Sew What?Inc. Case Study

Case 1

1. How do information technologies contribute to the business success of Sew What Inc? Give several examples from the case regarding the business value of information technology that demonstrate this conclusion. (AJ)

Sew What? does a great job of realizing that they could improve their business by implementing information technology and turning that plan into reality. Megan Duckett first feels the loss of not implementing technology when she loses a big account. That loss brought on two consecutive years of poor growth. Setting her pride aside she implemented her first website using Microsoft Publisher. A year later after taking a 10-week course in Dreamweaver she rebuilt her website. The new website gave Sew What? the opportunity to grow into a company with a worldwide customers. Including, Gucci, and Rolling Stone magazine. In 2005 Duckett set out to improve the website further and hired a Web marketing consulting company to build a custom navigation system for the site. This navigation upgrade help Sew What? overcome a language barrier for their international clients, as well as a search engine to help navigate the site.

All the technology that was put into place helped Sew What? grow into a great company. It wasn’t until they won a contest from Dell that they truly realized what great things technology has done for the company. Sew What? won 30,000$ in Dell products and services and opened the door for other awards including: a Stevie Award for Women in Business for “most innovative company of the year” SMB 20 Award from PC Magazine. Duckett plans to uses her winnings to ass a bar code system that can track the manufacturing process to cut expenses and pass the savings on to her customers.

Sew What? went from a company run out of a kitchen on the brink of disaster after losing a big contract because the lack of a website hurt their credibility, to a fabric powerhouse. A simple website made a huge difference in the financial prosperity and the...