“Circuit City Rewires” by M. Levinson (2005) in CIO Magazine (http://www.cio.com/archive/070105/circuit.html)

“All That Data” by T. Wailgum (2006) in CIO Magazine (http://www.cio.com/archive/080106/customer-relationship-management.html).

Effective data management strategy and up-to-date robust IT infrastructure becomes significant to the success of today’s company. Nowadays, data and related IT plays key role in making in-depth customer analysis to achieve high business value. However, old enterprise CRM systems are usually separately standalone and will get clumsy and complex along with time, which makes it impossible to retrieve authentic data needed to improve customer experience and boost revenue. The neglects in investing in upgraded technology to support business, in reverse, hamper the development of the company. Furthermore, web-based CDI hub, a new approach to unite legacy systems without replace everything, is under experiment.

What may have hindered Circuit City’s full leverage of its data to support their CRM? Strategically, top executives failed to recognize the importance of the alignment of business and IT, to facilitate working outward. Managerially, they did not emphasize enough on the funding of upgrading their system. IT infrastructure investments were neglected and poorly handled. Therefore, although being large amount, data stored across multiple systems and locations could not be organized and utilized properly to be authentic for decision making.

If you were on Circuit City’s executive board, what business opportunities do you see?  The new trend blurs the boundaries of computing and telecommunication and enables data to move smoothly and effectively. Web services useful for business, are able to improve data quality, smooth multiple customer records and create the possibility for its 600 store-wide, in depth customer analysis. Billing, Marketing, ERP and supply chain systems can be further integrated to increase value. eCommerce tools can be applied for Internet customers to shop online while eShipping tools be applied to improve delivery.

Strategic suggestion: Achieve agreement within the organization about the importance of alignment of business and IT and build up trust among the two. Managerial suggestion: Sufficient funds should be guaranteed in upgrading current systems and building new ones, according to business needs. Technical suggestion: Different IT components should be ensured to work and coordinate well to produce authentic data. Further, follow the technology evolvement and be keen to adopt new technologies to facilitate business.

每次都是Tutorial上完了才知道原来自己写的case summary总是缺少了些什么

像这次的这个，对于Circuit City而言，有几个重要的问题是忽视了的：

1.为了追赶Best Buy, Circuit City的策略多少有些盲目，只是Best Buy有什么就学来什么，没有仔细分析市场，探索如何differentiate自己

2.面对Best Buy的竞争和挤压，Circuit City本身的现金流已经不充足，因此对于IT的投资必然有很多限制。如何在资金限制的基础上探讨投资IT来提升competitive advantage是必要的

3.从Managerial的角度，businesspoeple不根据系统收集的数据而是根据经验和感觉是需要解决的问题