Bob: Oh, hi Alice . . . come on in! I know that we were scheduled for an orientation meeting this morning. But I'm afraid that will have to wait. There is an important fire to put out today. Let me introduce you to one of your coworkers. This is Jamal.
Alice and Jamal exchange hellos and Bob motions Alice to take one of the chairs across from his desk as he speaks.
“She said she was concerned about how our members were connecting to our Web site.”
Bob: I just came back from a meeting with Carol, our CEO. While we were discussing the Monthly Membership Report, she said she was concerned about how our members were connecting to our Web site. This really caught me off guard! Our membership growth has exceeded projections and I had assumed that our meeting was to discuss how to handle all the new members. She requested that her Morning Report be modified to include the percentage of our customers who use high bandwidth, and she wants us to analyze the changes in low bandwidth customers versus high bandwidth customers over the past year.
Bob: Jamal, here is the Monthly Membership Report. I'd like you to review it and then create two profiles. One profile will describe our members who use low bandwidth. The other profile will be for our members who use high bandwidth. I'm interested in any differences or unique characteristics you can uncover.
Bob removes the cover page, hands the rest of the report to Jamal, and hands the cover page to Alice.
Bob: Alice, I want you to focus on these three values. Start by locating their source. Then obtain data for low and high bandwidth members for the past twelve months and prepare a graph comparing the two. Start by talking with Dennis. He is the southwest marketing manager and his team developed the Monthly Membership Report.
“Focus on these values.”
Bob: Jamal, before you start your profiles, please introduce Alice to Dennis. On the way to his office, give Alice a rundown on our corporate structure. Okay, guys, get to work! Before 4:00 today, I want you to present your findings to Carol!
Alice and Jamal head toward Dennis's office.
Jamal: This is a hectic way to start your first day, but it should give you an overall view of the company.
Departments
DVD Direct has five departments: Accounting, Marketing, Production, Human Resources, and Research.
Jamal: We are in Marketing, which focuses on promoting and selling DVD Direct products. Production is in another building. The responsibility of production at DVD Direct is to ship, receive, and warehouse the DVDs. You dealt with Human Resources when you went through the interview process and filled out the paperwork to work at DVD Direct. Research looks into new technologies. I've heard that they are exploring the feasibility of delivering movies over the Web using streaming video technology. Accounting handles billing customers and creating the yearly shareholders report, among other responsibilities.
Management Levels
Jamal: Each department has different management levels. Bob is one of DVD Direct's top managers. As Vice President of Marketing, he determines long range plans and sets the direction for marketing. We're on our way to see Dennis, who is middle marketing manager. He takes the long-range goals set by Bob and formulates shorter objectives such as monthly sales quotas for his southwest regional supervisors. The regional supervisors take care of day-to- day operational matters, like contacting new potential customers and ensuring that our current customers are happy.
Alice and Jamal arrive at an open door to Dennis's office and Jamal knocks on the door frame. Looking up, Dennis asks them to come in and have a seat.
Jamal: Actually, Dennis, I have to head back. I just wanted to introduce you to our new marketing analyst, Alice. It's her first day and she has some questions about the bandwidth data in the Monthly Membership Report.
Dennis: Welcome, Alice. I've heard about Carol's interest in these figures. I don't understand why Carol is so concerned. Membership is up and everything seems positive. If things keep going this well, we will be one of the few Internet companies to post a profit this year. I'm confident in the accuracy of the numbers. They were compiled by Elizabeth, one of my best supervisors, and her team's work is always first rate.
Alice: So you didn't compile these numbers yourself?
“So you didn't compile these numbers yourself?”
Dennis: Oh no, I rarely take part in the actual gathering of data anymore. When I was promoted to middle management, my job became more about communication and I leave much of the detail work for my team supervisors. When I was a supervisor, my communications were pretty much limited to my team and my boss. Now that I am a middle manager, I communicate with supervisors below me, middle managers from other departments, and with top management. Life has gotten more complicated since my old supervisory days when I only had to worry about my immediate manager. While almost all of my information comes from within the organization, top managers, like Bob, also use external information. For example, last week he and Carol attended the European Video Perspectives (EVEP) conference to learn how video is being used worldwide.
Alice: That's interesting! Well, I'll need some advice about the Monthly Membership Report. From what you say it sounds like I need to talk to Elizabeth because it's at the supervisor level where the data is actually collected. Does that sound right? Do you think Elizabeth can make time in her schedule to help me track down these numbers?
Dennis: Whenever the CEO wants something, we'll make the time. Elizabeth is just down the hall on the left. I'll give her a call and tell her that you're on your way.
Management Information Systems at DVD Direct
Alice: Hi Elizabeth, I'm Alice.
Elizabeth: Hi Alice, nice to meet you. Dennis just called and said you had some questions about the bandwidth data in the Monthly Membership Report. I did it about three months ago. When I wrote it I had no idea it would cause such a stir. Even looking at the numbers now, nothing seems particularly out of the ordinary. I wonder why Carol is so concerned.
Alice: You wrote this report three months ago? But the information in the report includes data from this month and last month.
She hands Elizabeth the cover page of the report.
Elizabeth: Well I didn't actually write this report. I determined the format and the formulas that this report is based on. This particular report was created by a program that is part of our MIS or Management Information System. The program is run at the end of each month and applies my formulas to the new monthly data to produce the report. To locate the specific formulas you are interested in, all we have to do is look at the program that generated the report. Elizabeth turns to her computer and retrieves the MIS program. After quickly reviewing the program code, she points to her screen.
Elizabeth: There they are. The formulas use data from the production TPS database.