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Vitra
Tiles
4 . Process for determining requirements
Vitra employed a systematic approach to developing their
requirements. The team involved included:
- Senior
management
- IT staff
- Marketing
staff
- IBM
Consulting Group
By bringing
together a wide group of people they successfully brought together the
strategic, customer, technical and operational perspectives necessary
to produce the optimal solution.
IBM ‘s involvement with the company was in developing
an overall eBusiness strategy. This strategy related
the implementation back to the overall market including
the competitive environment and the customer’s
requirements. They then undertook an assessment of the
company’s existing assets and capabilities and
produced a gap analysis. The gap analysis determined
the projects required to move Vitra from its existing
capability to a position where it had the technology,
processes and people required to realise its strategic
goals.
The process for developing business requirements was
also characterised by extensive use of customer feedback.
For example, during the scooping of requirements for
B2B integration they selected four big customers (1
from Sweden, 1 from France and 2 from Germany). These
pilot customers were then visited by the project group,
which included:
- International
Operations Manager
- Turkish
IT Manager
- Irish
IT Manager
- Representative
from consulting firm
- Account
Manager
The aim of
the visits was to develop an understanding of the existing technology
the customers were using and to get input into the requirements scoping.
The process identified a number of sub-projects required to deliver the
overall eBusiness implementation:
| 1. |
Creating
remote access to ERP systems for customers and staff |
| 2. |
Enabling
integration between Vitra’s and customer’s systems –
B2B integration |
| 3. |
Integration
of Ireland’s and Turkey’s separate ERP systems |
| 4. |
Development
of web site with customer value-add services |
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