Table of Contents
Table of Contents 1
Background 2
Business Corporate Strategy 2
IT objectives 3
IT initiatives 4
1. Enhance user involvement 4
2. Make IT an integral and strategic partner 5
3. Standardize Reports 5
Problems 3
Recommendations 6
Appendix 7
References 8
Background
Caterpillar Tunneling Canada Corporation (CTCC) previously known as Lovat Inc. was a major tunneling technologies provider based out of Toronto, Canada and employed around 330 staff members. U.S based Caterpillar Inc. acquired Lovat Inc. in 2008 and renamed it to CTCC. CTCC specialized in designing and manufacturing tunnel boring machines namely TBM’s. In 2010, the company was selected to undergo an ERP implementation to attain business process
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To aid financial and performance reporting in the company, its objectives also include achieving a harmonious user adoption of the Business Intelligence technology across all departments within the firm. IT department also aims to support and maintain the IT operations including software installations, network security, and telecommunications. Another major IT objective is to build a formal assessment process for company’s overall information management requirements, which will help in leveraging parent company’s IT resources. All these IT objectives align with and in turn, will help achieve the business objective of seamless integration.
Problems
The acquisition of Lovat gave rise to many challenges for the parent company. Caterpillar tried to implement standard procedures, project management practices and SAP platform. This caused many problems. The major problems were data inconsistency and uneven reporting. Another problem was inconsistency in procedures. Caterpillar had standard procedures but CTCC handled each project as an independent entity. It was run as a family business, thus standardization of procedures across the organization posed a major challenge. Acceptance of BI platform across the organization was a problem since managers were divided. There was no consensus among multiple departments.
Some teams were willing to use BI platform for decision-making and reporting and but
Long the pride of Peoria, Illinois, Caterpillar, Inc. has established itself as a premier global manufacturing powerhouse whose commercial construction, transportation and engine solutions have come to symbolize durability, quality, and economic progress. This project paper examines the operational and financial numbers resulting from the company’s global sales reach. This paper reviews the publically available corporate financial results for the last decade. This financial data review will be expanded to incorporate how operating and investing activities and results have also impact the Caterpillar bottom line. The paper will conclude with a short summary analysis providing team conclusions to whether the Caterpillar
These problems have arisen due to the decentralized operational structure of the company. The IT initiatives in this regards have been 1) ERP development and deployment and 2) Data warehousing effort. But even with such initiative from SYSCO, management still had problems with monitoring and comparing performance across the organization.
This project is written to explain the processes involved in implementing a business intelligence system. It continues to describe the technologies involved in a business intelligence system, as well as the purpose of the system and how it can help companies become a leader in the industry. Lastly, the report contains facts about industries that have implemented a business intelligence solution, how they use it, and the benefits they reap from the implementation. The report covers multiple industries, but focuses on Chevron oil company and analyzes its business intelligence solution.
Additionally, it is important to understand importance of (IT) strategies supporting the Business Strategy. For example, this scenario emphasizes a requirement to familiarize management’s understanding of (IT) capabilities and inabilities (Turban, Volonio, & Wood 2015, p. 393). Therefore, if management is not familiar with (IT) capabilities, difficulties could occur when attempting to comprehend meaning and importance of information delivery, data analytics, including, data integration within the business enterprise. Furthermore, having ability to “access current performance, identify capacity and human requirements, including, clarifying the level of investment would all be both relevant and important towards (IT) strategies that support business strategy” (Turban, Volonio, & Wood 2015, p. 393).
Caterpillar has always been a market seeker since its inception. Within a span of ten years, it expanded its business from the USA to Europe and Australia by supplying machinery for the World War 1. As it entered the construction industry, its influence in the market grew and so did its market share. After reaping the benefits of operating in developed economies, caterpillar started expanding its business to Asia and Africa. Although these markets were heavily dependent on the developed economies for their growth, the gradual rise of the BRICS nations who started acquiring more share in the world trade made them an attractive investment. When the global economic crisis loomed over the world’s most powerful economies, businesses in these countries became nervous and they were to incur huge losses. On the other hand, emerging markets adapted very well to the global economic crisis and proved to be a safe haven for companies. This is where caterpillar’s strategy of constant market seeking ensured that they were virtually unaffected by the global financial crisis. On the contrary, analysts saw a rise in the value of caterpillar during this period. While economies like Europe and the USA were experiencing depression in 2008, caterpillar reported an all-time record for its sales, revenue and profit per share. Its sales increased by 30 percent outside North America while it could squeeze only 7 percent growth from North America. This
Business Intelligence is a computer-based system which is used by organizations for decision making purpose. In the United States, 500 enterprises which have more than 90% of enterprises use business intelligence software to help managers make decisions. In this report essay, we talk about the back ground of business intelligence first, and then defined business intelligence from different aspects, which are technology, application and data. In the part
Firstly, the company develop a business strategy. Secondly, the company choose an appropriate structure. Thirdly, the firm design the management process. Finally, there is a need to align Information Technology (IT) with the business strategy. IT here is treated as a ‘back-office support’ (Allen & Morton, 1994). In addition, employees will be trained and their functions are designed specifically. As a result, the most important issue in this model is to determine the strategic vision and to handle the problems of implementation.
The rapidly changing environment of business technology and communication complied with rising global competition forces organizations to maintaining efficient and resourceful business tactics. Business organizations need to be continuously upgrading their business processes. These processes are the ways in which these different business organizations perform their operational tasks. The resources that these companies utilize are the necessary tools that help them accomplish their specific goals and defined objectives. Organizations who for the most part are constantly competing now require tools that are effective and efficient. Tools such as effective information systems and policies that provide would them access to important and reliable information so that they can maintain a competitive edge.
Business intelligence became the center of concentration because all professionals and managers nowadays want o manage their works and enterprises. Lacking information in the firms lead to fail of business intelligence. In this way, business intelligence has been received in universal enterprises. The enterprises need to be aware and mindful of the variables that will impact the achievement of business intelligence activity. On the other hand, the issues of enterprises are important because they have big impact on economy. So, the utilization of business intelligence frameworks in small-median- enterprises can be a wellspring of playing point. On of the important keys of business technique for making favorable circumstances is comprehends the information that organization create in it business. Business intelligence is important enough for attaining competitive advantage. These results can be valuable for Chiefs, arrangement producers, business examiners, and it experts, in managing arranging and execution of business intelligence in small-medium enterprises.
Measures must embrace and cover technical and business performance of IT in an integrated manner [8]. The measures also need to identify the costs and benefits of IS/IT project through prioritizing it and aligning with the strategic direction of organizations. It means taking into account the cost effectiveness and containment, embracing IT/business performance criteria and linking this to the strategic business direction and associated performance competitive of the organization.
While IT and IS may have different roles in different organizations, it seems that the goals of IT and IS are fairly consistent. Sales growth, effectiveness, quality, productivity, and most importantly, profitability are all goals that organizations want information technology to help them achieve. However, research cannot find a direct link between IT
A Corporation’s Information Technology department (IT) aids in making major decisions on financial, security, and technological tasks/projects. When the IT department and the business act together to do so, a business can run the most efficiently and economically achieving maximum profit levels. It was stated “It is not necessarily what you make in a factory that counts; its what you do with the information that you own that brings in the revenue”(Rasiah, par. 2). In essence, the IT department helps with all the information, technology, software, and data decision making in a company. This makes the department vital to the company’s success. However, if a company did not have or invest in an IT department, many things could go wrong inside
Managing Information Systems The aim of this assignment is to see the requirements for developing and managing a comprehensive Management Information system for an organization. In today's business environment it is getting harder and harder for organization’s to not only survive but to compete against other organizations. Information technology plays a big part in helping companies compete and survive.
Information Technology is inseparable from business operations and strategy. A survey conducted by the Small Business Administration in 2003 gives the statistic that 75% of small businesses have heavily invested in computing technology. This is an important and good trend, because the growth of IT has introduced methods and has facilitated the implementation of new business models. The traditional view of IT is that it is an enabler of efficient processing of routine operational activities and some specialized tasks have been automated. This makes it possible for in entrepreneurs and Small to Medium Size business to gain tremendous time efficiencies and reduce the need for specialized skills. This development has allowed SME 's streamline operations, improve productivity and enhance their customers experience before and after sales. IT has permeated every aspect of the business enterprise from planning strategy, to operations and implementation.
One of the major drivers of success at Tata Motors Ltd. (TML) was its ability to fully exploit information technology to drive business goals and reduce cost. The company was an early adopter of CAD and CAM systems