HEFTY HARDWARE CASE STUDY
HEFTY HARDWARE CASE STUDY
SRIHARINI GUTTA
Wilmington University
Contents
HEFTY HARWARE CASE STUDY 4
INTRODUCTION 4
PROBLEMS 4
IT & BUSINESS ALIGNMENT 6
CHALLENGES IN IT & BUSINESS ALIGNMENT 7
IMPROVING IT & BUSINESS ALIGNMENT 8
CHANGING VOCABULARY 8
CREATE BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP MANAGERS 8
ESTABLISH GOVERNANCE PROCESS 8
AVOIDING COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWNS 9
CIO: 9
ANALYSIS: 10
BRIDGING COMMUNICATION GAP BETWEEN BUSINESS & IT 10
WORKING COLLABORATIVELY 11
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 11
CONCLUSION 13
List of Figures
Fig 1: IT and Business Alignment – Holy Grail or Fools Gold ………………………………………7
Fig 2:360-Degree Business & Technology Alignment Assessment. ………………………………...9
HEFTY HARWARE CASE STUDY
INTRODUCTION
Hefty hardware store is one of the leading hardware stores in USA with 1000 stores. The business management is planning on developing Savvy stores to become first store in Northern America to integrate multimedia and digital information into each of its 1000 stores. Success of the company was built on its excellent supply chain logistics and the assortment of products in its stores. IT played a huge role in it. Company is planning on developing strategies like adopting some of the European initiatives like self service to improve check out, multi channel access to information inside the stores to enable browsing an extended product base and better support sales associates assisting customers, multimedia to engage customers with extended product knowledge. To develop new savvy store strategy IT would be very critical to make sure products were available when costumers wanted them and every store associate has proper information to answer customer questions. In order to efficiently achieve these goals business and IT departments should work collectively and collaboratively. In this case study the business and IT department are having problems like communication gap and are not working collaboratively towards the goal.
SRIHARINI GUTTA
Wilmington University
Contents
HEFTY HARWARE CASE STUDY 4
INTRODUCTION 4
PROBLEMS 4
IT & BUSINESS ALIGNMENT 6
CHALLENGES IN IT & BUSINESS ALIGNMENT 7
IMPROVING IT & BUSINESS ALIGNMENT 8
CHANGING VOCABULARY 8
CREATE BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP MANAGERS 8
ESTABLISH GOVERNANCE PROCESS 8
AVOIDING COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWNS 9
CIO: 9
ANALYSIS: 10
BRIDGING COMMUNICATION GAP BETWEEN BUSINESS & IT 10
WORKING COLLABORATIVELY 11
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 11
CONCLUSION 13
List of Figures
Fig 1: IT and Business Alignment – Holy Grail or Fools Gold ………………………………………7
Fig 2:360-Degree Business & Technology Alignment Assessment. ………………………………...9
HEFTY HARWARE CASE STUDY
INTRODUCTION
Hefty hardware store is one of the leading hardware stores in USA with 1000 stores. The business management is planning on developing Savvy stores to become first store in Northern America to integrate multimedia and digital information into each of its 1000 stores. Success of the company was built on its excellent supply chain logistics and the assortment of products in its stores. IT played a huge role in it. Company is planning on developing strategies like adopting some of the European initiatives like self service to improve check out, multi channel access to information inside the stores to enable browsing an extended product base and better support sales associates assisting customers, multimedia to engage customers with extended product knowledge. To develop new savvy store strategy IT would be very critical to make sure products were available when costumers wanted them and every store associate has proper information to answer customer questions. In order to efficiently achieve these goals business and IT departments should work collectively and collaboratively. In this case study the business and IT department are having problems like communication gap and are not working collaboratively towards the goal.
References: Jahnke Art Jun 1, 2004, Sound off – Why is Business and IT alignment so Difficult, CIO, Retrieved from, http://www.cio.com/article/2439612/business-alignment/sound-off---why-is-business-it-alignment-so-difficult-.html.