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music programs. Not only was he a musician, but also he provided leader-
ship help where he could. Eventually, Bill ended up with an MBA from
Colorado University, thus cementing his career as a music entrepreneur.
After it opened, it didn't take long for Mountain View Music to become
popular with the locals. Customers from Manitou Springs, Colorado
Springs, and the surrounding areas loved the small shop's atmosphere, and
they all got along with Bill.
Mountain View offered competitive prices, and the company had a line
on some hard-to-find items. Because of this, Mountain View received sev-
eral calls a day from customers who wanted to order products and have
them shipped to other parts of the state. In 1995, Bill decided to expand
the business to include mail orders. This move required a substantial in-
vestment in new employees, along with a warehouse from which to ship
products. The warehouse is located near downtown Colorado Springs. Just
as hoped, the mail order arm of Mountain View music took off, and soon
the company was processing about 500 orders per week. This may not
sound like a lot, but considering the average order was about $350, the
mail order arm was pulling in a little more than $170,000 per week.
The next logical step for a successful mail order company in the late
nineties was the big move to e-commerce. Mountain View played with de-
signing its own Web site and started working with a small development
company to achieve a more professional look. By 1999, the site was in full
swing, serving 600 to 700 orders per week. Much to the disappointment of
the local music community, the storefront in Manitou Springs was shut
down in 2000 because it was not as profitable as the online music store.
Despite some bumps in the road after the dot-com bubble burst,
Mountain View Music came through and is still running. At this point,
Mountain View Music has the typical problem you will see in formerly
small companies: a disjointed use of IT. Because the company started as a
small retail location, it started with everything on pen and paper. Since its
beginnings, a few computers have been brought in, and some of the com-
pany's information has slowly migrated to spreadsheets and a few third-
party applications. Much of this information is redundant, and keeping
everything straight has become a bit daunting.
This is where we come into the picture. Mountain View has brought in
an outside consulting firm to help it redesign its systems. We are that firm's
database designers. The project is a complete redesign of the current order
management systems. Mountain View wants a single application with a sin-
gle database that can manage its business. Because all the financial and ac-
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