Building shared services at RR Communications

Shift MINI CASE Building Shared Services at R Communications4 Papers him and scanned the small conference room. "You're fired CIOs sitting at the table. They looked nervously at h known to make practical jokes, but this had been a prettynn wakl Our dites some they'd had over the past five years. " You're kidding." said Mat more outspoken members of the divisional CIO team. "Nops Matt Da boss's OK on this. We don't need any of you anymore. I'm creatin nization, and there's no room for any of you. The HR peopnterprit that, he picked up his papers and headed to the door, leaving the fote o e Patton had been waiting years for this day. He pulled th togethe him, grinningd t kes, but this had been a pretty good meeting ac at least hlw said Vince. "Ie of the That felt good" he admitted as he strode back to his offr of them in s not a cruel one. known to tolerate fools gladly (or corporate politics), he was guys had been thorns in his side ever since he had taken the ne faltering RR Communications five years ago. The company's stoc e tel dumpster, and with the dramatically increased competition inthadbe tions industry as a result of deregulation, his friends and famil nuts. But Ross Roman, RR's eccentric but brilliant founder, had made hin couldn't refuse. "We need you to transform IT so that we can introduce ne more quickly," he'd said. "You'll have my full backing for whatever you wan Produ Typically for an entrepreneur, Roman had sketched the vision swiftly nt to do. one else to actually implement it. "We've got to have a more flexible and organization. Every time I want to do something, they tell me 'the systems it. I'm tired of g some respo having customers complaining about getting multiple bills for each products. It's not acceptable that RR can't create one simple little bill for each customet Roman punctuated his remarks by stabbing with his finger at a file full of let president, which he insisted on reading personally each week. "You've got a reputaticn. as a 'can do kind of guy; I checked. Don't bother me with details; just get the job done Vince knew he was a good, proactive IT leader, but he hadn't been prepared for the mess he inherited-or the politics. There was no central IT, just separa sional units for the four key lines of business-Internet, mobile, landline, and cable TV service each doing its own thing. Every business unit had bought its own hardware and software, so introducing the common systems that would be needed to accomplish Roman's vision would be hugely difficult that is, assuming they wanted them, which they didn't. There were multiple sales systems, databases, and customer serv all of which led to customer and business frustration. The company only with its customers but also with the telecommunications regulators in trouble not and with is was Smith, H. A, and J D. McKeen "Shared Services at RR Communications " #1-107-14020 Business September 2007. Reproduced by permission of Queen's University, School of Ontario, Canada. Queen's School of Business, Kingston