Vermont Teddy Bear Company (VTBC)

The company is served by an IT infrastructure comprising of an amalgamation of off the shelf software and components and locally developed applications and middleware. The hardware infrastructure is by and large robust and capable of withstanding any current operational peaks. The infrastructure employs a high level of redundancy and good recovery and password management systems, so there is little risk of high business impact in the case of IT issues. No architecture document exists and minimal change control is executed.

Vermont Teddy Bear was founded by John Sortino, who began selling plush bears from a mall kiosk in Burlington and a few years later turned the company into a multi-million dollar business. Throughout the years, VTB has had some major successes, such as the implementation of its ‘Bear-Gram’ service, which allows customers to call a toll-free number and order a personalized bear. In addition, VTB has expanded beyond teddy bears and into other successful managed brands like flower delivery and clothing (pajamas). However, the company has also faced some adversity after going public including off-seasonal jams, partnership failures (Zany Brain), and a rise in competitors, which has reflected in VTB’s overall market share. Since then VTB has repurchased its stock.

Although Vermont Teddy Bear is a company with a rich track record in the business of "last-minute gifts", its mission statement lacked its basic goals and philosophies that aim to shape its strategic posture.

It has recently come to my attention that Target Co. utilizes data mining to extract a wide spectrum of information about its customers by accumulating, analyzing and storing data about customer purchases. While I understand that this practice enables Target Co. to simultaneously deliver individually targeted advertisements across its diverse customer groupings, thereby increasing the potential for sales and improving customer retention, I also understand that large amounts of data unearthed by data mining can be manipulated to uncover hidden purchasing patterns to predict and shape future purchase decisions. Therefore, although there are significant benefits to using data mining, there are also serious costs associated with data mining that

Midsouth Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit, member driven, business advocacy group is in the processes of upgrading their current information system. Midsouth has decided they need to upgrade their information system to a more currently system, in order to increase revenue producing opportunities. Their original IS system was built by an outside consultant (who is no longer in business) on a departmental need base, rather than a company wide need. The original system was put into place in 1987, with modifications done in 1993, and 1995. During this time all IS decision were made by outside

Vermont Teddy Bear (VTB) has been found by John Sortino in 1981. This company has served as a gift delivery service with three main product lines: Bears (plush toys), PajamaGrams (apparel), and Calyx Flowers (gifts). All gift orders are made via four different channels (retail store, mail, phone, web order), each channel supported by different software. First, VTB’s customers design bears by selecting the colors and outfits from a menu of options.

In 2005, the Vermont Teddy Bear Company produced a controversial bear for the Valentine holiday. The bear that was made was called “Crazy for You” and wore a straitjacket. It became an issue when the company was confronted for offending the mentally ill. After the problem became apparent to the organization, it responded by saying that it would continue selling the toy until the inventory was empty. It was put out for the public in January and was sold out by February 3. The ethical issue in this case is whether or not Vermont Teddy Bear Company handled the situation ethically correct.

(Bhasin, 2014) A question to be answered by data mining is how to identify unexpected shopping patterns in supermarkets? Data mining can acquire significant amount of information on customer buying habits and preferences. The importance of this question is to target marketing campaigns to maximize revenue on every day of the week. The data is taken from operational or transactional activities such as, sales, cost and inventory.

The Vermont Teddy Bear Company has a few qualities the CEO can accentuation to help the organization and enhance inspiration. The primary quality is representative preparing and unwaveringness (Wheelen and Hunger, 2004). We realize that the organization's workers are not unionized (Wheelen and Hunger, 2004). The organization additionally does not appear to be stressed over the likelihood of their workers unionizing, demonstrating the representatives are upbeat and substance (Wheelen and Hunger, 2004). This is a great quality for the organization. Upbeat and substance representatives are fundamental to the thriving of the vacationer business that exists in their Vermont

T.R. have been involved in the production and sale of confectionery products for over 100 years. Leo Hirshfield founded T.R. in 1896 and its headquarters are currently located in Chicago, Illinois. The majority of the Tootsie Roll Industries products are sold under registered trademarks that include: Tootsie Roll, Tootsie Roll Pops, Child’s Play, Caramel Apple Pops, Charms, Blow-Pop, Charms Mini Pops, Cella’s, Mason Dots, Mason Crows, Junior Mints, Charleston Chew, Sugar Daddy, Sugar Babies, Andes, Fluffy Stuff, Dubble Bubble, Razzles, Cry Baby and Nik-L-Nip. These products are sold through roughly 30 candy and grocery store dealers and by T.R. itself to approximately 4,000 customers throughout the U.S. Tootsie Roll Industries customers include: wholesale distributors of candy and grocery stores, supermarkets, warehouse and membership club stores, vending machine operators, the United States military, and fund-raising charitable organizations. (Orthodox Union 2009)

bears on the streets of Burlington, VT. In the early years he opened a retail store in

John Sortino founded the Vermont Teddy Bear Company (VTBC) in 1981 by selling handsewn teddy bears out of a pushcart in the streets of Burlington, Vermont (Wheelen & Hunger, 2004). Mr. Sortino's motivation for making the teddy bears in the United States cultivated while playing with his son, Graham, and after noticing his son had many stuffed animals that were made in other countries (Wheelen & Hunger, 2004). Since its inception, the company's focus has been to design, manufacture, and direct market the best teddy bears made in America; using quality American materials and labor (Wheelen & Hunger, 2004).

The use of CRM could also be used to target specific marketing programs for individual customers. It will help the company evaluate its customers, which in turn will aid Canyon Ranch in developing features, products or services that will suit clients’ preferences. The

The partnership at Hefty Hardware between IT and the business is not effective. One of the core problems faced by Hefty Hardware was the lack of a productive, working relationship between the company’s IT and business divisions. The four building blocks needed for a foundation on which a solid relationship could be constructed; competence, credibility, interpersonal interactions, and trust, were not present between the two divisions (McKeen & Smith, 2012). The business division felt IT lacked competence when dealing with business needs, demonstrated by the IT department not having knowledge of Hefty Hardware’s basic business concerns, goals or processes.

Wal-Mart’s advanced data-mining tools allow them to fine tune and improve customer responsiveness, giving customers what and when they want in offer. It can be compared to