Jack and Annie Case Study - IT Assignment Help

Assignment Task

Assignment Case
The following case will be used for all assignments in the course. It will cover business process modelling, use case modelling, object modelling, service design, and service composition. All assignments are individual assignments. To some extent, they build on each other, and thus, you need to make sure that you adhere to the schedule for assignment submission so as to not fall behind in the course. Details about individual assignments will be handed out separately. The following description forms the only source of information for completion of the assignments. In areas that it is lacking, appropriate assumptions need to be made. Individual assignment specifications will include additional information that is relevant to the task at hand. The system deals with a new business that has emerged to fill a need that has arisen during the current pandemic in the state of Wisconsin. While the operations may appear conceptually simple, there is a fair amount of complexity that needs to be dealt with.

Environment
The coronavirus pandemic has caused a number of disruptions to everyday activities in Wisconsin. Once the scope, extent, and virulence of the virus was better appreciated, the state adopted a partial lockdown to protect its citizens, particularly in light of the problems experienced in hot-spots in other states. Even without the lockdown, the effects on the local economy were swift and severe. Social distancing and the need to curtail the spread of the virus forced many enterprises to adopt a more online mode of operation. While this was feasible in a number of cases, some industries that rely on in-person services were hit hard and many small businesses were forced to furlough or lay off employees. Restaurants were particularly hard hit as a result. While some switched to take-out and delivery mode of operation for those customers and patrons who could afford it, their revenues fell drastically as overall demand for their services declined. Many small diners were forced to close or lay off employees, because there were unable to adapt to a take-out or delivery mode of operation. They relied on an office clientele that stopped by during their lunch break for a quick meal. Working from home in dispersed outlying suburbs rendered delivery to their staple clients infeasible. Most initial delivery/take-out operations tended to be from fast food or high-end establishments. As a result, obesity rates in the state started to creep up. And while consumers were interested in healthier alternatives, there were few options available. Jack and Annie, two short order cooks laid off from neighboring establishments, decided to join forces to fill this gap. They relied on the skills they were adept at and decided to provide nutritious and tasty options for home delivery. Their initial endeavor proved somewhat disastrous. Wishing to show off their culinary skills, they put out a menu with a range of offerings including several soups, salads, sandwiches, and mixed bowls. While demand was steady, having to make everything to order, and then deliver it proved strenuous and exhausting. In addition, not having a delivery charge left them with slim to no margins at all. They considered using a food truck, but clients at home would mean very few customers. They decided that something needed to change, and rethought their operation, and after analyzing several options, they emerged with a web-based deliveryonly enterprise they named Jack and Annie’s Soup and Sandwich Service.

Business Functions
Jack and Annie’s Soup and Sandwich Service relied on the specific talents of the two proprietors. Jack was adept at creating soups that used a variety of ingredients and drew from a host of international cuisines. His inventiveness allowed them to formulate soups that were gluten-free, vegan, and compatible with a host of popular diets, in addition to the hearty staples that many of their customers favored. Annie was a whiz at caprese style sandwiches, having been first exposed to them at a hole-in-the-wall operation when touring Florence in Italy in her youth. They decided that they would offer a limited menu that would remain fixed for a week, comprising three soups and three sandwiches. The volume of their business had increased to a point that trying to operate out of their homes was not effective anymore. They found a shuttered industrial kitchen that they were able to lease for a very nominal sum. They reasoned that Jack would prepare the soups in the morning and they would be delivered around lunchtime and suppertime. Soups would be delivered in pint and quart containers at $8 and $12 apiece. Annie would make some sandwiches ahead of time, but would tackle the bulk of orders as they came in. All sandwiches would be priced at $8. Since the sandwiches were cold sandwiches, there was no pressing need to have them delivered just as they were made, or transported in special containers. Likewise, the soups were of the variety that could be reheated by the customers upon delivery. They also decided that they would restrict delivery to a limited area, and adopt a flat $2 delivery charge for all deliveries, instead of the more traditional option of free delivery within a restricted area and $5 delivery outside. After successfully running with this business model for several weeks, they took stock of how things were operating, and looked for ways to improve. They were grossing between $400 to $500 per day, which while not luxurious, was quite acceptable to them. They saw their business functions as comprising the following: weekly menu planning, food preparation, customer orders, delivery assembly, and delivery. They also hired a driver, Morgan, for all deliveries. In an effort to streamline operations, they made a series of decisions, which while not the most business-friendly, worked for them since they were still a three-person operation. Weekly menu planning was a Saturday activity, with both Jack and Annie proposing their three choices for the nest week. They would compare notes, and rely on their feel for the popularity of soup and sandwich options, and finalize the set. This was not based on any hard data, but their intuitive perception of item popularity. Once agreed upon, Sunday served as their main shopping day, as they acquired the material needed to prepare a week’s worth of meals. Food preparation was a process that was refined through a lot of trial and error. They decided that Jack would make approximately four gallons of each soup, which provided for about 16 quarts or 32 pints, or some combination thereof. This would be important when ordering, since it would be embarrassing to accept orders for soups that they had run out of. Annie would make some sandwiches ahead of time, and then work on the rest aa the orders came in. At this point, things would depart radically from their traditional mode of operations as short-order cooks. Rather that ringing a bell to indicate an order was ready, they would need to pack each customer’s order into a separate bag and have them ready for Morgan for delivery. Given the volume of delivery, they decided that instead of doing a host of individual deliveries, they would do two delivery runs – one around lunchtime, and another around suppertime. Morgan would look at all the deliveries for each run, and plan out an itinerary – once again using intuitive feel rather than any algorithm for optimal routing. Delivery would be contactless, with the bag(s) left in an area specified by the customer at the time of the order.
Jack and Annie are by no means IT experts, but realize that it can enhance and allow their business to thrive. While there are many opportunities for using IT in their business, they feel that the areas where there are immediate payoffs include customer orders, delivery assembly, and delivery. They envision that the first will be supported through a web-based system, but they are not sure about the mechanism for supporting the other two. While the current process does work, it is not very effective. It is error prone, and several aspects still do not work adequately. Orders are currently phoned in, which requires collecting name, addresses, delivery instructions and payment information over the phone, even if these are repeat customers. Errors in noting the order information do occur, which is a concern. Credit cards are charged later on, which is also a concern. Delivery errors also have occurred, leading to having to field calls from irate customers. Jack and Annie are looking for a bunch of enterprising information technology management practitioners to assemble an information system for them. To this end, they have retained you to model and design portions of the application using a service-oriented methodology. They would like to automate as much of the processing as possible, recognizing that complete automation is not a possibility – some operations will perforce be done manually. They recognize that not everyone is willing to download an app, and envision that this system would be a hybrid one, with a web-based component for customer orders, a local operation for delivery assembly, and a mobile component for actual delivery. The web-based ordering component would capture name, address, order details, and payment information. They are unsure as to whether customers need to create accounts and leave that option to you. They would like to support payment by credit card, debit card, and PayPal. In the future, they would like to add a Venmo option, but have no plans for cryptocurrencies at any stage. They envision that an order would be placed for that day only, with delivery for either lunch or supper, but not both. In order to make the appropriate delivery run, the order would have to be placed and paid for by a specified cutoff. Any instructions to facilitate contactless delivery, e.g. where to leave it or how to confirm delivery, are also collected with the order. For delivery assembly, they would like the system to print out two sets of labels for each order – one with the name, address, and delivery instructions, and the other with the order contents (including checkboxes to facilitate assembly). If route planning could also be incorporated into this process, they and Morgan would be very grateful to you. Finally, for delivery, it should be possible to Morgan to check off each delivery on a smartphone, so that the system is aware as to when the delivery was made. This would facilitate sending an email to the customer indicating that the delivery was made (or testing their phone if appropriate). It would also be invaluable in dealing with customers when they call to indicate that their order was not received. Jack and Annie recognize that this is a somewhat ephemeral business – the pandemic will not last forever; but they do need help now.

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