Case Analysis
Express Stores Inc
Express Stores Inc is a regional retail super store chain that is exploring a major expansion to a national competitor. Currently ESI has 15 stores in 6 southern states and employs approximately 3500 employees with an annual cash flow of $150 million dollars. ESI's goal in 5 years is 90 stores in 30 states all east of the Mississippi River with a cash flow of 2.1 billion dollars. Additional information on ESI:
Stores located in: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee Operations: All stores are open 24 hours a day except Thanksgiving and Christmas Merchandise: General merchandise and complete grocery operations Footprint: All stores are approximately 100,000 sq. ft.
Current Technology: ESI's 15 stores are a product 4 mergers of smaller local chains. One legacy of this is a disparate technology infrastructure that does not meet the needs of a national chain of fully integrated stores.
Pursuant to the corporations expansion plans a 6 month study was conducted to select a technology strategy for the future. Creating and building the system in-house is being considered despite the lack of resources and expertise. Outsourcing is also considered and the following summary of requirements were sent out for bids.
Expected Yearly Budget: 15 million increasing to 20 million at the end of 10 years
Infrastructure: WAN/LAN system available 24 hours a day with a weekly 2 hour maintenance window.
Database/Storage: Mainframe based for capacity and reliability Work Stations: PC Windows based
Retail Stations (Checkout): Fully integrated cash/sales stations split between 70% cashier manned and 30% unmanned.
Additional Info: EIS has need for complete integration for sales, Inventory, payables, receivables and human resources.
After extensive review of bids from 6 outsourcing firms All Computer Systems was selected to make an initial statement of work on the technology solution.
Include in your assignment one page summaries of in-house and out-source the technology solution:
A.) Based on the information in the case, despite the lack of expertise, write one-page summary on why it is best to have an in-house systems. Make the best case for this option without any reference to the outsourcing option.
B.) Based on the information in the case write a one-page summary on why it is best to outsource the technology solution. Make the best case for this option without any reference to the in-house option.
For your Final Exam - Student Summary Report, you should use a Systems Requirement Document section format and other document templates found within your course reference material.
Attachment:- system requirements.rar