Case study technology strategy at the bed cellar assignment inst

1. Case Study: Technology Strategy at The Bed Cellar
Assignment Instructions
To gain experience and apply what you are learning in this
program to a real-world situation, you’d like to study an
existing business and design a new strategy to improve the
business. You remember seeing a downtown furniture store that
specializes in beds. You know the store because you bought a
waterbed there last year and talked with the owner for some
time while you decided on the bed you wanted. You drive to the
store, walk inside, and ask to see the owner. The owner, Albert
Mendoza, comes out and greets you, “Didn’t you buy a
waterbed from us a month or so ago? How do you like it?” After
some brief conversation you explain that you’d like to examine
The Bed Cellar to see if you can offer recommendations on their
business and technology strategy. Mendoza says, “Sure, you can
study our operation. Come over here and let me introduce you to
Alice and Ray.”
You walk over to an elderly lady who is writing in a huge
ledger—Alice Cook, the bookkeeper. Alice has been with Bed
Cellar for 23 years and has been the only person to keep the
books for all three stores. She receives weekly reports from the
other two stores and records daily information for the primary
store. You turn to Mendoza and say, “I thought I saw a
computer in here a couple of months ago.” “That’s right,” he
replies.
“We have a computer that I bought four years ago. We keep it in
this room next to my office. Come on over and I’ll show it to
you.”
The computer room is actually a closet. To use the computer,
you have to open the closet door, pull up a chair from another
room, and turn on the closet light—the power cord for the
computer is attached to an outlet of the closet light. “This one’s
kind of a classic,” Mendoza tells you. “You know, they don’t
make these anymore.” You know he’s right, the brand name is

2. North Chase Micros, one of the personal computer makers that
lasted a few years and went out of business.
About that time, another man walks in. He is Ray Silva, and he
divides his time between operating the computer and selling
furniture. The computer is used for about two hours a day to
print price tags that are placed on furniture. The price tag
includes the price, a code the sales person can read to determine
the cost, a bar code, and information about the manufacturer
and the product. The computer also keeps inventory records on
all items located in this store and two other Bed Cellar stores in
nearby cities. The computer is supposed to maintain records of
installment payments, but Alice keeps that in the ledger.
Mendoza tells you the story of the computer. On the advice of
his accountant, he purchased it from another furniture store in
Syracuse that was also a client of the accountant. The other
furniture store had purchased the computer from North Chase
Micros and an employee at the store created all of the software.
When the other store prospered, it bought a new computer. The
price for the North Chase Micros computer was too low for
Mendoza to refuse so he decided to plunge into the computer
game.
It has been a sobering experience, to say the least. The software
that came with the computer is written to handle the accounts of
a single store, so the three locations of Bed Cellar cannot be
consolidated which is why Alice keeps a manual ledger.
Alice keeps the books by hand. Ray processes the inventory and
receivables transactions on the computer, and Alice also does
them by hand to check the computer. You ask if there is any
documentation for the software (directions, record descriptions,
operating procedures, and so on), and you find out that there is
none. You also learn that when anything goes wrong, a
consultant must come from Syracuse to solve the problem. He is
the only person who understands the software. His daily rate is
$350 plus mileage. To make matters worse, nobody at Bed
Cellar knows anything about programming. Ray knows some
spreadsheet software but the computer is not capable of running

3. the spreadsheet software that is sold today. Ray knows how to
operate the system, but if anything goes wrong, he calls the
consultant.
Alice is retiring at the end of the year, and Ray is leaving at the
end of the month to go into the aluminum siding business. You
ask Mr. Mendoza what his strategy is for replacing Alice and
Ray. You ask “What is the overall strategy and mission for the
business?” Mr. Mendoza says that it’s to make a profit. What is
the vision for the future of the business? He says he is looking
to expand with two more stores.
You ask Mendoza if he is collecting any data that can be used to
track company financials in all three stores. “Yes, I’m am,” he
says. But I still have trouble knowing what’s selling and what
isn’t, how much profit we’re making on our different lines, and
profit margins. Alice has been keeping the manual system, but
compiling the information for income tax purposes alone takes a
considerable amount of time.
You tell Mendoza you’ll get back to him with your thoughts
about their business strategy. You are at a loss for words. You
had expected a success story like the ones you heard in class.
This seems to be a real can of worms. You say goodbye to
everyone, and as you start to walk out the door, Mendoza calls
out, “Hey, I couldn’t sell you a dresser to go with the waterbed,
could I?”
Assignment: Compose a case study paper that addresses the
questions below. The paper should follow APA style with a title
page and a reference page. Your case study paper should be two
to three pages in length, not including the title page or reference
page. You will submit your Case Study to the Assignment in
this module.
Questions to address: How can you convince Mendoza to scrap
the North Chase Micros computer based upon the cost of
repairing the computer compared to the cost of a new
computer?Find the cost of a new computer on a website. The
computer does not have to be very powerful to meet Mendoza’s
needs. What would be the dollar savings over a three-year

4. period?Show your assumptions by explaining how and where
you located the cost of the computer and how you considered
the dollar savings over a three-year period.Mendoza had certain
software applications in mind when he purchased the personal
computer. What were those applications? What other
applications do you believe Mendoza should use for his store
operations?Mendoza is about to lose both his bookkeeper and
the only employee who knows how to run the computer. Should
Mendoza become computer literate? If so, how?
MIS-103 Management Information Systems Concepts