Reference no: EM132684309
Brooks Brothers is the oldest men's clothing company in the United States, founded nearly 200 years ago in Manhattan, where the company is still headquartered. Brooks Brothers has over 600 stores worldwide which are still focused primarily on menswear and business attire. However, Brooks Brothers has been transitioning to more of a lifestyle brand than just a clothing company. Also, as the company has grown to a worldwide presence, Brooks Brothers has had to make corresponding changes to its supply chain system, customer database, and CRM system. Brooks Brothers started by analyzing its global technology infrastructure to identify critical gaps as part of a program called Brooks Brothers Global Transformation. One area that it discovered needed improvement was its global supply chain system. Its legacy systems were not yet suited to the "omni-channel world" of business today. Customers today are shopping at retail stores, online e-commerce sites, mobile e-commerce sites, and mobile app stores. Organizing the data generated by all of these different types of sales channels was an area Brooks Brothers needed to improve. continued MIS16_CH06_Case2_BrooksBrothers.indd 1 17/10/19 6:14 PM CHAPTER 6, CASE 2 BROOKS BROTHERS CLOSES IN ON OMNICHANNEL RETAIL (SAP) 2 continued VIDEO CASE QUESTIONS To solve this problem, Brooks Brothers turned to SAP's Global Supply Chain System. Applying individual modules to specific retail areas, such as apparel and footwear, the SAP system allowed Brooks Brothers to gain deeper insight into inventory and financial reports in real time. Implementing the technology on a global scale eliminated redundancy. One of Brooks Brothers' competitive advantages is personalized service tailored individually to its customers. The company was determined to only employ new technologies that allowed the company to continue giving this type of service. SAP's universal customer master database was just what Brooks Brothers needed. The company implemented SAP's Customer Activity Repository application to establish a state of the art database that integrated fully with the rest of its SAP CRM implementation. SAP CRM and Customer Activity Repository will allow Brooks Brothers employees across the globe to gain deeper insight into each and every customer. Purchase history, preferences, and personalized recommendations are all accessible in real time. In addition to these critical upgrades, Brooks Brothers also implemented SAP's HANA platform as well as SAP's Fashion Management application. SAP HANA is an in-memory relational database management system that will allow Brooks Brothers to work with large quantities of customer data quickly and accurately to generate personalized recommendations. In contrast to database management systems that use disk storage, in-memory databases are faster and reduce response time. Brooks Brothers was more interested in speed than the ability to execute complex queries, making HANA a strong choice. The Fashion Management application will allow Brooks Brothers to operate all areas of its business in one system, whether retail, manufacturing, or wholesale. Brooks Brothers is a retailer with a storied history and a sterling reputation, but in today's technological landscape, those advantages can only take a company so far. With its suite of state-of-the-art SAP solutions, Brooks Brothers has taken a big step towards remaining a respected name in men's fashion for the foreseeable future.
1. What were some of the information system problems Brooks Brothers needed to resolve?
2. What critical aspect of Brooks Brothers service did the company hope to preserve with its SAP implementations?
3. Why did Brooks Brothers select the SAP HANA database management system?
4. How will Brooks Brothers use its new database?
5. Do you think systems like SAP CRM and SAP HANA are necessary for all businesses with a global presence? Why or why not?