2. Summary
Industry Structure
Expected Global Sales of toys by 2012 is $80.3 billion.
Contribution of Us is 28% approx.
Major Sellers - Big Box Discounters (Walmart),
speciality retailers and internet.
Demands – Highly Seasonal.
Production – mostly outsourced.
Florist industry
highly fragmented , high competition.
Online or Catalogue sellers enjoy better margins
3. VTB Company Background
a. Founded in 1981
b. Selling Modes to induce adults-Through other high end
toy stores
c. Introduction of highly popular “Bear-Gram” service.
d. IPO in 1990- $10 million raised.
e. Reverted back to pvt ownership in 2005-2008.
f. Large scale layoffs in 2008.
g. Make a friend for life venture with retailer Zany Brain in
1997-99
4. Current State Desired State
Complicated middleware Simplify and standardize the middleware and
well documented design architecture
No ERP and CRM Implementing ERP and CRM
“Siloed” individuals Knowledge sharing
Limited resources Optimum utilization of resource
Cross platform incompatibility Using single standard platform
Over ambitious issue IT strategy should be aligned with the
organization strategy
Declining profitability Product differentiation
5. Overarching Problems
CEO Gilbert
finding new sources of revenues and expansion of the brand
CIO Stetzel
prioritizing between implementing an ERP package or
finding other ways to get quick and tangible results
6. Sub-problems
Maintaining the stability and liability of VTB’s e-commerce
platform, specially in peak hours
Synching the ads with the right customer segment
Complicated and aging middleware – “Black box”
Dilemma of whether to select a new but costly enterprise
software or persist with the problematic middleware
Whether the company should acquire or build a Customer
Relationship Management package
Limited cash reserves
Lack of time to build a much needed new data warehouse
Employees are narrow specialist – “Siloed individuals”
The IT strategy is not aligned with the business strategy
7. Possible Solutions
Implementing a forum for knowledge sharing
Standardizing the business process using IT models like CMM
Preparing a complete, current catalogue of computing
hardware and shared application in use
Slow and parallel switch to new system
The company might think about outsourcing the entire IT
system to other vendors
Employing separate individuals for handling four different
channels
8. How to approach the problem
Find and analyze all the weak links in the existing system
Clear idea about what to change
CIO and CEO should come to a common agreement about the
budget
Should take suggestions from the present employees
Check the feasibility of the proposed solution
Feasibility in all aspects like the compatibility with the present
work force, structure etc.
Based on the budget and feasibility, some or the all of the above
suggested solutions can be implemented
