Spotify

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The company has to be capable to make the process as easy as possible. A system with the experience of other consultants and the possibility to interact with them is a manner of doing it.

If the consultants are using all the knowledge of the company, they can do their job faster without sacrifice of quality. The revenue of the firm comes from the fees that the customers pay in order to have the service of consultancy.

In so far that the consultants are in the capacity to serve projects in less time, more projects will be addressed, ensuring higher revenues for the Company.

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Jack and Diane own a small dry cleaning business. They want a system that will fulfill these requirements:

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A bar code system will track garments (including the type – coat, pant, blouse, etc.) and print out a bar code that is attached to each item. When the garment has been cleaned, the bar-code is scanned again, updating its status in the system.

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A customer can check whether the garment is ready by asking a clerk, either in-person or on the phone. The clerk enters the customer’s name into the system, which will indicate whether their clothes are ready and return the associated bar codes so the clerk can locate the garments. The customer will also be able to check the status of their order online through the website www.janddcleaning.com.

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At pick-up, the system will print out a receipt and record payment information.

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At the end of the month, the system generates reports that show the number of garments cleaned, the total sales, and summary totals of garments by type (i.e., how many shirts, how many pants, etc.).

Jack and Diane want to spend less time at the store (they like to sit at home and watch television) and intend to hire a store manager and part time employees to run the store. They have just negotiated a deal to become part of the fast-growing ACME Dry Cleaning franchise. ACME provides each of their stores with low-cost materials and promotional support. For example, ACME has made deals to purchase detergent at a discount for its stores.

ACME also has its own information system that they provide to their stores for a yearly fee. The system automates some, but not all, of the activities listed above. Specifically, the ACME tracks garments by a manually-entered number, not by bar code and has no web-based self-service option for customers. However, it does have a billing system that feeds into advanced reporting tools that measure and compare the performance of its franchised stores.

- Based on the description above, what are the core business processes of Jack and Diane’s dry cleaning business?

- Cleaning process: The garment will be cleaned and processed according to the order

- Tracking System: The garments must be identified easily from receipt to delivery to the customer. In addition to allowing customers the status of their garments in real time.

- Which part of their core business processes will be supported by ACME if they complete the franchise deal?

- The ACME system wills only the billing system that feeds into advanced tools. The advantage of the franchise is in terms of cost saving of supplies.

- Evaluate the system being provided by ACME. Is this the “right” solution for Jack and Diane (remember they like to sit at home and watch television)?

- Jack and Diane developed a business model that allows them to save time in the process, also depend on low-grade decisions of employees, as they have automated processes that offers a high degree of trust and integrity. They need a solution that allows them to ensure a high degree of automation of its processes and ACME does not offer that capability.

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- You have been asked to briefly explain the business value of social media to the senior management of a large financial institution. Using the concepts and terms you’ve learned in this course:

- Briefly explain one key benefits and risk of social media over previous forms of communication.

- Risk:

Although it is difficult for any company to accurately predict all the risks associated with their social media strategy and use, they should, at a minimum, anticipate and plan for the most common ones. Essentially, the risks associated with social media fall into one of the following four categories:

• Damage to brand reputation

• Disclosure of proprietary and/or confidential information

• Corporate identity theft

• Legal, regulatory and compliance violations

- Benefit: The main benefit of the social media is the deep knowledge that the company can obtain from their customers. In the social media they express what they like and dislike, what they do and other useful information that can be used to offer a better service to the customers.

- Recommend a plan for implementing a social media strategy that helps the company avoid the “pitfalls” of emerging technologies.

- In light of these risks, your firm can get the most out of social media “through good governance and risk management. Governance is really all about how you operate social media, your policies and procedures.

- Social media impacts multiple groups within your firm, such as Marketing, Customer Services, IT and HR. These groups have different roles and often different views on how social is used. Good governance brings those people together to ensure that the social media strategy fits in with the overall business strategy. Stay away from long, dull polices and instead, create polices that are engaging that empower employees to use social media.

- As more employees start adopting and relying on these new ways of working, technology needs to be reliable to avoid disrupting the business. Processes should be put in place to resolve technology issues quickly. Firms also need crisis management plans that outline what to do when something goes wrong on social media and how to use