Memo
Dear Salgodo and Sanchez,
After meeting with the consultants about the dilemma our
company is currently facing, my understanding of this situation is now clearer.
The consultants we hired gave an impressive presentation yesterday. We explored
the matter further in the follow-up discussion after the meeting. I want to emphasize
to the board that we must carefully consider any decision we make at this
point. This decision could impact and reshape our current business model and it
can also hammer the culture of the company. As I had mentioned in the past, any
change that has a dominos effect can have a drastic effect on the company
either positively or negatively.
This meeting has reassured me that we should not change
existing POS system. Consultants also presented an excellent idea of keeping a
one-year inventory in stock that could give us some cushion while we upgrade
our POS system. The main question is: While our company is growing rapidly,
should Zara continue building its empire using obsolete operating system? I
am sure that even Mr. Sanchez who trusts the current POS system would agree that we
will soon need to replace it with a new system that is compatible with the current technology.
While I was working in a bank, we came across a similar
dilemma. We had an outdated software that was not meeting bank’s needs. The IT management decided to continue using
the current software while developing the new software. Once the new software
was developed and tested, it was released to production environment in all branches.
Before attending this meeting I was thinking along the same lines that while
our current DOS system remains fully functional, Mr. Sanchez should work in parallel to develop and upgrade to a newer POS
system.
The consultants highlighted a good point that although our
vendor has not explicitly announced that it will discontinue supplying the DOS
compatible POS system, it did not contractually agreed that the legacy system
will be supported in future. Since the fashion industry requires a quick
response to new trends and we must have a fast, dynamic POS system that can track
real-time inventory and has a full vertical integration. This will make us
stand out of our competition.
Following our core values, our decision for POS system should
be based on factors that consultants mentioned in the weighted key decision
criteria. We cannot rely on this obsolete DOS system for too long because of its
limitations with new technology. We need a POS system that is dynamic, fully
compatible with the latest technology, has added features catering to our
industry and capable of handing real-time data for analysis and reporting
purposes. I strongly believe that it is now crucial to upgrade our POS system
but the change must be planned carefully so it is seamless and least disruptive
to our daily operation. We can accomplish this by hiring an IT specialist who
can work with Mr. Sanchez to plan, develop, test and implement the new system.
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