IT Integration Case Study: Campbell Soup Company Although Campbell Soup Company’s IT transformation, there is a special in many ways, and span for three years, but Campbell adopted by the process, for many IT departments need to business integration will also apply. IT departments cooperate with business departments, and CEO, has always been one of the most critical steps. Here a brief introduction about our steps taken : A Self-assessment, analysis of the company organization structure, competitive, technology environment and use a wide variety of applications.
Then the self-assessment with the company’s development goals is the result of the comparison. O IT transformation plan and starts to implement. The following is to support the program’s six “pillars”: • Consistent with the customer and business needs: to clarify their business needs, and then IT departments to study how to satisfy these requirements, and what techniques and tools should be used. • Operating principle: Don’t ignore the most basic things. The IT department organized effectively to ensure the safety of establishing a global infrastructure; shared solutions; implementation work; simplify working process. Process restructuring: the strategy, architecture, shared infrastructure and major supplier relationships for centralized management, relationship management, business process analysis and solution delivery for localization. • Standardization: the deployment of a unified approach to strategic operating plan and annual operating plan, set up a project management department. • Technology: using an elaborate the technical architecture and lifecycle management process, establish an architecture evaluation committee.
If consistent with your business plan, can put the computer and network outsourcing operations. · Safety control: we found that combine the centralized management and regional management are the best solution, the premise is to establish a unified platform for standard. With the CEO and the company management team to build and maintain close contact, make sure it is seen as a strategic asset. Manage your subordinates to form a plan to support your team, because you can’t persuade those who disagree with you. The business transformation plan also has given rise to the change of IT strategy.
To rethink it functions, in fact, that is, to conduct a comprehensive review on the company, the company has what kind of problem, will be reflected in the IT function. A prominent problem is that Campbell Soup Company for a long time of compartmentalization between departments, organizations is too independent. Also, the IT team is also very independent. In terms of technology, the company has no global across business strategy, there is no sharing process, technology management, even few shared applications.
The whole company’s system is like in each independent computing platform and network protocol together hodgepodge, lack of Enterprise Application Integration (Enterprise Application Integration, EAI). Distribution of all kinds of technical mess in the whole company. Therefore, at the beginning of the program starts, in the face of a group of lack of management of the global IT team and a high cost, organization rigid IT architecture. Worst of all, it does not have a unified planning and business priorities. It is regarded as a tactical cost.
The company for less is less in it. Transformation of our it start from their own assessment. Campbell analyzed the organizational structure, competitive, technology environment and various application software, and the existing ability and the ability to achieve desired control and trade-offs. For a long time, the performance of the Campbell Soup Company has. In early January 2001, when Douglas Conant (Doug Conant) into the Campbell Soup Company CEO, faces a big challenge is how to make the company quickly regrouped. Although Campbell
Soup Company has many well-known brands, the company all kinds of products are attractive, good financial situation, but this is because the company management through other investment cash flow was optimized. Because the company pays great attention to earnings per share, so priority is often just the quality of products, the purchasing power of the customer, and investment in infrastructure projects, such as a process, the workplace and personnel. In so doing, the real is the company’s long-term growth for immediate interests.
After clearing the problem, Campbell made a plan, IT operations began to transition. Through teamwork, Campbell listed the support transformation of six “pillars”: customers and business uniform, operation principle and operation mode, the global process, technology and safety control. Because of the six pillars to the transformation of Campbell Soup Company’s IT planning is very important, so it is necessary to deeply expound one by one. I Customers and business unity: the target is to the company all the IT projects implementation of an integrated investment decision-making process.
Campbell make business put forward their requirements, including the need for which business ability and when these capabilities, and then IT department to decide how to meet their needs. O Operating principle: the IT department organized to support business objectives and architecture. Then, a global framework of safe and reliable; as far as possible to share solutions; the ability to work sympathetically; control the uncertain factors in the lowest level.
Also, to build the relationship between the strategic third-party services, to outsource non-core business, improve the efficiency of each employee’s work. I Operation mode: This mode is used to centralize management strategy, architecture, shared infrastructure and major supplier relationships. At the same time, Campbell is in relationship management, business process analysis, and the delivery of the solution for localization. In other words, Campbell needs centralized management determines which issues or shared; what needs to be localized within the cope of management in the business or region, and when what business outsourcing, outsourcing, etc. I Global process: the aim of this project is to build a developing strategy and annual operating plans, annual and quarterly target standardization methods. For priority scheduling of project, and establish the nomination, the investment decision-making process; at the same time, the establishment of project management department, make sure to adopt standards and indicators.
I Technology: using precise technical architecture and lifecycle management process, established an architecture review board, for some computing and network operations and the outsourcing more thoroughly. I Safety control: a combination of the centralized management and regional management, and establish the platform standard; based on network and hostbased intrusion monitoring; develop and implement safety incident response plan.
