Simplifying Information Systems at Cirque du Soleil

It is evident from the case study that Cirque du Soleil can be characterized as a typical small business that experienced phenomenal business growth. As it grew it invested resources to developing its core business. However, technology investments were not well thought out over the years and as a result Cirque has multiple hardware platforms, use of several versions of sometimes incompatible operating systems, a large number of uncatalogued special-purpose applications, and a complete lack of standardization. As stated on page 5 of the case study they had more than 800 applications and software packages, which in some cases supported the same business function. Most of these applications were standalone that led to collaboration challenges.

Danielle Savoie seeks to simplify the information systems being used at Cirque to enable employees across the organization to collaborate. She has created a team of analysts to help her in this process. As the team of analysts charged with this task answer the following.

What would you recommend to Danielle to transform Cirques information systems? Create a visual map for the steps you identify and describe the specific steps for the path that the organization will traverse to simplify their information systems. Highlight the assumptions you make and discuss why these steps will help Cirque simplify their information systems.

Use the steps identified to create a project plan to execute this project. The plan should include a work breakdown structure (WBS) and Gantt chart that depicts tasks, duration with start and finish times, predecessors and resource names.

Please write down the lessons learnt from this milestone. What challenged you the most and why?