Tristan Fong

110523170
07/07/2015

Canadian Tire Case

Canadian Tire, being the large corporation that it is, places a heavy emphasis on
technology. Over the years, it has become more grossly inefficient as they begin
incur more IT expenses compared to the industry standards. This occurred due to
the disconnect between the users skill and the IT resources provided, IT costs were
not held responsible by the respective user and a series of other issues. The method
formulated to solve this issue was a four step program aimed to create quarterly
benchmark metrics to assess the IT environment, manage the organization and
people capabilities, improving overall processes and the underlying technological
structure.
This was in combination with the BI initiative as the IW department began to
specialize more the technical aspects such as hardware, leaving the analytics to the
user groups. This decentralization of data created further discrepancies and
inefficiencies as the data model began to deviate from the initial requirements.
To streamline the functionality of IW to become a strategic business partner,
Canadian Tire needs to restructure their organization to align with their vision of
standardized data for the entire organization. This also included hiring additional
consultants to guide this transition such as Cap Gemini Ernst and Young as well as
Bridget Martens from Eubanks.
This case outlines the importance of IW as not only a technological resource but as
a hub which integrates with current business operations. It shows the need for a
synergy between business intelligence and data management. This will increase
cost efficiency but also increase the rate and quality of the decisions being made.
Canadian Tire is being proactive by acknowledging these flaws in their organization
and addressing them through the given means can drive a competitive edge over
the industry.