###BeginCaseStudy###
Case Study# 3
Corporate Information and Physical Locations
A Datum Corporation is a midsize consumer marketing company based in Denver, Colorado,
that has a number of regional offices. A.Datum provides marketing consulting and services to
customers across the United States. A.Datum has enjoyed steady revenue growth during the past
decade, earning approximate annual revenues of $50 million.
EXISTING ENVIRONMENT
The company has an incentive program whereby Engagement Managers and Engagement staff
are rewarded for reducing project costs. In addition, rewards are increased exponentially with the
number of hours billed and/or the number of staff assigned to a project. Despite these incentives,
however, staff turnover has increased.
Existing Business Processes
A.Datum has the following business processes:
Business process for hiring new employees – Each office is responsible for its own hiring. New
employees are required to complete a variety of paper forms that are faxed to the Human
Resources department in Denver. The information is then entered manually into a third-party
human resources database system. Business process for assigning resouces to customer
projects – For each new project that A.Datum starts, an Engagement Manager selects an
Engagement Team based on the manager’s preferences, the team member’s availability, and the
project’s requirements. Business process for drafting proposals – Proposal drafting and
opportunity management are handled by the regional offices and are responsible for the primary
source of revenue for A.Datum. Proposals are developed by a team of four to five Engagement
Team members and generally take one to three weeks to complete. Each team member
dedicates between six and 10 hours to building one of the many sections of the proposal. Team
members collaborate on documents by using e-mail. All proposals are reviewed by the regional
office lead prior to being submintted. Business process for project collaboration – Documents and
materials for A.Datum’s client projects are usually developed and reviewed collaboratively by the
Engagement Manager and the Engagement Team members. Collaboration is facilitated by using
e-mail.
Existing Technology Infrastructure
The technology infrastructure is managed at corporate headquarters in Denver. The company
currently has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft, but has not deployed Windows Vista
or Microsoft Office 2007.
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
Planned Changes
The company is experiencing a decline in new business, so management is planning to freeze
new employee hiring to reduce costs.
Problem Statements
Manual routing and data entry processes cause delays in new employee onboarding and
inaccurate data entry. Scheduling of resources is a problem when projects take longer than
anticipated, creating resource shortages for other engagements, and pushing back start dates
leaving staff underutilized. Engagement Team members are often asked to help develop sales
proposals, usually in addition to their current engagements. The current drafting process is
manually intensive, and employees must recreate similar content from proposal to proposal.
Multiple versions of documents cause issue with versioning and unnecessary utilization of server
storage. The CIO has stressed the importance of improving the company’s underlying technology
infrastructure, but most of the staff is wary of technological change.

Business Goal
The President of A.Datum wants to increase revenue by 10 percent and decrease overhead by
10 percent during the next 10 months. A.Datum of initiatives are underway to reduce costs,
though little has been done to increase revenue.
INTERVIEWEES
Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Supports the IT Directors.
Provides insight into current technology and technology initiatives.
Regional Office Lead
Financial responsibilities with full insight into administrative overhead.
Provides insight into management practice variance across offices, and highlights additional
challenges not covered by corporate.
Engagement Manager
Mid-level manager in charge of engagement delivery.
Makes staffing, resource, and delivery decisions.
Provides insight into problems and opportunities relating to customer engagements.
Engagement Team Member
General Information Worker (IW), supporting the Engagement Manager.
End-user of Microsoft technology, responsible for content development and delivery.
Deputy Director of Human Resources (HR)
Supports Director of HR and key influencer in resource assignment decisions.
May gather HR feedback on different processes that touch HR.
Deputy Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Supports the CFO to manage the organization’s finances and financial reporting.
###EndCaseStudy###

You are evaluating a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 solution that reduces the amount
of time required to draft proposals for A. Datum. A. Datum provides their current process state
diagram as shown in the exhibit. (Click the Exhibit button.) You need to identify which process
steps the SharePoint Server solution will most substantially affect. Which two process steps
should you identify? (Each correct answer presents part of the solution. Choose two.)

###BeginCaseStudy###
Case Study# 3
Corporate Information and Physical Locations
A Datum Corporation is a midsize consumer marketing company based in Denver, Colorado,
that has a number of regional offices. A.Datum provides marketing consulting and services to
customers across the United States. A.Datum has enjoyed steady revenue growth during the past
decade, earning approximate annual revenues of $50 million.
EXISTING ENVIRONMENT
The company has an incentive program whereby Engagement Managers and Engagement staff
are rewarded for reducing project costs. In addition, rewards are increased exponentially with the
number of hours billed and/or the number of staff assigned to a project. Despite these incentives,
however, staff turnover has increased.
Existing Business Processes
A.Datum has the following business processes:
Business process for hiring new employees – Each office is responsible for its own hiring. New
employees are required to complete a variety of paper forms that are faxed to the Human
Resources department in Denver. The information is then entered manually into a third-party
human resources database system. Business process for assigning resouces to customer
projects – For each new project that A.Datum starts, an Engagement Manager selects an
Engagement Team based on the manager’s preferences, the team member’s availability, and the
project’s requirements. Business process for drafting proposals – Proposal drafting and
opportunity management are handled by the regional offices and are responsible for the primary
source of revenue for A.Datum. Proposals are developed by a team of four to five Engagement
Team members and generally take one to three weeks to complete. Each team member
dedicates between six and 10 hours to building one of the many sections of the proposal. Team
members collaborate on documents by using e-mail. All proposals are reviewed by the regional
office lead prior to being submintted. Business process for project collaboration – Documents and
materials for A.Datum’s client projects are usually developed and reviewed collaboratively by the
Engagement Manager and the Engagement Team members. Collaboration is facilitated by using
e-mail.
Existing Technology Infrastructure
The technology infrastructure is managed at corporate headquarters in Denver. The company
currently has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft, but has not deployed Windows Vista
or Microsoft Office 2007.
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
Planned Changes
The company is experiencing a decline in new business, so management is planning to freeze
new employee hiring to reduce costs.
Problem Statements
Manual routing and data entry processes cause delays in new employee onboarding and
inaccurate data entry. Scheduling of resources is a problem when projects take longer than
anticipated, creating resource shortages for other engagements, and pushing back start dates
leaving staff underutilized. Engagement Team members are often asked to help develop sales
proposals, usually in addition to their current engagements. The current drafting process is
manually intensive, and employees must recreate similar content from proposal to proposal.
Multiple versions of documents cause issue with versioning and unnecessary utilization of server
storage. The CIO has stressed the importance of improving the company’s underlying technology
infrastructure, but most of the staff is wary of technological change.

Business Goal
The President of A.Datum wants to increase revenue by 10 percent and decrease overhead by
10 percent during the next 10 months. A.Datum of initiatives are underway to reduce costs,
though little has been done to increase revenue.
INTERVIEWEES
Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Supports the IT Directors.
Provides insight into current technology and technology initiatives.
Regional Office Lead
Financial responsibilities with full insight into administrative overhead.
Provides insight into management practice variance across offices, and highlights additional
challenges not covered by corporate.
Engagement Manager
Mid-level manager in charge of engagement delivery.
Makes staffing, resource, and delivery decisions.
Provides insight into problems and opportunities relating to customer engagements.
Engagement Team Member
General Information Worker (IW), supporting the Engagement Manager.
End-user of Microsoft technology, responsible for content development and delivery.
Deputy Director of Human Resources (HR)
Supports Director of HR and key influencer in resource assignment decisions.
May gather HR feedback on different processes that touch HR.
Deputy Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Supports the CFO to manage the organization’s finances and financial reporting.
###EndCaseStudy###

You need to identify which outcome of the current proposal development process has had the
least business impact on A. Datums business. Which outcome should you identify?

###BeginCaseStudy###
Case Study# 3
Corporate Information and Physical Locations
A Datum Corporation is a midsize consumer marketing company based in Denver, Colorado,
that has a number of regional offices. A.Datum provides marketing consulting and services to
customers across the United States. A.Datum has enjoyed steady revenue growth during the past
decade, earning approximate annual revenues of $50 million.
EXISTING ENVIRONMENT
The company has an incentive program whereby Engagement Managers and Engagement staff
are rewarded for reducing project costs. In addition, rewards are increased exponentially with the
number of hours billed and/or the number of staff assigned to a project. Despite these incentives,
however, staff turnover has increased.
Existing Business Processes
A.Datum has the following business processes:
Business process for hiring new employees – Each office is responsible for its own hiring. New
employees are required to complete a variety of paper forms that are faxed to the Human
Resources department in Denver. The information is then entered manually into a third-party
human resources database system. Business process for assigning resouces to customer
projects – For each new project that A.Datum starts, an Engagement Manager selects an
Engagement Team based on the manager’s preferences, the team member’s availability, and the
project’s requirements. Business process for drafting proposals – Proposal drafting and
opportunity management are handled by the regional offices and are responsible for the primary
source of revenue for A.Datum. Proposals are developed by a team of four to five Engagement
Team members and generally take one to three weeks to complete. Each team member
dedicates between six and 10 hours to building one of the many sections of the proposal. Team
members collaborate on documents by using e-mail. All proposals are reviewed by the regional
office lead prior to being submintted. Business process for project collaboration – Documents and
materials for A.Datum’s client projects are usually developed and reviewed collaboratively by the
Engagement Manager and the Engagement Team members. Collaboration is facilitated by using
e-mail.
Existing Technology Infrastructure
The technology infrastructure is managed at corporate headquarters in Denver. The company
currently has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft, but has not deployed Windows Vista
or Microsoft Office 2007.
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
Planned Changes
The company is experiencing a decline in new business, so management is planning to freeze
new employee hiring to reduce costs.
Problem Statements
Manual routing and data entry processes cause delays in new employee onboarding and
inaccurate data entry. Scheduling of resources is a problem when projects take longer than
anticipated, creating resource shortages for other engagements, and pushing back start dates
leaving staff underutilized. Engagement Team members are often asked to help develop sales
proposals, usually in addition to their current engagements. The current drafting process is
manually intensive, and employees must recreate similar content from proposal to proposal.
Multiple versions of documents cause issue with versioning and unnecessary utilization of server
storage. The CIO has stressed the importance of improving the company’s underlying technology
infrastructure, but most of the staff is wary of technological change.

Business Goal
The President of A.Datum wants to increase revenue by 10 percent and decrease overhead by
10 percent during the next 10 months. A.Datum of initiatives are underway to reduce costs,
though little has been done to increase revenue.
INTERVIEWEES
Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Supports the IT Directors.
Provides insight into current technology and technology initiatives.
Regional Office Lead
Financial responsibilities with full insight into administrative overhead.
Provides insight into management practice variance across offices, and highlights additional
challenges not covered by corporate.
Engagement Manager
Mid-level manager in charge of engagement delivery.
Makes staffing, resource, and delivery decisions.
Provides insight into problems and opportunities relating to customer engagements.
Engagement Team Member
General Information Worker (IW), supporting the Engagement Manager.
End-user of Microsoft technology, responsible for content development and delivery.
Deputy Director of Human Resources (HR)
Supports Director of HR and key influencer in resource assignment decisions.
May gather HR feedback on different processes that touch HR.
Deputy Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Supports the CFO to manage the organization’s finances and financial reporting.
###EndCaseStudy###

You need to document the current state of A.Datum’s proposal development process.
What is the current state of the proposal development process? To answer, move the appropriate
processes from the list of processes to the answer area and arrange them in the correct order.

###BeginCaseStudy###
Case Study# 3
Corporate Information and Physical Locations
A Datum Corporation is a midsize consumer marketing company based in Denver, Colorado,
that has a number of regional offices. A.Datum provides marketing consulting and services to
customers across the United States. A.Datum has enjoyed steady revenue growth during the past
decade, earning approximate annual revenues of $50 million.
EXISTING ENVIRONMENT
The company has an incentive program whereby Engagement Managers and Engagement staff
are rewarded for reducing project costs. In addition, rewards are increased exponentially with the
number of hours billed and/or the number of staff assigned to a project. Despite these incentives,
however, staff turnover has increased.
Existing Business Processes
A.Datum has the following business processes:
Business process for hiring new employees – Each office is responsible for its own hiring. New
employees are required to complete a variety of paper forms that are faxed to the Human
Resources department in Denver. The information is then entered manually into a third-party
human resources database system. Business process for assigning resouces to customer
projects – For each new project that A.Datum starts, an Engagement Manager selects an
Engagement Team based on the manager’s preferences, the team member’s availability, and the
project’s requirements. Business process for drafting proposals – Proposal drafting and
opportunity management are handled by the regional offices and are responsible for the primary
source of revenue for A.Datum. Proposals are developed by a team of four to five Engagement
Team members and generally take one to three weeks to complete. Each team member
dedicates between six and 10 hours to building one of the many sections of the proposal. Team
members collaborate on documents by using e-mail. All proposals are reviewed by the regional
office lead prior to being submintted. Business process for project collaboration – Documents and
materials for A.Datum’s client projects are usually developed and reviewed collaboratively by the
Engagement Manager and the Engagement Team members. Collaboration is facilitated by using
e-mail.
Existing Technology Infrastructure
The technology infrastructure is managed at corporate headquarters in Denver. The company
currently has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft, but has not deployed Windows Vista
or Microsoft Office 2007.
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
Planned Changes
The company is experiencing a decline in new business, so management is planning to freeze
new employee hiring to reduce costs.
Problem Statements
Manual routing and data entry processes cause delays in new employee onboarding and
inaccurate data entry. Scheduling of resources is a problem when projects take longer than
anticipated, creating resource shortages for other engagements, and pushing back start dates
leaving staff underutilized. Engagement Team members are often asked to help develop sales
proposals, usually in addition to their current engagements. The current drafting process is
manually intensive, and employees must recreate similar content from proposal to proposal.
Multiple versions of documents cause issue with versioning and unnecessary utilization of server
storage. The CIO has stressed the importance of improving the company’s underlying technology
infrastructure, but most of the staff is wary of technological change.

Business Goal
The President of A.Datum wants to increase revenue by 10 percent and decrease overhead by
10 percent during the next 10 months. A.Datum of initiatives are underway to reduce costs,
though little has been done to increase revenue.
INTERVIEWEES
Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Supports the IT Directors.
Provides insight into current technology and technology initiatives.
Regional Office Lead
Financial responsibilities with full insight into administrative overhead.
Provides insight into management practice variance across offices, and highlights additional
challenges not covered by corporate.
Engagement Manager
Mid-level manager in charge of engagement delivery.
Makes staffing, resource, and delivery decisions.
Provides insight into problems and opportunities relating to customer engagements.
Engagement Team Member
General Information Worker (IW), supporting the Engagement Manager.
End-user of Microsoft technology, responsible for content development and delivery.
Deputy Director of Human Resources (HR)
Supports Director of HR and key influencer in resource assignment decisions.
May gather HR feedback on different processes that touch HR.
Deputy Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Supports the CFO to manage the organization’s finances and financial reporting.
###EndCaseStudy###

You propose a solution to Woodgrove Bank. The bank responds that the proposed solution is too
expensive and will take too long to implement. You need to identify which negotiation points will
likely convince Woodgrove Bank to purchase the proposed solution. Which two negotiation points
should you identify? (Each correct answer presents part of the solution. Choose two.)

###BeginCaseStudy###
Case Study# 3
Corporate Information and Physical Locations
A Datum Corporation is a midsize consumer marketing company based in Denver, Colorado,
that has a number of regional offices. A.Datum provides marketing consulting and services to
customers across the United States. A.Datum has enjoyed steady revenue growth during the past
decade, earning approximate annual revenues of $50 million.
EXISTING ENVIRONMENT
The company has an incentive program whereby Engagement Managers and Engagement staff
are rewarded for reducing project costs. In addition, rewards are increased exponentially with the
number of hours billed and/or the number of staff assigned to a project. Despite these incentives,
however, staff turnover has increased.
Existing Business Processes
A.Datum has the following business processes:
Business process for hiring new employees – Each office is responsible for its own hiring. New
employees are required to complete a variety of paper forms that are faxed to the Human
Resources department in Denver. The information is then entered manually into a third-party
human resources database system. Business process for assigning resouces to customer
projects – For each new project that A.Datum starts, an Engagement Manager selects an
Engagement Team based on the manager’s preferences, the team member’s availability, and the
project’s requirements. Business process for drafting proposals – Proposal drafting and
opportunity management are handled by the regional offices and are responsible for the primary
source of revenue for A.Datum. Proposals are developed by a team of four to five Engagement
Team members and generally take one to three weeks to complete. Each team member
dedicates between six and 10 hours to building one of the many sections of the proposal. Team
members collaborate on documents by using e-mail. All proposals are reviewed by the regional
office lead prior to being submintted. Business process for project collaboration – Documents and
materials for A.Datum’s client projects are usually developed and reviewed collaboratively by the
Engagement Manager and the Engagement Team members. Collaboration is facilitated by using
e-mail.
Existing Technology Infrastructure
The technology infrastructure is managed at corporate headquarters in Denver. The company
currently has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft, but has not deployed Windows Vista
or Microsoft Office 2007.
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
Planned Changes
The company is experiencing a decline in new business, so management is planning to freeze
new employee hiring to reduce costs.
Problem Statements
Manual routing and data entry processes cause delays in new employee onboarding and
inaccurate data entry. Scheduling of resources is a problem when projects take longer than
anticipated, creating resource shortages for other engagements, and pushing back start dates
leaving staff underutilized. Engagement Team members are often asked to help develop sales
proposals, usually in addition to their current engagements. The current drafting process is
manually intensive, and employees must recreate similar content from proposal to proposal.
Multiple versions of documents cause issue with versioning and unnecessary utilization of server
storage. The CIO has stressed the importance of improving the company’s underlying technology
infrastructure, but most of the staff is wary of technological change.

Business Goal
The President of A.Datum wants to increase revenue by 10 percent and decrease overhead by
10 percent during the next 10 months. A.Datum of initiatives are underway to reduce costs,
though little has been done to increase revenue.
INTERVIEWEES
Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Supports the IT Directors.
Provides insight into current technology and technology initiatives.
Regional Office Lead
Financial responsibilities with full insight into administrative overhead.
Provides insight into management practice variance across offices, and highlights additional
challenges not covered by corporate.
Engagement Manager
Mid-level manager in charge of engagement delivery.
Makes staffing, resource, and delivery decisions.
Provides insight into problems and opportunities relating to customer engagements.
Engagement Team Member
General Information Worker (IW), supporting the Engagement Manager.
End-user of Microsoft technology, responsible for content development and delivery.
Deputy Director of Human Resources (HR)
Supports Director of HR and key influencer in resource assignment decisions.
May gather HR feedback on different processes that touch HR.
Deputy Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Supports the CFO to manage the organization’s finances and financial reporting.
###EndCaseStudy###

You are evaluating a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 solution that reduces the amount
of time required to draft proposals for A. Datum. You plan to create an adoption and
implementation plan for the proposed solution. You need to identify the most likely complication to
the proposed solution. Which complication should you identify?

###BeginCaseStudy###
Case Study# 3
Corporate Information and Physical Locations
A Datum Corporation is a midsize consumer marketing company based in Denver, Colorado,
that has a number of regional offices. A.Datum provides marketing consulting and services to
customers across the United States. A.Datum has enjoyed steady revenue growth during the past
decade, earning approximate annual revenues of $50 million.
EXISTING ENVIRONMENT
The company has an incentive program whereby Engagement Managers and Engagement staff
are rewarded for reducing project costs. In addition, rewards are increased exponentially with the
number of hours billed and/or the number of staff assigned to a project. Despite these incentives,
however, staff turnover has increased.
Existing Business Processes
A.Datum has the following business processes:
Business process for hiring new employees – Each office is responsible for its own hiring. New
employees are required to complete a variety of paper forms that are faxed to the Human
Resources department in Denver. The information is then entered manually into a third-party
human resources database system. Business process for assigning resouces to customer
projects – For each new project that A.Datum starts, an Engagement Manager selects an
Engagement Team based on the manager’s preferences, the team member’s availability, and the
project’s requirements. Business process for drafting proposals – Proposal drafting and
opportunity management are handled by the regional offices and are responsible for the primary
source of revenue for A.Datum. Proposals are developed by a team of four to five Engagement
Team members and generally take one to three weeks to complete. Each team member
dedicates between six and 10 hours to building one of the many sections of the proposal. Team
members collaborate on documents by using e-mail. All proposals are reviewed by the regional
office lead prior to being submintted. Business process for project collaboration – Documents and
materials for A.Datum’s client projects are usually developed and reviewed collaboratively by the
Engagement Manager and the Engagement Team members. Collaboration is facilitated by using
e-mail.
Existing Technology Infrastructure
The technology infrastructure is managed at corporate headquarters in Denver. The company
currently has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft, but has not deployed Windows Vista
or Microsoft Office 2007.
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
Planned Changes
The company is experiencing a decline in new business, so management is planning to freeze
new employee hiring to reduce costs.
Problem Statements
Manual routing and data entry processes cause delays in new employee onboarding and
inaccurate data entry. Scheduling of resources is a problem when projects take longer than
anticipated, creating resource shortages for other engagements, and pushing back start dates
leaving staff underutilized. Engagement Team members are often asked to help develop sales
proposals, usually in addition to their current engagements. The current drafting process is
manually intensive, and employees must recreate similar content from proposal to proposal.
Multiple versions of documents cause issue with versioning and unnecessary utilization of server
storage. The CIO has stressed the importance of improving the company’s underlying technology
infrastructure, but most of the staff is wary of technological change.

Business Goal
The President of A.Datum wants to increase revenue by 10 percent and decrease overhead by
10 percent during the next 10 months. A.Datum of initiatives are underway to reduce costs,
though little has been done to increase revenue.
INTERVIEWEES
Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Supports the IT Directors.
Provides insight into current technology and technology initiatives.
Regional Office Lead
Financial responsibilities with full insight into administrative overhead.
Provides insight into management practice variance across offices, and highlights additional
challenges not covered by corporate.
Engagement Manager
Mid-level manager in charge of engagement delivery.
Makes staffing, resource, and delivery decisions.
Provides insight into problems and opportunities relating to customer engagements.
Engagement Team Member
General Information Worker (IW), supporting the Engagement Manager.
End-user of Microsoft technology, responsible for content development and delivery.
Deputy Director of Human Resources (HR)
Supports Director of HR and key influencer in resource assignment decisions.
May gather HR feedback on different processes that touch HR.
Deputy Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Supports the CFO to manage the organization’s finances and financial reporting.
###EndCaseStudy###

You need to recommend enhancing the use of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server to address A.
Datums proposal development process challenges. Which of the following enhancements should
you recommend?

###BeginCaseStudy###
Case Study# 3
Corporate Information and Physical Locations
A Datum Corporation is a midsize consumer marketing company based in Denver, Colorado,
that has a number of regional offices. A.Datum provides marketing consulting and services to
customers across the United States. A.Datum has enjoyed steady revenue growth during the past
decade, earning approximate annual revenues of $50 million.
EXISTING ENVIRONMENT
The company has an incentive program whereby Engagement Managers and Engagement staff
are rewarded for reducing project costs. In addition, rewards are increased exponentially with the
number of hours billed and/or the number of staff assigned to a project. Despite these incentives,
however, staff turnover has increased.
Existing Business Processes
A.Datum has the following business processes:
Business process for hiring new employees – Each office is responsible for its own hiring. New
employees are required to complete a variety of paper forms that are faxed to the Human
Resources department in Denver. The information is then entered manually into a third-party
human resources database system. Business process for assigning resouces to customer
projects – For each new project that A.Datum starts, an Engagement Manager selects an
Engagement Team based on the manager’s preferences, the team member’s availability, and the
project’s requirements. Business process for drafting proposals – Proposal drafting and
opportunity management are handled by the regional offices and are responsible for the primary
source of revenue for A.Datum. Proposals are developed by a team of four to five Engagement
Team members and generally take one to three weeks to complete. Each team member
dedicates between six and 10 hours to building one of the many sections of the proposal. Team
members collaborate on documents by using e-mail. All proposals are reviewed by the regional
office lead prior to being submintted. Business process for project collaboration – Documents and
materials for A.Datum’s client projects are usually developed and reviewed collaboratively by the
Engagement Manager and the Engagement Team members. Collaboration is facilitated by using
e-mail.
Existing Technology Infrastructure
The technology infrastructure is managed at corporate headquarters in Denver. The company
currently has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft, but has not deployed Windows Vista
or Microsoft Office 2007.
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
Planned Changes
The company is experiencing a decline in new business, so management is planning to freeze
new employee hiring to reduce costs.
Problem Statements
Manual routing and data entry processes cause delays in new employee onboarding and
inaccurate data entry. Scheduling of resources is a problem when projects take longer than
anticipated, creating resource shortages for other engagements, and pushing back start dates
leaving staff underutilized. Engagement Team members are often asked to help develop sales
proposals, usually in addition to their current engagements. The current drafting process is
manually intensive, and employees must recreate similar content from proposal to proposal.
Multiple versions of documents cause issue with versioning and unnecessary utilization of server
storage. The CIO has stressed the importance of improving the company’s underlying technology
infrastructure, but most of the staff is wary of technological change.

Business Goal
The President of A.Datum wants to increase revenue by 10 percent and decrease overhead by
10 percent during the next 10 months. A.Datum of initiatives are underway to reduce costs,
though little has been done to increase revenue.
INTERVIEWEES
Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Supports the IT Directors.
Provides insight into current technology and technology initiatives.
Regional Office Lead
Financial responsibilities with full insight into administrative overhead.
Provides insight into management practice variance across offices, and highlights additional
challenges not covered by corporate.
Engagement Manager
Mid-level manager in charge of engagement delivery.
Makes staffing, resource, and delivery decisions.
Provides insight into problems and opportunities relating to customer engagements.
Engagement Team Member
General Information Worker (IW), supporting the Engagement Manager.
End-user of Microsoft technology, responsible for content development and delivery.
Deputy Director of Human Resources (HR)
Supports Director of HR and key influencer in resource assignment decisions.
May gather HR feedback on different processes that touch HR.
Deputy Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Supports the CFO to manage the organization’s finances and financial reporting.
###EndCaseStudy###

You need to identify and analyze a business process for a business value planning services
(BVPS) engagement. Which business process should you analyze to best support the current
situation and business goals of A. Datum?

###BeginCaseStudy###
Case Study# 3
Corporate Information and Physical Locations
A Datum Corporation is a midsize consumer marketing company based in Denver, Colorado,
that has a number of regional offices. A.Datum provides marketing consulting and services to
customers across the United States. A.Datum has enjoyed steady revenue growth during the past
decade, earning approximate annual revenues of $50 million.
EXISTING ENVIRONMENT
The company has an incentive program whereby Engagement Managers and Engagement staff
are rewarded for reducing project costs. In addition, rewards are increased exponentially with the
number of hours billed and/or the number of staff assigned to a project. Despite these incentives,
however, staff turnover has increased.
Existing Business Processes
A.Datum has the following business processes:
Business process for hiring new employees – Each office is responsible for its own hiring. New
employees are required to complete a variety of paper forms that are faxed to the Human
Resources department in Denver. The information is then entered manually into a third-party
human resources database system. Business process for assigning resouces to customer
projects – For each new project that A.Datum starts, an Engagement Manager selects an
Engagement Team based on the manager’s preferences, the team member’s availability, and the
project’s requirements. Business process for drafting proposals – Proposal drafting and
opportunity management are handled by the regional offices and are responsible for the primary
source of revenue for A.Datum. Proposals are developed by a team of four to five Engagement
Team members and generally take one to three weeks to complete. Each team member
dedicates between six and 10 hours to building one of the many sections of the proposal. Team
members collaborate on documents by using e-mail. All proposals are reviewed by the regional
office lead prior to being submintted. Business process for project collaboration – Documents and
materials for A.Datum’s client projects are usually developed and reviewed collaboratively by the
Engagement Manager and the Engagement Team members. Collaboration is facilitated by using
e-mail.
Existing Technology Infrastructure
The technology infrastructure is managed at corporate headquarters in Denver. The company
currently has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft, but has not deployed Windows Vista
or Microsoft Office 2007.
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
Planned Changes
The company is experiencing a decline in new business, so management is planning to freeze
new employee hiring to reduce costs.
Problem Statements
Manual routing and data entry processes cause delays in new employee onboarding and
inaccurate data entry. Scheduling of resources is a problem when projects take longer than
anticipated, creating resource shortages for other engagements, and pushing back start dates
leaving staff underutilized. Engagement Team members are often asked to help develop sales
proposals, usually in addition to their current engagements. The current drafting process is
manually intensive, and employees must recreate similar content from proposal to proposal.
Multiple versions of documents cause issue with versioning and unnecessary utilization of server
storage. The CIO has stressed the importance of improving the company’s underlying technology
infrastructure, but most of the staff is wary of technological change.

Business Goal
The President of A.Datum wants to increase revenue by 10 percent and decrease overhead by
10 percent during the next 10 months. A.Datum of initiatives are underway to reduce costs,
though little has been done to increase revenue.
INTERVIEWEES
Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Supports the IT Directors.
Provides insight into current technology and technology initiatives.
Regional Office Lead
Financial responsibilities with full insight into administrative overhead.
Provides insight into management practice variance across offices, and highlights additional
challenges not covered by corporate.
Engagement Manager
Mid-level manager in charge of engagement delivery.
Makes staffing, resource, and delivery decisions.
Provides insight into problems and opportunities relating to customer engagements.
Engagement Team Member
General Information Worker (IW), supporting the Engagement Manager.
End-user of Microsoft technology, responsible for content development and delivery.
Deputy Director of Human Resources (HR)
Supports Director of HR and key influencer in resource assignment decisions.
May gather HR feedback on different processes that touch HR.
Deputy Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Supports the CFO to manage the organization’s finances and financial reporting.
###EndCaseStudy###

The recommended proposal development process requires an initial investment of $180,000 and
annual operational costs of $20,000. You need to identify how much annual revenue must be
generated to achieve a complete return on investment in three years. Which amount should you
identify?

###BeginCaseStudy###
Case Study# 5
Corporate Information and Physical Locations
Contoso, Ltd, produces waterproofing materials used in multiple applications including clothing
and outdoor construction. Contoso has 8,000 employees and expects employee growth of three
percent in the next year. The Sales department (Sales) has 200 sales staff scattered throughout
the company’s 20 global offices. Sales is responsible for about 75 percent of the company’s
revence stream. Annual revenue is $1 billion.
EXISTING ENVIRONMENT
Existing Business Processes
Opportunity Development:
Sales Executives maintain customer contact information in Microsoft Office Outlook.
Sales Executives use Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office Excel templates to generate:
Pipeline reports
Business profies
Opportunity profiles
Opportunity assessments
Existing Technology Infrastructure
Contoso has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) that includes Microsoft Office 2007. Currently, Office
2003 is deployed to all users. Contoso uses Outlook to manage calendars and business contacts.
Contoso uses Word templates for account planning. The Sales department has a third-party
customer relationship management (CRM) application named App1. App1 opens multiple
windows to access the calendar, contacts, workflows, progress reports, and customer
information. App1 has a data connection service that enables users to access the application
data by using Office 2007.
###EndCaseStudy###

You need to identify which key business decision maker at Contoso is responsible for approving a
sales improvement project. Who should you identify?

###BeginCaseStudy###
Case Study# 5
Corporate Information and Physical Locations
Contoso, Ltd, produces waterproofing materials used in multiple applications including clothing
and outdoor construction. Contoso has 8,000 employees and expects employee growth of three
percent in the next year. The Sales department (Sales) has 200 sales staff scattered throughout
the company’s 20 global offices. Sales is responsible for about 75 percent of the company’s
revence stream. Annual revenue is $1 billion.
EXISTING ENVIRONMENT
Existing Business Processes
Opportunity Development:
Sales Executives maintain customer contact information in Microsoft Office Outlook.
Sales Executives use Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office Excel templates to generate:
Pipeline reports
Business profies
Opportunity profiles
Opportunity assessments
Existing Technology Infrastructure
Contoso has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) that includes Microsoft Office 2007. Currently, Office
2003 is deployed to all users. Contoso uses Outlook to manage calendars and business contacts.
Contoso uses Word templates for account planning. The Sales department has a third-party
customer relationship management (CRM) application named App1. App1 opens multiple
windows to access the calendar, contacts, workflows, progress reports, and customer
information. App1 has a data connection service that enables users to access the application
data by using Office 2007.
###EndCaseStudy###

You need to calculate the key benefit for the Contoso sales team. What should you calculate?