Despite the failures amongst the top management, their currentposition has been achieved by the drive of a few dedicated branchmanagers, who usually ignore all the rules of the organisation,and by some of the sales force, who can be ruthless in theirpursuit of commissions and care not for any processes that theyshould follow.In expanding, Kate Hudson recognises the necessity of becomingless people and more process driven, as well as getting somemanagement structure back in place. There is a tendency foroffices to 'go their own way', one consequence being thatopportunities to make sales are lost through failure to move abuyer from the office that they have originally contacted to onethat can better meet their needs e.g. if they decide that a differentlocation is preferable to the one that they are currently looking in.However Kate Hudson does recognise there are two issues thatshe needs to be aware of Sales staff attrition rates (which shehopes can be reduced by standardising office processes andpushing up their commission rates - it is known that these ratesare not consistent across branches - and there is expectation thatBIP will help here) and the need to operate according to thehighest ethical standards; occasionally, customer surveys revealthat staff sometimes fall short of "good customer service".The register of properties for sale, the list of applicants (peoplewho wish to buy property), the calculation of sales commissions,the production of certain standard letters for vendors, applicants,solicitors were all considered to be activities which could becomputerised. There could be an issue here - there is very limitedappreciation of I.T. within the admin teams.There are currently 16 branch offices; each in a different area andeach have between eight and ten sales persons, five administrativestaff: a branch manager, property registrar, sales administrator,adverts clerk, and appointments secretary. Administrative staffvary enormously in capability and it is clear that whilst about halfof them are very good many are just lazy, some are incompetentand a few are both lazy and incompetent! It is thought that afterautomation admin staff should be reduced to 3per office.What are your thoughts about which areas ofthe business should be outsourced, whichshould remain in-house give reasons for allof your decisions. CASE STUDY - Bricks and MortarThis coursework concerns the development of informationsystems for the branch offices of Bricks and Mortar, a rapidlyexpanding estate agency in the south of England. The attachedinformation was gathered in an interview with Mrs Kate Hudson,joint owner and managing director.Bricks and Mortar are considering computerising and"internetting" the main part of their business: that carried out inthe branch offices; the selling and marketing of houses. Theycalled this the "Business Improvement Project" (BIP). It is hopedthat this will enable Bricks and Mortar to become the premierestate agent in the south of England although with the drop indemand to buy houses as the rental market expands coupled withnew internet based estate agents emerging this could be a toughtarget to meet. However, the BIP should allow costs to fall asthere will be a need for fewer administrative staff especially ifthey switch away from advertising in newspapers and move ontothe web. Kate Hudson also hopes that this will enable houses tobe sold more quickly. Current use of IT is limited to use of ageneral ledger accounts package, a payroll package, spread sheetsfor financial planning, and some word processing. These are runon four stand-alone PCs based in the Head Office which housesthe Finance and Marketing departments as well as the ManagingDirector. Given the quality of staff in Head Office it is expectedthat Finance and Marketing will cope effectively with all theproposed changes. Having said that there is little experiencewithin Marketing of what going digital would actually involvealthough a recent visit by a consultancy evaluated the marketingteam to be one of the best and most innovative that they had comeacross.Bricks and Mortar have requested a thorough analysis of theirbusiness, reviewing their business strategy, and to identifyopportunities for the use of IT in improving their profitability andmarket position.Due to the negligence of the other partner, Robert Jackson, thecompany has for some time now been without any effectivepersonnel management (that being a major role of his) and as aresult it has been decided that Robert Jackson should retire andleave the running of the company to his more diligent businesspartner Kate Hudson. Indeed, the Personnel team that Jacksonwas responsible for is clearly underperforming - it is rare to seeanyone in the team before 10 am and the office is normally emptyat 4pm. Long lunch hours in the pub are not unknown and thereisn't a single person in this department that has an appropriatequalification.

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Despite the failures amongst the top management, their current position has been achieved by the drive of a few dedicated branch managers, who usually ignore all the rules of the organisation, and by some of the sales force, who can be ruthless in their pursuit of commissions and care not for any processes that they should follow. In expanding, Kate Hudson recognises the necessity of becoming less people and more process driven, as well as getting some management structure back in place. There is a tendency for offices to 'go their own way', one consequence being that opportunities to make sales are lost through failure to move a buyer from the office that they have originally contacted to one that can better meet their needs e.g. if they decide that a different location is preferable to the one that they are currently looking in. However Kate Hudson does recognise there are two issues that she needs to be aware of Sales staff attrition rates (which she hopes can be reduced by standardising office processes and pushing up their commission rates it is known that these rates are not consistent across branches and there is expectation that BIP will help here) and the need to operate according to the highest ethical standards; occasionally, customer surveys reveal that staff sometimes fall short of "good customer service". The register of properties for sale, the list of applicants (people who wish to buy property), the calculation of sales commissions, the production of certain standard letters for vendors, applicants, solicitors were all considered to be activities which could be computerised. There could be an issue here - there is very limited appreciation of I.T. within the admin teams. There are currently 16 branch offices; each in a different area and each have between eight and ten sales persons, five administrative staff: a branch manager, property registrar, sales administrator, adverts clerk, and appointments secretary. Administrative staff vary enormously in capability and it is clear that whilst about half of them are very good many are just lazy, some are incompetent and a few are both lazy and incompetent! It is thought that after automation admin staff should be reduced to 3 per office. What are your thoughts about which areas of the business should be outsourced, which should remain in-house give reasons for all of your decisions. -