個案總覽

Spreadsheet for case #301-099

Describes how Cisco web-enabled their ERP systems and developed the "front office" systems to electronically link to their customers and suppliers. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Describes the details of IBM's dramatic corporate turnaround in the early 1990s led by CEO Louis V. Gerstner. Accounts of events are from interviews with IBM executives. Covers the factors that led to the company's decline and actions taken to recover.

On a clear day in August 1999 in the new headquarters of drugstore.com, against a backdrop of the Blue Angels flying in formation over Lake Washington practicing for their hydroplane Seafare Cup performance, Peter Neupert was pleased with his company's IPO performance. Just last month, on July 28, 1999, drugstore.com had burst to life as a public company. Shares priced at $18 had soared as high as $69 on the first day of trading, providing a total valuation for drugstore.com of more than $2.9 billion--and a record: drugstore.com was the fastest company ever to reach a valuation of $1 billion. The team had built a virtual drugstore on the Web. During the first six months of its existence more than 160,000 customers had come to shop for more than 17,000 drugstore products and prescription drugs. Customer orders were electronically sent to distribution centers run by Walsh Distribution and RxAmerica, both located in Texas. Drugstore.com had entered into outsourcing agreements/partnerships for fulfilling the orders with these two firms. For six months ending July 4, 1999, drugstore.com sold products to approximately 168,000 customers, and had net sales of $4.2 million with an operating loss of $30 million. In June of 1999, drugstore.com had 980,000 unique visits to its Web site compared to 560,000 unique visits of its competitor PlanetRx.

Reviews Tektronix's implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution in all three of its global business divisions. This case tells the story of three implementations, each with its own character and requirements. Tektronix managers needed to synchronize the requirements of each division with the company's overall need to standardize business practices and its desire to adhere to a common business model across the enterprise. Details the difficulty of major business change in a mature business and technical environment.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 699-043.

Reviews Cisco System's approach to implementing Oracle's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software product. This case chronologically reviews the diverse, critical success factors and obstacles facing Cisco during its implementation. Cisco faced the need for information systems replacement based on its significant growth potential and its reliance on failing legacy systems. The discussion focuses on where management was particularly savvy in contrast to where it was the beneficiary of good fortune.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 699-022.

Sun Microsystems is a pioneer in networking computing. Sun's servers maintain a large market share and are considered highly scaleable. The case describes the n-tier architecture for building and managing large networks in which thousands of workers and customers are connected to enterprise servers.

Intended to introduce individuals to search engines and databases on the Internet, in particular those that are available to HBS.

Supplements the case.

Diana Sullivan, CEO of Lenox Insurance, thought she had done her job when, after three years of hard work, she had delivered Lifexpress on time and on budget. A sophisticated computer-aided system, it enabled Lenox's 10,000-plus agents to do everything from establish a prospect's financial profile, to select the most appropriate products from the company's myriad policies, to generate all the paperwork needed to close a sale. But now Sullivan's boss, CFO Clay Fontana, seemed to be holding her accountable not only for the creation and implementation of the system but for realizing its business goals as well. And Lenox's CEO, James Bennett, appeared to concur. In this hypothetical case study, Sullivan and the other top executives at Lenox must decide who should be responsible for realizing the business goals of information technology projects. Should Sullivan have gone about the project in another way? Should Fontana and Bennett be playing more active roles? In 97308 and 97308Z, commentators James K. Sims, Thornton May, Richard Nolan, Robert A. Distefano, and John King offer advice on this fictional case study.

Diana Sullivan, CEO of Lenox Insurance, thought she had done her job when, after three years of hard work, she had delivered Lifexpress on time and on budget. A sophisticated computer-aided system, it enabled Lenox's 10,000-plus agents to do everything from establish a prospect's financial profile, to select the most appropriate products from the company's myriad policies, to generate all the paperwork needed to close a sale. But now Sullivan's boss, CFO Clay Fontana, seemed to be holding her accountable not only for the creation and implementation of the system but for realizing its business goals as well. And Lenox's CEO, James Bennett, appeared to concur. In this hypothetical case study, Sullivan and the other top executives at Lenox must decide who should be responsible for realizing the business goals of information technology projects. Should Sullivan have gone about the project in another way? Should Fontana and Bennett be playing more active roles? In 97308 and 97308Z, commentators James K. Sims, Thornton May, Richard Nolan, Robert A. Distefano, and John King offer advice on this fictional case study.

XcelleNet, a $35 million system software company based in Atlanta, was founded in 1986 to address the computing needs of a class of remote and mobile users and data that were rarely connected to a network. Though the clear first mover and leader in the remote enterprise computing segment in 1996, XcelleNet and its market had been stalled by successive waves of networking technology--remote LAN Access, Groupware, and the Internet/Intranet. The company's founder and CEO, Dennis Crumpler, must formulate a strategy for capitalizing on XcelleNet's first-mover advantage and responding to the opportunities created by these emerging technologies.

In 1993 CIGNA Property and Casualty embarked on a full transformation effort under a new leadership team headed by Gerry Isom. This case presents progress through September 1995.

Presents the outcome of Air Products ICON decentralization projects. New issues are explored, including the challenges of having a decentralized MIS staff, global network, client/server architecture, new data center issues, outsourcing, a new highly strategic customer interface, object-oriented programming (OOPS), and the future of the MIS organization. A rewritten version of two earlier cases.

Reengineering was introduced at CIGNA Corp. in 1988. CIGNA entered a second wave reengineering effort through a major project at CIGNA P&C, one of CIGNA's larger businesses. P&C was in financial crisis and as a result brought in a new executive team in 1991 to head the transformation effort. This case analyzes the phases of P&C transformation, P&C's business process redesign, their use of information technology in the form of client/server architecture to support the strategy, and the use of the balanced scorecard to drive transformation. Presents the progress of P&C's effort as of January 1995--marking the end of Phase I (analysis and design) and looking forward to Phase 2 (implementation).

Describes the resignation of the CEO hired three years earlier to transform the company.

Over the course of two years a CEO executes a business transformation strategy and key decisions.

A turnaround CEO engineers a business transformation and formulates short-term and long-term strategy after assessing the business situation.