VTB Digital Transformation
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Date
Author’s Note
- Background
- Organizational Context
Plush bears are a symbol of gentleness and tenderness and sometimes sign of comfort to people, especially the children. They are given by people to their loved ones as a symbol of care and love and to the children to content and teach them. The manufacturing of teddy bears is the legislated business line of Vermont Teddy bear company but later introduced other product brands.
The Vermont Teddy Bear Company (VTB) was founded in 1991 by John Sortino, who started only by selling teddy bears from a pushcart in a Burlington, Vermont open-air market. Later, Sortino introduced a ‘Bear-Gram’ service promoted via radio advertisement in the New York City area. The service greatly increased the revenues for the company over the years but later became a threat to the same company survival as it was less cost-effective during off peek session of teddy bears. The company relies on the sale of its three separately managed brands Teddy Bears, PajamaGrams, and Calyx Flowers. Sales are highly seasonal, with peak volumes at Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s Day.
- Need for change
The current management and information requirements of Vermont Teddy Bear are served by the following systems.
- Circle commerce based on the Universe database is used to manage the day to day orders of the company’s top-selling brands.
- industriOS package is used for inventory management.
- Platinum, an application for windows, is used for accounting management and handling accounting applications.
- Rocket UniVerse, an IBM based database, was used for storing and fulfilling orders.
The new Vermont IT infrastructure intends to bring into existence a resilient architecture that will ensure continuous data flow within the company’s departments. The new management system will be able to scale with demand, effectively handling peak and off-peak seasons.
- Purpose of engagement
The new company’s management information system intends to incorporate technology to implement a technological solution that serves Vermont business objectives efficiently and cost-effectively and handle surge orders during peak seasons.
The new system will:
- Provide a central repository for data storage to ensure orders are stored in a common server where it is secure and can be retrieved easily for future reference.
- Put in place a dedicated backend technology with effective load balancing to stabilize handling of hundred thousand of orders during peak season.
- Perform periodic data backup to safeguard the company against data loss in the occurrence of events such as a server crash.
- Support single sign in to authenticate customers once in all platforms of Vermont operation.
- Provide accurate data relation mapping to ensure the client’s information is kept together regardless of the method he/she used to make a purchase.
- Provide seamless integration of purchase and payment modules.
The new management system will automate data flow from one department of the company to the other and provide a flawless customer experience from purchase to payments modules.
- Description of requested service
The scope of services is outlined as follows:
- Carrying out software change over, implementation policies, and documenting the reports.
- Work together with the new system team of developers in configuring the systems with the company’s base technology.
- Avail through support and management documentation specific to the newly implemented system.
- The tenderer should suggest a project manager with extensive essential skills to oversee the new system.
The project management will include the following:
- Continuous monitoring of deliverables.
- Setting milestones and the required timeline for the same.
- Availing required resources during the development period.
- The tenderer should provide an interactive development approach.
- Project deliverables
| Project plan | A detailed formal document outlining the project scope, milestones, timelines, and roles of each team member. |
| Project schedule | A timetable indicating project deliverables, resources to be used, and the start and end of each deliverable for the project to be completed on time. |
| Design | A strategic organization of ideas, materials, and processes to visualize a solution. |
| Architecture | Fundamental structures of a solution and the discipline for creating such a solution. |
| Configuration | Technical documentation outlining the solution configuration. |
| Support plan | A detailed management and maintenance documentation specific to the implemented solution. |
| Testing | A document that indicates test artifacts, their documentation, and results. |
- Evaluation Requirements
Successful submission should abide by the following checklist:
- Project scope
- Cost-effectiveness
- Expertise in the project’s technologies
- Correspondence to the description of services
- Viability of the project
- Previous success story
- Specific questions that the vendors need to address
How long would the project take?
What are the required resources to oversee the projection of successful completion?
How secure is user data such as payments cards details can be?
What is the cost for each deliverable and the whole project?
What services and pricing are included in the pricing?
Is there any discount you can provide?
How will you report to us?
References
Morakanyane, Resego & Grace, Audrey & O’Reilly, Phillip. (, 2017). Conceptualizing Digital Transformation in Business Organizations: A Systematic Review of Literature. 10.18690/978-961-286-043-1.30.
Matt, Christian; Hess, Thomas; Benlian, Alexander; and Wiesbock, Florian (2016) Options for Formulating a Digital Transformation Strategy, MIS Quarterly Executive: Vol. 15: Iss. 2, Article 6.
Gogan, J. L., & Lewis, M. O. (2011). Peak experiences and strategic IT alignment at Vermont Teddy Bear. Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases, 1(2), 61-70.
Morakanyane, Resego; Grace, Audrey A.; and O’Reilly, Philip, (2017) Conceptualizing Digital Transformation in Business Organizations: A Systematic Review of Literature.