Question

Micka is a local manufacturer with a business model that provides them a significant strategic advantage in the highly competitive retail and apparel industry. At the heart of their model is a set of business processes and a simple, some might call outdated, information system that links demand to manufacturing and manufacturing to distribution. The strategy at Micka stores is simply to have a continuous flow of new products that are typically in limited supply. As a result, regular customers visit their stores often--on an average of 15 times a year, whereas most stores can only entice their customers inside on an average of five times a year. If customers see something they like, they buy it on the spot because they know it will probably be gone the next time they visit the store. The result is a very loyal and satisfied customer base and a wildly profitable business model. Micka aligns its information system strategy with its business strategy. The entire process from factory to shop floor is coordinated from Micka's headquarters using information systems. The point-of-sale system records the information from each sale, and the information is transmitted to headquarters at the end of each business day. The Micka shop managers also report back daily to the designers at headquarters to let them know what has sold and what the customers wanted but couldn't find. The information is used to determine which product lines and colors should be kept and which should be altered or dropped. The designers communicate directly with the production staff to plan for the incredible number of designs-more than 15,000-that will be manufactured every year. Illustrate the process of creating IT architecture and infrastructure. (a) List the process involved in Strategy-Architecture-Infrastructure Framework. (b) Write the possible strategic goals for Micka (c) Write business requirement (d) Explain how apply Strategy Architecture-Infrastructure Framework to this situation. Hordat Low or new product Paily

Answer 1

Answer a:

Processes involved in strategy-architecture-infrastructure framework includes formulation strategy for the business, these formulated strategies are then converted into minimum set of practices and requirements of the business and these practices and requirements form the artefacts that describes the architecture of the system. The defined architecture is then transformed into the resources for making the business practices to be conducted with an ease. These resources are called as infrastructure of the business.

Answer b:

Strategic goal for Micka:

The strategic goal of Micka is to retain the loyal customer base by satisfying their demand as per their custom need or by providing them with the innovative product so that they always remain excited for purchasing the product from store as soon as it gets launched in the store.

Answer c:

Business requirement:

The customer base of Micka is loyal and consists of the revisiting customers. It has been observed that certain loyal customers of Micka has to return from the stores as there demand for the product is not satisfied because of the unavailability of the product. Thus, the strategic goal of Micka is to predict the demand of the customers by analysing the previous trend of sales and demand. This will help Micka in producing sufficient number of products so as to satisfy the demand of the customers without making the customer to return back from the store without fulfilling their demand.

Answer d:

Strategic- architecture – infrastructure framework to the Micka business:

Strategy: Aligning information system strategy with the business strategy.

Architecture: information system should be such that it should be fed with the necessary information of the store such as the information of customer who visited the store, who has purchased a particular category of item, who’s demand has not been fulfilled because of the availability of the product and information of the stock out products and the demand for those products.

Infrastructure: Information system of the store act as an infrastructure which transmits the information of the store to the headquarter of the company so that the management of the company could make the appropriate decision.