Dr. Uwe Matulovic Bianca Fassnacht November 27, 2007 Volkswagen of America: Managing IT Priorities
Comment [MLW1]: Great job, Bianca. With your permission I would like to use this as an example for future students. GRADE: 100%
This recommends helping the business unit executive for supply flow to make an argument for funding the yet unfunded supply flow project from alternative sources and to strengthen the executive’s position in doing so. Implementation of this exception-handling process will take place within 5 days of approval. As a result, the most important strategic goals of VWoA will still remain in focus and the new prioritization process will not have to be reopened. Thus, resistance and fighting against the new prioritization process can be prohibited and at the same time a potential conflict with the parent company due to impeding their globalization initiatives can be resolved. Consistency in the prioritization process of the enterprise’s IT projects and reduced costs will result from these actions. The implementation of the new IT project approval process led to the fact, that a SCM project with high importance to the global level of the organization did not get funding as it does not show significant value at VWoA level. Top-ranked NRG goals such as “build brand customer loyalty” or “improve vehicle value” are not addressed directly with this project, whereas stopping it would lead to a major setback for globalization initiatives of VW AG and would probably lead to a conflict with the parent company. The introduction of VW AG’s new strategy of global product diversification breeds new model introductions in the U.S. and Canadian markets, which emphasizes the need for effective and sophisticated supply chain management even more. The recommendation is to find alternative sources for funding which could be raised in discussion with the IT department of the parent company VW AG or in getting VWoA’s CEO, Gerd Klauss,