ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

An extract from a case study in “Information Systems Today - Why IS Matters” by Jessup & Valacich (2006), pg. 58:

“DOMINO’S [Pizza's] inventory system automatically deducts the proper inventory files every time an order is placed. With the help of sophisticated supply-chain-management software, historical demand is calculated into the forecasts for the coming days, store inventories are checked, and orders are placed as necessary, so that the stores neither are over-stocked nor run out of ingredients for their pizzas. For all this to happen, management does not have to intervene, except for approving the order…

“Domino’s stores employ a custom software package that combines Caller ID with their order database to display to the employee the customer’s name, address, phone number, and most recent order. The system can even display special delivery instructions to save time. All customers need to do is call up, say they want the same order as last time, and that is it… the production and delivery processes are automatically set into motion, and the inventory system prepares the reorder report based on the order.”

IMPRESSIVE. To check or not to check this out the next time i place a pizza order?

Bought the Jessup & Valacich book because i’m helping a lecturer with his PBL exercises this semester. Spent about S$30 for this softcover version. But in Amazon.com, the hardcover version is going for US$120.00 !

Having graduated with a B.Sc. (Information Systems), i sure felt a sense of déjà vu. It’s been around 15 years? So much have changed. The case studies are more concrete and yet sci-fi-like than before.

In another case study, from the Web this time: “Thirty-minute delivery: the unspoken, but sought-after standard in the pizza business. Scott Matthew claims his company, Super Fast Pizza, can go from phone call to front porch in half that time. How? His drivers take orders and cook pizzas while on the road in $60,000 mobile kitchens. Sound crazy? It’s not. And the concept is in high gear in Fond du Lac, Wis.”

In yet another case study: “Fair warning to delivery drivers at Big Cheese Pizza: Big Sister is watching. Every move you make, every order you take, Jennifer Dowling will be monitoring you. No, it’s not as sinister as it might sound. Dowling and her partners, who own Big Cheese and two other restaurants in Gallup, N.M., merely are perfecting their pizza delivery system via computer; she knows when every delivery order comes in, how quickly it was cooked, when it left the restaurant, which driver took it and when he returned — without ever setting foot in the store. How does she do it? Big Cheese’s POS system knows all and tells all in real time, on demand and from anywhere Dowling has Web access.”

We are in the Internet age, alright. Anything IS possible now.