Read the case IS Business Requirements Development(case below): We Sell Stuff, IncLinks to an external site. Based on the information provided in the case formulate business requirements (BRs) for the Information System development project addressing issues facing by each functional area, Put yourself in positions of Accounts Receivable Manager, Customer Representative Manager and Marketing Manager and formulate TWO BRs for each functional area (6 total) to address each functional area wish-list of possible improvements. Suggested BR Template: As a [type of user], I want [function] so that [goal]. Example: As a sales manager I want to be able to reassign all of account executives opportunities, so that I can change plans and handle turnover. Identify Functional Task.

CASE: IS Business Requirement Development: We Sell Stuff, Inc

We Sell Stuff, Inc. is a company that manufactures and sells products. It faces similar challenges and goals of other companies in the manufacturing industry. Like all companies, We Sell Stuff, Inc. has both strengths and weaknesses and faces typical business challenges. The total needs and desires of the users exceed the resources, so decision makers need to prioritize possible projects.

The underlying company goal at We Sell Stuff, Inc. is to increase profitability. Top management believes that improvements in functional tasks will have the following impacts on profitability:

Functional Task Impact on Profitability

Marketing Efforts high impact

Customer Service very high impact

Supply Chain moderate impact

Cash Flow Management moderate impact

Product Development high impact

Process Efficiency low impact

Chief Information Officer (CIO) has scheduled a meeting with managers from following functional areas:

• Payment Collection,
• Customer Service,
• Marketing.

The topic of this meeting is to investigate the ways to address WSSs problems and improve its competitiveness via information systems development efforts and gather business requirements based on the discussion. Based on business requirements provided by each functional area, a course of action will be developed using feasibility analysis. The meeting is about to begin

Accounts Receivable Manager

You are the manager of a group of accounts receivable representatives for We Sell Stuff (WSS), Inc. You and your group are responsible for collecting payments from customers. People in your group have been complaining about their existing information system and have a long wish-list of possible improvements. Specifically, the following issues have come up:

1. It is difficult to keep track of customers who are lagging behind in their payments. In order to do this, the customer representatives must exhaustively search their list of customers periodically. It would be much more convenient if an exception report were generated automatically when a customer falls more than a month behind. This would impact the payment collections tasks that the reps perform.

2. The reports that are currently produced are difficult to read. All the pertinent information is there, but it is formatted in an inconvenient manner. It would be nice to improve the format of the reports.

3. Currently, the reports which list all customers for a representative do so in alphabetical order of the customers names. It would be nice to provide a listing in order of how much the customers owe as this would help to quickly identify those who should be contacted for payment.

4. There is no way for a customer to make an overdue payment online today. This feature would expedite the collection of some funds.

5. It is very hard to keep an experienced Account Receivable employee on the payroll. You would like to see some sort of online training in the system to allow new employees to learn the material more quickly.

6. You are very concerned about corporate security issues.

Although you would like to get all of these wish-list items taken care of, you recognize that this may not be possible. For example, being a very busy person, you have limited time to devote to systems development efforts. You recognize that working hard now may help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your group in the future.

Although you would like to get all of these wish-list items taken care of, you recognize that this may not be possible. For example, being a very busy person, you have limited time to devote to systems development efforts. You recognize that working hard now may help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your group in the future.

You have been contacted by your Director who wants you to work with managers from other functional areas, the CIO, and the Information Systems staff to update your existing Information System. He realizes that everyone is extremely busy, and it will be hard to meet again face-to-face. He recognizes that the current organization promotes Information Silos, and he wants to move to a more integrated approach. He has mentioned using Google Drive as a collaboration and document storage mechanism so he can review the teams progress and monitor your contributions to the effort.

This team will explore ways to make the Account Receivable job easier via some systems development efforts. The Planning Team meeting is today. The meeting is about to begin

Customer Representative Manager

You are the manager of a group of customer account representatives for We Sell Stuff (WSS), Inc. You and your group are responsible for providing support and service to existing customers. People in your group have been complaining a lot about their existing information system and have a long wish-list of possible improvements. Specifically, the following issues have come up:

1. The system runs very slowly, especially at peak hours during mid-morning and mid-afternoon. This impacts all tasks performed by the customer reps. At times, they have to wait 30 seconds just to get a response. In order to do their jobs effectively, they need to consistently get a response within five seconds. They want some way to improve the response time.

2. When entering information about the customer, there is no place to put the email address. The screen has a position for phone number and one for fax, but many customers have email addresses, and this information would be very useful to store in the database. Keeping the email address would help improve the customer service operations.

3. When serving the customer, it is helpful to have the total history of transactions that have been completed for the customer. This would greatly facilitate the customer service functions that representatives perform. Currently, only data about the most recent transactions are retained in the database; ideally, all previous transactions should be kept.

4. Although some customer representatives are experienced and have much expertise, the majority are less experienced. The less experienced representatives often make mistakes in serving their customers. It would be helpful to have a system that captures the expertise of the more experienced representatives which could advise and counsel the less experienced representatives. This would greatly improve the quality of customer service.

5. There is no Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section on the company website. Many of the customers issues could be addressed in this manner.

6. You are very concerned about customer privacy issues.

Although you would like to get all of these wish-list items taken care of, you recognize that this may not be possible. For example, being a very busy person, you have limited time to devote to systems development efforts. You recognize that working hard now may help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your group in the future. You have been contacted by your Director who wants you to work with other End-User Managers, the CIO, and the Information Systems staff as a team to update your existing Information System. He realizes that everyone is extremely busy, and it will be hard to meet again face-to-face. He recognizes that the current organization promotes Information Silos, and he wants to move to a more integrated approach. He has mentioned using Google Drive as a collaboration and document storage mechanism so he can review the teams progress and monitor your contributions to the effort.

This team will explore ways to make the Customer Rep job easier via some systems development efforts. The Planning Team meeting is today. The meeting is about to begin

Marketing Manager

You are the manager of a group of marketing representatives for We Sell Stuff (WSS), Inc. You and your group are responsible for the marketing efforts aimed at getting new customers and keeping existing customers. People in your group have been complaining about their existing information system and have a long wish-list of possible improvements. Specifically, the following issues have come up:

1. In order to better target potential customers for marketing and promotion efforts, it would be nice to have software that could quickly identify trends and analyze buying behavior. Currently, no such system exists in the company. Users have to look in individual databases and reports, then manually consolidate data into spreadsheets and/or word processors on their own, which is very time consuming and prone to error. Marketing employees dont have the time to do anything sophisticated, and therefore base their predictions on ad hoc assumptions. They would like to be able to see summary data and have the ability to navigate easily into the detail data.

2. Although your company has a website, it is very outdated. Your competitors use e-Commerce and are providing other features on the web such as on-line help desk capabilities. You are discovering that this is cutting into your market share. You would like to be able to start doing this as well, and you anticipate that this would have a considerable impact on your market share.

3. The Marketing group would like to have a system that allows it to track and know everything about a given customer. This should provide some new opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling.

4. Although some marketers are experienced and have much expertise, the majority are less experienced. The less experienced marketers often make mistakes. It would be helpful to have a system in place that captures the expertise of the more experienced marketers which could advise and counsel the less experienced marketers. This would greatly improve the quality of marketing.

5. Currently you have no Social Media systems in place. You recognize that this technology is very important to getting and keeping customers.

Although you would like to get all of these wish-list items taken care of, you recognize that this may not be possible. For example, being a very busy person, you have limited time to devote to systems development efforts. You recognize that working hard now may help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your group in the future. You have been contacted by your Director who wants you to work with other End-User Managers, the CIO, and the Information Systems staff as a team to update your existing Information System. He realizes that everyone is extremely busy, and it will be hard to meet again face-to-face. He recognizes that the current organization promotes Information Silos, and he wants to move to a more integrated approach. He has mentioned using Google Drive as a collaboration and document storage mechanism so he can review the teams progress and monitor your contributions to the effort.

This team will explore ways to make the Marketing job easier via some systems development efforts. The Planning Team meeting is today. The meeting is about to begin