Rogers Communications is one of Canada's largest telecom companies. It offers home phone services, wireless phone services, Internet service, and cable TV service. Rogers provides small shops in 93 malls across Canada to service its customers. The stores sell a wide variety of phones and other telecom devices and services. Until recently, Rogers outsourced the information technology services for its mall stores to a third-party company. Francois Chevallier, vice president of retail systems for Rogers Retail, thought that Rogers could improve its systems and business practices if it took control of its own systems. "When you have different stores with different systems and management structures, the experience cannot be consistent. Our goal was to achieve that consistency and raise the bar," says Chevallier. Chevallier proposed a massive upgrade of Rogers' retail systems that would provide consistency in business practices and customer experience and connect all data in a unified system accessible from headquarters. The project faced two big challenges. First, to avoid any interruption to service, systems in all 93 stores should be upgraded simultaneously when stores were closed, which is tricky when dealing with stores across four time zones. Second, the upgrade would take place in the middle of winter when weather was unpredictable, with periodic snow and wind storms and temperatures diving as low as -27 degrees Celsius (-17 F). This challenging project would require more human resources than Chevallier had. He pulled in an outside company, Connections Canada Inc. (CCI), to assist with the project. The team decided that the upgrade would need to take place at all locations simultaneously over a six-hour period while the stores were closed, which meant working through the night. In order for the upgrade to go flawlessly, the team would need to invest in practice, training, and preparation. Unfortunately they had only four months to prepare. They decided to create a virtual store, or staging facility, at CCI that mimicked the real Rogers' mall stores. The components of the new system were set up in the virtual store including all software and hardware: routers, computers, cash-registers, and PIN readers. The intention was to create and configure a system for each store using the staging facility and then ship the preconfigured components of the system to each store-a kind of "store-in-a-box." Experts from different fields including information systems, human resources, operations, finance, supply chain, real estate, marketing, inventory management, and internal communications assisted in configuring the system to meet all organizational needs. The finance expert set up the banking environment for each store. The supply chain expert modified the supply-chain elements of the new system. In other words, each expert worked on his or her area of specialty. The team used a SharePoint intranet to allow all experts involved to communicate online. They spent weeks developing, testing, and adjusting the new system in the virtual store. The development continued until all experts were satisfied. Once the system was designed and running smoothly in the store prototype, four actual stores were selected for testing. One at a time, the system was installed in each store. With each installation, lessons were learned and problems became fewer. The installation at the fourth store was carried out flawlessly. The new system was ready for installation in the remaining stores. One technician was hired and trained for each of the store installations. Many backup technicians were trained as well in case the primary technician failed to show up. The store-in-a-box was shipped to each of the stores in shipping containers that could withstand the coldest Canadian winter temperatures. Communications were set up that would allow each technician to give a step-by-step report to the control center at headquarters. At headquarters, ten project managers would be tracking the progress of their districts and reporting to the primary project managers. If trouble arose, it could be addressed within minutes. The installation went off without a hitch. The project was completed on schedule in four months at a cost of one million dollars. In the end, 500 Rogers employees were trained on the new system, which included an "intranet for resources and policies, a new supply chain model, integrated point-of-sale and merchandise management systems, and a foundation for good customer service." The team credits the success of this ambitious system development project to its detailed preparation, especially the staging facility, and tight communications and cooperation throughout the process.
Discussion Questions
1. What challenges did Rogers face in the installation of its new retail system?
2. What implementation techniques did Rogers employ to assure a smooth transition to the new system?
Critical Thinking Questions
1. Why did Rogers feel it necessary to upgrade all stores at the same time? What are the benefits and risks of that decision?
2. What role did communications technologies play in the success of this system upgrade?