The Challenges of Local System Design for Multinationals: The Maxfli Sales Force Automation System at Bat

Review Case Study II-2 found on page 300 "The Challenges of Local System Design for Multinationals: The MaxFli Sales Force Automation System at BAT"

Answer the following questions:

1. What business problem was MaxFli trying to solve? How would you rate its effectiveness at addressing that problem?

By assuming control for distribution of its brands, British American Tobacco Hungary wanted to achieve better control over the availability of its strategic brands providing a significant competitive advantage over its main competitor.

A benefit would be increased efficiency through reduced costs of distribution. Due to the highly competitive nature of the

tobacco industry, speed and confidentiality were key to British American Tobacco Hungary's implementation of the DSD system.

Hungary's scheduled debut in the European Union intensified the business pressures, as this would eventually impact all parts of British American Tobacco, from product and packaging; communication with both customers and consumers; pricing and portfolio management to corporate and product branding. British American Tobacco Hungary anticipated an increasing volatile business environment with Hungary's scheduled entry into the EU.

2. Assess the specific choices made in launching and building the MaxFli project. Which decisions (if any) proved wise and which ones created challenges for the current project or later?

Drawing participants from around the world, including employees from British American Tobacco,

Ciberion and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, On April 15, 2004 we have changed our name to Capgemini. The present document, which refers to Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, was issued prior to our name change. It has not been modified since it is part of our archives. We have taken this opportunity to formalize our core strengths into what we call the Collaborative Business Experience to help you achieve measurably faster, better and more sustainable results. For more information: www.capgemini.com the project utilised a highly skilled, experienced and unified team. Working in complete confidentiality for six months to protect British American Tobacco's competitive position, this laid the groundwork for implementation. The team created and built a new organisation from scratch in seven months, with new people, offices, distribution centres and vehicle fleet to match. The DSD solution for British American Tobacco Hungary was a comprehensive program involving all facets of the company. The program was implemented in one single step with MaxFli, a British American Tobacco standard and highly customised Siebel Tool from Ciberion. Key steps were to:

• develop and design new processes