Midsouth Chamber of Commerce

Abstract

New Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Information Systems (IS) manager hired to clean up the Information Systems debacle at the Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (MSCC). ???wordingTwo successive system conversion failures primarily caused by mismanagement of technology, technical staffing and contract management. Incomplete sentence? Analysis is required to determine strategy to remedy the inadequate information system. The new Information Systems manager must choose to modify the current system or implement a new information system solution.Hard to follow. Tell the reader specifically what this paper will be about.

Summary of Facts

The original company information system (built and operated from 1986 – 1998) consisted of custom software implemented on International Business Machines (IBM) personal computer hardware. To maintain a competitive business advantage MSCC chose to convert to the UNIX-based UNITRAK system. Marked by data conversion errors and poor testing strategies the transition took longer than expected. By late 1999, the system was operational but showed early defects in structure (missing a centralized relational database), functionality and performance. Key IS technician resigned in September 2000 and replacement systems analyst Dick Gramen, unfamiliar with the AS/400 server or UNITRAK software was unable to identify or resolve the information system problems. The poor performing UNITRAK software crisis opened the opportunity for Mr. Gramen to convince the MSCC executive committee to move to new IBM RS/6000 hardware. New software was additionally contracted through IBM value-added reseller Data Management Associates (DMA). The suite of software consists of Association Plus (a DMA custom software package), Progress (a relational database management system) and Results (user reporting tool). The DMA project began in November 2001 and as of September 2003 is still not fully functional. Modules are missing while others are...