IT Management in SewWorld

Scenario:
A twenty year old company, SewWorld, comprised of six locations in three states, sells sewing machines, sewing related software, and accessories. Each store sells between 3-5 different brands of sewing machines. Currently the stores run independently with separate inventory databases, budgets, and expenses. Because the stores run independent inventory databases, their inventory information is sometimes inaccurate. This leads to a loss of customers who did not want to wait for a product and went elsewhere. Also, when stores share inventory, more times than not, the information is never entered into the independent databases. This results in one store showing a missing item while another store is showing in excess.

Each store has a manager who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of that store and is paid a portion of his/her store's profits. Though there are computers with inventory/sales programs, the managers must mail reports and back-up floppy disks to the corporate office each week to keep inventory, sales, payroll, and commission information up-to-date. Due to this process, some disks are lost in the mail, and inventory, sales, payroll, and commission information is slow to gather and inefficient.

The company sells some of the vendor's products online, but the high-end machines must be sold by a local authorized dealer because they require some amount of training and face-to-face support.

The owner of SewWorld has realized their information system and internal processes creates inaccuracy, loss, inefficiency, and diminished productivity. The owner has decided it's necessary for the success of SewWorldto transition to a professional management team. The owner has hired you to do an analysis regarding SewWorld's information systems and what needs to be done to compete. Your main goal is to bring the information systems' issues in-line. You're also open to accepting a full-time position with SewWorld if the need arises.

SewWorld's current infrastructure may be described as follows:
Each store is equipped with 2-6 microcomputers, used for running an off-the-shelf point of sale (POS) software or responding to e-mail.
All data is stored locally on the microcomputers themselves as no store owns a server.
Stores are not configured with a Local Area Network (LAN) nor are any stores interconnected by a Wide Area Network (WAN).
Each location has one dial-up Internet account and one e-mail address for the store manager.

Managing IT projects and overseeing the development of information systems falls into the job duties of a variety of people in an enterprise. In the last 5 years, some new job titles and/or duties have been created to assist an organization in managing the internal information systems.

discuss how important these new job titles and/or descriptions are to the maintenance or growth of information systems in an enterprise, with your IT peer network.

Support your thoughts by:
researching a profile of a leader in a corporate position.

Discuss the leadership skills that individual would have to possess to manage the information systems of their company.