April 15, 2005 — CIO — At Toyota Motor Sales USA's headquarters in Torrance, Calif., there's a circular patch of manicured earth that separates the IS building and corporate headquarters. A brook winds its way through lush flowers and pine trees, and a terraced path connects the two buildings.
For many years, this was about the only thing the two groups shared with each other.
For the business execs at Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) peering across the courtyard at the Data building, the deep black windows were a symbol of IS's opacity. These executives felt that IS was unresponsive, and they had little clue where the money was going. "One of the complaints was that we spent a lot of money on IT projects, and [the business] was frequently disappointed with the results," recalls Bob Daly, group vice president of Toyota Customer Services. Daly says badly handled projects-such as a delayed PeopleSoft ERP implementation and a protracted parts inventory initiative-led to finger-pointing between the two factions.
Meanwhile, behind the darkened windows of the Data building, Barbra Cooper's IS staff was buried under the weight of six enterprisewide projects and could barely keep their heads above water. Called the Big Six, they included a new extranet for Toyota dealers and the PeopleSoft ERP rollout, as well as four new systems for order management, parts forecasting, advanced warranty and financial document management. Feeling besieged, the IS group made the mistake of not explaining to the business all the things it was doing and how much it all cost. It was a classic case of mismanaged expectations and fractured alignment.
Read More ....
No comments:
Post a Comment