Assignment #1

ShopKo and Pamida: System Triumph or Tragedy?

1. Evaluate the role of information systems in the way ShopKo and Pamida run their business. How important are they?

The role of information systems in ShopKo and Pamida run their business is really important. With the information system they have, they collect data from sales of every year and that’s how they decide how much to sell their merchandise, when its time to clear stock to make room for new line of clothing and plan which store will need more merchandise than others.

2. Evaluate the importance of Pamida's distribution center consolidation project on for both Pamida and ShopKo. What management, organization and technology factors prevented Pamida's new distribution center from working successfully?

The software prevented the new distribution center from working successfully, it was outdated and inadequate. The software was not capable of laying out and running a full service center in the most logical and efficient way.

3. Are ShopKo and Pamida using information systems effectively? Why or why not? How much value do their systems provide to the business?

ShopKo and Pamida were not using the information systems effectively, they had a loss of $6.7 million in the first nine months after the merge of both companies. Their system is very valuable as it is the tool that helps them stay in business and profitable.

4. If you were the CEO of ShopKo, how would you have addressed the problem? If you were the CEO of Pamida when it was purchased by ShopKo, would you have recognized the problem? Explain. How would you have solved the problem?

If I was CEO of ShoKo, I would have appointed somebody to check how their information system worked and see if it needed to be updated or integrated into ShopKo information system. If I was CEO of Pamida when it was purchased, I would have recognized the problem and let ShopKo Information System manager know about Pamida’s system being outdated and not ready for a full service distribution center.

5. What management challenges does this case study illustrate? Explain your answer.

Management was not paying attention to the details; they were more focused on how to make a profit but never checked if their system were ready to be compatible with each other’s technologies and infrastructures. They would have made a lot of money instead of losing money because of the outdated system Pamida had.