Ashley R. Johnson
MSCC Case Study
2014 Fall 2- Management Information Systems
The importance of technology and management.
Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (MSCC) is a non-profit member-supported
organization that lobbies state government on behalf of local businesses that became one of the
most powerful business advocacy organizations in the early 2000s for the business community.
The situation was that MSCC had a lack of access to its new computer system and there were
numerous problems that were happening with its old systems. MSCC had computer systems with
little support and maintenance and the computer systems were not integrated, not documented,
and not Y2K compatible. MSCC faced a possible restriction on aggressive growth because it
could no longer fund its annual operating budget so a change had to take place in order for the
company to survive. Ultimately, technology was a major concern, but the lack of proper
management was the cause of the main problems.
As MSCC started using more computer technology, it recognized the need to use
advanced computer technology in order to handle all of its information. However, upper
management lacked the needed knowledge of information systems, and relied heavily on outside
sources who were not familiar with the organization to make decisions for them. The case study
outlines what MSCC had to endure in order to acquire a new system that would handle all of its
operations. It became apparent that the original MSCC systems were becoming obsolete and
cumbersome. While Leon Lassiter was not in charge of computer operations, he was the
individual responsible for pushing the organization to purchase a new unified system from a
company called UNITRAK because it was an integrated computer system that he believed would
further MSCC’s organization in its core business while providing the future growth the company
was striving for. After hiring a full‐time computer programmer that started looking at software
packages for the MSCC, the current employees grew frustrated not having a voice in the decision
making and the people in charge were discouraged because Lassiter did not consult them, there
was limited support of the new system and there were several concerns regarding the access of
all employees having access to all of the data.
The implementation of the new computer system caused more problems after the stalled
application with employees. There were complaints about the functionality and user-friendly
application which included the old data having to be converted to the new system. Some of the
data was corrupted and there were problems with the backups resulting in data being lost.
