Case study
R.E. Cycle services ltd is an enterprise specialising in providing a contract service
For the safe removal and disposal of electronic equipment(computers monitors scanner videos ,etc).it currently operates from Stirling premises in central Scotland and has agreements with a large number of organisations and local authorities requiring safe disposal of equipment covered by current legislation. When a customer wishes to dispose of an electrical appliance the are offered the opportunity to have the equipment removed stored and then disposed of after safe removal of any toxic materials.
The company also advertises nationally and has an active internet site with 80 hits per week. Many of its customers sign up online, and usually within 1 year after they have purchased the full service contract. the cost of the contract varies with the numbers type of product and age of the equipment at the time the contract is made.
The contract cost is determined on variable scale. when an appliance is five years old it must be disposed of, unless the customer has the appliance assessed by R.E.C Ltd, the contract is renewable each year, usually on an increasing scalar cost.
R.E Cycle services Ltd would like to have five regional service centres, for the service engineers to cover each geographical area. Most of the assessment work is carried out on the customer’s premises. R.E.C Ltd premises are close to the M9 convenient for all central Scotland transport links. This centre is used both as a central warehouse, guaranteeing uplift the following day. When a customer requires equipment uplifted then the engineer has to request a service engineer to collect the items, in the course of the run. The items stored at the central warehouse are held for inspection and disposal. all equipment records are held on a data management system.
A computer system located at the central warehouse is used for customer accounting. The customer accounting procedures have little interface with any of the company service engineers. All contact with customers over invoices, contract renewals etc, is maintained by the accounting staff at Stirling. The only link with this system at the service centre is that, when a customer phones in to request a service, an internet enquiry based system is used to query a database at the central warehouse to check that the customer exists on record and has a current contract.
Dipole Ltd, a medium sized, fire safety, company, supplying fire extinguishers to all forms of business has five outlets throughout Scotland. Dipole Ltd use R.E. Cycle Ltd for equipment disposal.
Dipoles operational costs are continually increasing as the business involves both the supply and service of fire extinguishers and other safety equipment. Costs of running vehicles are to high. Dipole Ltd wants to expand the servicing provision, while looking for a way of offsetting costs. a business partnership with R.E.C Ltd would be mutually beneficial. R.E. Cycle Ltd discussed this with Dipole Ltd and successfully developed a new working relationship.
This new arrangement has added five potential service centres to there existing Stirling premises. Each of these new service centres could store equipment until a full load could be transported to Stirling. Stock records are kept on a central computer system which monitors stock levels, initiates orders for collection and disposal of customer equipment and supervises transfer of equipment between service centres also the goods being sent directly to the service centres. The computer system supports on-line enquires about equipment held for disposal and collects equipment transactions on-line, but the files are updated overnight, on a modem link.
Dipole Ltd always use manual methods of accounting, however they have fully integrated accounting system ready to be implemented. Dipole Ltd use email & an online booking system for orders and service requests.
Customer orders are then processed manually at the service centre to organise the routes for the service engineers.
The combined businesses would benefit from service engineers having a weekly or monthly service route covering customer premises in the five geographical areas.
Dipole Ltd customers are required to pay service engineers for parts used at time of the service for which they issue a paper receipt.
The Case study on IT strategy solutions for R.E. Cycle Ltd and Dipole
Ltd
has to be answered along the following lines
Here are some pointers-
Emphasize the benefits of the new technolgy:
Departments efficiency accuracy speed
Improved staff performance
Improved decision making
Use some of this information to show what the client companies could
expect from the merger & the new IT
Hardware required LAN? WAN?
Servers Thin clients
Software OS Applications Network Internet.
Product suitability for Wide market?
Training needed.
Implementation & meeting current Schedules.
Costs Benefits
Long Term View Local Europe Global
Concentrate on telling the client companies:
The benefits of new technology
The costs (estimate)
Look for what is useful in the existing companies and how they will
benefit from the merger
So there is not a definitive correct answer, it is a case study with an
open scenario which has many individual solutions.
Hope this helps.
I have written a paper but i am unsure if i have gone about it the correct way i can email it to anyone intrested in helping me any help would be great guys