A Detailed Comparison of Business Issues & Info Management Systems

This case study compares and contrasts business issues with information management systems, drawing lessons from companies like Royal Caribbean Cruises, Harley Davidson, Peachtree Healthcare, Ford Motor Company, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and British Columbia’s Pharmanet. It highlights the importance of customer relations, strategic IT investment, web-enabled systems, user-friendly interfaces, and centralized databases. The analysis emphasizes the need for businesses to align their IT infrastructure with their strategic goals, focusing on both functionality and usability to improve efficiency and decision-making. The study suggests that firms should learn from each other's experiences to develop effective IT strategies, considering aspects like VoIP integration, data management, and security.

Running head: COMPARE AND CONTRAST BUSINESS ISSUES WITH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
COMPARE AND CONTRAST BUSINESS ISSUES WITH INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1COMPARE AND CONTRAST BUSINESS ISSUES WITH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Article 1
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Similar to Harley Davidson, Royal Caribbean Cruise is a mechanical engineering
dedicated firm where, Harley Davidson deals in motor cycles, RCCL (Royal Caribbean
Cruise Ltd.) is dedicated towards the cruise services. The similarity of both the firm are very
high and hence, HD (Harley Davidson) can take some lessons from the IT infrastructure of
the RCCL. The most prominent lesson that the IT team at the HD can learn from the RCCL is
regarding development of relations and while fulfilling the needs of the customers.
Both of the firms believed in development of relations with the supplier and the
customer as well. In case of the HD, all the decisions regarding the IT even the investment
decision is carried out by the office of CIO. The company believes that the Office of CIO
stays in direct line of sight in action and hence, they will made better decisions regarding the
IT and the investment required. However, on the contrary, Tom Murphy was an English
graduate with a minor in marketing but he was able to mitigate the threat IT threat of RCCL.
He was able to mitigate the threat because he had experience in marketing, investment,
customer services and others. So with the discussed experiences and Sutten, a strong
technical expert the firm was able to overcome the IT challenge.
The challenge was mitigated because Murphy understood the needs of the business
and customer along with the resource utilisation and together with Sutten was able to come
up with appropriate decision regarding the IT challenge. However, as office of CIO is
comprised of only technical experts so the It team is not capable of providing attention to
different aspects and hence, they should learn from the RCCL and make necessary changes to
take account of the end-users.

2COMPARE AND CONTRAST BUSINESS ISSUES WITH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Article 2
Peachtree Healthcare’s patchwork IT infrastructure
Technology in the medical industry has played a major role and Peachtree
HealthCare’s Patchwork is one of the prime example of the technological adoption in medical
industry. In a dire situation one of the very adequate decision taken by the firm was adoption
of consolidated, computerised patient’s records. It assisted the firm in organising, the medical
record which can be accessed by any of the medical officers. It also mitigated the scattered
storing of the data which is one of the prominent benefit in managing the data and protecting
it against any physical lose. However, the dependence on the IT infrastructure has also been
criticised because of the resources that were expanded on the maintenance of the system.
HD on the contrary, spend most of its time in non-strategic activities such as data
entries. The case of HD is similar to Peachtree’s however, the latter had a planned strategy
for the data maintenance in a consolidated and computerised structure. The lack of proper
strategy is consuming most of the strategic time of the HD employee’s in data entry. So, the
discussed IT issue is one of the primary IT issue that the firm needs to maintain so that the IT
infrastructure of the firm is effective and efficient.

3COMPARE AND CONTRAST BUSINESS ISSUES WITH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Article 3
Ford Motor Company
The similarity between both the company’s is evident because of their most prominent
product is auto vehicle. Furthermore, both of them are global leaders in their respective
fields. One id dedicated towards car while the other is dedicated towards motor cycles.
Another similarity that both of the firm shares is that both started focusing on their IT
infrastructure in the 1990’s. However, while the HD dedicated its IT infrastructure towards
the physical or management systems. Ford had dedicated itself towards a more web based
system. The firm started investment in their IT infrastructure for saving data, sharing of large
files and similar other reasons. But with changing technology Ford upgraded its system to be
more web-enabled.
It is one of the lessons that HD can learn because the system that HD have in
possession is not web enabled as they are looking for web-enabled system. However, the
Ford also made certain mistakes with their IT infrastructure and needs to be considered. The
first and foremost was not adoption of VoIP (Voice over IP) services, especially e-mail. Ford
had a wide network of intranet but they did not offered adequate attention to the e-mail, fax
and other VoIP. So, HD can learn from the lesson and develop a better system taking
consideration of the VoIP.

4COMPARE AND CONTRAST BUSINESS ISSUES WITH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Article 4
Encyclopaedia Britannica
The discussion over the shortlisted customers have made it evident that in terms of the
IT infrastructure, the HD associates believes that developing relations are not as prominent as
that of having a proper functional system. However, as part of the SMS, the strategic plan
have been developed to take the process slow and efficiently. Furthermore, since, the
satisfaction level of the employees over the outcome based on the suppliers are not
satisfactory so the questions over the strategy has been risen.
Britannica, on the contrary developed its IT infrastructure to be user friendly. The
benefit that was attained by the firm as part of the process was that they developed a team
that was interested in research related functions and editorial function. On the contrary, if the
Britannica system was more functional than user friendly. In that case the scenario would
have been different, the team at Britannica would have been more technology aware and
friendly. However, the need for the firm was different and having a user friendly
technological infrastructure assisted the firm in developing a team that they required. Hence,
HD can learn from the discussed lesson and should ensure that the system that they are
developing are user friendly and functional at the same instance. The firms should not cite
only focus on the functionality and should also account for usability, interface and others
similar aspects of the product.

5COMPARE AND CONTRAST BUSINESS ISSUES WITH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Article 5
British Columbia’s Pharmanet
The discussion over the IT infrastructure of the HD has made it evident that the firm
has its business distributed in different countries at a very early stage. However, one of the
weaknesses or missing requirements that was identified in the need for the system was a
centralised system that would control all the units. The centralised database could be capable
of storing all the data from different units and it would assist the firm in making strategic
decisions. Furthermore, the benefits of centralised database will enable the firm to stay safe
from any internal security attacks and similar others.
It is a lesson that the firm can learn from the British Columbia Pharmanet. The project
in discussion invested in centralised database that was not just efficient for the project but
project associates as well. The project associates here refers to the customers and employees.
The customers and the employee were able to share or collect information that was crucial for
them and the project owners were also able to control the flow and validity of the
information. Other benefits were also offered by the centralisation of the system to the project
owners. The management, collection, processing and retrieval of information will be
simplified. The cost incurred on the data management will also be mitigated and similar
others.
HD had its services spread throughout 67 countries in the world in 1998 which made
the database of the firm extensive and furthermore, the need for the management of the data
is also crucial. Hence, it is one of the aspects of the IT infrastructure that should be accounted
and HD should change accordingly.

6COMPARE AND CONTRAST BUSINESS ISSUES WITH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
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