Baker College

Post-Improvement: Processes

Sean Hinkle
MGT 321
Thomas Crane
08/02/2017
Information Systems

There are several identifiable information systems at my chosen

company Explain Everything. Explain Everything is a subscription

based mobile cross-platform application created by a small company of

about 40 people. As discussed in the previous portion of this project,

the transaction system used in the app in order to create and pay for

subscriptions. The information is based on the users email and the

subscription is automatically renewed.

The transaction system, while fairly good right now, could of

course be improved. The most important thing that I believe would

improve the system would be to offer more ways to pay for the service.

Currently credit card is the only way to receive a monthly subscription

to Explain Everything. Expanding this could certainly bring in new

users. A lot of prospective users may not have a credit card readily

available and simply not order it. Offering direct bank transfers and

support Paypal or even Bitcoin would make the app more flexible to

consumers.

Another Information system that I identified was the cloud based

storage system called the Discover Portal. This system overall is very

well done, but there is a small thing that would make this system more

effective. Currently users can explore the Discover Portal (hence the

name) and download anyones project to do with what they like.

Organizing the projects into clear categories and rewarding those users
that produce significant content would be a great push to improve the

Discover Portal. I would compare this to Youtubes user content

creation system that drives users to the site. Rewarding those that

create the best content can drive more traffic to the companys site.

Decision Making and Leadership

As discussed in the pre evaluation essay, there isnt an official DSS in

place at Explain Everything. The company analyses search engine

ranking of key terms and that helps them make decisions, but overall

this is not a solid system. While I also cannot find proof that the current

system has resulted in financial loss, I believe that in the future it will.

The company could easily improve this aspect of their business by not

being afraid to spend money on experts to analyze the market and

determine what and who to target. This is best described in an

example that is a microcosm of the companys decision-making

process as a whole.

The example is as follows:

Explain Everything began in 2011 with one app named Explain

Everything. The app was very successful and saw millions of

downloads over the years and was not subscription based, but a one

time purchase. The company also secured several millions of dollars of

funding in that time.

 In January of 2016, a new version of the app was released called

Explain Everything Collaborative Whiteboard (this will be referred to as

EECW). This version of the app was subscription based and featured

online collaborative options. The original app was then retitled Explain

Everything Classic (still the most downloaded version of the app).

Schools were upset by the new EECWs subscription based purchasing

system and Explain Everything decided to release ANOTHER version of

the app titled Explain Everything VPP (Volume Purchase Program- a

discounted purchasing program for schools) that was triple the price of

EECW, but was a one time purchase. This was also confusing because

generally apps purchased via VPP are 50% off the listed price, but

Explain Everything VPP was not (even though it was in the title).

EECWs name was arbitrarily changed to simply Explain Everything

around June of 2016.

So to curb the confusion over the three different apps available

the company decided to get rid of Explain Everything Classic (again,

the most popular version of the app), change Explain Everythings

(formally EECW) name to Explain Everything Interactive Whiteboard,

and change Explain Everything VPPs name to SV (Special Version)

Explain Everything.

If Explain Everything had a decision making process in place and

spent the money on experts that analyze these types of things they
could probably save themselves from the damage caused by all of this

confusion. While there is no proof that this type of decision-making has

lost the company money, I would imagine that it alienated more than a

few customers. Hiring experts to help and facilitate these types of

important decisions would greatly benefit the company.

The biggest improvement in leadership would simply be if they

were more flexible with their decisions about the software and

considered bringing in a 3rd party to help.

Project Management

Explain Everything currently uses Atlassians JIRA software to organize

tasks into sprints. Currently, I believe that this system is very effective

and there isnt much too improve. However, I also believe that the only

reason this system works is because it is a small company with small

teams and people are able to communicate easily and freely. As the

company grows I believe that the current system will become bloated

with tasks and as communication falters due to an influx of employees

the system will begin to erode. Currently one of the owners of the

company will comb through the tasks and make sure that everyone is

accountable. If the company adds even 50 employees this will likely be

completely impossible.

To improve the current system, expanding the sprints and

perhaps creating a physical board for each department would be

useful. Then a 3rd party would not need to comb through the tasks

because they would be visible to everyone and each employee would

be held more accountable. I believe that this would improve the issue.

Ethical Responsibility

Explain Everything is a small company, so its not able to make a large

impact. As discussed in my initial analysis of the company, it does

what it can to maintain ethical integrity as well as give back to the

community. Currently, I believe the only way they could improve is to

give out copies of their software for free for schools that truly need it.

Perhaps hold a competition and allow schools to apply. The chosen

school would have a profile on the website and a free copy of the

software for every student.