Analysis

                                 

Introduction:

BMW of Roxbury is a dealership located in the Northwest New Jersey town of Roxbury. This BMW dealership provides consumers with the latest in brand new BMW automobiles as well as used vehicles of all makes at its facilities. BMW of Roxbury’s facilities also include a state of the art parts and services department to provide quality service and repair services to its customers. Service and repair services use genuine BMW parts to ensure the customer vehicles receive the proper care and will be able to operate at top efficiency. BMW of Roxbury is part of Open Road Auto Group which owns 17 dealerships. The facilities at BMW of Roxbury are large with a front area for sales with offices, Service has a total of 23 car lifts and parts has a big storage area for all the parts. the parking lot hold over 200 cars which consist of mainly new vehicles and pre-owned. The Information system they use is Reynolds and Reynolds and that stores over 10,000 customers information and all the inventory.

                                   Components of Information System 

            Every information system is comprised of five different components: Hardware, Software, Data, Procedures, and People. 

Hardware:

• Hardware is the actual physical components of the information system that is used to input, store, process data and allow users to view data in conjunction with software. Lenovo  computers with Lenovo mouse and keyboard and with Acer screens. The phones are Avaya one-x

Software:

• Software is a group of instructions such as  programs and applications used to tell a computer to perform certain functions or actions that are within it’s capabilities. Reynolds and Reynolds is a ERA software used by the dealership to organize and view customer information, vehicle information and to process orders within each department.
• The Windows XP operating system is the operating system software that is used on every computer at the dealership and it has been utilized since the 1990's.

Data:

• Data is information in its raw and disordered form before it is analyzed and it exists as bytes on computer systems. .Reynolds and Reynolds is the database utilized by BMW of Roxbury which stores the dealerships data including customer names, phone numbers, vehicle information and customer billing addresses. The database will also hold financial information of the customers such as payment information, financing, and previous customer transactions. The database also holds all the inventory of the store including vehicles and parts with its assigned pricing.

People:

• People are the employees who work at the dealership and the customers who buy vehicles or get vehicles service and repaired at the dealership. The employees at BMW of Roxbury are essential factors to business processes and value chain of the business.
• The store has fifty two employees employed at our dealership.
• BMW of Roxbury employees are highly trained and experienced workers who keep the dealership operating in profitable condition. These employees are responsible for business processes including sales, service and parts. Employees number one goal is customer satisfaction.
• Customer
• A person who is considered a customer is a person who is willing to do business with the store. Customers who choose to purchase their new or used vehicles with this dealership are spending a substantial amount of money on a vehicle. Employees walk them through the buying process and do their best to make sure the customer is satisfied.

Procedure:

• Procedures are an established set of step-by-step instructions used to perform a certain activity or process. The procedures utilized by BMW of Roxbury is to receive a lead by telephone or walk in, perform a needs assessment on that customer to find them the right vehicle, then develop a payment plan which best suits the customer's budget in addition to approval from a manager for the deal. They then enter all the information into reynolds and reynolds and fill out all the necessary paperwork, including getting credit approval, insurance, bill of sale, etc. they then hand the customer off to the finance manager who finalizes the deal and make sure everything needed to be signed is signed. When the customer is done then the product specialist makes sure the customer understands all the cars feature as the cars can be very complex, Then the customer leaves in his new vehicle.

Security:

• Security for information system data is essential to protect that data from any people or organizations who intend to exploit that data for personal gain. Today, cyber crime is rampant and many organizations make the smart choice to spend a significant amount of money to safeguard their data against unauthorized access and abuse for personal gain. BMW of Roxbury utilizes a combination of technical, data and human safeguards.
• BMW’s technical safeguards are the use of usernames and passwords to access the system which can only be accessed at the workplace. This helps restrict employee access to only the systems that they need to use and are authorized to use. Along with usernames and passwords, employees must use unique individual access codes to utilize different department systems. The workplace network is not connected to an outside network and protected with both malware and firewall protection to prevent intrusion and data breaches.
• BMW’s data safeguards are daily backups of  all data in the system in case of data loss or tampering by an unauthorized user, and restricted user access via usernames and strong passwords. The IT room also has restricted access to prevent unauthorized use of data by people who are not allowed to access the system.
• BMW’s human safeguards include extensive background checks on all employees to ensure the dealership hires people who can be trusted with the information system. Employees can only access the workplace network and Reynolds & Reynolds database from the workplace to prevent abuse of data.

Information Silos:

• Information silos are when different departments or sections of a business do no communicate with each other and information is not being shared amongst the departments. The BMW of Roxbury dealership use of the Reynolds & Reynolds information system is essential in preventing information silos. All of the departments are able to access information belonging to another department via the Reynolds & Reynolds system. There is a restricted user access on the Reynolds & Reynolds database but authorized users in each department are able to utilize data from other departments.

Social Media:

• BMW of Roxbury utilizes a Facebook page to communicate with customers and allow them to provide feedback on the dealership's services and if the employees are doing their jobs well.

Problems with the Information System:

• The computers at the BMW of Roxbury use Lenovo Windows computers, but are very outdated.  They’re so outdated that they still have a blue screened interface that can only be interacted with using a keyboard, and not with a mouse.  This makes it impossible for the dealership to fully utilize the Reynolds and Reynolds system.  The hardware ought to be updated so that the dealership can make a more complete use of the IS they have.
• The Reynolds and Reynolds system has no encryption placed on the information of the clients that they store and transmit, which leaves it susceptible to security breaches.
• None of the information additions or changes that the employees make are recorded in the Reynolds and Reynolds system.  This makes it very difficult to observe any erroneous or malicious data changes made to the data in the IS.
• The IT department at the BMW of Roxbury is effectively non-existent.  Fixing any problems that arise with the computers or IS are not attended to with any semblance of haste.
• The mainframe is located offsite, at another BMW dealership.  The mainframe is currently in use is outdated and causes quite a few problems with the frequency of system crashes that occur.  It has been in service since sometime in the 1990’s.
• There is a physical security risk because the different employees that have access to the IS leave their written down access codes in plain sight, where anyone can see them.  The problem is occurring because when the access code is not written down, it takes time for the employee to go about retrieving it.