Assignment 1: Case Study

In 2025, Uniwest Company is Canadas largest retailer. Uniwest sells to customers and businesses through various subsidiaries across the world. All of its product planning is done from its head office in Winnipeg.

Uniwest was founded in 2020 with a vision to "make life better for citizens of the world." Uniwest has created innovative, exciting products that meet the needs of their customers and communities. With over 5000 people currently employed, and with over 50 locations across 15 cities, Uniwest continues to expand.

Over the years of expansion, Uniwest has evolved in its use of Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems. These systems have proliferated across the company, as each department built solutions to cater to their own needs. Company reporting is now done using a mix of outdated technology platforms (legacy ERP system based on JD Edwards (JDE) and a reporting system), with bolt on aggregators built in MS Access databases and MS Excel spreadsheets containing complex macros.

A recent project implemented a new Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) system to manage leasing and sales that provides a modern interface operating via the corporate intranet. This ERP system interfaces with existing SCM systems to pull data as the old systems remain the source of existing information and data; it also contains a whole new set of data fields developed to improve the relationship with high value customers. These new data sets are only held in the ERP system and are not passed to the old systems. The data logic maps and data dictionary are out of date, which is causing issues throughout the company.

Uniwest has a large team in the Distribution department managing multiple systems and databases and using complex Excel spreadsheets to drive the multiple levels of SCM initiatives across Uniwest. Reporting often takes weeks and is easily prone to error, and the spreadsheets are becoming unstable and unwieldy. In addition, reporting formats and ability to access data (drill down or aggregate) is no longer meeting the needs of the various stakeholders who rely on this information to make business decisions on a daily basis and to compile reports for external stakeholders.

Senior Executive Management consists of the CIO, CFO, CEO, and other executives in senior management roles across the company. Currently, they receive detailed and aggregate reporting in MS PowerPoint files every month. The problem is that information is too old to be actionable and only provides a snapshot of past results. Uniwest would like aggregated real time data in a dashboard format they can access from any computing device using self-service. Critical data should be presented in easy to use graphs, with the ability for individual executives to drill down into the data to gain a more detailed view, and a standard set of filters, so they can sort, organize and extract data themselves. Currently, they are very frustrated with both the timeliness and presentation of the data.

Departmental Vice Presidents (VPs) manage departments, such as finance, sales, product planning, supply chain management, and IT. Currently they get weekly departmental reports, which are more detail oriented than those available to the Executive Management Team. Again, this data is old and error prone; they are constantly requesting updates and ad-hoc reports.

This data is focused on individual departments rather than a whole Company view. They expect the same look and feel to data as the Executive Management Team, i.e., in a dashboard and graphical format, with the additional requirement that they want data to be pre-filtered to only show their division. They are very excited about this project and are giving it their full attention.

The distribution team reports to the Chief Product Officer (CPO). This team consists of over 25 staff, who are responsible for producing all SCM reports for anyone in Uniwest. They have highly developed skills in Access and Excel and are extensive users of pre-existing systems though are only starting to integrate the new data in the ERP platform into their excel reports (not using ERP reporting capabilities yet). They import all data into Excel spreadsheets for manipulation, reporting, and investigation. This team currently manages over 25 standard reports, and some of the reports have over 5,000 lines of data.

The distribution team is incredibly knowledgeable about the customer data and its meaning, but they find it challenging to provide meaningful data to Uniwest, and they realize that they have become a bottleneck for the company. They are somewhat apprehensive about this project, as they are used to being the go to people for information. Consequently, they are change resistant and fear for their jobs.

The IT team reports to the Chief Innovation Officer (CIO). They manage existing systems including all applications, systems access, security, and helpdesk services. They know the current systems are nearing end of life but take pride in maintaining them for organizational use. They realize that they are often seen as scapegoats and are a frustration to the business who want a more modern reporting platform. Whilst not sponsoring this project, the CIO is partnering with the CPO to ensure that best in class design and usability of the new platform is an outcome of the project.

The Office Managers report to the Departmental executives. They are in charge of the day to day management of each Office. They need real time access to the customer data on their own Office and are also interested in customers of similar offices across Uniwest for comparative evaluation. Very detail oriented and extensively use the current excel reporting, though are very frustrated with always having to go through the finance team. They cannot wait to be able to access, sort and print out their own data

The Regional Sales Managers report to the VP-Sales, with dotted line reporting to the Office Manager(s). Their role is to maximize the sales and maintain a sales pipeline for their regions. Their needs are similar to the departmental executives; they are very supportive of the project and will be the change champions and day to day decision makers and road block removers.

The CEO, Beyonce, has launched a new project to Design and Build a world class SCM system by 2027. This system will interface seamlessly with underlying corporate systems ERP and JD Edwards and MS office suite.

Beyonce happens to be a fan of the Blue Bombers and ran into you during a pre-game party at Investors Group Field. You impressed her with your knowledge of Strategy and Enterprise Analysis, and you were hired to facilitate business analysis at Uniwest.

How to Proceed

Introduction to Strategy and Enterprise Analysis In 2-4 pages, create the Business Analysis Core Concept Model (BACCM) for Uniwest company.

Use the first page to document the model.

Identify different concepts as they apply to this case. Hint for concepts : Needs, changes, solution, value, stakeholders and context

Explain how these concepts are interrelated in this project.

Document any assumptions, explaining why these were important in your response.

Analyze Current State In 4 - 6 pages, create a current state description for the project. You should:

Describe the context of the 1. scope, 2. resources, 3. dependencies, 4. infrastructure, 5. external influences, and 6. significant relationships between these elements.

Name the BA techniques that were utilized and describe why these techniques were selected.

Document any assumptions and categorize them as guidelines or tools, explaining why these were important in your response. Provide the actual answer to the question. It will be best if the answer is in the bullet points.