Why Andersen Cracked in IT Suit - ' Who Was Who in ' (
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Department 56 Inc. Base Case
Headquarters: One Village Place, 6436 City West Parkway, Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Phone: (952) 944-5600
Business: Designer, importer and distributor of collectibles and giftware such as Snowbabies and miniature villages
Chief Information Officer: Alan Sussman
Recent financials: $200 million in 2001 sales; $16 million in profit
Challenge faced: To upgrade from J.D. Edwards "World" enterprise resource planning software to the company's OneWorld software, plus add new warehouse and distribution components
Baseline Goals:
To get more collectibles out faster to stores to capitalize on traditional holiday rush
To reduce average days inventory is held before being sold; average was 66 days in 1998
To prepare retailers who sell Department 56 collectibles to begin ordering and tracking their merchandise on an extranet This required enterprise planning system to be implemented first
Projects: Enterprise Planning 
