Mrs Fields Cookies

• Mrs. Fields Cookies began with one cookie store in 1977 in Palo Alto, CA.

Overview of Case

• Mrs. Fields Cookies sells mostly chocolate chip cookies in small stores, located mostly in shopping malls

• Explore the use of IT to enable rapid growth while maintaining control

• Opportunity to study the design of an IT architecture

Electronic Mail

Day Planner

Labour Scheduler

Skills Test

Interviews

Time Clock

Current Information System at MFC

Even when Debbi isn’t there, she’s there, by this we mean that IT leverages her ability to project her influence into more stores than she could ever reach effectively without IT.

IT clearly has enabled standardization and tight control.

IT used to expand store manager capabilities in the role Debbi and Randy wish them to fill Store managers “innovate” on sales process and motivate employees to do same.

Impact of IT on business at  MFC

IT relieve store manager of tasks he/she can concentrate on marketing, promotion to the public, etc.

Impact of IT on business at  MFC

Debbi and Randy.4 senior regional directors.17 regional directors Operations (RDO) .105 district sales managers.Store ManagersStore Clerks

Description of the Organization Structure of

MFC.

Debbi and Randy MIS Director Programmer Manager

Program/Application Manager – Finance Program/Application Manager – Sales Micro Systems Manager Operations Manager

Programmers/Operators

MIS Hierarchy of Organization

The large presence of stores across the world with one single owner made centralization mandatory.

IT has definitely added to centralization of the stores. IT helped to accommodate growth without expanding

staff Existing manager can focus more on selling and future

outlook than on daily paperwork and accounting Information of each stores at regional levels can be

collected by the regional managers who all can direct their report to the central headquarter.

since the product is of short duration it is important to have immediate sales and scheduling report which the decentralized IT at each stores will help in

IT has helped managing each stores at individual level along with the overall operation of the brand at a large scale

IT- Centralization OR Decentralization

IT Infrastructure in 1988

MS-DOS system with 8086 base CPU.

1 Floppy disc drive.

20 MD Hard disk.

1200 bps Modem.

IN 2010

Windows XP with core i3 processor 500 GB Hard disk. Wi-Fi Router 54 Mbps. USB support. Technical support team. Create Data warehouse that could be

a accessed by different systems.

In 2010(Continued..)

Facilitate backup daily, weekly and Monthly and access data remotely.

3G and 4G services could be utilized. ERP systems could be implemented

as the reach of the company is expanding and reduction of errors in operation processes could help in increasing profits.

MFC was on diversification and acquisition spree since 1984

It tried to diversify into combination stores In 1984 MFC acquired local retail cookie chain FCCC In 1987 MFC acquired 119 pepsico

bakery/Sandwich stores. Some diversified shops didn’t work well Some of the strategies applied by MFC in new

stores didn’t work well Reason can be lack of expertise or lack of proper

management. Companies sold out non-working shops It created loss to the MFC Company represented it as R&D loss in Financial

statement.

Why MFC reported loss in 1988

Facilitate decision making on specific IT acquisitions

Ensure compatibility of IT and business strategy

Improve likelihood of IT integration and interconnectivity

Define framework for control Influence user decision making concerning IT

What IT can do