CASE STUDY : 1

One of the most well-known retail names today, Macys USA operates over 850nationwide
and has more than 30,000 employees. In line with their well-defined priorities, Macys, was
looking for a time efficient solution to improve their HRMS processes. The Human
Resources department at Macys is constantly faced with the mammoth challenge of keeping
up-to-date records for all their stores. This includes employee data, their positions and
organizational structure, payroll, tax exemption requirements, detailed stores data, etc.
Macys uses the PeopleSoft HRMS8.0 for their HR management. Some of their repetitive,
manually intensive tasks were:
Updating the employee positions table on a monthly basis.
Adding new stores to their database as and when required. This included manually filling in
information about the other 180+ stores and linking the data with the new store.
Adding new employee positions as and when they are introduced.
Resetting and updating employee tax exemptions annually.
Regular maintenance of PeopleSoft database tables.
Running payroll routinely.
Mr. Nicholas Evans, the Human Resources, Information Systems Manager at Macys wanted
to automate these routine tasks in order to increase efficiencies within his workgroup. The
one option open to him was to hire a People Soft consultant. This option was not only
extremely expensive, but it didnt fit with Macys priority of rapid development and
deployment. It takes considerable time to implement and test all processes using a consultant.
Using web front end was perfect because it doesnt violate any rules. If you try to do this
using SQL and if you miss anything, many things could go wrong. So using web front end
was perfect.Mr. Nicholas Evans- HR, IS Manager, Macys.
Questions
(a) What is the level of information systems in organizational hierarchy? Discuss your point
of view.
(b) What is the concern of Mr. Nicholas regarding HR systems in Macys?
(c) Draw a workflow block diagram of HR process system for Macys.
CASE STUDY : 2
Tom Walters recently accepted a new position at his college as the Director of Information
Technology. Tom had been a respected faculty member at the college for the last fifteen
years. The college- a small, private college in the Southwest-offered a variety of programs in
the liberal arts and professional areas. Enrollment included 1500 fulltime traditional students
and about 1000 working-adult students attending an evening program. Many instructors
supplemented their courses with information on the Internet and course Web sites, but they
did not offer any distance-learning programs. The Colleges niche was serving students in
that region who liked the setting of a small liberal arts college. Like most colleges, its use of
information technology had grown tremendously in the past five years. There were a few
classrooms in the campus with computers for the instructors and students, and a few more

with just instructor stations and projections systems. Tom knew that several colleges
throughout the country required that all students lease laptops and these colleges incorporated
technology components in to most courses.
This idea fascinated him. He and two other members of the Information Technology
department visited a local college that had required all students to lease laptop for the past
three years, and they were very impressed with what they saw and heard. Tom and his staff
developed plans to start requiring students to lease laptops at their college the next year.
Tom sent an email to all faculty and staff in September, which briefly described this and other
plans. He did not get much response, however, until the February faculty meeting when, as he
described some of the details of his plan, the chairs of the History, English, Philosophy, and
Economics departments all voiced their opposition to the idea.
They eloquently stated that the college was not a technical training school, and that they
thought the idea was ludicrous. Members of the Computer Science Department voiced their
concern that all of their students already had state-of-the art desktop computers and would not
want to pay a mandatory fee to lease less-powerful laptops. The director of the adult
education program expressed her concern that many adult-education students would balk at
an increase in fees. Tom was in shock to hear his colleagues responses, especially after he
and his staff had spent a lot of time planning details of how to implement laptops at their
campus. Now what should he do? After several people voiced concerns about the laptop idea
at the faculty meeting, the president of the college directed that a committee be formed to
formally review the concept of requiring students to have laptops in the near future. Because
the college was dealing with several other important enrollment-related issues, the president
named the vice president of enrollment to head the committee. Other people soon volunteered
or were assigned to the committee, including Tom Walters as head of Information
Technology, the director of the adult education program, the chair of the Computer Science
department, and the chair of the History department. The president also insisted that the
committee include at least two members of the student body. The president knew everyone
was busy, and he questioned whether the laptop idea was a high-priority issue for the college.
He directed the committee to preset a proposal at the nexts months faculty meeting, either to
recommend the creation of a formal project team ( of which these committee members would
commit to be a part) to fully investigate requiring laptops, or to recommend terminating the
concept. At the next faculty meeting, few people were surprised to hear the recommendation
to terminate the concept. Tom Walters learned that he had to pay much more attention to the
needs of the entire college before proceeding with detailed information technology plans.
Questions
Q.1. What is the socio-technical approach to systems development? Based on the above
description explain the approach.
Q 2. How do sharing experiences in the form of lessons learned lead to best practices in
managing and developing systems?
Q 3. What should be the best approach of the above project to be initiated and completed
successfully?
CASE STUDY : 3
Amazon.com made Internet history as one of the first large-scale retail companies to sell over
the Web: in 2004 it hit $4 billion in online revenues, and by 2006 its sales guidance estimates
$10 billion in revenue. It has grown to become one of the largest Internet retailers on earth.

But the real significance of Amazon is Amazons continuous innovation in business strategy
and information systems. In fact, the two are closely connected at Amazon: its business
innovations are all driven by huge investments in information systems. In 1995, former
investment banker Jeff Bezos took advantage of new business opportunities created by the
Internet by setting up a Web site to sell books directly to customers online. There were three
million titles in print, and any one physical bookstore could only stock a fraction of them. A
virtual bookstore offers a much larger selection of titles. Bezos believed consumers did not
need to actually touch and feel a book before buying it, and Amazon.com provided online
synopses, tables of contents, and reviews to help with selection.Amazon.com was able to
charge lower prices than physical bookstores because it maintained very little of its own
inventory (relying instead on distributors) and did not have to pay for maintaining physical
storefronts or a large retail sales staff.
Amazon tried to provide superior customer service through e-mail and telephone customer
support, automated order confirmation, online tracking and shipping information, and the
ability to pay for purchases with a single click of the mouse using credit card and personal
information a customer had provided during a previous purchase. This was called 1-Click
express shopping, and it made the shopping experience even more convenient. In 1998,
Amazon started selling music, CDs, videos, and DVDs, revising its business strategy to
become the best place to buy, find, and discover any product or service available online. Its
offerings grew to include electronics, toys, home improvement products, video games,
apparel, gourmet food, travel services, personal care, and jewellery. It also introduced
Amazon.com Auctions (similar to those offered by eBay), and zShops (online storefronts for
small retailers). To service these new product lines, Amazon significantly expanded its
warehouse and distribution capabilities and hired large numbers of employees. These moves
strained its ability to adhere to its original vision of being a virtual retailer with lean
inventories, low head count, and significant cost savings over traditional bookstores.
In 2001 and 2002, Amazon tried to increase revenue by cutting prices, offering free shipping,
and leveraging its technology infrastructure to provide e-commerce services to other
businesses. Amazons Merchants@ and Amazon Marketplace allow other businesses to fully
integrate their Web sites into Amazons site to sell their branded goods using Amazons
fulfillment and payment systems. Nordstrom, The Gap, and Target stores use Amazon to sell
their goods and then pay Amazon commissions and fees. In the Amazon Marketplace
program, individuals are encouraged to sell their used or new goods on Amazons Web site
even when they compete directly with Amazons sales of the same goods. Sales by third
parties now represent 25percent of Amazons revenues. Amazon refined its business model
further to focus more on efficient operations while maintaining a steady commitment to
keeping its 49 million customers satisfied. In early 2001, Amazon closed two of its eight
warehouses, laid off 15 percent of its workforce, and consolidated orders from around the
country prior to shipping to reduce shipping costs. Amazon used six sigma quality measures
to reduce errors in fulfillment. These measures reduced fulfillment costs from 15 percent of
revenue in 2000to 10 percent by 2003.Amazon finally became profitable in 2003 and remains
an online retailing powerhouse growing at over 60 percent a year. It continues to innovate
with IT-enabled services: free unlimited two-day shipping for $79 a year (Amazon Prime).
Amazon entered the dry goods grocery business in 2006. These innovations increased its
costs and reduced its profits, much to the disappointment of the stock market, which has
depressed Amazons stock from a high of$100 in 2000 down to the mid-$20 range in
2006.But Amazon faces powerful online retail competitors such as eBay and Yahoo! who also

are very adept at using information systems to develop new products and services. Google is
emerging as a competitor because so many
consumers use its search engine.
Questions
1. Do SWOT analysis of Amazon.com.
2. What are business strategies of Amazon.com?
3. What is the future of Amazon?