As Retailers Merge, IT Takes A Big Markdown

http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/all/990111stores

Ames Department Stores Inc. took over Hills Stores Co. on Dec. 31,1999. Ames cut most of Hills' IT staff and their $80 million enterprise resource planning system that Hills began deploying three years ago.

Questions:

1. Identify factors that led Ames to abandon the Hills ERP effort despite the three years and millions of dollars that had already been spent?

2. Assume that Ames had come to a different decision and decided to operate both the Hills ERP system and its own information systems. What would Ames have to do to make this effective?

3. Identify any implications of this story for system development efforts in companies that might merge with other (currently unidentified) companies at some point in the future.

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