A case study for MBA students at the Free University of Amsterdam

The following is a management situation where a network is being installed for an office.
How would you manage it?
The Computer Business (Implementing a Network)
A Dell computer network installation.

Jane Cumberland works for the Singapore-based fashion company called Caroline as an office manager and IT specialist. She has finally received confirmation from Dell Computers for the installation of a new network ordered for the entire office.

According to an email sent by the computer company, the computers are arriving next week. Dell techniciens are installing them in all of the offices in the department and they are arriving at either 8 or 9 AM on Monday to begin the job. They are configuring the network in the afternoon and she expects that they are doing the troubleshooting later in the day.

So that the staff in her office do not get distracted by the technicians, she decided to ask them to attend either a Microsoft software training session or a management training seminar. The training is starting on Monday and finishes Wednesday afternoon. If all goes well the network will be up and running by the time all of the employees are in the office on Thursday. When choosing a solution, she had to decide between either a local company or an international supplier. She decided to buy Dell computers because neither local suppliers have 24/7 hotline support. They only have a 9 to 5 help desk shift.

MBA student Albert van Horn
Vrije Universiteit
(Amsterdam)