Redesigning the Organization with Information Systems Case Study – Can Brady Corporation Redesign Its Systems for Success?

1.Analyze the Brady Corporation using the competitive forces and value chain models. Although the Brady Corporation is a leader in the production of high-performance labels, signs, and related industrial products, it faced heavy competition from smaller, new competitors. These new, more nimble competitors were using the Internet to cut costs. Also, Brady's customers needed immediate and reliable sources of supply as they moved into Asian and Latin American markets. Brady Corporation used information technology to enhance both its primary and support activities. As the case points out, Brady connected its 44 business units and integrated its 1,400 business processes into a single system.

How well did Brady's systems support its business model? What management, organization, and technology factors were responsible for its problems? Brady's systems did not support its business model. As the case points out, employees were making errors; the systems were antiquated and could not communicate; customers were not promptly paying their invoices; work was duplicated; the business processes had too many steps, and the company was sprawling and fragmented. There were 19 separate databases each with its own file servers and transaction software; there were incompatible platforms; each unit had its own sales tracking system; plants used different product identification numbers for the same items; there was not a way of identifying total business for a specific customer, and management needed more information about its customers.

Analyze the Internet as a source of problems and opportunities for Brady. The Internet allowed the competition to come from anywhere and undercut Brady. Competitors were able to use the Internet to shave costs on low-profit margins. Brady's Web- to-Workbench allows customers to design and order their own signs online. Once the order is placed, the order is forwarded to the appropriate production facility. The new digital system reduced online ordering costs and resulted in new customers placing two-thirds of its orders. As the case suggests, the Web-to-Workbench resulted in some benefits but did not solve all of Brady's problems.

Was SAP's enterprise software package a good foundation for Brady's new systems? Explain your answer. Student answers will vary for this question. In general enterprise software enables a company to share data among its business processes, thus facilitating organizational coordination and control. Since Brady needed to standardize and coordinate its business processes, the choice of enterprise software seems to be appropriate. What is important to stress here is that Brady knew what business processes needed improvement and then sought to find a solution to satisfy that need. The Eclipse team chose SAP since it is popular and, most importantly, they sought advice from IBM Global Services. You should discuss with your students why Brady decided to do little customization of SAP, as well as rewriting some of its own systems in the SAP development language. You should also discuss how in many instances, processes were changed to fit the SAP requirements. As a case in point, you can mention the standardized order queries and the purchase order history data. You should also mention Chris McElfresh's quote "SAP requires quite a bit more discipline than they're used to." According to the case, the new systems eventually worked fine and provided numerous benefits.

Describe the management, organizational, and technology changes Brady was making by its Web-to-Workbench and Eclipse projects. How extensive were they? Why do you think Brady took so long to implement its changes? Brady Corporation was facing many management, organizational, and technological problems, so the Web-to-Workbench and Eclipse projects were responsible for bringing about many much needed changes. The changes were extensive. For instance, the Web-to-Workbench allowed customers to design and order their signs online. The Web site automatically forwarded the order to the appropriate production facility. Management was confronted with many problems, including more nimble competitors, needing a system that allowed its customers to have immediate and reliable access to sources of supply, and needing to reengineer many of its disparate, manual processes. Management was faced with too many employee errors, duplicate work, business processes that required too many steps, antiquated systems, a sprawling and fragmented company, lack of needed customer data, lack of consolidate data, pricing and discounts based on location, and too much work being done manually. The changes were extensive. According to Ms. Katherine Hudson "Brady needed to revamp all of its systems." Ms. Hudson wanted to lower costs and increase competitiveness, supply Brady customers, expand globally, increase Internet orders, reduce operating expenses, connect the 44 Brady business units, and integrate the 1,400 business processes into a single system. The new system would support a global unified price list and distributor discounts, and provide corporate-wide processes for purchasing raw materials. These changes enabled management to track orders, analyze sales trends, run financial reports, and improve customer support. From an organizational standpoint, Brady had a system that was sprawling and fragmented. Brady has now moved to a system where its 44 business units are connected and the 1,400 business processes are integrated into a single system. This caused changes in the organization's people, structure, operating procedures, politics, and culture. From a technology standpoint, Brady was using antiquated systems that could not communicate with each other. The corporation saw an extensive change in its technology. The company moved from sprawling, fragmented units to having an integrated system. The usage of SAP software provided many improvements for the company, but necessitated training, changes in business processes, and a long installation period.

How successful were Brady Corporation's systems projects? Explain your answer In the end, Brady Corporation's system projects were successful. This is a good place to reiterate the influence that the planning process and Brady's leadership had on the success of the projects. The case provides several benefits of the new system. Ask your students to discuss these benefits.