The Caterpillar Tunnelling case study is the business case from HBR. The actual case can be found here
The case can be analyzed from the lens of overall IT strategy, digital transformation, and overall IT strategy. Caterpillar Tunneling Case Study T also represents issues of implementing strategies in a culturally different organization. It can also be analyzed from the view of revitalizing user adoption of business, user adoption of business intelligence, and adoption of business intelligence cases.
For more solutions line Caterpillar Tunneling Case Study, refer to our case solutions page
Caterpillar Tunneling Case Study summary
CTCC was a family-owned firm prior to being acquired by Caterpillar Inc., which transformed it into a subsidiary of the parent corporation. The firm employed 330 people and had sales representatives located all over the world. The CTCC was struggling with a number of problems, including inaccurate data, poorly defined procedures, a deficient ERP system, and reporting that was too inconsistent and used an excessive number of different formats.
The cause was the antiquated ERP systems; the BI platform was ready to be implemented, but certain units within the company were not ready; SAP was to be implemented into CTCC; however, the lack of resources within the company to properly implement the system caused the project to become canceled indefinitely; it was to be implemented so that the company as a whole would have a standardized ERP platform. A specialized group of workers known as Mach 1 was established.
The information technology department at CTCC served more of a support role for the corporation rather than playing a strategic role in the business.
Due to the fact that there were only two ERP analysts working for the organization, both of them were always understaffed while receiving an excessive number of requests between them. They frequently received many requests for customer queries. They had mixed IT systems, which made it difficult to get information when it was needed.
There is no real vision in the IT strategy, and wrong decisions have been made. There was not enough end-user training, which led to employees not understanding what was required.
For more solutions line Caterpillar Tunneling Case Study, refer to our case solutions page
Caterpillar Tunneling Case Study: Key issues
There is a data inconsistency, uneven reporting, and budget can go over but won’t be identified until after completion
Upgrade to SAP for customized BI platform but Lack of IT strategy Different departments develop their own tools, ERP choices, and report formats Problems with upgrading an ERP
No real governance from the locally based decisions to branches Actual IT is not linked with market and user’s needs Very divisive environment Upgrade to SAP for customized BI platform but
Lack of controls on project management Often projects were delayed, over budget, and tasks not completed because of a lack of control and consistency between departments
Critical paths of projects could not be identified with the ERP system ERP team needed departments to understand why they needed a new platform, but not all departments wanted to spend time learning new tools Critical paths of projects could not be identified with the ERP system Critical paths of projects could not be identified with the ERP system Critical paths of projects could not be identified with the ERP system
For more solutions line Caterpillar Tunneling Case Study, refer to our case solutions page
Caterpillar Tunneling Case Study: Solutions
Create a Vision: Creating a vision for the organization was critical. Without a vision, the company was a dwindling ship switching between various IT strategies which would result in conflicting interests between stakeholders. They can use various strategic tools, that would solidify the vision for the organization.
Develop an IT strategy that complements the overall strategy: Creating a functional IT strategy would be necessary. With the conflicting priorities, a focused IT strategy will be required and necessary resourcing needs to be done in order to implement it.
Defining an IT governance model: The mother company Caterpillar should come up with a governance strategy for CTCC which is in line with the existing practices. For the initial parts, it can be scaled down version which can be scaled up gradually with time as the systems and processes and CTCC mature
Resource allocation: Resource allocation is a critical aspect of any strategic initiative support. Proper allocation needs to be completed to execute initiatives once the overall IT strategy gets aligned
Developing a BI platform: The existing BI platform was not able to generate substantial insights which could be used for taking data-driven decision-making. They must invest heavily in a Business intelligence platform that will help them in generating substantial insights for the existing processes
Manpower Training: Manpower training is critical to any strategy execution. Manpower needs to be aligned with Caterpillar’s existing processes and policies and given enough flexibility to develop its own processes.
Developing a communication strategy to create overall transparency in the system which will be able to reduce redundancy in the system and also improve project implementation speed
For more solutions line Caterpillar Tunneling Case Study, refer to our case solutions page
Caterpillar Tunneling Case Study: Key Lessons Learnt
Communication is essential to the success of a business.
When a company is experiencing growth, it is essential to ensure that all of its departments are coordinating their efforts in order to successfully implement changes in the future.
For a business to operate successfully and accurately, it is essential to have both a reliable ERP system and a BI platform. If the organization does not have a fundamental foundation that everyone can operate on, the business may become chaotic, which may need a considerable investment to rectify. In addition to this, it may be judged inappropriate for future developments, a situation in which CTCC found itself when implementing SAP.
For more solutions line Caterpillar Tunneling Case Study, refer to our case solutions page
We have solved more than 50 Case Studies in our blog and you can access them for free here
We like to have a hearty discussion or criticism, and share a note on the solutions here
Connect with us on LinkedIn or Follow us on Quora
Samrat is a Delhi-based MBA from the Indian Institute of Management. He is a Strategy, AI, and Marketing Enthusiast and passionately writes about core and emerging topics in Management studies. Reach out to his LinkedIn for a discussion or follow his Quora Page