case study: distribution company needed an IS problem ‘sorted’

The company was an industry-leading UK parcel carrier, processing over 30,000 packages per day. But while they were great at sorting distribution issues, they hit a brick wall when it came to solving their own IT problems. They were operating a bespoke distribution planning system based on an obsolete hardware platform. the infrastructure was running out of capacity and the original developers of the system had long since disappeared; nevertheless the company was absolutely dependent upon the system for its day-to-day operations. Management were understandably concerned that:

• the system was increasingly difficult to maintain
• it was difficult to develop because nobody really understood the programs
• if development were to be attempted there was the danger of knock-on effects elsewhere in the system
• if the system broke down, the survival of the company would be threatened; but
• any replacement solution would probably be unaffordable

It would have been easy simply to have thrown money at the problem…

Before we came on the scene, the company's management had investigated various candidate solutions - but without success. It was time to bring in specialist help. Blue Stone was therefore asked to identify a viable IS strategy that met their systems objectives while at the same time overcoming their concerns and avoiding the inherent risks they faced, all at an affordable cost.

All of this represented a significant challenge. Our first task was to determine and prioritise the key issues facing the company. This revealed a number of specific functional problems, as well as the difficulty in developing the existing programs and the age and capacity of the infrastructure. Next, we came up with, and subsequently evaluated, twelve different strategies capable of addressing to one degree or another the issues that we had identified. These ranged from a simple hardware upgrade to the adoption of new technology, software conversion, the development of a new bespoke system and standard packaged software applications.

We assessed how well each option addressed the key issues, together with the likely risks, costs and benefits. We also considered inter-dependent organisational and process issues and how any transition could be achieved smoothly and with minimum risk. In particular, we found that options that had previously been considered by the company did not adequately address the real issues. As part of our service we were also able dispassionately to assess a number of potential solution suppliers whilst allowing the company’s IT staff to remain focused on their ‘day job’ of looking after their ageing systems.

Our ‘blue print’ for the future

Drawing on our wealth of experience we derived a solution to a difficult problem that was practical and cost-effective. The company’s MD at the time, Ian Pickford, commented “What made Blue Stone’s work so valuable was their ability to ‘think the unthinkable’ — identifying options that we hadn’t considered, while at the same time winning the trust of senior company executives and working effectively with IT staff who could have felt threatened by the process. Blue Stone presented a clear evaluation of the options, both in terms of cost and how they would address our problems, and this allowed us to make our decision and move forward with a good deal of confidence.”

This case study exemplifies the sort of problem our clients call upon us to solve, and is what we’re good at. If your IS strategy is not all it could be, lacks robustness or you're worried that it is either too costly or insufficiently future-proof, we can undoubtedly ‘sort’ your IS problem too.

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