Junk Van

Aleksey Bakshiyev

1-888-Junk-Van Case

Problem/Issue Statement

What is the problem?

The problem of the Junk-Van company is that it outgrew its own business model. Where Marcus Kingo had one car doing all the work and now he is operating in three Canadian cities. While this system had allowed 1-888-Junk-Van to grow initially, information errors and inefficiencies were now negatively impacting operations and increasing costs.

What is the distinction between the problems and the symptoms?

The symptoms were that the company grew to a half of million in profits but still operating like it’s a one man team. Simple talks like contacting helpers, going back to the customer’s site to collect money took up a lot of the drivers.

What is the scope of the problem?

The scope of the problem is that the driver’s data consolidation was very time consuming, customers service quality was suffering, which damaged the company’s reputation. Errors in customer contact information, forgotten emails, manual calculation and billing mistakes caused negative customer interactions.

Situation Assessment

What is the context of the problem?

On few occasions data clerk accidentally sent the wrong version of the database to the morning operator, and as a result some jobs that were already booked no longer showed in the database and did not make their way onto the spreadsheets.

What are the decision Criteria?

The price of the hiring a dedicated IT workers is very important since the company is virtual the process has to be very easy because not even Kingo has IT background.  The solutions also had to be flexible and robust enough to handle evolutionary changes in the market or the business. The vendor support was essential; Kingo wants someone to rely on for as long as the company used the system. And finally time is of the essence.  

List of plausible alternatives course of action

What are the alterative course of action?

There are five possible alternatives

1.       Microsoft access database

2.       Custom Application

3.       Google docs

4.       Platform as a Service

5.       Enterprise resource planning ERP System

How does each of them address the key problem?

Microsoft access database could be done in short time and on a small budget. Access could be installed locally on multiple computers or also can be installed on centralized server to be accessed remotely through the internet and a secure virtual private network. Costs are $179 per computer and could be implemented in a few weeks.

Custom Application having someone builds a completely customized application for the business. The wait time for building this process is four weeks and upfront prices is $2000 and maintenance is $60 dollars an hour.

Google Docs offered online applications that could be used to create text documents, spreadsheets, slide-based presentations and forms. The forms could be quickly created and shared with employees. Users could work simultaneously on the same file, in a collaborative system environment. Costs are $5 per user per month or $50 per user per year.

Platform as a service similar to Google docs in that it was delivered on clod computing infrastructure. PaaS differentiated itself through the fact that users could utilize common applications, as well as build their own unique applications, using a shared computing platform that was provided and hosted by a third party. Service package cost ranged from $300-600 per month, the implementation would take up few days.

Enterprise resource planning ERP system was built around a central database. They were designed to be accessible remotely, and claimed to integrate business processes by covering every aspect of the business, from purchasing, sales, and customer service, to finance, human resources and ecommerce.

Evaluation of Alternatives

Through what theoretical concept should one evaluation of the alternatives?

One of the most important theoretical concepts that Junk Van should consider when making the evaluation whether to make the change is should they completely change the system or expand it further. If they should not change anything they will lose a lot of sales including their customers. If they should change the system completely that will cost the most money.

How does the evaluation relate to the decision criteria developed?

I would choose solution four because gives the centralized database access needed and security and support.

How imaginative can/should the evaluation be?

The system that will be in place should consider all the options and tasks that the company performs almost as if it is programed to serve the business its working in.

Recommendation

What is a quality recommendation?

A quality recommendation would be custom application even though it will cost the most but it serve perfectly for the business its serving.

What is a logical recommendation?

I would say the logical recommendation would be Google Docs. Its seems that the company wouldn’t have to pay a lot of money and be able to do everything they want to. All the employees would be able to share change and evaluate all the docs on the site without much training.

Presentation

If I were presenting how would I sum up the case?

Should they change completely of just expand it.

What key visual aid would I present?

I would create a chart explaining all the solutions and the process it take to complete each solution. The business concept is never easy but at least the basics would be thought of beforehand.

How would I Sell the recommendation?

I would explain the different benefits my solution has and the benefits as the time pass’s and franchising come in effect because you want your business to be made for the long run.

What other delivery consideration should I keep in mind?

You always have to consider the bad and the good in the business concept. I would expaoin the money it would take up front and the benefit it will pay at the end.

 

Visio

I have been asked to see the benefits of having Visio in my company. After intensive research to see the capabilities of this software, I am impressed with the user friendly systems. Its help you see the project in more detail.

We will start using this software for our marketing team. When we do educational seminars Its very important for your presentation posted on the bulletin wall to be clear and catchy. When done professionally you giving the company a chance for a person to actually show up that day. Some of the Flyer's we had before were done in Microsoft Word and we pay for that with low count of audience.
The other aspect that i like with this software that it will help our company communicate with different people in the industry. Some of the regulation that are implemented are time sensitive and has to be acknowledged by all the people in the process. Physicians that conduct these daily visits could have a print out of the information they need for each product they prescribe and the diagnosis they have given to a patient. Which this educational tool the patient is able to do less work in acquiring a new health product.

 

Reflection on Business Impacts of Ubuntu
         We wore first introduced to Ubuntu in class I have been researching the benefits that it would provide for the company I work for now. We have five employees that work on the computer with varies of activities that they perform on the daily basis. We have been starting to have different issues that come up with our software because its not compatible with many different business partners documents because of different format and capabilities that we need to perform.
         Our company is small and we have to come up with ways on how to achieve the best possible way to cut cost and to have high net income. We have been considering to spend money on new computer to be fully capable to interact with our business partners and that would be very costly each computer at Micro Center one of the best retailers  would cost $300 totaling $1500 just on computer. We would need additional software and antivirus software to be at our starting point.
         With the new operating system of Ubuntu would help us use the same computers with additional capabilities of using a Apple hardware for the few that use Apple. We are an analog company and dislike change especially when it costs money, Ubuntu gives us a way to be ourselves and at the same time be very technically advanced with our capabilities.
         I will follow up with my CEO to see if we will implement this tool for our company and continue to save money in the future.
Any questions with that or about that feel free to contact me.
Alex 

How blogs affect business.

          All the good business will always are trying to get bigger and richer. Looking at all the social networks that are available for a company to use to promote their brand, location or whatever the line of work is entitles, would short themselves short by not participating in advertising which most of it is free blogging will help companies retain customers and have them spend more money then any new customer because of the familiarity with the company. It has giant positive aspects that it does for the economy and business overall. The way it helps the economy is by making people more comfortable with their purchases or decisions to spend money on the product because it’s well reviewed.

       The greater part of the information that these big company’s share with the costumers come through blogging and search engines that lead to this endless cycle of people sharing about their personal experiences. But in the end that what life is all about is learning by hard work and on other people’s mistakes. So blogging help the world go around.

       In the medical industry the changes that have been implemented  are unprecedented, since 2012 we have been hit with Obama care, Competitive bidding, new HMO's and new forms of prior authorization. With all these changes clients are not sure how to get their supplies with these new programs. Blogging will help us educate the general public for instance telling each week the new changes that wore implemented and how about to solve them. This will help the customer and at the same time connect them back to us on a weekly basis and when it comes time to get their supplies the only place they feel comfortable to bring business are the companies that work for them and put them as primary goal in their daily activities. so each personnel in our company will be obligated to post something new information on weekly basis and they person that get most view and relevance be will considered during the end of year review of job performance. 

How Google Drive effect business’s

It’s a beautiful tool that Google has, I haven’t used it for long but I love it already because it is free. Microsoft products are so expensive to the general public that any other option instantly becomes respectable. Two companies’ that showed great potential and have made tons of money is Apple and Google. Always pioneering in their industry with the way they do business.

I have collaborated with my fellow IT department, which consists of few very intelligent individuals, and we came up with the concept of having inventory updates through means of Google drive.

We will establish Gmail account for our clients individually and have them use their Google drive by uploading document about their orders to exchange information on current count of inventory. This will be a fun way to connect with clients and an easy way to do business. Having customers be able to be update inventory levels of medical supplies with out visiting the facility could potentially generate more business by word of mouth and generally smarter way of conducting business in this new digital age. Anyway you could distinguish yourself from the competition is a competitive advantage to your business. With all the new concepts that come out to support business through technology had to be able to change their environment to be successful.