Volkswagen of America: Managing IT priorities
Volkswagen, as the name suggests means “people’s car” and defines its objectives to design and manufacture cars which are fuel efficient and affordable. With continuous improvement, Volkswagen has not only subjugated the automotive market with respect to its low priced cars, but also earned industry acknowledgement. The core competency of Volkswagen is structured to build customer loyalty. Although, Volkswagen suffered from erratic sales pattern when the company introduced a new model commonly called as the “Himalayas chart” due to its rise and falls (Austin, 2007).This was because of the management not dealing with situations proactively. This problem was mitigated soon through its competencies in strategizing and manufacturing potentials as well as the expansion of its product diversification, i.e. the establishment of new brands which were the “classic” and the Audi brand group so that the focus is not just on the traditional mid-sized vehicles of a particular segment. Moreover, given the high quality of cars they manufacture, good service, focussed marketing and well-organized stock rotation gives Volkswagen a competitive edge over the other automobile manufactures. The highlight of this case study is to analyse Volkswagen’s business and IT strategies and the importance of process prioritization in executing and aligning these strategies with enterprise goals.
With more in-depth analysis of the case, the major challenge faced by Volkswagen during the time was the poor strategy to comprehend the importance of the projects which led to the supply flow project to not be funded entirely. The NRG goals locally in the US were not met because the project’s value was more concentrated on other redundant aspects such as the benefits of data warehouse. The outsourcing of its IT by signing a contract with Perot Systems reduced