Wong Engineering Corporation (WEC) operates in 25 states and three coun¬ tries. WEC faced a crucial decision: choosing a network operating system and soft¬ ware that would maximize functionality, manageability, and acceptance of the system by end users. WEC developed and followed a four-step approach:

Step 1 Develop the evaluation criteria. WEC organized a committee to develop proper evaluation criteria. Committee members interviewed users and developed the following criteria:

• Menu or graphical user interface

• Ease of use

• Scope of vendor support

• Ease of network management and administration

• Cost, speed, and performance

• Wide-area communications abilities

• Ability to access other computing platforms

• Security

• Fault tolerance and recovery abilities

• Ability to connect workstations to the network

• Global naming services

• Printing capabilities

• Upgrade and enhancement options

• Stability of the vendor WEC organized the criteria into the following four categories and priori¬ tized them.

1. Business criteria refer to overall business, economic, and competitive issues.

2. Operational criteria refer to tactical issues and operating characteristics.

3. Organizational criteria refer to people issues such as the networks’ impact on the information systems structure.

4. Technical criteria refer to hardware, software, and communications issues.

The evaluation committee used a weighting scale of 1 to 5, with 5 as the highest, to select the top three evaluation criteria for each category. Criteria vital to short-term and long-term business goals were given a 5. “Wish list” criteria were weighted a 3. Inapplicable criteria were given a 1.

Step 2 Define the operating environment. A number of data-gathering techniques were used to collect information from which an information sys¬ tems model was developed. The model revealed the need to share account¬ ing, sales, marketing, and engineering data at three organizational levels: the district, division, and home office. In addition, district offices needed access to centralized financial information to handle payroll. WEC decided it needed a distributed network that allowed users throughout the organization access to company data.

Step 3 Identify the operating alternatives. Using the criteria developed in step 1, WEC evaluated each package identified. Each committee member established personal matrices for each product, and then members compared notes during a roundtable discussion.

Step 4 Test and prototype products. The highest-scoring products were tested further using prototypes. Finally, WEC selected the product that fit the organization’s needs most completely.

Required

a. Discuss the evaluation committee’s role in the selection process. How should members of the committee be selected? What advantages and problems result from using a committee to make the selection?

b. What data-gathering techniques could WEC use to assess user needs? To select a vendor?

c. What is the benefit of analyzing the operating environment before selecting the software? What data-gathering techniques should a company employ in under¬ standing the operating environment?

d. In selecting a system using the point-scoring method, how should the commit¬ tee resolve scoring disputes? List at least two methods.

e. Assume the point-scoring approach narrowed the process to three candidates. Should a purchase decision be made on the point-scoring process alone? What other procedure(s) should the committee employ in making the final selection?