Managing Information Technology

646 Part IV • The Information Management System

Mexican plant’s auditor, and it recommends the Contpaq
financial software, so it appears that local support for that
package would be available. Unfortunately, Collins has
been unable to find out if this package will run on the peer-
to-peer PC network planned for the Mexican plant. Collins
has contacted Grant Thornton’s Mexican office, but has
not been able to get this information from its people.
Collins is also trying to determine if Grant Thornton can
provide local support for the Mexican plant’s PCs.
The Mexican plant now has two customers. Collins
and Mease have contacted both of them to determine what
kind of interaction they will require at the start. Fortunately,
neither of them is using EDI in Mexico, so they will fax
shipping orders and schedules to the plant. They are both
using standard labels, so it should be possible to find a sim-
ple barcode package to produce the labels. They also do not
have any special requirements for packing slips and bills of
lading, so BMC should be able to find a simple package to
produce this paperwork. If not, this paperwork could be
created manually on a typewriter at the start. Collins and
Mease are confident that Spanish language software to do
these things is available in Mexico, and that support for it
will also be available locally.
Collins believes that the task force has responsibility
for three things:

One is to make sure that we have the infrastructure

in place—plant wiring that is tested and secure, a

secure computer room for a server if it is needed,

desktop PCs set up and working on the LAN—and

make sure that we have support for those. Next is

communications—Internet access and a digital

line so that they can route their network into ours

so that we can share files and communicate

through a dedicated connection. The third area is

applications.

We have the first two under control except

for local support. We sent Jim Walters from my

staff down there and he tested their wiring and it is

fine. We also sent Paul Adams from my staff down

to set up all the desktop PCs and the peer-to-peer

network, and he also gave them Internet access.

We still do not have the dedicated digital line, but

the phone company will provide that in its own

due time.

The weak link right now is support down

there. When things don’t work on a PC or the

network, it is very hard—whether it is English or

Spanish—to solve those kinds of problems over

the phone. We must have support down there for the

desktop, and so far we don’t have it.

They also are a long way from obtaining the needed

applications software. Collins assesses this problem as

follows:

I think that we can get a simple package to produce

the barcode labels for the parts, and a package to pro-

duce the shipping documents. But the people down

there have not been concerned with some fundamen-

tal questions such as: How do you schedule produc-

tion? How do you order materials? What is needed on

the factory floor? How are you going to provide in-

structions to the operators on how to run the parts?

Ginnie and I are struggling with whether to go

down there, pull some people aside, take them to a

hotel for a couple of days, and try to settle some of

those questions. Time is growing short!