Oxford Industries

Assessment of Current Situation

As Oxford Industries grew through acquisition, the overall financial management processes of the company grew increasingly challenging and complex. The CIO, John Baumgartner had managed to minimize any negative impact by supporting the old and new yet separate business processes. However the company’s plan to further expand through acquisition will increase pressure on Baumgartner making IT even more difficult to manage.

At Oxford Industries, legacy and acquired entities were allowed to maintain their existing IT infrastructure separate and different from each other and for several good reasons. The main reason however was to minimize the negative potential impact on operations and employees which could affect sales and profits. Nevertheless, “the legacy IT infrastructure is a constraint on Oxford’s ability to implement its strategy-driven architectural decisions” (Weil & Ross, 2004).

The current IT infrastructure at Oxford Industries stems to three operating groups: 1) North American operating units, 2) Tommy Bahama and 3) Ben Sherman UK.

North American Operating Units

The North American operating units use the Apparel Business Systems (ABS) ERP system which resides on an IBM iSeries server. The system provides real-time, automatic and direct interface with users and other systems. Major cash flow items such as accounts receivable, accounts payable and all legal and treasury functions are handled by Corporate.

Tommy Bahama

The Tommy Bahama group uses Blue Cherry an ERP application purchase shortly before being acquired. This application along with two others run on Intel servers and captures all of the companies operating and financial sales and inventory transactions. A small accounting staff handles it internal reporting and budgeting and all GL transactions are posted by Corporate.

Ben Sherman UK

The Ben Sherman UK group has its own set of applications to support its business...