Can Two Become One - Case Study Example

Case 10: Can Two Become One? LifeForce and The Anderson Group (TAG) belong to the same industry sector-- biotechnology. Both companies have sound financial health and develop innovative medical equipment. So far their product lines have been different but lately both companies are working on the development of electromagnetic devices, helpful in speedy growth of bone and healing after operation. Marketing of similar products of such nature could be harmful for both companies; therefore, a merger has been planned by both privately held firms to reduce research cost and better return on investment. A smooth merger would take place because of a number of positive synergies shared by the owners and staff of both the companies. At the business layer, an integration of research labs of both the companies is top most priority to save costs and speed up the development processes of new products from research to the final stage. Crucial to the successful merger is integration of IT departments of both LifeForce and TAG for reducing the infrastructure cost of IT. Condition of IT installations at TAG was below standard but Life Force had a well equipped research and development lab. At the network layer, TAG has been using Novell and Windows 2000 Server as operating systems. For databases, it depended on Oracle and for Desktop software it operated with Office XP with Windows 2000 as a client. For network hardware needs, TAG depended totally on Cisco network management tools. LifeForce, on the other hand, had a well shaped IT structure with enough room for expansion. For networking, it had installed Windows 2000 servers and a number of Mandrake Linux servers. Software applications were mostly developed and customized by the company’s internal programmers on UNIX operating system. Desktop software was from Star with KDE windowing scheme. For hardware needs, they used Nortel routing and switching and for managing network, they used open source software. Thus, both companies fulfilled their IT requirements from different sources. It is proposed and recommended that the IT team of TAG would shift premises to the spacious IT location of LifeForce. There would be no retrenchment of employees; all additional employees would be roped in updating the current projects and for realizing faster time to market products. Additional task force would help in planning better disaster management. Integration of currently used applications and network connections would speed up the data traffic for enlarged database and application usage. Business functions would be based on a new IT project portfolio to be judged on the ROI on any business initiative. All planning is on the cards, nothing is concrete. The case study provides no clue on whether the IT infrastructure proposed by the senior members of both the companies’ IT teams after their merger would be successful. One thing is clear that both the companies would be able to workout job distribution as per the new products’ portfolio demands but whether the new software and networking solutions provide sufficient support is not guaranteed. One can only hope for the best keeping in mind the IT expertise of both companies of the biotechnology sector. Case 11: Growing Pains in Northern Minnesota WindChill, a custom cloth designing and manufacturing company, has been a successful business venture for creating special cold weather clothing. It has specific clientage of such scientists who work in extremely rough cold weathers. Production of such special type of clothing is quite limited as only selected people wear such clothing. Demand of such clothing has been on the rise with more people remaining out in harsh climates and some military units also making orders for such tailor-made clothing. The company owners, Harold and Edna, also have a test lab at their northern Minnesota facility, which has been used by a branch of the University for conducting government funded research on cold weather clothing. It has added to the brand value of WindChill’s product line. The owners saw an opportunity to expand business by adding a catalog and e-business segment to their business. By taking the services of a local consultant, a website with e-commerce application was designed. Online business grew unexpectedly. To cope with the new situation, IT infrastructure was updated. For networking, WindChill added Windows 2000 server to the current IT infrastructure and added to the strength of workstations for the new employees to meet the increased demand. The vendor had no experience of providing consultancy on such needs of growth companies doing internet sales. The security related issues to the site’s functioning emerged soon. Internet connectivity was made via a DSL connection. Site was hosted through a local dedicated server. Web server was installed through company’s LAN. Virus attack happened within a month of the website hosting that destroyed the credit card information and orders’ related data besides shutting down the website for 2 days. Owners realized the need for professional help to connect network based on secure functionality with added security of the system. A professor of the local IT College was hired to create a network with added functionality for enhanced security of the transactions. The main culprit in the earlier set up was virus attack. The professor advised the owners to automate the website’s anti-virus system with a virus signature update feature. Configuration of the firewall was faulty; the complete system was risk-prone. There were chances of intruders compromising with the security and firewall protection of the system. Support system was not robust enough to save crucial data from hacking; pass word protection program was not there. Further the previous vendor has not installed any disaster management system for recovering the lost data and data safety. The company was advised by the professor that although it was not big enough but earning big, therefore, any new investment for dependable network security and sales realization through online business was mandatory. The case study does not provide any detail of the changes recommended by the professor. All the flaws in the previous functionality and network loopholes have been elaborated in the case study and we hope that the suggestions made by the professor would benefit the company but there could be flaws related to theory knowledge and practical knowledge. Professor is not a professional consultant. He knows the theory part well of where the loopholes existed but offering an error-proof security network and hassle-free functionality of an e-business website is another matter. Read More