Case study 10 analysis

Business -- Human Resources

Evaluate the process that JCSS used to select its vendor and software.

In order to make sure that one gets the best software for their needs there are three things that must be done when deciding from which vendor to buy. The first thing is to identity what ones' needs are and what solutions are available to fulfill those needs. This first involves specifying and prioritizing needs, and then identifying potential market solutions. This is done by forming a request for proposals (RFP) that you send to prospective suppliers in order to receive in return their offering under the form of a proposal. The second thing that needs to be done is evaluation. The available options and alternatives must be evaluated. This is done by analyzing, comparing, and challenging alternatives with mathematical models. The third thing that must be done is selecting the best solution. This is done by ranking alternatives based on their ratio of adequacy to the decision model. The goal is to select the alternative that offers the best value at the lowest cost (Select the Enterprise Software Best Matching Yours Needs, 2010).

In the case of Jefferson County School system they followed most of these things but not all. They formed a committee in order to select a vendor. The committee drafted an RFP that was sent out to potential vendors. The problem with their RFP was that it was based upon the criteria of basically one person. There was no formal process in order to determine what their needs were. They took all of the proposals that were submitted and narrowed those choices down to three. Each of these vendors' products was then evaluated. Each vendor demonstrated their system to the school. In the beginning the committee had intended to visit a school that used each vendor's systems. But due to time and money constraints they were only able to visit two sites. The final selection ended up being one of the vendors whose site that they visited. In the end this was not a very fair evaluation effort since not all of the vendors were assessed in the same way.

Evaluate the implementation of the student management system at JCSS.

After software has been chosen and purchased then the implementation process must begin. There are several steps that must be followed in order for this to be successful. The first is that one should assemble an implementation team. This team is responsible for all aspects of the implementation and is run by an implementation project manager. The second step is to develop an implementation project plan. This allows everyone to get on the same page and for a very detailed plan to be set down as to how the software will be installed and in what time frame. This is also the point at which a risk management plan should be developed. This is a plan that identifies what risks might be encountered and lays down a plan on how they will be handled. The third step that needs to be done is to verify that they new system works. This is basically the testing phase. The new system needs to be tested thoroughly so that all bugs can be discovered and corrected before it is put into production. The final step is to convert form the old system to the new one. During this stage there needs to be a plan in place to continue to be able to use the old system in case something with the new system does not work correctly this works to prevent work shut down if the new system will not work (Implementing Your Technology, n.d.).

In this case the Jefferson County School system administrators did not do well at all. They did not develop at project team nor assign a project manager in order to oversee the implementation. They had no real implementation plan in place that laid out all the steps that needed to be done. There was no risk management plan developed so as risks presented themselves they had no idea how to handle them. There was no real testing phase in order to work through any of the bugs that the system had. They just put the system into production and then discovered that it didn't work. They had no plan in place to keep the old system up and running so that work could continue if the new system did not work. The implementation of the new software was basically a disaster.

Critique the performance of JCSS management in the purchase of this system.

The performance of JCSS management in the purchase of this system was a failure. They did not evaluate each system to the extent that they could guarantee that it would do what they needed it to do. Although they had many people on the team and each had ideas that were vital to the process they did not seem to have the right people on the team in order to make this process successful. There was not enough participation from the IT department from the beginning so that they knew whether what they were buying was going to be useable in the end.