Case study Telemoni Telemoni is a company that specialises in the field of wearable technology for remote medical monitoring and sports applications. Products include heart monitors, respiration monitors (breathing and oxygenation levels), fall sensors, blood pressure monitors, activity and sleep monitors. Telemoni, recently formed by the merging of a number of smaller enterprises, has separate business units for developing different types of monitoring technology for different groups of customers. For example, the sales department specialize by market segment and has customers from health and social care organizations, sporting equipment suppliers and individuals. Users are elderly people, people with chronic diseases and people participating in sports. Wearer settings include home and work, indoors and outdoors. The first wearable monitors were stand-alone devices with visual readouts. However, increasing accessibility to the internet, data networks and personal mobile devices has led to a rich field for further developments. Telemoni aims to exploit current and emerging technologies to drive down the costs and enhance the capabilities of monitors. Using devices and technologies such as cellphones, tablets, WiFi and Bluetooth communications, applications can be deployed that provide remote monitoring at lowering costs, plus increasingly sophisticated support to user and customer organizations. Integration of remote monitoring technology using software apps and increasing lightness and miniaturisation of wearable technology is driving innovation. To help respond to the current competitive business environment, Telmoni's management are proposing a range of new information and knowledge management systems to consider, which focus on these areas: cutting costs; increasing efficiency; improving innovation and; improving responsiveness to customers. These will be aimed at:  Enhancing the loyalty of customers and developing better customer insight using Customer Relationship Management software  Possible use of intranet, extranet and other systems to improve communications with customers , users and business partners  Enhancing financial control, including cost allocation and monitoring.  Exploiting both tacit and explicit knowledge better to improve innovation capability  Helping to make the organization more agile in the current competitive environment  Enhancing customer service  eTailing (electronic retailing) of some types of monitoring technology to end-user directly and providing appropriate support in an efficient manner Senior management have expressed concern about lack of knowledge sharing amongst staff impeding both customer support and innovation. Question 1 a) What are TWO (2) important differences between information and knowledge? For each difference, illustrate your answer using an example relevant to Telemoni. 12 b) Describe an information system that can help the Telemoni leadership address one of the areas of focus identified in the case study. Justify your recommendation by explaining the type of information that it would capture, create or communicate and how it will tackle the challenge faced. 12 c) Briefly discuss the role of knowledge in Telemoni's business, using TWO (2) examples to support your discussion. Question 2 a) Select a suitable business environment model that can be applied to Telemoni, which will assist them in determining a responsive market strategy, enabling them to prioritise the correct products and services. 12 b) Discuss TWO (2) technology applications that would enable Telemoni to exploit current and emerging mobile technologies and the Internet, in place of proprietary monitoring and communication (such as base stations and fixed line telephones). Discuss any tangible and intangible benefits that can arise from each of these applications 12 c) Explain why security and customer privacy challenges are important to Telemoni. Discuss how one of these challenges can be mitigated. Question 3 a) Critically examine THREE (3) aspects of knowledge management (for instance: creating, acquiring, sharing and using both tacit and explicit knowledge) at Telemoni. Discuss the strengths and limitations of these approaches within the context of Telemoni's new areas of focus. 12 b) Telemoni wish to establish an information systems strategy covering technologies and potential application. Using an appropriate analytical framework, identify the strategic priorities for the organisation and produce a proposal as to which technologies Telemoni may need to invest in. 14 c) Suggest ONE aspect of tacit knowledge that Telemoni should be concerned to exploit effectively. How will this benefit them? Question 4 a) An application of CRM for Telemoni may require interactions with different types of customers: healthcare organizations and monitored patients (users). Identify a benefit Telemoni can accrue from EACH of these and explain how. Make a judgement as to the impact that these benefits may have. 12 b) What do you consider to be the single most important impediment to successful management of knowledge in Telemoni (considering they have recently formed by the merging of a number of smaller enterprises) and why? 9 c) Choose one of the proposed new systems areas mentioned in the case (cutting costs; increasing efficiency; improving innovation and; improving responsiveness to customers). Describe and justify FOUR (4) requirements that your chosen system must have in terms of what it must do. Case study AutoCare AutoCare is an organisation which provides vehicle servicing and repair for private car owners originally based upon a large number of service centres. Recently it has adopted a strategy of reducing the number of centres and performing service tasks using mobile personnel. The mobile units are able to perform standard service and repair tasks for most types of car, at a time and location of the customer's choice. This is referred to in AutoCare as the Martini strategy ('any time any place anywhere') or SOD (service on demand). Tasks include:  Regular services including oil changes  Battery replacement and minor repairs  Tire fitting, brake servicing and repair  Minor paintwork and bodywork  Windscreen and window replacement  Diagnosis to identify serious faults For more extensive repairs and work, vehicles are driven or transported to large and wellequipped centres in, or near, population centres. These are, in effect, factories that deliver service with skilled staff and specialist equipment. Supply of consumable materials and spare parts requires the management of an extensive supply network of many different suppliers. Mobile service units are staffed with a mixture of employees and self-employed mobile service technicians. These operations also need to be well managed to coordinate customer demand, scheduling of employee and thirdparty service units and service centre work. Management have also identified the importance of supporting knowledge sharing and exploitation within an increasingly dispersed and diverse workforce. Investment in information and knowledge management is needed to support the new strategy including (but not limited to):  Customer ordering and access to services (regular servicing, tires, accessories)  Job management for scheduling and dispatch of mobile service units (employee staffed and selfemployed staffed units)  Remote diagnostic support systems for mobile service technicians  Accounting and management applications for mobile units and service centres  Managing customer relationships and marketing  Competing effectively with other providers and traditional service businesses Question 1 a) Demonstrate your understanding of the difference between information and knowledge by describing the use of TWO (2) examples of each by AutoCare. 12 b) Propose ONE (1) information system that will support the Martini strategy, providing justification for your answer. In your justification, show specifically how it will improve AutoCare's performance. 12 c) Discuss how knowledge creation and sharing can be achieved within AutoCare, paying attention to the mobile servicing operation. Question 2 a) Recommend an approach for AutoCare to appraise their business environment and explain why you consider this to be a good approach. Demonstrate this approach, making appropriate assumptions about AutoCare's business, markets and competitors. 12 b) Discuss TWO (2) ways in which AutoCare can exploit the Internet and modern networking and mobile technologies, making clear the benefits for the organisation and the customer. 12 c) Describe TWO (2) key security considerations in relation to AutoCare's exploitation of the Internet and mobile applications. Explain how ONE (1) of these could be mitigated. Question 3 a) Using an appropriate framework, examine critical aspects of knowledge conversion within AutoCare. Support your answer with examples. 12 b) Describe AutoCare's strategic priorities and information systems strategy in generic terms using an appropriate academic framework, explaining your assumptions. Suggest what investments should be made in information systems, justifying your answers. 14 c) Suggest ONE (1) sort of explicit knowledge that AutoCare should collect. Why? Question 4 a) Critically assess THREE (3) ways in which a customer relationship management (CRM) system could benefit AutoCare, making clear what it would enable them to do to improve organisational performance. 12 b) Assuming you have top management commitment, what do you consider to be the single most important other factor in successful management of knowledge in AutoCare and why? 9 c) Propose FOUR (4) important requirements of the job management system mentioned in the AutoCare case study and justify your proposals. (Make sure you describe the requirements in terms of what the job management system must be able to do.) Question 5 a) Assume AutoCare wish to invest in information and knowledge systems in TWO (2) of the six areas mentioned in the case. Which TWO (2) areas would you recommend and why? Which ONE (1) of these would you prioritise over the other and why? 12 b) Is there a role for social networking (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) in supporting AutoCare's customers? Present an argument for and against, and provide your own conclusion. 9 c) Discuss TWO (2) management decisions that are taken by managers within AutoCare and explain how they are supported by information, as described by the DIKAR model.