A firm in high risk and competitive market needed to replace its existing systems in order to remain competitive.

The company had grown very fast and had built or acquired seven different systems to cover various functions. It was now difficult to gain a complete picture of its customers and this was leading to slower service, loss of control and shrinking market share.

Having been retained to find a solution the first step was to carry out a structured audit of the fit of existing systems to the company’s declared business strategy. We then helped the managers to develop and present an information systems (IS) strategy to align their systems with business goals to which all members of the board had already signed up.

When the IS strategy had been accepted we helped the company to organise a search for a system that best fitted their business. We also acted as their advisor in negotiations with the vendor and developed an implementation project. Since the completion of the project the company has doubled its market share and increased its profits by over 150%.

The difference between our approach and that of the competition was that we started from the business issues and worked to the technical solution and not the other way round.

1. Saving money and effort by making best use of a purchased system.