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2. To what extent was the level of tension between the business needs and IT capacity? Explain.

In 2008, when Cirque du Soleil was regarded as highly successful it was evident that IT played a major role in their success. After proving its worth for 8 long years IT got the respect it deserved. But, this was not the case earlier back in 2000, when IT was first introduced in Cirque it faced many comments. Staff members and managers were wondering what role IT can play in environment where creativity, inspiration and imagination were of prime importance. They considered IT as useless and waste of money. Even Danielle Savoie, Vice President of Information Technology and Knowledge Management faced questions like what does an IT specialist do at Cirque du Soleil, and these questions not only came from people who were not familiar with the activities at Cirque but also from Cirque employees.

Initially Danielle faced hard time convincing top management team that IT can find effective ways to support growth planned by Cirque and it could be more than just cost center. One of the major issue was to adjust in artistic environment and implementing ERP. Even after facing such difficulties IT kept supporting Cirque in every stage. Be it creation phase where scenography, choreography and theme were developed or selling of tickets or even tour planning, IT played a role of optimizing and standardizing all such processes which played a major role in success of Cirque.

Even after so much contribution, series of questions still continue: What’s next? How can IT continue to add value to Cirque du Soleil? IT team now faces such questions, and they are never going to end.