Imt Custom Machine Company Case Study

IMT Custom Machine Company Case Study

IMT Custom Machine Company Case Study

Custom Machine Company Inc., a subsidiary of International Machine & Tools, had accrued a lot of technical debt over the years on its infrastructure as well as taking short-cuts over applications and processes. June Paige, the vice president and the division manager, of CMC Inc. entrusted Charles Browning to analyze the total Information Systems picture and recommend a few options for long-term direction of the company. We will analyze the pros and cons the four options that Charles came up with after his extensive research. We will also identify which of the four options makes the most sense for CMCI for the future.

Results of Charles Browning’s Research

Charles Browning conducted an intensive six-week investigation to identify all the problems and issues that CMCI is facing across its Information System. He presented the following four options to June Paige.

Centralized computing environment

The first option was to move to move towards a centralized environment based on IBM’s mainframe system.

Pros. Replacing all the older AS/400 to the new eServer iSeries platform would maximize the processing power of the mainframe system as it was not fully utilized previously. These newer systems will also easier to maintain and require less troubleshooting and upkeep. Mainframe systems have also come down significantly in price and are energy efficient as well. Users will be used to working with a centralized system and can be easily cross-trained across applications and business processes.

Cons. Significant effort required to move users and applications from disparate systems to a centralized one. Users that are used to working on workstations will have to undergo training to be comfortable working with the mainframe system. There will also be a large effort on the systems administrators to allow full access for all users to the central...