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Midwest Farm Supplies

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Submitted By keira
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Midwest Farm Supplies

Background: • Began operations in 1931 • Provides farming supplies such as • Steady profits for 70years • Distribution centers: ➢ Ohio ➢ Indiana ➢ Illinois ➢ Iowa

Environment: • Competitors: ➢ Competitors are getting more computer literate

• Suppliers: ➢ Products sold by Midwest are manufactured by other companies but guided by the designs and specifications provided by Midwest.

• Customer: ➢ Prefers face to face dialogue with sales rep due to some limitations by phone conversation.

Firm as a system: • The management is organized and communicates well. • The management provides one week classes to sales reps on new fertilizers, waste water recovery, computer assisted farm management techniques. The classes are not designed to make them experts in the subject, rather make them competent to discuss the topics to their customers • Current systems are fine, but a system upgrade might be necessary • John Kubanna - “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. But I just don’t think that’s a good idea when it comes to computer applications

Subsystems of the firm: • Human Resource • Marketing • Manufacturing • Financial Services

Statement of the Problem: • What type of database suits the need of Midwest Farm Supplies?

Areas of Consideration: • Midwest’s management and employees have comprehensive computer training • Sales reps in Iowa have their “office” in their home • Branches connects to mainframe via web or dial-in • A new ‘smart’ system is in place • Sales data are unique in each branches are stored in mainframes • Mainframe’s workload is increasing Mainframe Contains all the application and data used by all branches Inventory data

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