Background
A $450 million privately owned full-service distributor of general merchandise — toys, cosmetics, pet supplies, hosiery, and more — to the largest retail grocery and drug store chains in the country. Prior to our arrival, the company had acquired 17 companies in 5 years and, as a result, entered bankruptcy.
Situation
When we arrived, the company was consolidating many locations into two primary distribution centers in Dallas and Los Angeles. We were asked to lead the largest IT consolidation, folding Wisconsin and Oklahoma into Dallas, while also managing IT departments nationwide. The Los Angeles IT department was over its head — service was poor, projects went uncompleted, and the LAN/WAN infrastructure was frail.
Solution
In LA, we interviewed staff to understand the current state, removed day-to-day tasks from the IT Director and taught him to delegate, and reorganized developer responsibilities around new projects. We built processes and procedures, standardized hardware, and hired the right staff for growth — activating features on systems the company already owned, building a project tracking system, and introducing Blackberry/RIM devices to improve internal service. We also built a new data center and IT team in Dallas, designed a new route handheld application, led selection of a new Enterprise Distribution System, and reduced telecom expenses by over 70%.
Results
Within 3 months, both IT teams were providing service beyond management's expectations. The new Dallas data center and business relocation were complete within 9 months. By the time we left, we had reduced telecom expenses by $1.3M, cut IT operational costs by $600K, designed a PDA system that reduced route sales costs by $3.5M, and completed selection of a $3.4M distribution system.
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