalming. Was she ready for embalming, or was she ready to be a technological leader? Was this going to be an automatic out infield fly or a home run with the bases loaded?