The Black and Brew Café 

All three stages
Case Study Analysis

Introduction

The Black and Brew Café was established by your
grandfather in 1962 on East Main Street in Lakeland, Florida. The Café
offers many different kinds of specialized coffees, teas, a full service
bakery, homemade soups, sandwiches, and salads. The Café has been a
local hotspot for many years and has served as a community gathering
place. Your grandfather recently retired from the business and has asked
you and your brother to take over the Café. You are very excited about
this opportunity! Unfortunately, business has been steadily declining
over the last five years. Although your grandfather was an expert at
running the Café, everything is outdated. There are no computers in the
shop and all ordering takes place manually.

Your grandfather had a terrific memory and knew all of
his customers by name, but unfortunately, none of this information is
located anywhere in the store. The family recipes for the baked goods
and soups are also stored in your grandfather’s memory. Inventory is
tracked in a note pad, along with employee payroll, and marketing
coupons. The Café does not have a Web site, uses very little marketing
except word-of-mouth, and essentially still operates the same as in
1962.

Throughout this course students will own and operate the Black and Brew Café,
taking advantage of business practices discussed in the class, the
Course Modules, and the textbook to increase profits, keep the business
running, and bring the Café into the 21st century.

Note: As students approach these assignments, thinking
about your own experiences with a local Café or sandwich shop will be
helpful. Making a trip to a local café may help identify some of the
processes, challenges, and opportunities facing small coffee shops in
the US. Upon completion of these assignments, students will have
performed an array of activities to demonstrate their ability to apply
the course content to a real world situation in the following stages:

  • Analyze the business environment and identify strategic areas for improvement. (Stage 1)
  • Design a process model of the current IT environment for analysis and recommended improvements. (Stage 1)
  • Propose an appropriate technology solution to improve a selected business process. (Stage 2)
  • Evaluate various IT considerations of the proposed technology solution. (Stage 3)
  • Identify and explain the next steps in implementing the solution. (Stage 3)

The case study and assignments address the Course Outcomes to enable students to:

  • analyze business strategy to recognize how technology solutions enable strategic outcomes
  • analyze internal and external business processes to identify information systems requirements
  • identify and plan IT solutions that meet business objectives.

Staged Assignments

The staged assignments are designed to follow the
relevant course modules and chapters of the textbook in the class
schedule, and are due on the dates shown in the Syllabus.

  • Stage 1 Project: Business Environment Analysis and Process Model (Word document with analysis and graphic process model)
  • Stage 2 Project: Technology-Supported Solution Proposal (Word document with proposed solution)
  • Stage 3 Project: Outline of Next Steps and Template for IT
    Considerations (Word document outline with next steps and completed
    document table)

Each stage of the case analysis is 20 percent of the
course grade, as stated in the Course Syllabus. The due dates are shown
in the Course Schedule. Because these assignments require students to
use Microsoft Word and a graphic design application, such as PowerPoint
(as indicated in the instructions), some students may need to “brush up”
on their familiarity with these applications or use functions that are
somewhat new. Therefore, do not wait until the last minute to begin each
stage of the project.

Students should read through all the assignments in
advance to ensure that they (1) understand what is expected, and (2)
allow enough time to effectively create the information being requested.
Assignments for each stage requires external research, outside of the
textbook. A grading rubric is provided with each assignment.

These assignments are designed to help students
identify how to effectively analyze and interpret information to improve
a business. This is an opportunity to apply critical thinking skills
and think like a business professional. When students are writing a
paper or developing a presentation, prepare the documents as if you
would be going to a boss that you are wanting to impress with your
overall knowledge and abilities. Please do not go through the mechanics
of pulling together information — think about the processes, why the
processes are necessary, whether the processes make sense, whether the
information being provided seems realistic, and what the results show.
Support all recommendations with research.

One of the prerequisites for this course is to have a
fundamental working knowledge of word processing and business
presentation software (as provided in IFSM 201). Detailed instructions
for each stage of the case analysis project are posted separately in the
WebTycho Course Content area or on the professor’s companion Web site.
Students must prepare each assignment in the indicated format (i.e.,
memo, report, graphic model or other specified format) and submit the
required documents as an attachment to the respective assignment in the
WebTycho Assignments Folder with the appropriate filename. No credit
will be given for assignments submitted in file formats other than those
stated in the assignment instructions or not submitted to the
appropriate WebTycho classroom assignment.

STAGE 1

The Black and Brew Café
Case Analysis – Stage 1

Due: 10 November 2013 24:00 (EST)

Introduction

Students will work on this cohesion case during the
class session to help them tie all of the IT concepts together. The
premise is that each student recently has inherited their grandfather’s
coffee shop, started in 1962 and operates as if the year is 1962.
Students will need to bring the Black and Brew Café into the 21st
century. A coffee shop was chosen because coffee shops are
instantaneously identifiable for students. This case will give students a
true business approach to IT and allow them to work hands-on with many
of the intangible concepts taught in the text (such as SCM, ERP, and
Wireless Networks). The case also will help students tie all of the IT
concepts together to see how the differing parts work together to help a
business operate (even with non-IT businesses, such as a coffee shop).
The flexibility of the case allows students to cover any number of
topics, in any order, at any time during the session.

Purpose

This assignment gives students the opportunity to
apply the concepts of the Porter Five Forces model to a specific
business, develop a strategic direction for this business, and to apply
analytical skills to model a business process on an individual basis.
Modeling the current business process, although not a requirement in
this assignment, will aid in the analysis, design, development and
implementation of the technology solution. This assignment specifically
addresses the following course outcomes to enable you to:

  • analyze business strategy to recognize how technology solutions enable strategic outcomes; and
  • analyze internal and external business processes to identify information systems requirements.

Background

The Black and Brew Café has been in business
since 1962 and has never had a single competitor in the downtown area.
One of your employees has heard a rumor that a Starbucks might be
opening a store a few blocks away. Your staff is worried and is looking
to you to provide reassurance that the competition will not affect your
business. In addition, you have decided that this is a good time to
develop your strategic direction for bringing the Café into the 21st
century.

Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model is a useful tool
for analyzing a business and helping to develop a company’s strategic
direction. The Five Forces Model also is used to aid organizations
facing the challenging decision of entering a new industry or industry
segment or developing a strategy for dealing with new competition. The
Five Forces Model helps determine the relative forces impacting the
future success of a business and includes:

  • Buyer Power
  • Supplier power
  • Threat of substitute products or services
  • Threat of new entrants
  • Rivalry among existing competitors

The Five Forces are fully described and discussed in
the textbook, and competitive advantage is covered in Module 1. In order
to analyze the impact of a potential new competitor and develop a
strategic direction, use the Five Forces Model to analyze your Black and Brew Café business. Once completed, create a model of the main process identified in the analysis.

Therefore, once students have (1) identified a strategic area for improvement in the Black and Brew Café, namely inventory control and financial transactions, and (2) identified a process that could be improved with the use of technology, namely a point-of-sale system,
students will create a model of that process that will further define
the steps in the process and aid in further analysis of the issues and
the proposed actions. In order to apply technology to a process, the
process must be thoroughly understood and models are used for this
purpose. The model also supports business process analysis and redesign
if the process is deemed to be inefficient or ineffective. Models are
also used to design the “to-be” process that describes the desired end
state after the technology solution is developed.

Assignment

Using the textbook and external resources, write a
short paper, 3 to 4 pages in length, including a title page and
references page (not counted in the paper length), responding to the
bulleted items below, focused upon the inventory control and financial transactions
strategic area for improvement. Remember to correctly cite and
reference your sources with APA format. Save the file with the following
format: student name and assignment number “1” (i.e., wissel-1).

Create a document that includes the following:

  • Perform a detailed Porter’s Five Forces analysis for the Black and Brew Café,
    addressing each force in one or two sentences and defining the force,
    the force’s impact on the Café and your strategy or strategies for
    addressing the force.
  • Determine which of Porter’s Three Generic strategies (see textbook) you will use to rebuild the Black and Brew Café for the 21st century and explain why this strategy was selected.
  • Based upon your analysis, identify a strategic area for improving the business (inventory control and financial transactions) and briefly explain this choice.
  • Within the selected strategic area, identify a process (point-of-sale system) that could be improved with the use of technology.

Additionally, students will model the process identified for improvement in this first part of this assignment, namely the point-of-sale system process. Students may use a model similar to this example
or develop one of their own, to (1) analyze the process identified for
improvement, (2) break down the processes into sequential steps, and (3)
modeling the process. Students may use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or
clearly hand-draw your model (scan into an electronic file format for
submission). Save the file with the following format: student’s last
name and assignment number “1a” (i.e., wissel-1a).

The results of this assignment should be uploaded to
the Stage 1 Assignment in the WebTycho classroom, the analysis paper as
MS-Word file attachment, and the model either as a MS-Word document, a
MS-PowerPoint presentation, or a scanned pdf file. Analyses submitted in
other formats will not be accepted for grading.

In determining which process to select for improvement, inventory control and financial transactions and the point-of-sale system
were identified to best assist students in successfully completing the
remaining projects within this Case Study. Review Stages 2 – 5 to have a
better understanding of the future projects that will build upon this
initial stage. Understanding the future requirements also assists in
selecting a process (and later proposing a technology solution) that can
support the requirements of the follow-on assignments.

The “right” and “wrong” answers have to do with
whether or not students correctly incorporated the course concepts from
the textbook and addressed all parts of the assignment. Students need to
conduct some external research for the case analysis, incorporate the
results of the research, and cite (reference) the sources in APA format
in the written portion of the assignment. The exact strategy selected is
not as important as (1) how the strategy makes sense in light of the
course content and the Case Study and (2) is well supported through the
application of course concepts and external research.

The Black and Brew Café
Case Analysis – Stage 2

Due: 24 November 2013 24:00 (EST)

Introduction

Students will work on this cohesion case during the
class session to help them tie all of the IT concepts together. The
premise is that each student recently has inherited their grandfather’s
coffee shop, started in 1962 and operates as if the year is 1962.
Students will need to bring the Black and Brew Café into the 21st
century. A coffee shop was chosen because coffee shops are
instantaneously identifiable for students. This case will give students a
true business approach to IT and allow them to work hands-on with many
of the intangible concepts taught in the text (such as SCM, ERP, and
Wireless Networks). The case also will help students tie all of the IT
concepts together to see how the differing parts work together to help a
business operate (even with non-IT businesses, such as a coffee shop).
The flexibility of the case allows students to cover any number of
topics, in any order, at any time during the session.

Purpose

This assignment gives students the opportunity to
apply knowledge of technology solutions to improve a business process.
This assignment specifically addresses the following course outcomes to
enable you to:

  • analyze internal and external business processes to identify information systems requirements; and
  • identify and plan IT solutions that meet business objectives.

Background

The Black and Brew Café has been in business
since 1962 and has never had a single competitor in the downtown area.
One of your employees has heard a rumor that a Starbucks might be
opening a store a few blocks away. Your staff is worried and is looking
to you to provide reassurance that the competition will not affect your
business. In addition, you have decided that this is a good time to
develop your strategic direction for bringing the Café into the 21st
century.

In the first stage of this case analysis, Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model was used to conduct an analysis of the Black and Brew Café
and a process was identified at the Café which could benefit from the
use of technology. Additionally, a model of that process was created and
graphically demonstrated the major steps of the original process. The
next step is to identify an alternative technology, practice, and
procedure that would improve the initial process.

The proposed alternative (1) should address the business process, (2) should be appropriate to the Black and Brew Café,
(3) should be described concisely with major components listed, and (4)
an explanation should be given for why and how this proposed
alternative will improve the business process.

Assignment

Using the textbook and external resources, write a
short paper, 3 to 4 pages in length, including a title page and
references page (not counted in the paper length), responding to the
bulleted items below. Remember to correctly cite and reference your
sources with APA format. Save the file with the following format:
student name and assignment number “2” (i.e., wissel-2).

Create a document that includes the following:

  • Briefly explain the business process identified in Stage 1 and why this process would benefit from alternative technology.
  • Propose a specific alternative technology, describing the process in a few sentences.
  • List the major hardware, software and communications
    components that will be needed. How many items or devices listed is
    dependent upon the alternative proposed. Ensure to include all the
    important components needed to implement this proposed technology. This
    listing of hardware, software, and communication components should be
    applicable to the proposed technology and should be appropriate for the Black and Brew Café.
  • Explain how the proposed alternative technology will improve the process.
  • Explain how the proposed alternative technology will support at
    least one strategic objective identified through the Porters Five
    Forces Analysis conducted in Stage 1.

The results of this assignment should be uploaded to
the Stage 2 Assignment in the WebTycho classroom as MS-Word file
attachment. Analyses submitted in other formats will not be accepted for
grading.

Review the instructions for the remaining project in
this Case Study, Stage 3, to have a better understanding of the future
projects that will build upon the proposed alternative technology.
Understanding the future requirements also will assist in deciding upon
the technology. Students should propose an alternative that can be used
in the assignments that follow this one, so be selective and choose an
appropriate alternative.

The “right” and “wrong” answers have to do with
whether or not students correctly incorporated the course concepts from
the textbook and addressed all parts of the assignment. Students need to
conduct some external research for the case analysis, incorporate the
results of the research, and cite (reference) the sources in APA format
in the written portion of the assignment. The exact alternative
technology proposed is not as important as (1) whether the technology
proposed is applicable to the Black and Brew Café, (2) could
actually improve the process identified, (3) is fully thought-out, and
(4) is well supported through the application of course concepts and
external research.

The Black and Brew Café
Case Analysis – Stage 3

Due: 8 December 2013 24:00 (EST)

Introduction

Students will work on this cohesion case during the
class session to help them tie all of the IT concepts together. The
premise is that each student recently has inherited their grandfather’s
coffee shop, started in 1962 and operates as if the year is 1962.
Students will need to bring the Black and Brew Café into the 21st
century. A coffee shop was chosen because coffee shops are
instantaneously identifiable for students. This case will give students a
true business approach to IT and allow them to work hands-on with many
of the intangible concepts taught in the text (such as SCM, ERP, and
Wireless Networks). The case also will help students tie all of the IT
concepts together to see how the differing parts work together to help a
business operate (even with non-IT businesses, such as a coffee shop).
The flexibility of the case allows students to cover any number of
topics, in any order, at any time during the session.

Purpose

This assignment gives students the opportunity to
apply knowledge of the areas to be considered in planning and
implementing a technology solution. This assignment specifically
addresses the following course outcomes to enable you to:

  • analyze internal and external business processes to identify information systems requirements; and
  • identify and plan IT solutions that meet business objectives.

Background

The Black and Brew Café has been in business
since 1962 and has never had a single competitor in the downtown area.
One of your employees has heard a rumor that a Starbucks might be
opening a store a few blocks away. Your staff is worried and is looking
to you to provide reassurance that the competition will not affect your
business. In addition, you have decided that this is a good time to
develop your strategic direction for bringing the Café into the 21st
century. The next step is to let Café managers and staff know what is
coming. The Café is too small to have a CIO; however, you will fulfill
this role. The “process owners” are the managers of the operations at
the Café.

For this assignment, students will develop an
annotated outline that identifies the next steps to implement the
solution described in Stage 2, addressing a number of areas such as, but
not limited to, project management, system development life cycle,
change management. In the second stage of this case analysis,
alternative technology to improve a business process at the Black and Brew Café
was proposed. Prior to initiating a strategic plan, there are several
areas that need to be considered in regards to this technology.

Assignment

Using the textbook and external resources, (1) complete the Table of IT Considerations,
(2) provide a brief explanation of the proposed technology solution,
and (3) develop an annotated outline 2-3 pages in length, responding to
the bulleted items below. Remember to correctly cite and reference
sources with APA format. Save the file with the following format:
student name and assignment number “3” (i.e., wissel-3).

The results of this assignment should be uploaded to
the Stage 3 Assignment in the WebTycho classroom as MS-Word file
attachments. Analyses submitted in other formats will not be accepted
for grading.

To complete the Table of IT Considerations,
open the attached table and complete the remaining two columns. For
each area of consideration, rank the specific technology proposed as high, medium or low in importance or relevance for the Black and Brew Café.
If an area of consideration is Not Applicable to the proposed
technology, enter N/A. Afterwards, provide a brief explanation, a
minimum of two sentences for each consideration, to justify that
ranking. Explanations must provide enough information to convey the
reasoning behind the ranking. Save the Table of IT Considerations file
with the following format: student name and assignment number “3a”
(i.e., wissel-3a). These considerations are listed in the table provided below.

Table of IT Considerations
Area High/Medium/Low Importance or Relevance or Not Applicable (N/A) Explanation for Ranking
Accessibility
Availability
Maintainability
Portability
Reliability
Scalability
Usability
Disaster Recovery Plan
Authentication & Authorization
Prevention & Resistance (Security)
Detection & Response (Security)
Grid Computing
Cloud Computing
Virtualized Computing
Communications Architecture
Database Architecture
Decision Support
Artificial Intelligence
Business-to-Business eCommerce
Business-to-Consumer eCommerce

Depending on the specific technology proposed, some of
these considerations will be more important than others, or may need
specific consideration prior to implementation. The responses entered
into the table for each consideration must be aligned to the specific
technology proposed and appropriate to the Black and Brew Café.

For example, if the alternative technology being
proposed were to include a kiosk for customers to place their orders at
the Café, then for the area of Accessibility, the following might be
entered:

Area High/Medium/Low Importance or Relevance or Not Applicable (N/A) Explanation for Ranking
Accessibility Medium Since the customers will use the kiosk to enter their
orders, the kiosk must be accessible to everyone, even those with
disabilities. Customers may have a variety of issues using the kiosk,
so this will not be the only method customers can place an order — the
counter personnel still will be available to take the orders.
Accessibility is ranked “Medium” because of the importance of access to
the kiosk in placing an order for some customers and for public
relations. However, accessibility is not “High” since there are other
methods of placing orders.

An annotated outline provides the basic information
in full sentences, but in outline form rather than in paragraph form. In
this case, each aspect of the next steps to be taken to implement your
proposed technology must be addressed. Provide all of the important
facts, without the expanded discussions used in full-length papers. Each
of the topics in the list below should be explained as they apply to
the proposed technology and to the Café, using a few sentences for each
topic and providing information specific to your proposal.

When providing the brief explanation of the proposed
alternative technology, identify the alternative technology, state what
the technology is expected to do for the Café, and summarize the
information provided in the Stage 2 assignment.

The annotated outline should address the next steps in each of the following areas that the Black and Brew Café will take to implement your proposed alternative technology:

  • VERY brief description of proposed technology (to set the stage for the rest of the outline)
  • Project Management (schedule, resources, deliverables)
  • System Development Life Cycle (all phases)
  • Change Management
  • Employee Training
  • Leadership Expectations
  • Defining Success
  • Reference(s)

The “right” and “wrong” answers have to do with
whether or not students incorporated the course concepts from the
textbook and addressed all areas of the assignment, correctly ranked
each consideration as the consideration relates to the proposed
technology, and have provided a well-supported explanation for the
ranking assigned. Your “next steps” must be defined specifically for the
Black and Brew Café, addressing (1) the business, (2) the
environment, and (3) your alternative technology proposed. Also,
external research on at least one aspect of the assignment, cited in APA
format, must be incorporated in this annotated outline. For the Table
of IT Considerations, the exact ranking proposed is not as important as
(1) whether the technology ranking provided is applicable to the
solution, (2) are ranked appropriately considering the explanation
provided, and (3) are appropriate to the Black and Brew Café.