Sun Microsystems: CRM Data Management and Architecture Roadmap
The Client
Sun Microsystems
The Challenge
Sun Microsystems has been losing market share to some its key competitors and has been hit hard by the current economic environment and selected CSC to help them turn this around.
The Solution
CSC worked with Sun Microsystems to stop them from losing market share to some its key competitors. Sun selected CSC to lead the development of a Data Management and Architecture Roadmap for its Enterprise Services division.
The Results
The Roadmap developed by CSC is enabling Sun to significantly improve its data management capabilities.
Related Information
Learn more about CSC's experience and offerings using Siebel products at http://www.csc.com/solutions/customerrelationshipmanagement/alliances/.
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Sun Microsystems, Inc. is singularly focused on providing products and services for network computing. Network computing is based on the premise that the power of a single computer can be increased when interconnected with other computer systems for the purposes of communication and sharing of computing power. Together with its partners, Sun provides network computing infrastructure solutions comprised of computer systems (hardware and software), network storage systems (hardware and software), support services and professional and educational services. Its customers use its products and services to build mission-critical network computing environments.
The Goals
Sun’s autonomous culture has created a “feudal”-like network of business units, functions and geographies that have difficulty sharing data in an automated and repeatable fashion due to the lack of comprehensive business process and data management architectures. This situation has resulted in an inability for Sun to meet the rising expectations of its customers, who are looking for integrated service across all product and business unit lines.
Sun’s information problems start with data acquisition, which is often inaccurate and incomplete. Thus, poor quality data permeates the enterprise, which limits Sun’s ability to effectively serve its customers. The current lack of best-of-breed data management capabilities has resulted in significant opportunity costs, which are buried in reduced efficiency, productivity losses, lost revenue opportunities and lower customer satisfaction. These factors have contributed to increased levels of frustration for its employees and customers.
Sun’s vision was to create an architecture and data environment that allowed a unified view of customer and solutions. The goal was to provide a technical environment that allowed the business to provide high quality services across all Sun products and business units.
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Scope of Work to Achieve Results
The first step for CSC was to assess Sun’s current data management environment and identify the major problem areas or obstacles preventing Sun from meeting its business objectives. This was followed by the development of a future state vision predicated on best practices across all industries. A future state Data Architecture was designed around a message-bus backbone to:- Enable Sun to easily share data across the enterprise and to provide flexibility to accommodate business unit autonomy and shared access of critical business information. A set of tools/infrastructure to ensure
- Quality data was captured at the point of origination was recommended Conducted testing and deployment of systems to support launched of AppleCare and the retail stores.
The next step identified the major gaps that must be addressed in order for Sun to achieve its future state vision. These gaps formed the basis for a set of projects or initiatives that would clearly articulate a path for Sun to pursue over the next two years in building the components of its future state Data Architecture, while at the same time executing on quick hit opportunities that leverage existing assets more effectively. The projects were then prioritized and plotted into a high-level release strategy for completion of the Roadmap. A business case for the Roadmap was developed to support the level of investment and link Sun’s business imperatives to each major milestone in the program.
Roadmap Implementation Benefits
The Roadmap developed by CSC is enabling Sun to significantly improve its data management capabilities. The implementation of this Roadmap would lead to the following benefits for Sun:- Reduced time spent consolidating data and shift to time spent analyzing data and generating customer insights
- Increased ability to rollup and aggregate data in an automated manner
- Improved data quality and increased trust in data by business users
- Improved ability to measure profitability at the customer, product and service level by creating a 360° (unified) view of each level
- Improved ability to identify and understand trends in customer behavior
- Maximized sales and marketing opportunities through better customer intelligence
- Reduced IT operations expenses by providing a common data architecture and toolset and eliminating redundant systems and data across the enterprise
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