Reference no: EM131226022

You MUST produce and submit your own work. Copying a file or copying-and-pasting any part of a Visio diagram, table, or written response is NOT collaboration.

Background Information about the Company
Rick loves grilled cheese sandwiches. His friends love them too. Here are the ingredients that make his sandwiches so good:
• One slice of Havarti cheese and one slice of Sharp Cheddar Cheese.
• A thin slice of blackened tofu in the middle.
• A dash of Truffle Salt.
• Garlic herb butter on the outside.
The final secret is that he cooks the sandwich on a George Forman 6-Serving Classic Plate Grill for two minutes.

One evening, Rick received a text message from Ally asking if he could bring her a grilled cheese sandwich to Lincoln Park. She is a security guard in charge of stroller parking. Rick brought her the sandwich within ten minutes. The next night, Rick got a text message from Emilio requesting a grilled cheese sandwich. Even though he was a bit annoyed that Ally told Emilio about the delivery, his ego was too big to pass up this opportunity.

The next night, Rick got two more text messages. One said that Molly told her about Ally's secret sandwich delivery. Rick was very annoyed because he does not have an unlimited texting plan and that strangers want him to deliver free sandwiches. Rick thought, "Fine. If they want a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich delivered to them in 10 minutes, it's gonna cost ‘em 12 bucks-cash." To Rick's surprise, Ally's friend's friend said ok. Within two weeks, Rick was delivering 10 grilled cheese sandwiches per evening.

Rick could not keep up with the demand. He had to decide if he wanted to keep this as a side business or give up his job shoveling manure at a local university to try to turn this into a real business. I'll bet you guessed what happened next. Rick decided to hang up his shovel and hose off his boots to become That Grilled Cheeser. After he quit his job, Rick was able to deliver up to 20 grilled cheese sandwiches per day, which was way fewer sandwiches than he could sell.

Kathleen and Stewart are two of Rick's best customers...and friends. During a "ho" (text speak for hand-off, or delivery) to Stewart, Rick proposed the idea that she and Kathleen join him in his That Grilled Cheeser business venture. She texted Kathleen right away and they both quickly agreed to go into business together.

This is the real clandestine grilled cheese sandwich delivery story.

Rick was excited because That Grilled Cheeser (TGC) could now cover all of UNC and the surrounding area.
• Currently, Rick does not keep any formal records for That Grilled Cheeser.
• The three Cheesers communicate with each other by voice, text, and email with their mobile phones.
Here is how TGC's business process works with the three Cheesers working out of separate apartments:
1. A customer sends a text to Rick's Google Voice number. (Rick setup Google Voice to also send text messages to Kathleen and Stewart's mobile phones).
2. The first person to text "Yes" to the other two gets the sale.
2.1. If nobody texts "Yes" within one minute, Rick texts the customer to say they are currently too busy to fill the order.
2.2. If somebody texts "Yes," they quickly reply to the customer to verify the order.
3. The "Yes" person takes the ingredients out of their refrigerator, quickly assembles the sandwich, "George Forman's" it for 2 minutes, wraps it in aluminum foil, and puts it in an unmarked brown lunch bag.
4. The "Yes" person arrives at the delivery spot within 10 minutes.
4.1. If the customer shows up, they make the exchange: cash for a sandwich.
4.2. If the customer does not show up, which occasionally happens, they go back home and eat the sandwich.
Section 1: Chapter 1 and Chapter Extension 1:
Questions for Section 1
1. Describe That Grilled Cheeser's information system in terms of the five-component framework.
2. How did the four critical skills for nonroutine cognition discussed in Chapter 1 help Rick become That Grilled Cheeser?
2.1. There is likely not sufficient information in the narrative formulate a thorough response, so you can fabricate any reasonable facts and circumstances to illustrate your point.

Section 2: Chapter 2, Chapter Extensions 3 and 18
Business is going very well. With three people cooking and making deliveries to an expanded area, business quickly grew to 60 sandwiches per day. Implementing the "First Yes" method of accepting orders made it easy to get two or three orders in close proximity, which allowed the three Cheesers to deliver 100 sandwiches per day. Like many start-up businesses, they quickly outgrew their existing information system and started to become a victim of their own success. And, they were eating too many sandwiches from no-shows. Stewart wondered out loud, "I think that the same people keep ordering sandwiches and don't show up. I wish we had a way to keep track of them so I wouldn't keep going out on false deliveries. I am starting to hate grilled cheese sandwiches."

Back at Rick's place, "It's totally out of control," Rick told his imaginary alter ego, Vector (he has both magnitude and direction).

"Of course it is." Vector replied, "And you can't do anything about it because you don't even know how your business works." (This relationship is not unlike the conversations that Fight Club's Tyler Durden (played by Ed Norton) has with his alter ego.)

"So, Vector, what should I do first?"

"First, Vector sounded like a parent scolding his child, "you have to figure out what you actually do before you look for ways to make it better."

"Great," Rick sounded exasperated. "What do you want me to do, draw you a picture?"

"Exactly, said Vector on his way out the door."

Rick just gave a confused look and decided to call BPBC (Business Process Busters Consulting, LLP). You are BPBC's IS/IT specialist. After Rick recounts his conversation with Vector for you, you assure Rick that you know exactly what Vector wants you to do.

Questions for Section 2
1. Use Visio to draw That Grilled Cheeser's current business process as described in the narrative. Fortunately, your last consulting job was for a pizzeria that has an order-to-delivery business process similar to That Grilled Cheeser's process so all you have to do is make some changes to your existing business process model (included in the Exam 1.vsdx file).
1.1. Use Business Process Model Notation (BPMN).
1.2. Make the necessary changes to the included Visio BPM. HINT: if the same person performs multiple functions, include all of them in the same swim lane.
1.2.1. Check carefully to ensure that you make all appropriate changes to names of objects, including swim lanes, flow lines, tasks, gateways, and events.
1.2.2. Add new items as required.
1.2.3. Delete any unnecessary items.
1.2.4. Use the correct type of gateways.
1.2.5. Your diagram should fit on one page.

 
2. Rick also tells you about Vector's suggestion that Rick use PayPal's mobile app to collect payments either directly from customers' PayPal accounts or by using the credit card reader (link to PayPal mobile app). Explain to Rick how one or more of PayPal's mobile app features and/or card reader will help improve That Grilled Cheeser's current business process. Include in your explanation how this could reduce or eliminate the false deliveries that Stewart was complaining about. This is an explanation to be included in Word document. Do not add it to the Visio BPMN.

Section 3: Chapter 3
Your improvements have made That Grilled Cheeser's business more efficient, but Vector is not satisfied. He wants Rick to improve his information system to enhance his competitive advantage. Instead of trying to explain what Vector told him, Rick arranges for you to talk directly to "Vector". When you arrive at Vector's place, the only person there is Rick. You decide to go along with this weird situation because you are a professional; your primary responsibility is to add value to your customer's business. Vector wants Rick to make improvements to TGC's information system that will be used to create a new competitive advantage, enhance a current competitive advantage, and/or minimize a competitive weakness.

Section 3 Questions
1. Define That Grilled Cheeser's industry so that you can analyze the industry structure using Porter's Five Forces Model.
1.1. Clearly identify how wide or narrow are you going define the industry.
1.1.1. For example, assume that you own a store that specializes in Scottish snowboarding kilts. Is your industry clothing, winter clothes, kilts, or snowboarding kilts?
1.1.2. This step is critical because it determines who you consider to be That Grilled Cheeser's competition, and what you consider to be a substitute for their product.
2. Analyze That Grilled Cheeser's industry structure using Porter's Five Forces model.
3. Determine That Grilled Cheeser's competitive strategy.
4. What is (are) That Grilled Cheeser's competitive advantage(s)?
5. What is (are) That Grilled Cheeser's competitive weakness(es)?

Section 4: Chapter 4
[You have spent so much time with Rick that you actually believe that Rick and Vector are two separate people.]

That Grilled Cheeser's (TGC) current information system hardware consists of three smart phones and three PayPal card readers. Clearly, this is inadequate for a business that has $1,200 ($12/sandwich x 100 sandwiches) of revenue per day.

You and Vector plead with Rick to invest in more hardware and software to increase TGC's competitiveness in this industry (however you defined it in Section 3). Rick is worried that he will be shut down for operating a food service business from three apartments in Greeley, which is why he is reluctant to invest a lot of money in hardware and software. Rick finally agrees to invest $1,050 if you can acquire three laptop computers that can meet the following requirements:
• Hardware requirements:
o Provide sufficient storage space to store photos and video clips of TGC's customers.
? Rick wants all three Cheesers have their computers with them at all times so they can collaborate by connecting to the internet at the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot, the storage must either be on an internal storage drive or on an SD (or microSD) card that fits into a built-in card slot.
o At least one USB 3.0 port to provide fast data transfer between the computer and external devices.
o Have as many upgradable parts (e.g., RAM) as possible so that the computers can continue to meet TGC's computing needs as they grow over the next 1 - 2 years. Do not expect too much in this area because sub-$350 computers usually have very few hardware components that can be changed.
o Edit photo and video selfies of the Cheesers with their customers. The Cheesers use their cell phones to take these photos and videos.
o Run typical office applications and watch YouTube videos without any lag or freezing.
o The ability to connect the computers to a television or large monitor so they can all see the screen during their face-to-face group meetings.
o A camera so they can do video conferencing (e.g., Skype) when it is not possible to meet face-to-face.
• Software requirements:
o Spreadsheet software for sales forecasts, budgets, and other computationally-intensive tasks.
o Presentation software (like PowerPoint or KeyNote) because Rick is considering recruiting Boy Scout and Girl Scout troupes to help deliver sandwiches.
o A word processor.
o A diagramming tool like Visio so Rick and Vector can update their business process documentation as soon as they make a process change.
o A user-friendly desktop relational database like Access that does not require you to write SQL code. In the next section, you are going to design a database to help rick store vital data about the business that will help he and Vector make good business decisions.
o Collaboration tools that are similar to the tools that you have available in your BlackBoard groups, including online storage so the three of you can easily share documents.
o An email client, preferably one that you can use offline.
o A lightweight (very basic) photo and video editor.

"Have you lost your mind?" you exclaimed. The irony that you think this unreasonable list of requirements is a sign of psychological instability rather than Rick having conversations with Vector in public was completely lost on you. Vector agreed ?. However, since your livelihood depends on rapid value creation for your customer, you decide to find a way to make this happen. Before you can leave to get started, Rick chimes in again.

"I almost forgot to tell you that the $1,050 has to include the cost of software purchased or licensed for at least one year."

"Anything else?" you say as sarcastically as possible.

"No. That's it," Rick chirped as he left the room.

You were so stunned that you needed to repeat the requirements to yourself, "So, to recap, I need to find three laptops with productivity software to run a small business for $350 per computer, including sales tax and delivery."

"You got it, Bubba."

"Who is Bubba? Oh wow! Now I'm doing it too. Maybe I can just let my imaginary friend work with Vector to figure this out."

You spend the next two days with your "consulting team" of Bing, Google, Tom's Hardware, Wikipedia, Amazon...and Bubba, to come up with a plan.

During your research, you see the synergistic effect of Moore's law and economies of scale. You find a plethora of sub-$350 computers that are quite capable of performing routine tasks, though they are not capable of running playing graphics-intensive games like Smurf Rampage 3 in 4k resolution. Use these web sites to help you choose a laptop that meets That Grilled Cheeser's information system requirements within the budget for the next year or so https://www.lptps.com/best-laptops-under-300/ and https://bestlaptopadvisor.com/best-laptops-under-400/.

You have three operating systems to choose from:

• Windows 10. You do not want a computer that comes with Windows 8.1 because it is not proven to work well with Windows 10.

• Ubuntu, which is a user-friendly, stable, and well-supported version of Linux.

o Linux versions are usually referred to as distros-short for distributions-or flavors.

• Chrome OS. This is Google's operating system designed to run on Chromebooks.

• OS X is not an option because Apple does not make a sub-$350 laptop.

You found the following information that will help you make the final decision.

• You can purchase a 128GB SD card or microSD card for $60 on Amazon.

o Assume that this is correct. Do NOT research this.

• Vector is an Amazon Prime member (he subscribed without telling Rick), which means that he can get free shipping for any computer hardware that you purchase.

• You can run Ubuntu on some Chromebooks and on all Windows 10 machines.

o To run Ubuntu on a sub-$350 Windows 10 laptop, you must use the dual-boot option. This means that when you start the computer, you choose which operating system that you want to use. If you have some applications that run only in Ubuntu and others that only work on Windows, you have to reboot to switch applications.

- Running Ubuntu in a virtual machine is not an option because you are essentially running two computers at the same time on equipment that can barely run one computer efficiently.

• There are versions of Ubuntu that allow you to run both Ubuntu and Chrome OS at the same time without any loss in computing power.

This allows you to use all of your applications at the same time without having to reboot to switch between Chrome OS and Ubuntu.

o Here is a link with more information https://www.howtogeek.com/162120/how-to-install-ubuntu-linux-on-your-chromebook-with-crouton/.

Assume that there is a version of Crouton for ANY Chromebook that you choose.

• Links to the three most popular free office productivity suites:

o Libre Office https://www.libreoffice.org/. It is available for Windows and Linux operating systems. Many Libre Office users use the Thunderbird desktop email application https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/.

o Google apps for work https://www.google.com/work/apps/business/products/.

o Microsoft Office Online https://products.office.com/en-US/office-online/documents-spreadsheets-presentations-office-online.

Questions for Section 4:

• You can run more than one operating system on the computer.

• Do not limit yourself to using just one office suite. You can also choose any combination of applications from the list above.

• The sales tax rate all purchased hardware and software is 7%.

• IF YOU GO OVER BUDGET BY EVEN $0.001, YOU WILL EARN ZERO (0) POINTS FOR THIS SECTION.

1. Which computer did you choose? Include the manufacturer, model number, technical specifications, operating system(s), and additional hardware, if any, to be purchased.

2. Show your costs, including sales tax.

3. What are the most important hardware features that influenced your decision?

4. Explain your choice of operating system(s) and applications.

4.1. Which applications will be loaded onto the computer's internal storage drive, if any?

4.2. What cloud-based applications, if any, will the Cheesers need to run to meet their computing needs?

5. Would this computer and applications meet your current computing needs? Briefly explain.

Section 5: Chapter 5 and Chapter Extension 5

After all of the work you have done for That Grilled Cheeser, you, Bubba, Rick, and Vector sit down and look over your business process model. Everybody agreed that making the sandwiches from scratch for each order takes too long. It severely limits the number of deliveries per hour. You suggested to Rick that the best way to make the business work smoother is to purchase ready-made sandwiches from an outside vendor. Of course, they must faithfully follow Rick's recipe.

You expected Rick to be offended by the suggestion that someone else make sandwiches with his recipe. Instead, Rick really liked the idea because his friend Ronnie-the grilled cheese guy in the article that you read earlier-just moved to Greeley and was looking for work. A short time later, Ronnie became TGC's exclusive supplier of grilled cheese sandwiches.

Instead of taking sandwich ingredients and cooking them for two minutes, the Cheesers will take a pre-made sandwich out of their refrigerator and "George Forman's" it for 30 seconds.

Now that the Cheesers have a much simpler business process, it will be a lot easier for you to build a database to store the required information and use it to make useful decisions.

Before you actually build the database using the database application that you selected for TGC, you need to construct an entity-relationship diagram. Fortunately, you just completed a consulting job that required you to make an E-R diagram for a pizzeria (see the included Visio 2 project solution).

• Since there is no longer a sandwich making process, you can eliminate the Bake Pizza and Pizza Ingredient entities from the Visio 2 E-R diagram.

o Even though you are still heating up the sandwich, you will not have a Cooking Sandwich entity because the Cheesers are not going to record any information about this event. Therefore, you should not have it in your model.

Question or Section 5:

1. Why use a database instead of Excel to keep track of TGC's business activities? Provide one example of data about TGC that you will store and how Rick can use it to monitor or improve the business.

2. Start with the Visio 2 solution diagram and make the appropriate changes to reflect That Grilled Cheeser's new order and delivery process.

2.1. Make appropriate changes to entity names. Eliminate unnecessary entities.

2.2. You will need to rethink the relationships, especially the relationships that connect events to other events.

2.3. Make all necessary changes to the relationship cardinalities.

2.4. Change the title to something more appropriate.

Instructions

ALL of your responses MUST demonstrate that you understand the concepts pertaining to the questions asked.

MAXIMUM length is 1,000 words. Minimum length is 850 words. Title Page and headings do not count towards the 1,000 word limitation.

1. Your point of view:

1.1. You are an IS/IT consultant hired to make That Grilled Cheeser a better company.

2. Organization information:

2.1. Each section adds information to the original narrative.
2.2. All prior narratives apply to the current section.
2.3. You may use information from subsequent sections to help you respond to questions in the current section.

3. Responses for Each Exam Section:

3.1. You must use information from the listed chapters in your responses for each section.
3.2. You may also add information from other chapters to enhance your responses.

3.3. Each section will be a separate, clearly labeled section.

1. The heading should describe the section.
2. Section number or chapter number(s) are unacceptable section headings.

4. Generic responses will receive NO CREDIT.

4.1. You must apply your knowledge to this specific company.
4.2. Reguritating generic definitions and examples is unacceptable.
4.3. I will strictly enforce the word count minimum (850 words) and maimum (1,000 words).

5. Collaboration

5.1. Regardless of how much help you receive or provide, the exam MUST be your OWN work. See related policy statement at the top of this exam.

5.2. You are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED, but not required to collaborate with other students. At a minimum, you should have a classmate proofread your work.

5.3. Collaboration consists of the following:

1. Discussions about the assignment.

2. Helping or getting help creating/editing your own Visio models.

3. Proofreading models, tables, and written responses for grammar, consistency, and errors.
 
5.4. Copy the Collaboration table below and paste it onto your title page.

1. Replace the sample data with your own collaborations.

2. You may have multiple collaborations with the same people.

3. If you give help on one task and get help with another, separate those into two separate collaborations.

4. A collaboration should only have both a help provided and help received score IF it was a joint effort on one particular topic.

5. Use the following rating scale for significance of help provided and received.

1) Not at all helpful.
2) Slightly helpful.
3) Somewhat helpful.
4) Very helpful.
5) Extremely helpful.

6. Think of this as an opportunity to meet your classmates.

7. NOTE: Students' lists of collaborators MUST be consistent across students.