R.L. Polk Case Study The author of this report is to review the case study article relating to the R.L. Polk mainframe upgrade. The theoretical perspective of this report is that the company the author of this report works for is considering a similar upgrade. The author of this report will use the points, facts and other details of the study as a starting point. It will be discussed what points are agreed with from the article, which points are not agreed with and whether such an upgrade was worth the trouble. While spending nearly ten percent of a company's annual revenue would seem like a cost-prohibitive endeavor, having programming code and/or other technology that is more than a generation old in the modern information systems sphere is just something that cannot be allowed to stand if it can be avoided, and it can.

Analysis

While ten percent of a company's annual revenue may seem like a lot of money to spend on one project, it was something that R.L. Polk needed to do, without question. Indeed, the current information systems climate of the United States and broader world is one of information. Information is power and getting information quicker than the "next guy" makes one even more powerful. The Lucas text drives the point home when it points out that half of all capital investment in the United States is dedicated to information technology (Lucas, 2006). While R.L. Polk was in a lucrative position even with its dated code and other technology, taking nearly a month to compile data that others rely on heavily is just begging to be replaced and hopped over by the next big thing or next big company. Indeed, a current giant (let alone a currently non-existent one) like Google or Amazon stepping in and saying they can do the data better and quicker would make R.L. Polk's iteration of the technology obsolete quite quickly. Indeed, Chesbrough points out that "technology (is) becoming increasingly widespread, distributed across companies both large and small, in many parts of the world" (Chesbrough, 2005). As such, the company that the author of this report is working for should absolutely invest the money provided that the money is there and the improvements that can be gleaned are as advertised (Baselinemag, 2015).

Indeed, R.L. Polk did their investment after realizing that the sheer amount of "touches" and manual keystroke was seismic. To be sure, when upgrading one's technology to a new platform can allow for the elimination of nearly half of one's information systems staff, this is an upgrade that is begging to happen. One huge reason is that more manual keystrokes means more chance of errors. Further, Chesbrough makes a statement that dovetails with this idea when he says that such lack of forethought is a "huge waste of human talent" (Chesbrough, 2005). This is not to say that an unwieldy information system can lead to problems in the wrong hands. Indeed, if the system is not programmed correctly, it will be a big mess. However, if it is done right and by the right people, it will be so much better than a considerable amount of manual intervention on petabytes of data. While the system may be workable for Polk, there has to be an upgrade at some point and it has to happen very soon. Eventually, the dealers and other people who crave the data will want the data sooner no matter who provides it and the generally lower cost of computer and software technology as compared to what was the case in the past will just make it inevitable that someone else will step in if Polk does not step up.

Further, any investment that will reduce costs by a half and increase efficiency by a half should at least be considered. Sometimes, the money is just not there. However, when one can invest not even ten person of ONE year's revenue and make it worthwhile for more than a generation (thirty years, according to the article), that is a no-brainer and then some. The less likelihood of errors, the decreased need for staff, the lesser need for manual keystrokes and manual intervention, a setup that is future-proof for thirty years rather than being a generation old and so forth are all reasons, on their own, to do the upgrade.

Another reason to do the upgrade is another reason that Polk did the upgrade. When it comes to processing and delivering...

a lot. Indeed, the sooner the relevant data can be garnered, the sooner it can be used. In the case of Polk, it allows the car dealers to know what cars are being bought where, by whom and in what amounts. This data is priceless to those regional dealers. To lose a month due to the fact that it takes that long to aggregate and parse the data is no small thing. Indeed, it is something that should not be happening in the information systems sphere in 2015 as the technology and software exists to do it all much quicker, much cheaper, and much more error-free. To be sure, Polk would have been insane to not do the upgrade and the same would be true of the theoretical employer of the author of this report is the same gains and advantages can be realized. Quite honestly, it is quite hard to see how those benefits would not be realized if the data needs and outcomes are the least bit similar to Polk.
However, every situation is different and the employer of the author of this report would need to do their homework. First, they would need to ascertain what benefits are needed. Polk broke it down in three numbers, those being 50/50/100. Those numbers equated to fifty percent more efficient, fifty percent quicker and one hundred percent accuracy. As noted before, shaving time off of the month it normally takes would be huge. The article notes that a week would be huge but fifty percent would be more like two weeks or so. Obviously, the other employer doesn't necessarily need to have the same precise goals but the goals that do exist need to be defined. The other side of that coin is what is needed to accomplish those goals, what that would cost and the cost/benefit involved in harnessing and using all that technology. What is selected is important. The Baseline article refers to the use of grid computing rather than using more expensive high-end servers. The ability to mold and shape what the computers do at any given time is huge because this means the computers are not in any way limited to what they work on or how they work on it. The bang for the buck found from this ability as well as the lower costs that are found as compared to more expensive servers that are good at doing something in particular is something that is hard to pass up. The upsides of grid computing have been realized as far back as 2004 by organizations like the National Institute for Standards & Technology (NIST) (NIST, 2004).

The Polk people were a bit lucky in that they really didn't know for sure up front whether the project would work. They really should have been more careful because they really could have taken a hard hit if they miscalculated. Again, the project was a no-brainer to green-light in that it had to be done for a few very important reasons. However, they clearly did not do as much due diligence as they could and should have and this was an obvious failure that should be pointed to. This is something that the author of this report would do differently. The Polk project was done very well in terms of the results it delivered and how it was planned out except for that one major point. Investing eight figures into anything should not be done casually because this can lead to wasted money, wasted time or even a complete project failures (Baselinemag, 2015). Indeed, there are many enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects that have very noble intentions and that promise to meld a firm's information services into one package. However, those same ERP projects can fail miserably due to lack of proper diligence and planning (Wailgum, 2015).

Conclusion

In the end, the employer that the author of this report is working for should go ahead with the project presuming that the costs, the need for the technology upgrade and so forth are all pretty much the same as Polk. Indeed, having technology or software that is a generation out of date is something that cannot be allowed to stand. The current technology "working" is all well and good. However, as seen with the Polk situation, operating costs can go down sharply, processing time can go down sharply and error rate can go down sharply ... all from one single project. All of the proverbial dominos have to be arranged and prepared in the proper fashion and competent people need to…