Systems Migration

Lookingacross the rows of men suits, Tom Wilkinson spots Peter Dairy working with oneof his employees, a sales associate. They are trying to complete a salestransaction on the new SMART information system. Tom watches as Peter again fumbleshis way through anothertransaction. Almost instinctively, he rolls hiseyes and shakes his head. Tom Wilkinson manages the Mens Furnishing Group forthe Northridge Mall store ofthe Dukes and Noble Department store chain.As one of the younger Group managers, Tom hascharge of over 20 full-time andpart-time sales and service representatives in four units: suits and outwearleisure, clothes, shoes, and accessories. Tom has been with Dukes and Noblessince joining their Management Associates Development program after graduatingfrom college. Peter Dairy is about 18 years older than Tom, with about thatmany more years experience in the retail trade. Peter began his career in afloor sales position and, after years of hard work, was promoted to supervisethe Leisure Clothes Unit. Beginning about six months ago, Dukes and Noble begana systems migration (as the Data Processing staff called it) of replacing thesomewhat antiquated computer and information processing system with one thatwas more streamlined. Under the new, integrated system, all the retailfunctions inventory, sales and customer tracking, returns and adjustments,accounting and profitability calculations would be joined together and operatedout of the same data base. Further, all stores would be linked together, givingheadquarters betterongoing control of the company as a whole and ofstores and departments in particular.

Asaresult ofthis migration,virtually every jobinthecompany waschanged insomeway. The jobs of the salesassociates changed most: virtually every product, customer, orfinancialtransaction was to be done differently. While the complexity of any one taskmight be small, the combined weight of all the changes resulted in majorlearning stresses on employees. They had to learn how to operate the system,access it, complete all transactions through it, and make any need correctionsdirectly on the point of sale terminal all while the customer waited across thecounter.Asthekick-offdate fortheconversiontothenewsystemneared, allemployeeswerebrought in for a comprehensive four-day training program. Managers andsupervisors were trained first so that they could serve as aides and coaches tothe other employees once the SMART was operational. Tom and Peter attended oneof the early programs together. Tom was impressed by how much the programcovered. The trainers went through every conceivable transaction and procedure,demonstrating and explaining them. Each participant in the class was able topractice some of the procedures on the demo terminal. The notebook provided inthe program was reasonably thorough, even if it was poorlyorganized.Aswas characteristic,Peter approachedthetrainingwith gustoandenthusiasm. He had never worked muchwith computers before, and his anxiety about learning how to use the system wasmore than offset by his strong motivation to learn. Tom was particularlypleasedwith this matter because he was concerned that Peters strong peopleorientation might not have a corresponding technical aptitude.

Ithas now been more than a month since the new system started up. All theassociates in the store completed the system training shortly before theconversion date and by now, most are operating fairly well with it.Indeed, thatswhat is so troubling to Tom. In spite of the training and the time on thesystem, Peter just hasnt made satisfactory progress mastering it. Tom seesPeters problems in various ways, like the instance he has just witnessed.There was Peter, working with one of his sales associates, trying to complete adistinct, but not that unusual, procedure. It was clear that the associateactually could complete the procedure better than Peter. Peter was following atrial-and error process of running through different key combinations to see ifany worked. The customer was growing annoyed. Tom thought about otherinstances. For example, Peter had asked Tom about how tocomplete the sameprocedure on four different occasions in the course of a ten-day period. At times,Tom would watch Peter refer a customer to another sales station or have thecustomer wait while he asked another associate to process a complicatedtransaction. At one point, Tom asked Peter to check his manual, but Peter couldonly say it didnt help him that much, and besides, he wasnt sure where he hadleft it.

On top ofit all, Tom is now sensing that Peter is becoming more frustrated and stressedbythe situation. He now thinks that Peter is trying to hide from Tom hisdiscomfort with the system. In a way, this is Peters method of signalling toTom that Peters knowledge of the new system cannot be discussed. Tom wondershow much longer he can go without taking action. Already, there are somegrumblings from the other associates that Peter cannot be counted on to helpthem with theirproblems. Tom has noticed how Peters unease with theprocess is putting some additional burdens on the other employees, as well asthe customers. Tom knows that Peter is smart enough to learn this material, butcannot understand why it is so difficult. Tom wants to help but also feels thatPeter needs to show some progress and fairly soon or else Tom may be forcedtotake some actions he would rather not take

Questions:

1.Assume you are Tom and your duty isto come up with a feasible solution to deal with the issue with Peter and helphim in completing the learning process? (25 pts)

2.What type of training was providedto the employees according to the case study? What other types of trainingaccording to you will help Peter to emerge efficient in his work. (35 pts)

3.How should Tom respond to Peter inthe next few weeks?(10 pts)