Ismael Rodrguez

Olga Fetisova
Discussion One
a) Discussion of companys initial situation
Bombardier, a company that started in the rail transportation market, obtains about 50% of their revenue
from the aircraft design and manufacturing industry. It is the third largest company in the aircraft
industry, and the leading producer of regional aircrafts.
In their initial situation, they were facing a strong competition from Airbus, Boeing, and specially
Embraer. In addition, as they led the regional aircraft industry and regional and low-cost carriers were
growing faster, there was an opportunity for Bombardier to grow and survive in that highly-competitive
environment. To do so, they needed to make changes to their legacy information systems, that were
outdated, not integrated and didnt evolve to cope with the changes of the business.
b) What are the current challenges?
The main strategic challenge is to be able to cope with the competitive environment of the Aircraft
manufacturing industry, especially with their near competitors. Also, one important challenge is to take
advantage of the rising of the regional and low-cost flights to be able to grow and overtake the
competitors.
To succeed with those challenges, several other goals have to be accomplished: replacing the old system
with one that allows the company to grow, reduce the data errors introduced by humans, and align the
operations of its acquired companies by implementing common roles, responsibilities and company
values. It is necessary to create an integrated organization.
c) To what extent is Bombardier an integrated company?
Not much. Bombardier has been acquiring different companies since its foundation (Canadair, Short
Brothers, Lear Jet Corporation, etc.). This led to integration problems, as systems from the acquired
companies did not communicate with the existing ones effectively, and the values, roles, and processes
of such former companies were very different from Bombardier ones.
In addition, there was a proliferation of stand-alone databases for very specific functions, instead of an
integrated repository of data. Different functions had different databases, and different branches of the
company in different locations had also different repositories, causing data errors, omissions and
repetitions.
d) What are the challenges associated with integration?
Integration is not only a matter of a technology implementation; it implies altering tradition, the way
employees work, their roles, business processes, and many aspects of the organization. The integration
has to be grounded on a very strong business foundation, company vision has to be up-to-date and
internal employees have to be involved in order to succeed. Also, a lot of money, time, and effort is
required.
e) What are the expected benefits of integration?
The main benefit is that the system would follow the pace of the business and would allow its growth.
Data could be shared seamlessly across branches, sites, products and departments, and routine and
clerical tasks could be automatized, hence allocating more time for analytic tasks. Held inventory could
be reduced, expenses could be minimised, and the overall company efficiency would be increased,
leading to higher benefits.

Discussion Two
a) What were the strong points in the implementation process for the Mirabel roll-out and what
points needed improvement?
On one hand, the progressive implementation (starting in Mirabel) and the no-disrupting schedule were
very good strategies. Creating a separated data cleansing and preparation team was also a good idea that
 improved the quality of data. The project was based on blueprints of the business processes, what lead
to more accuracy and better results. Finally, the high quantity of meetings, the support people after
deploying and the SAP consultants during the development were of great help.
On the other hand, there were many delays and late decisions on the implementation, what derived in
doing some tasks fast and badly in order to meet the deadline. The training had very bad documentation,
there was too much information provided to employees and users were not motivated, feeling that they
were not taken into account while the ERP was designed.
b) How was the project team managed and is the project teams pace sustainable in the longer run?
A special team focused on all the aspects related to the system preparation and deployment was created.
It was composed by the members of the Business Transformation Services department and employees
from the business that were reallocated to work full-time on such project. There were frequent meetings,
monthly reports of progress, and each documentation and process was reviewed by several stakeholders.
Communication played an important role on the team.
The pace was not sustainable in the longer run, as it involved full-time dedication of very valuable
employees to the project. The cost of maintaining the project team was very high, not only due to the
expertise of people that composed it, but also because other people needed to supply the functions that
those people cant do while working on the project.
c.1) How were the new processes defined to ensure a global vision?
The new processes were defined using the blueprint technique. They were defined by the project team,
and an integration team composed by responsible people of different areas validated those designs.
Also, managers from the business were invited to participate in workshops where issues were discussed.
c.2) How should a vision be communicated?
We think that a vision should be communicated in a long period of time, and the key factor is showing
the employees how the new vision would affect their lives, making them understand that it would be
beneficial for them. For that, communication should be based on presentations, newsletters, emails and
meetings.
c.3) How were the new roles defined? Communicated? Understood?
Roles were defined while the restructuring of the processes was taking place. However, some of the new
roles were still being defined while users were being taught how to use the system. Training sessions
were held, where power users used conducted classes and trainings to show the users how to use the
system. Roles were not communicated or understood correctly, though, and users were not aware of the
impact of their tasks. Training was focused on transactions, not on roles.

Discussion Three

a) What were the strong points in the second implementation process and what areas needed
improvement?
Significant lessons have been learned and took into account when setting the second part of the
implementation. The core of the focus was user preparation as one of the most significant points to
focus on. Managers of Saint-Laurent plant took the initiative instead of IT department as the focus was
on the staff itself, which was one of the strongest points on this stage. Now education and trainings were
tailored to the specific tasks and the special approach was conducted.
Moreover, the company was not in a hurry to implement everything and they took it step by step.
The improvements could be done regarding the information received by the users and staff of the
company. Most of the staff pointed out that the trainings were done before the Go Live version,
nevertheless they would prefer to split in before and after they put their hands on the tool.
b) What was the main difference between the two phases with respect to the definition of the user
roles?
In the first phase users were not ready for all the changes, they did not receive the right amount of
information, thus, some of the processes were done manually, which caused further errors and mistakes.
Processes were not synchronized together, thus in the next phase those mistakes had to be reduced. Staff
felt that the new roles were less important and less prestigious than the previous once.
Therefore, in the second phase they focused on what was considered to be wrong before. The users now
were better prepared. The regular meetings and reports have been done on time. New roles were
properly assigned to the employees.
The differences between the phases are that the messages ware sent to everyone and everyone was
involved, the project task was clearly explained and well understood among all the departments.
Education and training was the priority, changes to various roles were done before the implementation,
thus, everyone ware aware of his/her task.
c) What was the role of the plant manager?
Plant manager has set the correct KPIs in order to identify the most important parts of the process and
in order to control the performance. Moreover, they wanted to undertake the project instead of the IT
team in order to focus of the staff and not on the tools provided. They focused on training people and
explaining their roles.
d) What were the challenges faced by the project team?
Project team was very dedicated and tried to do their best in order to succeed.
However, the following challenges by the project teams were identified:
At some point the business felt that the gap has emerged between the business
knowledge of the support staff on the project team and what was really going on the business
today.
The specialized knowledge was concentrated on a few individuals.
Users did not know how to measure their contribution.
Training scheduled was supposed to be fixed and modified since some people were not
aware of their tasks.
Users expected faster implementation with a wider scope.

Discussion Four

The success of an IT project. How can we assess whether a project is a success or a failure?
The project was a success for the company because the second phase took under control all the mistakes
and tried to fix the previous issues. However, people preferred the company to focus on the staff itself
instead of the IT part, they wanted to have better trainings and at different parts of the implementation
process. But overall it was done smoothly taking into consideration HR and working with all the
departments. While the overall response was positive, not every issue from the Mirabel plant has been
corrected and resolved. Executive management was not involved in all the phases which caused some
on the further problems and lack of communication.
Despite all the minor problems, the production schedule was not disrupted. Moreover, BMIS delivered
the new system below the expected budget and the main objectives were achieved. All those factors tell
us about the successful implementation of the project.