Mis Case Study

take home case 1 | “Transforming SUPERVALU by Exploiting Scale and Becoming Hyperlocal” |

take home case 1 | “Transforming SUPERVALU by Exploiting Scale and Becoming Hyperlocal” |

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Decentralized approach of IT architecture at Supervalu helps the banners to be more autonomic, so they have controls over store operations. Although the price is determined by the company, they would have control over stock level of the goods. For example, if a banner can have enough red peppers it demands, it will reduce the waste and the cost of storing inventory. Moreover, a decentralized approach would allow the store directors have the power to sell a particular product. For example, a store near a college can sell Scantron forms, because the other place sell Scantron forms close at 5:00 pm. Since the store manager knows that this item is going to be sold and make a profit, selling it will help the company to target more customers and move towards becoming America’s Neighbourhood Grocer. The decentralized approach also helps Supervalu to have more openness towards store directors, as they can gather great ideas from others and implement it into their operation system. As the case mentioned, Yammer helps to shift the culture from one that have difference and competition into one that encourages sharing and openness. According to Mark Beale; “[Yammer] is a huge vehicle for us to share best practices, whereas before if somebody had a great idea, it was held close to the chest.” (Quaadgras, Taveras, Ross,“Transforming SUPERVALU by Exploiting Scale and Becoming Hyperlocal”). Another advantage of decentralized approach is the simplification of communication between employees and top management. As Craig Herkert put it, in the past store directors have to go through their District Manager, area VP, senior VP of Ops, EVP of Ops and then him. Yammer helps the company getting feedbacks more quickly.

Centralized approach of IT architecture helps Supervalu to be efficient...