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Wk 1 Case Study Essay Economic development in the midsouth did not always have reliable access to transportation. This was devastative because much of their growth depended heavily on transportation. Midsouth Chamber of Commerce, MSCC, was formed by a group of legislators who wanted to push for more access to transportation. Midsouth Chamber of Commerce started off strong. They were an aggressive advocacy for their business community. Their growth over the years helped them turn their organization into a business, hitting the million dollar mark. It wasn’t long, however, before their growth took a turn. The company relied heavily on the sales and marketing functions. MSCC lost many contracts with corporations because they could not keep up with the wide spread use of the internet. That was when MSCC decided to hire Leon Lassiter to take control of their sales and marketing functions. Leon Lassiter joined the MSCC in the year 2000. According to the case study â€Å"Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (A): The Role of the Operating Manager in Information Systems† Lassiter’s first task when joining the team was to review all of the programs, processes, and procedures of the company (par. 9). Right away he noticed that the information system was so  limited no one had access to do anything but the limited amount required by their job function. â€Å"No staff member had access to all the data necessary to operate the marketing and sales activities† (par. 9). Processes were done in steps starting from the lowest job level and then working its way to the top. To get one data request it would take approximately three days. Lassiter began to work with Wilson who was in charge of the operations division at MSCC. Though they did not agree with each other’s proposed plans for how the financial division should run, they both agreed to control costs. As time passed, the information systems of the company Kissell 3 grew. This brought necessary organizational changes. Staff changes were made to fall in line with the informational upgrades throughout the company. When this happened, the concern for top management arose. Lassiter and Wilson agreed that they would invest in the new information system created by a former consultant named Kovecki. Management and staff took well to the new work station arrangements. The new system, UNITRAK, helped reduce the costs of software. Unfortunately, this did not last long. They system continued to need upgrading and was never able to be implemented into the business. Lassiter continued to see disappointment with the UNITRAK. The time spent training employees on the system cost thousands of dollars, just for the materials to be forgotten. This case outlines the importance of a business and its technology. A company should always be prepared for change. MSCC did not seem like they were readily able to adapt to the change in information systems. The current situation is that the company is losing money each day the new software is not implemented. Kovecki is currently looking for a new job, but was hired by MSCC to build the companies new information system. In the future if MSCC continued to wait on Kovecki’s information system, money would be wasted. He was given months to provide MSCC with a process that worked, but has only been breaking down and not staying up to date. With the rate that MSCC is losing clients and money, waiting on Kovecki would be a mistake. He is clearly looking for a new job which implies that he has no interest in helping MSCC. It would he highly recommended that Lassiter and Wilson review their contract with Kovecki. If Kovecki does not complete the requested upgrade of the information software, they Kissell 4  will need to terminate working with Kovecki and look to a new informational software. MSCC was not prepared for the wide use of the internet. They used old processed from the time they originated which caused them to lose money. Although it was costly to implement a new information software, Lassiter was looking toward the best interest of MSCC’s future. Kissell 5 Work Cited Martin, E. , Brown, C. , Dehayes, D. , Hoffer, J. , Perkins, W. (2002). Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (A): The Role of the Operating Manager in Information Systems. In Managing information technology (7th ed. , pp. 10-16). Upper Saddle River, N. J. : Prentice Hall.