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For Your Comfort: Analyzing Generic Softwares

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Scenario:

For Your Comfort (FYC), an ergonomic furniture manufacturing company was a dream founded by Ronald J. Dirksen and Richard Woodart in 1947, the year after World War II ended. War veterans were returning home and wanted to lead a life of material comfort; FYC's trademark Easy Couch was a seller! The company expanded its line of furniture into both residential and commercial office furniture but remained largely a small-town family-owned boutique for many years. In the early 1980s, FYC introduced "mail-order" selling which increased its revenues substantially. FYC gained gradual recognition with its introduction of an "ergonomically friendly" office and home furniture line in the late 1980s and opened 2 branches in different cities during the decade. It also started sourcing timber from Canada and South East Asia and some hardware, hinges, saws, and fasteners from China. The 1990s saw FYC branch out to new territories by owning and operating branch stores. There are currently 16 stores throughout the USA with the manufacturing plant at its base. The biggest store in each city is equipped with a clearance floor, which holds items that are rejects, used returns, or items that are simply out of style but are marked down consistently until they are sold. In 1999, Ronald J. Dirksen, CEO, passed away, leaving the business to his daughter, Donna Dirksen, a smart Berkeley-educated mechanical engineer.

Donna had several challenging tasks on her hands: sorting out the operations and finances of the company; knowing her employees; riding through the recession of early 2000's; and getting the company out of the red. Before she took over, the company's sales had been slipping, and it even suffered a small loss one year due to increased competition. With Donna at the helm, the company's profitability and product line visibility grew but still functioned in an old-fashioned way. Both fixed and variable costs were very high in comparison to industry averages, and Donna had some concerns: high paper-based transaction volume; delayed processes (especially in invoicing and collections); expensive overhead costs in managing different locations (franchisees and employees), internal departments, ineffective marketing campaigns; and lack of latest technology (old POS systems and applications).

Donna, who is quite technologically savvy, has analyzed many furniture and other retail organizations which have shown remarkable profitability through a well-managed technologically-upgraded IS strategy. She wants to invest in new technologies and a sound IT strategy aligned with FYC's business to turn the company around. She has hired you as the IT leader in the organization who will spearhead the alignment of IT and business goals; capitalize on the latest emerging technologies, e-business, and IT management; and harness that information to aid corporate growth.

Task Name: Phase 3 Individual Project
Deliverable Length: 3-5 paragraph memo
Details: E-business has birthed new paradigms of operations. IT has changed business processes to reduce costs, increase productivity and efficiency, and add shareholder value. Your goal is now to work with each individual department head and strategize an effective way of operations using ISs. Choose one of the departments of FYC (below), analyze the department, research the various emerging technologies, and write a memo to the department head suggesting various technologies or generic software in the market today suitable for FYC, without comparing/contrasting specific ISV products:

Sales and Marketing
Customer Service
Production
Sourcing and Supply Chain
Human Resources
Finance and Accounts
Administration and Operations
Corporate Planning and Strategy

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Solution Summary

This response addresses the queries posed in 449 Words, APA References

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The response addresses the queries posted in 526 words with references.

//For this query, you need to study the given details and then select any of the department and provide some recommendation for implementing e-business in it. You should provide some details of software, which can be used in the chosen department. I am taking an example of production department. See the text below: //

For Your Comfort: Analyzing Generic Softwares

Memorandum

Date: June 24, 2008

To: Donna Dirksen (Head, FYC)

From: IT Leader

Subject: Specific softwares Suitable for the Organization

Information Technology in Production Department

Analysis of Production Department

Production department at 'For Your Comfort' (FYC) is managed by Kevin, Vice President of manufacturing. He manages the sourcing as well as the manufacturing shop floor team. The production department can easily be termed as backward in this new era of tech savvy world. Although Kevin is open ...

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