{"id":3786,"date":"2020-12-05T23:39:16","date_gmt":"2020-12-06T04:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/itacs5121fall16\/?p=3786"},"modified":"2018-12-07T12:12:06","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T17:12:06","slug":"dow-chemical-cio-comments-on-erp-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5121sec701fall2019\/2020\/12\/05\/dow-chemical-cio-comments-on-erp-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Dow Chemical CIO Comments on ERP Project"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"article_header module\">\n<div class=\"wsj-article-headline-wrap \">\n<div class=\"category\">\n<ul>\n<li class=\"article-breadCrumb\">WSJ\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/news\/cio-journal\">CIO JOURNAL.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"wsj-article-headline\">Dow Chemical CIO Says Another 8-Year ERP Project Is Unimaginable<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"column at8-col8 at12-col7 at16-col9 at16-offset1\">\n<div class=\"module\">\n<div id=\"wsj-article-wrap\" class=\"article-wrap\">\n<div id=\"articlebody-i18n\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"clearfix byline-wrap\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n<p>By<\/p>\n<div class=\"author mobile-scrim hasMenu\"><span class=\"name\">STEVEN NORTON<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Nov 30, 2015 5:26 pm ET<\/p>\n<div class=\"comments-count-container\"><a class=\"comments_header\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/cio\/2015\/11\/30\/dow-chemical-cio-says-another-8-year-erp-project-is-unimaginable\/#renderComments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0\u00a0<span class=\"comments-count-word\">COMMENTS<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"deloitte-module-inline\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/quotes.wsj.com\/DOW\">Dow Chemical<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/cio\/2014\/12\/15\/dow-chemical-cio-looks-for-productivity-from-1billion-it-refresh\/\">spent eight years and $1 billion<\/a>\u00a0implementing a new enterprise resource planning system that didn\u2019t deliver value as quickly as hoped, Chief Information Officer Paula Tolliver said.<\/p>\n<p>While the implementation officially finished at the end of 2014, Ms. Tolliver spent the first half of this year cleaning up messy databases, simplifying code and updating early parts of the implementation with features added later in the process.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 359px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft caption-\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5\" src=\"http:\/\/si.wsj.net\/public\/resources\/images\/BN-LM711_1130_c_E_20151130172431.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"359\" height=\"239\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dow Chemical CIO Paula Tolliver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>DOW CHEMICAL<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Would she attempt another eight-year implementation? \u201cNot in today\u2019s world,\u201d Ms. Tolliver told CIO Journal. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine doing the project we did in the last eight years in a time of such volatility.\u201d With the maturing of cloud computing capabilities and more \u201cas-a-service\u201d offerings, \u201cthe change we\u2019ll see in the next three years is unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"realtor\" class=\"wsj-body-ad-placement\"><\/div>\n<p>Along with scrubbing data and simplifying code,\u00a0during the implementation\u00a0Dow\u00a0devoted about $15 million in\u00a0\u201cinefficiency resources\u201d to keep things running while employees got used to working with the new ERP system. Part of that went toward employee-recommended changes, such as reducing the number of steps needed to complete some business processes, automatically populating data fields and improving reporting, Ms. Tolliver said. The company also invested in hands-on training for many of its employees.<\/p>\n<p>Dow\u2019s example highlights some of the nuts-and-bolts challenges CIOs face as they try to update software and merge disparate data sets to find cost savings and new insights about customers.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/quotes.wsj.com\/WFM\">Whole Foods Market<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/quotes.wsj.com\/WMT\">Wal-Mart Stores<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/quotes.wsj.com\/GE\">General Electric<\/a>\u00a0are all in the process of creating or consolidating ERP systems or\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/big-companies-rein-in-data-sprawl-1445482009?tesla=y\">integrating data across their companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dow\u2019s new ERP system \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/cio\/2014\/12\/15\/dow-chemical-cio-looks-for-productivity-from-1billion-it-refresh\/\">ECC version 7 from\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/quotes.wsj.com\/SAP.XE\">SAP SE<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 processes 7 million transactions each day and counts more than 16,000 unique daily users. The upgrade consolidated four separate regional systems into a single global ERP. Dow also pulled in some inventory and records tasks that previously took place outside the system.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for SAP said the company does not comment on specific customer engagements.<\/p>\n<p>Putting Dow on a single system gave employees more visibility into how their work fit into the company\u2019s broader operations. But it also showed where certain processes got stuck or needed improvement, problems which may not have been noticeable at a regional level. Across the world, \u201cpeople were performing the same work differently,\u201d Ms. Tolliver said.<\/p>\n<p>With much of the data scrubbing and code consolidation done, Ms. Tolliver now is trying to use the global view of Dow to simplify its core processes such as order-to-cash, supply chain and sales and operations planning. It\u2019s part of the company\u2019s \u201cDow 10.0\u201d initiative, which aims to make it easier for customers to do business with the nearly 118-year old firm.<\/p>\n<p>Besides change management challenges, Ms. Tolliver said a major lesson is never to underestimate the importance of accurate metadata. The firm created a centralized enterprise data management team that maintains all of the metadata related to customers, vendors, materials and product coding, which has helped as Dow works to ramp up its use of analytics.<\/p>\n<div id=\"unruly\" class=\"wsj-body-ad-placement\"><\/div>\n<p>Since the implementation, Ms. Tolliver said\u00a0process cycle times have begun to decrease. Dow is on track to deliver $500 million in annual productivity by the end of 2017, she added.\u00a0At the same time, she\u2019ll contend with changes that could come as a result of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/BT-CO-20151105-715450\">potential deal activity<\/a>.\u00a0Separately, Ms. Tolliver said\u00a0she\u2019s wrapping up a project related to Dow\u2019s \u201ccloud transformation strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/m.wsj.net\/video\/20141215\/121514ciointvw\/121514ciointvw_v2_ec664k.mp4\">Video<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"wsj-article-wrap\" class=\"article-wrap\">\n<p><em>Last December Paula Tolliver, CIO and corporate VP of business services at Dow Chemical Co., talked with CIO Journal\u2019s Steven Norton about her three biggest lessons from the company\u2019s 8-year, $1 billion architecture and ERP implementation.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WSJ\u00a0CIO JOURNAL. Dow Chemical CIO Says Another 8-Year ERP Project Is Unimaginable By STEVEN NORTON Nov 30, 2015 5:26 pm ET 0\u00a0COMMENTS Dow Chemicalspent eight years and $1 billion\u00a0implementing a new enterprise resource planning system that didn\u2019t deliver value as quickly as hoped, Chief Information Officer Paula Tolliver said. While the implementation officially finished at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22812,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[684819],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-week-14-maturity-models","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5121sec701fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5121sec701fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5121sec701fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5121sec701fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5121sec701fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5121sec701fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4886,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5121sec701fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786\/revisions\/4886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5121sec701fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5121sec701fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.mis.temple.edu\/mis5121sec701fall2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}