Underlying Problem at AcuScan - Case Study Example

CRITICAL THINKING CASE STUDY - AcuScan Critical Thinking Case Study - AcuScan July 09, 2008 Part One Main players in the case study are: Chris Martinas, Vice President of Product Development Pat Lambert, Director of Marketing Kelly Thomas, Chief Engineer of Product Software Cliff. O. Connor, CEO of the company 1. Describe all assumptions seen in any of documents provided in the case study. Answer: a. Kelly: He has assumed the following points (1) Pressure on the staff is to provide service first since 70% of revenues are coming through service and 30% through sales (2) It is not possible for the employees with reduced staff and budget to provide service and still develop a new product by August. (3) Kelly assumes that programming is very difficult and that it is not possible to provide all the features and that he can provide only one feature by August. (4) He assumes an insulting attitude towards Pat and assumes that Pat does not know anything and he has never heard of QC. (5) Based on the workload analysis two years ago, when we had more people BTW, every hour of every support engineer is promised to existing customers. Sure, the product is more mature, and needs less support, but we also have 25% fewer programmers because of last year’s layoff. (6) Kelly has assumed that Pat is trying to get information from behind his back. b: Pat: He has made the following assumptions: (1) There are certain factions within the company that do not see a path to the product launch and that the company should talk about alternatives, namely, contracting with an outside software design firm to manage the project and develop the software to bring the iScanner into a retail environment. (2) He has assumed that the prototype of the new product would have all the features and functions when it is offered for testing at a retail client. (3) He assumes that even with the budget cut to 400 k $ and the staff cut, it is possible to meet the August deadline. (4) Kelly assumes "why can’t we put together a prototype by August that includes all the features?" (5) He assumes that is ok if the product is not fully complete and the customer will be thrilled and we’ll be first to market. He wants iterations with V 1.0 first, and make it perfect next year with 1.1. (6) He assumes that programmer have time as he has talked to one of the developers and the developers has said that since one of the installations is down, it is possible to build a new product. (7) Pat assumes that it is possible to get the product developed without using the help of Kelly. He wants to outsource the development to a vendor. c: Cliff: He has made the following assumptions: (1) Reduction in the work force will increase profitability. (2) To succeed in today’s tough economy, AcuScan needs to expand its technology into new markets, and again become the cutting–edge leader by creating a solution to an as–yet unrecognized customer need. (3) Because of the flexibility and power of the iScanner’s present software and operating system, Marketing and Product Development foresee that developing “Operation Optimize” sufficiently to take to a small test market will require minimal investment of existing staff time and effort. d. Chris: Assumptions made by Chris are: (1) He assumes that a further cut in 15% of the budget is required to increase the profitability of the company (2) Operation Optimize would help to bring in new revenues as it is extending the capability of the existing product and that a new product is not being developed. (3) All other markets except retail have a competing product and that it is only retail market that does not have such a product (4) The retail market would be eager to use this product. 2. Explain the arguments made by each of these people. Answer: a. Cliff O’Connor: As the CEO of the company Chris has assumed that the cuts in the workforce have reduced the salary overheads. The pressure on the figures are more and he feels that all departments can reduce their budgets by another 15%. He feels that the company has lived off for a long time on only one product and that sales have stagnated and that 70% of revenues are coming from service and only 30% from sales. b. Pat Lambert: Pat feels that Kelly is against the company’s interests as Kelly is not ready to build the full product that would increase the market reach. Pat has talked to some developer who has said that it is possible for them to develop a new product even with the service load. He believes that it is possible to develop the software by outsourcing the work. He further believes that the development process is not as complicated as it is made out. He feels that since the original product development took 1 year to develop from a scratch, modifying the product with limited functionalities but with all features should be possible. c. Kelly Thomas: Kelly feels that Pat does not know anything about product development and that Pat has no idea of the extent of work required. He feels that the reduced workforce and a further cut in the budget will make it impossible to build a new product. He knows that the programmers are too tied up with providing service and that it is not possible to build and test a new product with all the features by August. d. Chris Martinas: He is convinced by the talk he had with Pat that the retail application for iScanner is the best bet. He feels that extending the product to existing markets is not sensible as there are already a number of players. He also feels that since the revenues have become more healthy after 500 employees were sacked. He feels that the departments can further reduce their budgets by 15% to improve the bottom line. 3. Evaluate each argument listed above as sound or unsound and why. Indicate whether they are emotional or logical in nature Answer: a. Cliff O’Connor: The argument by Cliff for new product application is logical since it is based on market research. His assumption about not entering existing markets is logical since the markets are already having competing products. His argument that the departments can take a further cut of 15% in the budget is illogical since the departments have already faced heavy reduction in manpower. b. Pat Lambert: His argument about developing a new product with all features is illogical since with reduced manpower, there is no staff to take development work. His feelings that some people are against the company’s interests are emotional since there are no facts to support this argument. His argument about creating Versions and releasing them is illogical since the customers would evaluate the product on what is offered and not on what will come after one year. c. Kelly Thomas: His arguments are about not being able to develop the new product is based on logic as he knows that with reduced staff, it is not possible to spare time and efforts. He knows that 70% of the developer’s time is spent in providing service and that it is not possible to develop a new product with such a frame of mindset and this is logical. His assumption that Pat does not know about QC is wrong and emotional d. Chris Martinas: His assumptions that the company has improved performance after the job cut is based on logic. His argument that retail is a good avenue is also based on logic. His argument that there are people who are against the company is based on logic. 4. Describe specific fallacious arguments, and identify the people who hold them Answer: Fallacious arguments that have been proposed are: 1. Pat has argued that some people are against the company’s interests. Kelly is arguing that it is not possible to develop all the features in six months, given that his team size has been cut down. Cliff arguing that a further reduction of 15% in the budget is possible when the departments have already reduced their work force. Pat suggesting that it is possible to outsource the development work and this work can be done by keeping Kelly out. Pat is wrong in suggesting that a version 1 be release first and then version 2 be released. 2. Pats argument of saying that some people are against the company’s interests are baseless as there is no data but only emotions to support this argument. Kelly’s argument of not being able to develop a new product in 6 months is wrong as initially, the product was developed in one year. He has already admitted that it is easy to extend the existing product to new applications so six months, but with reduced workers for modifying the existing product should be possible. Pat’s argument about outsourcing is wrong as the company has never tried it before and it would mean sharing confidential information about the product with outside people. Pat’s argument that they release Version 1 is not correct as the market would want a fully integrated product when it is offered and not something that would be fully available after one year. 3. Underlying problem at AcuScan is the massive job cuts that have been made and the resulting insecurity that has come in. People do not trust each other and have lost the motivation to work harder with budget cuts. 4. Alternative solutions would be: (a). to hire people on contract or as temps and they should take up the support work that the developers are doing currently. Current developers are experienced and know the product well and will be able to modify the product with all the features required. (b) Go ahead with suggestion of Kelly to offer only one feature and function and promise the next later on. 5. First Alternative: Strengths are that the existing experienced developers who know the product will be free to develop the product since temps will take over support. Weakness are that there would be a severe discord in the team with the experienced developers not cooperating with the temps. Another weakness is that the budget cut of 15% would be missed and the overall cost of the product would also increase. Second Alternative: Strengths are that the new product with limited features will beat the competing product by being first in the market and there will be promise of more features later on. Weakness is that in the time gap between initial launch with limited features and subsequent launch with all features, customers will tire of waiting and accept the competing product that may be made available with all features. 6. The first alternative of hiring temps is better. Such a move will relieve pressure from the experienced developers and they would be motivated since a developer wants to work on new products and is not interested in providing support. The move would also help to ally the fears of Kelly as he would be given more staff. Issues between temps and existing developers can be overcome by counseling. It would be possible to launch the product with all the features. Though the budget would increase, the increase can be reduced by hiring lesser temps and reducing the advertisement costs and the repackaging and designing costs. Part Two – Executive Summary 1. Purpose and Scope of the Document The document is meant to create an awareness of the problems that AcuScan is facing with regards to developing the new product - Operation Optimize. Scope of the document would cover all the issues of various players who support or are not with the development. 2. Summary of the situation As part of the Operation Optimize process, AcuScan wants to extend its product iScanner to the retail market. To enter the market, the existing product needs to be modified and extra features and functions can be added and these suggestions have come from Pat. Kelly does not go with this as there have been large job cuts and the existing developers are fully stretched to provide support. Pat does not agree with him and is not ready to agree for Kelly’s offer of providing one feature and function. The competition is on the same track and would soon release a product and get a major market share. 3. Key points relating to the situation AcuScan needs to modify the existing iScanner and adapt it for the retail market as the current product is not generating more sales and it is service that provides major revenues for the company. The modified product would be targeted for the retail market, as this sector is untapped. Pat says that the competition may enter the retail with their own product and it is very important that AcuScan land there first with all the features by August. Kelly is against this plan has he does not have the resources since he was forced to layoff some people from the team. He says he can only provide one feature and function. Pat does not accept this and feels Kelly is against the interests of the company. 4. Conclusions There is a crises in the company caused by the excessive lay off and the people are insecure and not motivated. Even though the development team is capable of carrying out the programming work, they are not motivated to take up extra work. The developers are also tied up with support work and they cannot provide support and develop new products at the same time. Two alternatives have been proposed and their strengths and weakness have been presented along with the preferred alternative. 5. Recommendations and actions to be taken, and why A Win-Win solution would be to hire ex employees, if available as Temps and then develop the new product with all the features. The budget would have to be stretched a little bit but it is required. Developers would have the product ready for launch as per the required date with all the required features and functions. The effort would beat the competition and launch the product earlier. 6. Other supportive information. The product has mentioned a few features such as “track customer’s eye movements and focus throughout the store” and function “".. additional sales of this data may provide new sources of income in the future" are not logical. The first feature would mean very closely monitoring customers and it is doubted if customers would like such close surveillance. This feature needs to be revisited. The function of selling the data to others in unethical as this would be invasion of customer’s privacy. This function should be eliminated. References Critical Thinking GEN 480. September 2, 2003. AcuScan: Critical Thinking 480 Assessment Case. University of Phoenix. Version 2.1. Read More