Zara: IT for Fast Fashion Case Prep

Problem/Issue Statement
The problem in the Zara case is that all of their stores are still running on DOS systems which aren't supported anymore, but they still work fine. So they have to decide if they should keep running DOS and risk their supplier upgrading to something that isn't compatible or upgrade and risk the system having more bugs/issues than they are currently experiencing. The symptoms of the problem are that the DOS operating systems might become outdated and can't handle tasks like inventory management that a modern OS could support. The scope of the project is huge. Zara is a national retail chain with stores all over the world. To upgrade all systems would require a substantial investment in hardware, software, training, setting up data, etc.

Situation Assessment
Zara has recognized the importance of technology since the beginning, however they are at a point now where they don't know if it is worth the investment to upgrade which would disrupt their business at least for implementation and worst case if it involved bugs or issues with operations. If they follow the "if it's not broke don't fix it" mentally they will continue to fall behind modern technology and eventually risk the fact that when an  issue does arise (and it will) there might not be any one left who can assist in solving the problem. In decided what to do they need to look at what would be the best investment over time and cause the least disruption to day to day business operations.

List of Plausible Alternative Courses of Action
Their alternatives are stay the course with the current DOS POS systems and buy up extra inventory to support their needs as they expand into new stores. They could upgrade their systems completely to a modern OS which would be more widely supported and provide features that they currently have. Each option would provide Zara breathing room to continue operating comfortably with either operating system.

Evaluation of Alternatives
Either option is a viable alternative for Zara to consider however if they decided to stay the course with the DOS POS system there will come a time when they will need support or new equipment and it won't be available to them. Even if they do purchase an inventory of systems it may not really benefit them if something happens to the system and they are stuck with an inventory of systems that won't work.

Recommendation
I think the quality/logical recommendation in this case is to upgrade their POS systems to a more modern OS. I think even though it is working fine for them now that time is ticking before something goes wrong. As they have done in the past I think they could slowly move over to a new system starting with the flagship store and rolling it out from there to keep it running smoothly and keeping an eye on potential issues that could pop up.