Global meat processor undergoes IT assessment for future state recommendations

Client background

This company is a privately held global meat processor that services the retail and food services industries.

The business challenge

Over the years, this company acquired several businesses across the globe as part of its global growth and expansion strategy. The acquired businesses continued to utilize their respective business application systems and operate their existing technology infrastructure as the company did not view IT or technology standardization as a core aspect of their business. Further, several of the businesses ran on non-current or dated versions of software; likewise, infrastructure maintenance was performed to varying levels of currency.

From an operational standpoint, the differences in processes and data between business units resulted in inconsistent reporting across businesses and resulted in customer service challenges for those customers who were global or multi-market. The differences in systems and underlying technology resulted in the need for increased levels of support staffing and inhibited the implementation of desired cross-business capabilities. And from a risk management perspective, this situation left the company in a position of increased risk as there were few people in the company who were capable of supporting each technology system. Finally, the variety of technologies in use provided an increased number of potential entry points for cyber-crime.

The company understood an enterprise system standardization or implementation initiative was needed at some point in the near future, but first wanted to understand their options for restructuring or consolidating the worldwide IT organization, what functions and activities could be decentralized and what could be consolidated and what prospective levels of staffing and funding would be needed to support those changes going forward.

As a result, the company asked Baker Tilly to assess their IT organizational strategy, including elements of their systems and underlying technology.

Strategy and solution

Baker Tilly performed a broad assessment of the company’s IT function and capabilities, specifically focusing on IT’s ability to successfully execute against key business priorities while also maintaining and supporting the existing base of business application systems and supporting technology infrastructure. We also evaluated the company’s current IT organizational structure and staffing to understand how well it currently supported the company as well as its ability to support the company's future direction and highlighted potential risks to the company resulting from IT organizational limitations.

To perform this assessment, the Baker Tilly team spoke with key stakeholders across the company to understand business and functional priorities and gain insight into how IT works, how IT is managed, the capabilities provided by IT and any IT-related priorities. Our assessment identified several improvement opportunities that allowed us to create strategic recommendations for enhancing overall IT effectiveness and capability delivery and strategic alternatives for restructuring or realigning their IT functions across the different businesses and geographies into shared services and centers of expertise.

As a result, the company was provided with recommendations on:

• How to best align their IT function model and staffing to properly support their current and future business needs
• The IT operating model changes needed to support the growth of the company, balancing cost-effectiveness and responsiveness
• Resources needed from the company to support the IT organization going forward
• Other IT improvement opportunities for consideration