Woolworth's Australia: The death of institutional memory

The Australian outpost of the venerable department store chain, affectionately known as "Woolies," also ran into data-related problems as it transitioned from a system built 30 years ago in-house to SAP. One of the biggest crises that arose was that profit-and-loss reports tailored for individual stores, which managers were accustomed to receiving every week, couldn't be generated for nearly 18 months.

The problem lay in the change in data collection procedures, but the root cause was a failure of the business to fully understand its own processes. The day-to-day business procedures weren't properly documented, and as senior staff left the company over the too-long six-year transition process, all that institutional knowledge was lost and wasn't able to be baked into the new rollout.

"I often see companies that don't take the people who really know business processes and dedicate them to the ERP rollout," says Crouse. "They make it a part-time job, or they hire new people to tell the system guys what to build. None of that works. You have to really dedicate the people who know the process that you're trying to get right, full-time. And it's a common theme that, when you don't dedicate those people, you get into trouble."

1. Advice relating to the implementation of a new ERP system, including:
2. an overview of the Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC) that you believe the company should utilise in the implementation of their new ERP system. (1 mark)
3. a review of the ERP implementation issues for Woolworths Australia (note that you will need to conduct further research beyond the CIO article provided). The review must include:
4. an overview of the failed ERP implementation for Woolworths(2 marks)
5. an analysis of four (4) systems implementation deficiencies for your chosen business, including discussion of where each falls within the five stages of the SDLC(4 marks)and;
6. provision of four (4) recommendations to Travellmore on how they could manage and overcome the deficiencies you identified above in their implementation of an ERP system.(4 marks