automatically gather the orders and send them off to the shipping docks for rapid delivery. This was thought to have the most strategic impact to fill the most orders. The direct computer order entry system facilitated control over their inventory. The information system was designed to pick up eighty percent of all items automatically, as compared with an industry average of thirty-three percent (Bulkeley, 1996) definitely, giving FoxMeyer an advantage of superior service over the competition. The new information system tremendously supported FoxMeyer by making the business process of tracking sales and inventory easier and faster. Conceptually, FoxMeyer’s information system planned to conduct business with its customers on a daily basis. FoxMeyer focused its value chain on activities in their business where competitive strategies could be best applied. (Porter, 1985) However, the implementation was inconsistent with the changing business environment. The new system caused problems at every step of implementation. Problems ranged from inadequate time allocation for development, testing, debugging, lack of interaction between management, systems personnel, consultants and low user involvement.Initially, FoxMeyer’s management were supportive and committed appropriate funding of $56 million to develop and install the newly named Delta Information System. However, to build its new 340,000-square-foot warehouse, FoxMeyer spent an additional $18 million. The company hired Anderson Consulting, a leading international information systems consulting firm, both to advise them about the project and to supply skilled personnel to construct the system. Also, FoxMeyer purchased R/3, an inventory management software system from SAP AG, a giant German software company. Although SAP had been designed to run on Digital Equipment Corporation hardware, FoxMeyer purchased a Hewlett-Packard Company client/server system at a cost o...
