PVI does not have an official "Mission Statement". When asked, John Admonson said "Maybe it is about time we have one. We are indeed big enough to have one".
PVI's corporate goal, according to John Admonson, is: "to be the producer of the technologically best graphics computing devices in the market an sell them at attractive prices to the customers."
Nothing official - but they have always been proud of being an innovative and progressive company.
There is no need to worry about this in the analysis. PVI is a viable company.
"Who should be in charge" refers to who should be in charge in the development of GLOBIS. It is appropriate to recommend staff and organizational changes (with justified reasons and without personal attacks).
I do not think you need to go into details such as protocols and licenses. But in the area of networking, I think you should include some specifics about the services you propose to employ (such as microwave, international long distance companies, etc.)
Not too much. Remember that you are presenting to PVI management. You could put some of the technical details in appendices in the report.
Questions 5 and 6 will probably be discussed during class on Nov. 10 and 15.
About 20 minutes.
Use your own judgment. This is not a size-limited exercise. It depends on what your group wants to say.
OK.
Regarding the length of the presentation. We should stick to 20 min. per team and leave 5 min. for questions. Maybe you should consider using only 4 presenters each using 5 min.?
Yes, the company has a few direct competitors (see pages 3, 4.. of the case). They are in a very technology-intensive area and competition is very fierce and they have to do a lot to stay ahead of their competition. I do not think that PVI dominates the market. I think the best way of thinking about them is that there are a few players all vying for the same set of customers and there haven't been a fall out yet.
Send me specific questions, or ask for a meeting with me and/or with the MIS consultants. I recommend formulating a set of questions and then ask for a meeting with me.
** As a first pass, read articles about networking in the reference by subjects area in this document.
I believe that PVI is still in the growing stage. The products they are producing are constantly having to be updated. I do not see them as arriving at the stage of "product maturity" soon. If this does not correspond to your terminology, please call on me again.
We will draw lots to decide which team will go first. Given each team is to do a 20-25 min. presentation, we can only take on 3 teams per session. The teams that are scheduled for 11/22 are excused from class on 11/17.
On 11/22 at the end of class for all teams.
Based on the requirement of a two stage proposal, I would say about 2 years. Remember that you are not going to come in on day x and turn on the computers. Things have to be done in stages. Part of the services PVI buying will be project management.
The exact figure is hard to produce at this point. I would say $1M is low and $2M is high. This is definitely not a $5M project.
Right now, most of their financial data are stored as spreadsheets on the analysts' workstations. Some of the data also reside in the General Ledger system that the MIS department maintains. Other data are also stored on the corp.'s minicomputer.
Answers to questions 1 & 2 could be incorporated into your presentation to demonstrate your understanding of the corporation (part of your analysis?)
Exact costs are not needed. Maybe you could give rough estimates of certain large components of the project and the total.
Yes, consulting fees should be included in "the bottom line". We currently do not have references on how the fees are structured.
The definition of "information architecture" was given on our first meeting as "The particular form that Information Technology takes in a specific organization to achieve selected goals and functions."
As in dealing with the substance of the GLOBIS contract, the system intergrator could subcontract with hardware and software vendors to provide after-sales support to PVI. For example, a system integrator which employs HP machines can subcontract with the technical support department of HP to service and maintain the HP machines used in the project. Of course, the system integrator could use a so-called third party company to provide the service. Another example of the after-sales service would be: Since so many different vendors are used in the project, it will be very confusing for PVI to be calling different vendors for each problem that arises. Thus it would be of value-added if the system integrator provides a 800 number for PVI to call in case of any problem. A designated person will try to help or at lease expedite, route and follow-up with each reported problem.
A user survey could be used. Another good indicator of success or good performance will be measured by the PVI's willingness to be used as a reference for the system integrator.
The wall Street Journal Report (supplement section of the Wall Street Journal) for September 30, 1994 (World Business) and November 14, 1994 (Technology) are good references.
Please send comments and questions to Stphen K. Kwan <KWAN@SJSUVM1.SJSU.EDU>