peak experiences and strategic it alignment

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Teaching case

Peak experiences and strategic IT

alignment at Vermont Teddy Bear

Janis L Gogan, Mark O LewisBentley University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA

Correspondence:

JL Gogan, Bentley University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.

Tel: 7818912098;

Fax: 781891 2949;

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

In winter 2010 Bob Stetzel, the new Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Vermont Teddy Bear

(VTB), hopes to replace or modernize many of the companys existing systems and invest

in some new applications. This catalog marketer (via online and print catalogs) offers three

separately managed brands: Vermont Teddy Bear (VTB), PajamaGrams, and Calyx

Flowers. Sales are highly seasonal, with peak volumes at Christmas, Valentines Day and

Mothers Day. Stetzel has spent his first few months on the job cataloging systems and

databases, learning about the spider web of middleware connecting various applications

and platforms, and locating employees with expertise to fix them. The company has

survived an economic downturn and several costly strategic missteps. The CEO is seeking

new sources of revenue and ways to leverage their well-known brand, while the CIO needs

to set Information Technology ( IT ) priorities: should they invest in a full-featured Enterprise

Resource Planning (ERP) package or take other steps that would more quickly yield

tangible results? Whatever choice he makes, Stetzel will have to convince the CEO and

the Board of Directors to provide the necessary resources. This case provides students

with an opportunity to place themselves in the shoes of a CIO wrestling with strategic ITalignment challenges at a time when resources are severely constrained and competitive

rivalry is fierce.Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases(2011) 1, 6170. doi:10.1057/jittc.2011.6;published online 5 April 2011Keywords: strategic IT alignment; IT governance; IT planning; e-commerce

IntroductionBob Stetzel, Vice President of Information Technology (IT)at Vermont Teddy Bear (VTB), walked a tranquil path fromhis car to his Shelburne, Vermont office early one morningin mid-February 2010. The landscape outside his office, and

the White Mountains beyond, were blanketed in a coating offresh snow. Just a few days before, the scene was not tranquilat all; a small army of nearly 2000 temporary employees haddescended on the companys multi-building campus to helpprocess and pack gifts ordered by tens of thousands ofcustomers for delivery to their sweethearts for ValentinesDay. Bob and his seven person IT organization had workedfeverishly behind the scenes, ensuring that the companysinformation systems could handle the surge in orders forpajamas, custom teddy bears, flowers and other gifts, placedvia telephone, mail-order, and the Web. There were a fewtense moments when the system comprising a mix ofhomegrown and packaged applications from a variety of

vendors, and knit together with middleware occasionallypaused when its capacity was strained. Fortunately, histeam veterans of past Valentines Day peak experiences helped patch things together and ensured that nearly allorders were processed and delivered on time. Recognizing

that customer retention was an important goal, Stetzel wasrelieved that most customers were happy with the servicethey received during the Valentines rush.

Stetzel had been hired in November 2009 just in timefor a Christmas rush which included several tense momentsas the systems struggled to handle a surge in orders. Hehoped that before winter 2011 rolled around, his team couldtame the complicated middleware and make progresstoward an efficient, well-organized enterprise IT architec-ture that could serve as a robust platform for the companyschanging business requirements and support their long-term strategic and operational needs. Meanwhile, Stetzelknew he could expect another frenzy of activity in early

Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases (2011) 1, 6170& 2011 JITTC Palgrave Macmillan All rights reserved 2043-8869/11

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May, when orders would peak just before Mothers Day(second Sunday in May). Software bugs that had beenidentified during the Valentines rush needed to be fixed bymembers of his team before this next peak experience.Stetzel also wanted to carve out time in March and April tosort out his priorities for the IT organization so that therelatively calm days between June and November (when

there were no major holidays to cause orders to suddenlysurge) could be put to good use modernizing the aging andcomplex systems on which the company relied.

What project to do first? Should he oversee the selectionof new enterprise software to replace the accountingsystems responsible for order-entry, sales, and inventorymanagement? This would replace a lot of problematicmiddleware, but at a high cost. Would it be better to focuson building or buying new supply-chain software toenhance operational capabilities, enabling raw materialsand finished goods to be more efficiently procured fromvendors around the world? Should the company acquire orbuild a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) pack-age that would help them serve customers well across

multiple product lines (bears, pajamas, flowers, other gifts)and channels (stores, mail-order, web, telephone)? Stetzelalso wanted to build a new data warehouse and beef up thebusiness analytics capabilities that were needed for effectivemarketing. Clearly, his team could not possibly accomplishall these things in one 6-month period. Besides, thecompanys cash reserves were quite limited in this tougheconomic environment. Difficult choices would need to bemade soon, and a plan devised to get the job done.

As Bob Stetzel mulled over these concerns, CEOJohn Gilbert tapped on his door. Do you have a moment,Bob?

I learned some interesting things at last weeks Toy Fair

(American International Toy Fair, held in New York City)that might affect our business and perhaps yourinformation systems.

Vermont Teddy Bear company background1981: VTB was founded by John Sortino, who sold teddybears from a pushcart in a Burlington, Vermont open-airmall. The company nearly went bankrupt around 1990, butrecovered when Sortino introduced a Bear-Gram service,promoted via radio advertisements in the New York Cityarea. Customers (mostly men buying for wives orgirlfriends) phoned 1-800-829-BEAR to order a persona-

lized bear (choosing from several colors of bears and about100 costumes such as tutus, wedding gowns, fire fighter anddoctor or nurse outfits). The bear was shipped in adecorated hatbox with air holes and a note from a BearCounselor. The market response to this promotion wasimpressive; revenues grew from less than $2 million in 1990to $17 million in 1993, allowing VTB to raise $10 million inan initial public offering and earning it a ranking of number21 in Inc. Magazines listing of Americans fastest-growingpublic companies.

Despite the initial success of the Bear-Gram service,numerous challenges threatened the companys survival.Although radio advertising and a toll-free phone number

generated lots of orders for teddy bears as gifts forValentines and Mothers Day (80% were purchased byadults for other adults), it was less cost-effective at othertimes of the year. In an attempt to induce adults to buyteddy bears for children throughout the year, the companybegan to sell through high-end toy stores such as FAOSchwarz, department stores such as Bloomingdales, and

more than 200 gift shops. VTB also opened company-owned stores in New York City and Freeport Maine.Unfortunately, these expensive moves combined withconstruction of a new company headquarters in ShelburneVermont, entailed high expenses (leasing space forcompany stores cost $600,000 a year), which were notsufficiently offset by sales.

19971999: A new CEO, Elisabeth B Robert, closed thecompany stores (except the factory store in Shelburne) andlaunched a Make-a-Friend-for-Life venture with retailerZany Brainy: in-store machines assembled and stuffedpersonalized bears (similar to Build-a-Bear Workshops, acompetitor). 1999 sales reached $21.5 million.

20012003: 2001 sales reached $37 million. Retail partner

Zany Brain filed for bankruptcy, but Robert was notworried by this development, since were not a retailer;were in the gift delivery service business (Helmich, 2002).She re-focused VTB on direct marketing via telephone andwebsite (55% of Bear-Gram orders originated online,44% by phone). Producing about 450,000 bears per yearin Vermont, VTB continued to target both children andadults. About 65% of orders were from men, with 30% ofannual sales for Valentines Day (February 14). Their biggestcustomer was Late Jack, an internal moniker describingmen who ordered bears at the last minute instead of buyingflowers or chocolates for girlfriends, wives, or mothers.To increase sales to women and to generate orders atother times of the year, VTB developed Gift Bag Boutique

(handbags and gift baskets of food, accessories, and/orpajamas). In 2003, the company acquired high-end floristCalyx & Corolla (renamed Calyx Flowers).

20052008: VTB reverted to private ownership. Revenuesreached $66 million (Bears led at $31 million, followed byFlowers at $17.5 million and Pajamas at $14.5 million.Corporate sales, TastyGram, and other sources contributedthe rest). Pressures intensified from strong competitorslike 1-800-Flowers (which also sells gifts). The marketingVP expressed concern about demographic trends such as adrop in the number of young adult males (Exhibit 1). VTBdropped several product lines. Three remained: Bears,PajamaGrams, and Calyx Flowers.

Right after Valentines Day, 2008, 15 employees were laid

off. In September Elizabeth Robert resigned, a monthbefore an October stock market crash that reverberatedworldwide. Interim CEO William York, a veteran of LLBean and Dell, served during a time of further retrench-ment. 2008 sales totaled about $75 million.

2009: A January press release announced VTB laid off 35more employees. VTB retained about 200 employees;during three peak seasons (Christmas, Valentines Day,Mothers Day) temporary employees were hired.

In March 2009, John Gilbert joined VTB as its newCEO, having previously served as Chief Marketing Officerfor TJX Companies and in marketing positions at DunkinDonuts, Pepsi, Coca Cola, and elsewhere. In a press release

Peak experiences and strategic IT alignment JL Gogan and MO Lewis

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announcing Gilberts appointment as Chief Bear OfficerBoard Chairman Bob Crowley said:

An expert at building great consumer product businessesand brands, John is a natural choice to help lead VermontTeddy Bears next chapter of growth and innovation.

Industry background (plush toys, pajamas, flowers)In 2010, VTB relied on gift sales across its three separatelymanaged brands, competing in three industries (see alsoExhibit 2):

Teddy Bears (plush toys): A customer could purchasea stock teddy bear or could custom design one byselecting the color and outfit from a menu of options. Atpeak times, most purchases were for adult gifts; the restof the year, purchases were mainly for children. All bearswere produced on the Shelburne campus; fabric andother raw materials were purchased from vendorsworldwide.

PajamaGrams (apparel/gifts): Production of pajamaswas outsourced to low-cost overseas factories, so leadtimes were generally about 6 weeks. Thus, if an itemsuddenly developed a surge of demand, the companymight not be able to fulfill orders in time for key peakholidays.

Calyx Flowers (flowers/gifts): This company, whichbegan life as Calyx & Corolla, offered high-end floralarrangements for discerning customers who appreciatedthe long vase life that was achieved because thecompany dealt directly with a small number of flowergrowers worldwide, eliminating the traditional middle-men who took some of the margin and delayed deliveryof fresh-cut flowers to the end customer.

Teddy bears (Exhibit 3) competed in the plush toys segmentof the playthings industry. Global toy sales were expected totop $80.3 billion by 2012 (www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090729.html). US customers accounted for almost28% of toy sales worldwide; in the US, most toys weresold through big box discounters (especially Wal-Mart),specialty retailers and the Internet. A large percentage ofsales took place in the December holiday season. Strategiesfor generating sales at other times included offeringcollectibles, which customers purchased throughout theyear (the Beanie Babies craze in the nineties is one example).

Another tactic was to promote complementary accessories(e.g., clothing and other accessories for Barbie or AmericanGirl dolls). A third tactic was to sign licensing deals withtelevision and movie studios, game makers and others. US-based Mattel and Hasbro, each with more than $5 billion in2009 revenues, were the largest toy companies in the world.

China, the worlds toy factory, produced 77% of 2008 UStoy imports about 20 million toys. Large companiestended to outsource production to Chinese contractors fortoys with unpredictable forecasts (i.e., this years fad), andto use their own factories (often located in China) toproduce classic toys (those with more predictable demand).The US Consumer Product Safety Improvement Actrestricted the use of lead paint, phthalates and otherharmful materials in childrens products, and mandatedproduct testing and documentation requirements. Forexample, to support product recalls, every component ofevery toy must be traceable to its source.

PajamaGrams (Exhibit 4) competed in both the generalgifts category and global apparel industry. China was a

major producer of clothing; between 2002 and 2008 totalimports of mens clothing from China increased by almost14%, while Mexican imports fell more than 6%. Mostpajamas were sold through department stores (e.g., J.C.Penney, Sears, Macys), mass merchandisers (e.g., Target,Wal-Mart), and other outlets (e.g., Baby Gap, VictoriasSecret). Although the global economic crisis continued toexert pressure on this industry, the VTB marketing VPreported that other trends were favorable. For example,increasing numbers of women were delaying havingchildren, leading to increases in disposable incomes anddemand for premium apparel products.

Calyx flowers (Exhibit 5) competed with thousandsof competitors in the highly fragmented florist industry.

The top four firms accounted for less than 4% of industryrevenues. Mass merchandisers and large supermarketchains also competed in this segment, offering lowerprices but limited selection. Since 2005, sales had steadilydeclined in this industry (IBIS, 2010). Most florists pur-chased flowers from wholesalers or jobbers, who purchasedfrom growers. Online or catalog florists enjoyed bettermargins than their bricks and mortar competitors. CalyxFlowers (and some other direct marketers) purchaseddirectly from growers and coordinated with shippers suchas UPS to ensure that highly perishable fresh cut flowerswould be refrigerated and given special care en route, toprotect against wastage and unhappy customers.

Exhibit 1 U.S. population by age group, 19502050.

Source: Shrestha (2006).


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Bob Stetzel and the IT organizationBefore joining VTB, Bob Stetzel worked for 12 years asa database analyst and administrator at the HolsteinAssociation in Vermont, 2 years in a similar role at FleetBank, and 10 years as Vice President of BusinessInformation Services at Yankee Candle Company. Duringhis career Stetzel had overseen database administration,software development for traditional and eCommercewebsite projects, and implemented enterprise applicationsfor content management, CRM, business intelligence, andsupply chain management. The timing of his hiring November 2009 meant that he had to quickly take stock

of VTBs IT architecture and the capabilities of hissmall organization, since the holiday season would peakbetween Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November)and Christmas (December 25). Stetzel learned that fiveIT employees had been laid off during the 20082009downsizing, leaving just seven IT employees under hismanagement. He was pleased to discover that most of theseindividuals had excellent expertise, although some innarrow specialties. But, they spent too much timetroubleshooting, leaving little time to develop new applica-tions or implement new versions of packaged software.He was concerned that, were certain individuals to leave,

Exhibit 2 Toy, apparel, and florist industry trends.


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they would walk away with important knowledge about thecompanys IT applications or infrastructure, which had notyet been captured or codified.

His staff briefed Stetzel on initiatives that were underway,including one large project that was a little runaway, in hisopinion. The application development practices andprocesses were not in the best of shape, to say it nicely.He declared a moratorium on that project and deferred allnew development until the company could get through thetwo winter peaks (Christmas and Valentines Day) and hecould get a handle on priorities.

An ideal IT architecture document would describe thenetwork configuration, servers and major enterpriseapplications, and data flows within and across these(especially those applications involving transactions thataffect financial statements). Stetzel knew that organizations

that depend heavily on IT for strategically importantoperations need a disciplined change control processto ensure orderly procedures for requesting system

modifications, developing and testing those in a separateenvironment, certifying them and introducing them tothe production environment (hardening). He was dis-appointed but not surprised that an incomplete ITarchitecture document existed at VTB, and that changecontrols were minimal. This was because the formal ITorganization had not instituted such processes norprepared such a document, and also because manyshadow applications had been developed by users to fillvarious needs when the IS organization lacked resourcesto help. Some of these applications were connected viamiddleware to the core enterprise applications that wereunder the control of the IT organization, while others

CHRISTMAS OCCASIONS HOLIDAYS RECIPIENT THEMESSPECIAL

COLLECTIONSACCESSORIES

Any Occasion Bears

Bears say it best for any occasion!Put a smile on someone's face no matter what the occasion! All Vermont Teddy Bears arrive in a fun gift box with

gourmet candy and a gift card with your personalized message.

15" SUPER HERO$75.99

15" SPECIAL OCCASION GIRL$69.99

15" SPECIAL OCCASION BOY$69.99

15" BASICS BEAR WITH JEANS$71.90

Bear-Gram Gift Delivery Service. Call a BearCounselor 1-800-829-BEAR(2327).

Exhibit 3 Selected items, vermont teddy bear.

Source: www.vermontteddybear.com.


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were run independently. At a recent meeting, Stetzel hadmentioned to John Gilbert:

Generally what happens is that somebody will call mystaff and request some urgently-needed new function-ality. The IT person who gets the call will do his best to

get it done, but that might mean that a more importanttask is neglected. This is a typical problem for companiesof our size, but it would be better to have a moreorganized approach to triaging and prioritizing thesesupport calls.

Stetzel needed a complete, current catalog of all computinghardware and shared applications in use. Realizing that a lotof the necessary information resided in the heads of siloedindividuals (one person understands a particular applica-tion, but nobody else does) he put together a team of severalIS employees who had been with the company for more than4 years, to reveal all this hidden information. This discovery

process yielded good and bad news. The core transaction-processing infrastructure was pretty strong for meeting theoperational needs of a company this size; pretty forward-thinking, in Stetzels opinion. There were good practices inpassword management and recovery mechanisms (if anetwork element failed, built-in redundancy allowed the

sales order systems to continue running so that orders didnot get lost, for example). And by hosting their ecommerceapplications at collocation facilities outside Vermont, theywere able to get a more advantageous position on thenational Internet backbone.

A best-of-breed approach had guided the developmentand acquisition of enterprise applications that supportedoperations, meaning that instead of buying a singleEnterpise Resource Planning (ERP) package whose separateelements might be adequate but not optimal, the companyhad purchased separate packages1 that offered closer tooptimal functionality; these connected to each other viamiddleware. For example, software from Avexxis, now

Exhibit 4 Selected items, PajamaGrams.

Source: www.PajamaGrams.com.


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named Circle Commerce, based on a UniVerse database,was utilized for order management and fulfillment. BobStetzel was not familiar with UniVerse, an IBM product thatin October 2009 had been sold to Rocket Software; Stetzelsextensive database experience was with other relational

packages such as Informix and Oracle. A package fromIndustriOS was utilized for managing inventory, andPlatinum (Sage PFW Platinum for Windows) handledaccounting applications. VTBs one remaining retail storeutilized FusionRetail. Some of these applications werecurrent (whenever a vendor released an upgrade, it wasinstalled); others were several versions behind schedule.Beyond this core set of transaction processing applicationsthere was a myriad of small one-off applications andmiddleware, based on various languages and tools andchosen more out of individual preference than an over-arching plan. Stetzel observed that a programmer might say,Hey, I know Perl (a popular scripting language), I think Ill

write this in Perl or PHP (another scripting language) or Illuse mySQL (an open-source database product supported bySun Microsystems, a division of Oracle Corporation) or Iprefer Access (a Microsoft database product).

Soon after Stetzel was hired, CEO John Gilbert told him:

You need to figure out what the middleware is and how tomanage it; its a black box. Now, having gone through hiscataloging exercise, Stetzel concluded that middleware was,indeed the biggest challenge that I have walked into. Herealized that the middleware was not just being used to trans-late data among disparate applications, but itself contained agreat deal of business logic, most of which was undocumen-ted. Stetzel reflected on the ramifications of the black box:

We have three different brands and four differentchannels (retail, mail, phone, web), each supported bydifferent software, creating a spider web of connectivity.The application developers no longer work here. This

Any Occasion

Be it for birthday, new baby, get well, or just

because, the perfect floral gift for any occasion can

be found in this exquisite assortment of Calyx

favorites.

Festive Tartan Wreath $59.95

White Calla Lily PlantStarting at $44.95

Holiday Jewel OrchidsStarting at $59.95

Happy Holidays OrchidsStarting at $69.95

Laurel Berry Bouquet

Exhibit 5 Selected items, Calyx flowers.

Source: www.CalyxFlowers.com.


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black box is holding us up from doing all sorts of thingsto support both our traditional and newer eCommerceprocesses. We dont yet know how it all works, nor howto pull without breaking it.

In his three-plus months as Chief Information Officer,Stetzel felt hed made some progress in determining what

we have, where it runs, what are the outstanding issues. Hehired two employees (total IT staff now nine people; seeExhibit 6) and authorized his team to make smalladjustments aimed at keeping the systems functional andthe processes they supported operational. In FebruaryStetzel told a colleague, Right now, we can ride it like abucking bronco, but we certainly havent tamed it yet.Meanwhile, users were continuing to request enhance-ments, most of which he could not deliver. He explainedthat it was imperative to first tame that bucking bronco:Even though were a small company, we have a lot ofsystems, and they havent been managed effectively overtime. Were paying the price for that.

John Gilbert returns from Toy FairCEO John Gilbert occasionally met with Stetzel to discussplanned new products and other business initiatives, in

light of Stetzels plans to build a more robust and adaptableIT platform. On the winter morning when Gilbert stoppedby, it was to talk about the annual American InternationalToy Fair that Gilbert had attended, along with 1100 otherexhibitors promoting more than 100,000 products to 10,000retail buyers. While you focused on making ValentinesDay as fulfilling as possible for our customers, I was

learning about the latest toy trends and connecting withpotential partners, the CEO said. Was it all aboutelectronics? asked Stetzel. Gilbert replied, There certainlywere a lot of high-tech toys and games.

I saw lots of interest in classic toys as well. Board gameslike Monopoly and Scrabble are going strong, and buyersshowed interest in teddy bears. In this down economy,nostalgia is big; people take comfort in simple pleasuresand family focus; we need to capitalize on that mood. Itsclear that Vermont Teddy Bear is a well known brand;maybe we should bundle a bear with pajamas.

PajamaGrams Hoodie Footie product (a onesie forwomen), introduced in 2009 was so popular that they hadrun short during the Valentines rush. Stetzel noted thatwith better data integration and improved analytic tools it

Exhibit 6 Bob Stetzel takes stock of his IT organization in 2010.


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would be easier to coordinate marketing, forecasting andproduction across the product lines to implement a family-focused comfort strategy (pajama sets for the wholefamily). Gilbert wondered if it was possible to stretch sucha promotion from Christmas through Mothers Day,smoothing the peaks. He also wondered whether it mightbe possible to cross-sell pajamas or related products and

flowers such as when flowers are purchased for womenconvalescing from childbirth or surgery. Calyx Flowers waslargely independent from the others, so a lot of integrationwould be required to carry out such a strategy.

With the discussion of cross-selling, the conversationturned to CRM software. Stetzel explained the challengethere:

CRM works great when your customers buy products forthemselves, over multiple channels. LL Bean uses it toensure that they know who you are and your orderhistory, no matter how you contact them in store, mail,phone, Web. Most of our customers buy products as gifts,

sometimes for both their girlfriend and mother, whichare two very different market segments. CRM isnt ashelpful in that scenario.

They discussed these ideas for a few minutes and thenGilbert commented that the Toy of the Year (TOTY)awards, conferred at the Toy Show, were quite interesting.An ultra-simple toy called Bilibo earned Best Preschool toy(in a tie with a Tonka talking truck). Its just a colorful littlescoop; even easier to produce than our bears! Whod havethought? He showed Stetzel (www.toyassociation.org),where an advertisement stated:

Bilibo is a new kind of toy. Requiring neither batteriesnor complicated instructions, its powered purely by achilds imagination. In their hands these open ended toyscome alive and turn into anything and everything.

Were there a lot of other plush toys at the Fair, beyondbears? Stetzel asked. Gilbert said that Webkinz, which wona TOTY award a few years earlier, had launched a WebkinzJunior product and website, aimed at 36 year olds. In boththe regular and junior versions, each Webkinz toy had anembedded chip containing a secret code to activate anaccount on a website. He showed Stetzel (www.webkinz

.com). I had no idea that children that young wouldrespond to a fantasy world on a website, Stetzel remarked.He added, To emulate that strategy, wed have to hire quitea few people to help with website design, not to mentioncreative types to generate content. We would also need astrong content-management system.

The overall Toy of the Year had been awarded to ZhuZhu Pets, inexpensive but smart collectibles:

Zhu Zhu Petst drive around in little cars, zip up rampsand spin down slides, run in their hamster wheels, andget into all sorts of crazy situations. Their artificial

intelligence even allows them to know what room of theirhamster habitat they are in. They make toilet-flushing orteeth-brushing sounds when they enter the bathroom andsleeping noises and alarm-clock sounds when they gointo their bedroom. (www.zhuzhupets.com)

I doubt we want to produce toys that require artificialintelligence, said Gilbert. But I do admire the Zhu Zhu Petscollectibles idea; both children and adults buy these thingsthroughout the year. Clearly theres a lot to think about.Stetzel agreed, and informed Gilbert that soon he wouldpresent him with a document laying out his plan for fixingor replacing existing systems and investing in new ones. Ilook forward to that discussion, said Gilbert, adding:

Were an ecommerce business, so the stability andreliability of our ecommerce platform, especially at peaktimes, is paramount. By now you probably realize oursupply chain management could improve; weve had stuffarrive late or be poor quality. Theres also plenty of room

for improvement in the systems that support ourmarketing once we know who we want to talk to andwhat we want to say. Our current customer is actually a52 year old guy, yet our creatives have been trying to talkto younger men. Weve been advertising the wrongmessage for a long time, and its taking a toll on our peakoccasion sales.

Preparing for springAfter John Gilbert left his office, Bob Stetzel reflected on thedays ahead. The snow outside reflected brightly. It wouldntbe long before mud season descended on Vermont

Stetzels least favorite time, but a precursor to spring,which despite calendars that suggest spring starts inMarch would arrive in May, right around Mothers Day.Stetzel doubted that he would notice blooming flowersbefore this next peak experience. He hoped that his teamsefforts to complete the task of documenting the existing ITarchitecture wouldnt get mired in its own mud; this wouldprevent him from moving forward with a compellingproposal to modernize and standardize systems to supportan evolving business model. He could eliminate a lot of thecomplicated middleware and incompatible applications byinvesting in a full-featured ERP package, but it would comeat a high cost and probably could not be completelyimplemented before winter 2011. Besides, Stetzel knew that

the benefits from an ERP implementation usually dontmaterialize for another year to year and a half, and that itcan be a traumatic process for employees. It would be niceto show tangible progress faster than that, he thought.Where to start? And, whatever path he were to choose, howto convince John Gilbert and the Board of Directors toprovide the necessary resources?

Notes

1 http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090729.html.2 Software companies and Open Source Software tools mentioned

in the case include the following:


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References

IBIS (2010). Florists in the US, [WWW document] 29 January, http://

www.ibisworld.com/.

Helmich, P. (2002). Not your average bear, Business People-Vermont, 2nd

February.

Shrestha, L.B. (2006). The changing demographic profile of the United States.

Library of Congress Congressional Research Service, RL32701, 5 May.

About the AuthorsJanis L Gogan is Professor of Information and ProcessManagement at Bentley University, and holds M.Ed, MBA,

and DBA degrees from Harvard University. Dr. Gogansresearch focuses on IT-enabled innovation, inter-organiza-tional collaboration, and global strategic IT alignment. Herpublications include teaching cases, which have been taughtin US, European, Australian and Asian schools, and over100 papers in conference proceedings (such as AMCIS,ECIS, ICIS, and HICSS) and journals such as Communica-tions of the Association for Information Systems, Electronic

Markets, Government Information Quarterly, InformationSystems Frontiers, International Journal of ElectronicCommerce, Journal of Information Technology, Journal of

Management Information Systems, and The InformationSociety.

Mark O Lewis is an assistant professor of Information andProcess Management at Bentley University. His researchfocuses on the strategic use of information technology,enterprise transformation, and investigating patterns ofcollective action within and between organizations. Hisresearch has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as

MISQ-Executive, European Journal of Information Systems,and the Journal of Global Information Technology Manage-ment. Before entering academia, Mark worked with IBMGlobal Services as a business analyst and as a researchassistant with IBMs advanced Internet technology division.He has worked on research projects sponsored bycompanies such as UPS, Daimler-Chrysler, Hewlett Packard,Gartner, and SAP.

Software companies Open-Source Software tools

Avexxis (www.avexxis.com; Circle Commerce) Perl (http://perl.about.com)Rocket Software (www.rocketsoftware.com) PHP (http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php)IndustriOS Inventory Management (www.industrios.com) mySQL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mySQL)Platinum (www.evron.com/pfw)FusionRetail (www.fusionretailsoftware.com)


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