Principle of Inf. Systeam theory and pratice - Essay Example

As Sysco is a highly decentralized company, with around 100 operating companies and more than 4500 employees, the main obstacle it will face is in convincing these major companies to adopt and pay for the new BI system. Most of the operating companies will have intelligence systems already in place although they won’t be this technically advanced; they might not be willing to invest their finances in purchasing another intelligence system which will also lead to training costs. The magnitude of the project may cause other problems such as changing the mindset of the employees, maintaining standard and compatible hardware, and software and business procedures across many companies.

Sysco would be one customer for Business Objects but one training program would not be applicable to it. As within the operating companies employees would have different levels of experience and exposure to different software’s. Employees in different operating companies might need different training programs. There might also be a difference in using the software, and so it will be imperative that all units load it with the same type of information to yield benefit. Sysco may also face difficulties in deciding the amount of software to buy.

It will be cheaper to buy the entire software in one shot, but the board of directors and companies may not be willing to pay so much upfront immediately. While implementing the new BI system, other obstacles might be faced such as resistance to change, improper use of software and lack of managerial support. Sysco’s previous efforts in overhauling the information systems included ERP and data warehousing. Both these efforts brought in line the data of the various companies but they focused on past data and generating historical reports.

Sysco needs a system that will predict future trends while analyzing the data