Pottery Barn and SWU

Now you decide to look at a potential competitor to SWU. Analyze The Pottery Barn, located at http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/71/potterybarn.html,.

Consider the following questions.

What unique things does Pottery Barn do with its employees that could be used by SWU?
How similar are Pottery Barn's clients to SWU?
What makes Pottery Barn claim it has first class customer service?
Product development and marketing play a big role at Pottery Barn. How would you describe the business processes involved to identify and bring a new product to the store's floor?

SWU
SaveWithUs, Inc. has hired you as a consultant to improve their business processes through information systems management. SaveWithUS (SWU) has been a manufacturer and distributor of household decorations for eight years. They have five stores in two states. Their target markets are post-college singles, newlyweds, and new families.

One goal of SWU is to increase their repeat business. Store managers think that they currently get 30% of repeat business, but are not positive. SaveWithUs, Inc. also needs to reduce both the expenses of the items they manufacture: simple wood chairs, tables, and cabinets; and of the items that they purchase for resale: pottery, plates, flatware, glassware, and decorative items like pillows and wall hangings. They feel they can control inventories and make better contracts with vendors if store managers have a better awareness of their sales.

The CEO, Ms. Tania White, feels that there are gains to be made by improving how work is done and reducing the paperwork load on the store managers and manufacturing/distribution centers. "Everyone has excellent guesses as to what is happening and why, but no one can agree on the facts of what is going on. "I want everyone on the same page, and able to concentrate on doing what they do best, not pushing paper and arguing about figures in every meeting," says Ms. White. "I need you to propose solutions for improving business processes and creating a stronger reporting system for the company."

You survey the challenges ahead to fulfill the company mandate. You plan for the process to start with benchmarking other firms to gain ideas for solutions to improving business processes, records, and reporting. When you have compared these ideas to SWU's needs, you will next propose solutions to the SaveWithUs executive committee. After that, you will educate management on how to avoid pitfalls in usage of uniform business processes. Finally, you will choose a vendor and create an application implementation proposal for the executive committee which will include a budget, timeline, and plan for garnering support from all stakeholders.