Trial Exam – BDIS 2024
Dear all,
In the following you will find a case study sim
larto the ones seen in class. The case portrays
a company experiencing problems that can be solved with the help of the IS theories seen
in class. You will have to answer the following 5 questions. It is important that you read
the entire case before you start answering the questions.
Formalities: Start the answer to a new question on a new page. Include the question at
the beginning of the answer. The total length of the response must not exceed 24.000
characters, including spaces (equivalent to 10 standard pages). Every figure count for 800
characters. Every question has the same weight.
1) Describe the information system used by th
earse sales representatives at PC-Inc. What
are the effects of the sales reps’ use of the information system on the ability of PCInc to generate knowledge and run effective operations?
Answer from lecture:
Explain why is Accurate not being used  difficult, have to go back and forth with other system,
time consuming,
1.people don’t use technology as its not easy to use and
useful at all
2.Process they are forced to use is not aligned with technology
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What they are using instead
Yellow part (unused features) is big - they are not using Accurate. The used features is Excel. The
company pays for Accurate,
What is the effect: Bad integration within company. Loss of information as its so much of them in
a messy system.
1.if you use excel you will not put data into the storage of the organization
2.data quality depends on all of the factors, if you use excel it may not be that bad. Big problem
with data accuracy.
3. You need data in order to create information, information to create knowledge…. Bad data
destroys the whole process
PC-Inc’s information system is called Accurate. It supports the sales workers in creating
product configurations, allowing them to set a price for them. The system offers outputs such
as configuration diagrams, component lists, and warnings about issues that could affect the
technical performance of configurations. The system’s idea was to reduce the errors and costs
in product rework, as before there was a problem with creating inaccurate product
configurations.
This case is freely inspired by ”The Accurate Case” by Ruey-Lin Hsiao
However, according to page 4 of the case, only 10% of sales representatives actually use the
system. It is due to many reasons - as one of the workers states on page 4 - “the system is just
too complex.”., “Accurate” does not fit the way we work.” The text mentions the complexity and
lack of intuitiveness in Accurate (My people need to focus on the customers. They cannot just look
at a screen when they are out there, page 2 of the case”)., furthermore using it takes a very long
time, as it is necessary to use it with parallel Pricing Systems programme, which is highly timeconsuming and not efficient.
In the end actually, the sales rep do not use Accurate at all - they simply prefer to use the old,
manual way of putting the data in an Excel sheet and produce the orders for clients in that
way. This has a very negative effect on PC-Inc’s ability to generate knowledge and run
effective operations - the sales reps often put a wrong specifications, as Accurate is too
complex, causing the Manufacturing Department to incur additional costs and delay for a
wrong order. The knowledge that Manufacturing has is wrong and is not configurated with
the actual orders. Furthermore, also the IT department is affected - as they are unaware of the
Excel sheet usage, they put more and more money into the improvement of Accurate, which
is still not used.
Accurate is not integrated with other critical systems, such as the Pricing System, which creates
friction in the sales process. Sales reps must work across multiple platforms to configure systems
and produce price quotes, which they perceive as inefficient and time-consuming. This
disconnect reduces sales reps' effectiveness and discourages them from adopting Accurate,
further limiting PC-Inc's ability to collect valuable data on customer purchasing patterns,
preferences, and requirements.
Without seamless integration or full use of Accurate, sales reps are unable to efficiently capture
customer data that could inform broader market insights or shape future sales strategies. This
loss of potential customer knowledge constrains PC-Inc’s ability to proactively understand
customer needs and offer tailored solutions, which is a central objective of its Phoenix strategy.
2) What kind of information systems are the A
ratean
cu
d Pricing System? Assuming that your
recommendation would be to substitute Accurate and Pricing System with an
integrated system that could do both functions, what kind of system should this
be? What functionalities and advantages could PC-Inc expect to obtain from an
integrated system?
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BDIS
Answer from lecture:
Accurate is best of breed which is hard to implement.
CRM would allow for sales process, analytics.
ERP could be good as well, would set pricing
This case is freely inspired by ”The Accurate Case” by Ruey-Lin Hsiao
Pricing System bases on the data coming from Accurate, in order to produce
quotation letters, in the system it is described as a “stand-alone system”. It is a
Decision Support System, as it helps to make decisions, based on the data from
internal database. In this case, Pricing System is basing on the inputs about product
specifications, such as cables, cameras etc, provided in Accurate and based on those
creates a quotation with a price for the customer.
Regarding the idea of creating one system, which would be able to do Accurate’s and
Pricing Systems’ functions, I believe it should be the Customer Relationship
Management System (CRM). CRM systems are used for sale management, it is a
database storing all of the sales and customers details, enriched with data analysis.
It would be a highly fitting match instead of two separate systems working right now
- CRM, due to its database of sales details, would take on the Accurate’s function in
fitting the order’s components and details, whereas the Pricing System’s function
would be replaced thanks to the existing in CRM databases with previous orders and
sales, allowing it potentially to set the price for new orders.
Thanks to the integrated system, PC-Inc could definitely improve its overall
performance in the Sales Department - it would take much less time for sales reps to
provide information and the price of the order, as they could do it all through one,
integrated system. Furthermore, it would allow for integration with the
Manufacturing Department - such system would surely reduce the number of errors,
at the same time making the mentioned Department more efficient and decrease
The overall costs of errors and the amount of delays for PC-Inc. All of the structured
would be finally in order, as there would be just one data base to work with in Sales.
*or ERP with CRM
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3) Based on the statement by Sales and M
ark
etin
gDepartment sales reps (p. 4-5), provide
a high-level Process Definition (BPMN) of the current Sales Process. Explain why
PC-Inc has a need for Process Orientation and Data Orientation in combination
in their sales process.
Discuss how the process would change if al th
e sales representatives would start
using the system that you suggest as solution in question 2 and involving sales
support from other parts of the organisation (You do not need to draw this
second process).
Customer places an order  collect the business- and technical requirements of the
customer,  create A LOCATION plan drawing  add the configuration of IT components
to the drawing  send to customer (customers needs to approve)  wait for approval
receive an answer  two ways: got accepted or not  accepted: next step / not: adjust
requirements, redesign plan drawing, redo IT component list  next step means: create a
pricre quote in Pricing System  customer needs to approve  wait for approval  receive
an answer  yes / no  yes: end of process  no: adjust requirements, redesign plan
drawing, redo IT component lis, then end of process
This case is freely inspired by ”The Accurate Case” by Ruey-Lin Hsiao
Explain why PC-Inc has a need for Process Orientation and Data Orientation in
combination in their sales process.
The company surely needs Process Orientation and Data Orientation in
combination in their sales process for several reasons. Firstly, currently their way of
working with data is highly inefficient, leading to many errors and costs for the
whole company and repeated steps in the sales process. Furthermore, it is also crucial
to notice that the systems are not used consistently - sales reps choose Excel and
rather rarely opt for the meant for them Accurate, creating issues within data and
other departments. Accurate and the Pricing System are not integrated, making it
challenging for reps to generate precise quotes and respond quickly to customer
requests. Moreover, PC-Inc fails to leverage customer data for insights, impacting
their ability to anticipate customer needs, improve service quality, and inform
strategic decisions.
Discuss how the process would change if alth
e sales representatives would start using
the system that you suggest as solution
The integrated system would allow sales reps to input configuration and pricing details
within a single platform. This would eliminate the need to switch between Accurate and
the Pricing System, streamlining the quote generation process. Moreover, The system
would include guided configuration tools, reducing errors by ensuring that only
compatible components are selected. Sales reps would receive real-time validation and
error-checking support.
The integrated system would capture customer interactions,
product preferences, and sales outcomes in a centralized database. This would provide
valuable data for ongoing analysis, helping PC-Inc anticipate future customer needs and
refine their product offerings. Sales reps would be able to adjust configurations and
prices dynamically within the integrated system, making it easier to respond to customer
feedback in real-time and reduce the need for multiple adjustments.
4) Please discuss how the Phoenix Strategy w
il ch
ePC-Inc’s positioning in 4 digital business
g
an
model options (Weill & Woerner, 2015): Where is PC-Inc in the current situation,
and where will PC-Inc position itself when the Phoenix Strategy is implemented?
Based on the 4 digital business model options, currently PC-Inc is in the Supplier Model.
Firstly, it is mentioned a few times at the ending pages of the case that company’s
relationship with customers is rather weak and they do not have much information about
them (“we actually know very little about our customers”, p.5 of the case), which is very
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characteristic for this model - PC-Inc sells directly to the customers but maintains a really
small knowledge about them. Furthermore, one of the other qualities of Supplier Models is
lacking the ability to work with the data - as stated previously, it is a huge problem within
the company. The systems they operate with are, in eyes of the sales reps, complicated and
require a lot of time to provide them with the data. Also, such operations are prone to
creating errors and losses in PC-Inc’s orders, making it visible that data management is a
serious issue in the business. The data problems concern not only the orders, but the
customers themselves - “Information about them is not systematically
collected and we are not proactive in our approach to the customers” (p.5 of the case), which
illustrates Supplier’s Model typical disability in regard to maintaining customer data.
 Omnichannel, maybe toward time they will move to Ecosystem Driver
After the Phoneix Strategy being implemented, the company will transform into the
Ecosystem Model. The mentioned collaboration with other providers and creation of a
website is a typical characteristics of the model. This is also going to be done in order to
create the value and provide one place and network of various companies with all of the
appliances available. Furthermore, they highly aspire to know more about the customers
and “own” the relationship with them in concern to the sales and market functioning (“we
can also gain access to much better customer and market data.”, p.6 of case). Moreover, typically
for Ecosystem Business Model, PC-Inc strives to become a one-stop shopping type of
business, regarding the office hardware (“we sell our and their products to our customers,
thereby providing our customers with one entry point when they need to buy office hardware.”, p.6
case).
5) As expressed by the CEO when describing th
e P
ixStrategy, PC-Inc wants to obtain a
en
o
h
better knowledge about their customers. Please give your educated guess for how
they could leverage a large language model like GPT to contribute to this
knowledge: What data would an LLM allow them to collect and analyse, how
could this be integrated into the existing systems, and how would that help
alleviate one of the established problems in the case?
What are LLM, what they are good at doing and what they are bad at.
Fe a lot of email, LLM can help to put order and filter the data
This case is freely inspired by ”The Accurate Case” by Ruey-Lin Hsiao
3.could they use AI to work with CRM