CC6052 Management Support Systems Case Study

This document presents a case study for the course CC6052 Management Support Systems, focusing on a fictional furniture company, FM Ltd. The company seeks to develop a management support system (FMIS) to improve decision-making, particularly regarding new locations and performance evaluation. The case study provides background information on the company, its existing systems (FOTS and POTS), and the steering committee overseeing the FMIS project. It outlines key management decisions that the FMIS should support, such as location selection, staff performance, and product popularity. The document also details the data files available for analysis, extracted from the FOTS and POTS systems, and emphasizes the need for the project team to address potential data errors. The overall goal is to develop a 'proof of concept' MSS to support these decisions.

CC6052 MANAGEMENT SUPPORT SYSTEMS 2016-17
Module Case Study: FM Ltd
The company
In 2004, Robin Daily and Martin Warner set up a furniture company, Furniture
Mart Ltd. (FM Ltd). This company offers customers a range of furniture via a
catalogue, which can be ordered by telephone, online or by visiting one of
their stores. Sales staff deal with customers, who may be corporate clients or
private individuals. A list of regular customers is set up on a database, and
you may assume that all customers have agreed that their personal data may
be used in this way. However, there are many casual customers, and Robin
and Martin would like to convert these casual customers into regular
customers by means of targeted offers.
A couple of years ago, the company had a new product database created
(FOTS: Furniture Ordering Transaction System) which enables orders to be
taken from clients. There is also a supplier database, indicating the liaison
representatives within FM Ltd and the types of products supplied (POTS:
Product Ordering Transaction System) which enables purchase orders to be
made with suppliers to replenish products which are low in stock. Supplier
liaison staff generate purchase orders when product stock falls below the
predefined reorder level; no details of these purchase orders are stored in the
database at present. Data has been extracted from the databases into CSV
files for your use in the development of a management support system as
described below.
Management are now investing in the development of a management support
system (FMIS: Furniture Mart Intelligence System) which will include both
client and supplier details to evaluate the performance of the company and
improve decision-making at senior management level. In particular, a
decision needs to be made on the location of new premises, possibly a store,
or alternatively a warehouse.
Robin and Martin recognise that extending the use of information technology
in support of management decision-making can make a significant
contribution to the goals of enlarging and developing the company, in
particular opening at an additional location to extend the business. The HR
Manager, Sarah Winder, is under increasing pressure to develop recruitment,
retention and reward strategies to support the company’s staffing
requirements. Identifying staff training needs, or recognition of excellent
performance, will be key to her staffing policies.
The FOTS and POTS systems are intended to enable staff to take orders
from customers and make purchase orders with suppliers. The management
support system FMIS now required is intended to offer decision support
facilities to senior management at the Wood Green head office. In the future
it will allow sophisticated data mining and modelling of product, customer,
supplier and staff data for performance measurement purposes as outlined
above.
CC6052 FM Ltd Case Study1

Initially, the FM Ltd management (represented by a steering committee –
details below) requires that the FMIS project team consider a number of key
management decisions (see below) and develop a ‘proof of concept’ MSS for
a selection of these decisions. Further development work may then be
undertaken as appropriate.
FMIS Steering Committee
The project is being overseen by a project steering committee. FM Ltd invited
Carmen Geddit, the supplier liaison contact from Keep-in-Order, one of their
supplier companies, to join the steering committee and she has agreed to sit
on the committee to provide feedback from a supplier’s perspective. The
committee meets approximately once a month at the FM Ltd HQ in Wood
Green, north London:
 for a report on progress from the project team;
 to make key decisions regarding budget, resources, time and quality;
 to determine the overall direction of the project;
 to review key project deliverables, i.e.
 (1) the Requirements Outline and
 (2) the Design Specification with software.
The steering committee consists of the following people:
Steering Committee role Position Name
Executive Joint Managing Directors Robin Daily and
Martin Warner
Senior user Operations Director Penny Pincher
Senior user Senior Consultant Walter Wall
Senior user Supplier Liaison Manager Guy Ropes
Senior user Financial Controller Yvonne Sew
Senior user Sales & Marketing Manager Eileen Dover
Senior user HR Manager Sarah Winder
System support IT&IS Manager Harry Lime
Senior supplier Supplier contact Carmen Geddit
CC6052 FM Ltd Case Study2

Management decisions
The FMIS steering committee has identified the following management
decisions as suitable candidates for a management support system solution:
1. Where should we locate a new FM store?
2. Where should we locate a new FM warehouse?
3. Who are the most effective consultants (consider how many)?
4. Who are the most effective order staff (consider how many)?
5. Which suppliers do we use most (consider how many)?
6. Which are the most popular products (consider how many)?
7. Which are the most popular product categories (consider how many)?
8. Who are the best regular customers (consider how to evaluate “best”)?
9. Who are the best private clients (consider how to evaluate “best”)?
10. Which are the best geographic areas for business from clients?
It is worth remembering that the MSS to be developed is not intended to
provide a complete answer to any one of these questions, but should provide
significant support to the manager(s) responsible for making the decision.
The files you have been promised contain data extracted from the FOTS and
POTS systems in CSV format, and are as follows:
File Data items
staff staff-id, last-name, first-name, job-title, reports-to
suppliers supplier-id, supplier-company, supplier-address, supplier-contact,
supplier-tel-num, staff-liaison
customers customer-id, last-name, first-name, title, status, company-name,
address, tel-num
orders order-id, customer-id, staff-id, order-date
items order-id, product-id, number-ordered
products product-id, product-description, product-finish, product-group,
product-price, number-in-stock, reorder-level
product
groups
group-id, group-name, supplier-id
The steering committee has informed you that Harry Lime, IT&IS manager,
will not be able to provide you with all the files straight away, but will make
them available to you as soon as possible, given the demands on his time
managing the company’s software development and hardware infrastructure.
The FMIS steering committee is aware that there may be errors in the data,
and expects that the project team will locate, identify and deal with any errors
that they find in an appropriate manner.
CC6052 FM Ltd Case Study3