Harvard Business School Case Study #9-601-142 Moore Medical Corporation
What problems and challenges are faced by Moore at the time of the case?
Moore Medical Corporation is strategically focusing on practitioner business by offering a relatively broad product range (thereby providing ?one-stop shopping?.
Moore Medical is a medium-sized distributor of medical supplies to practitioners such as podiatrists and emergency medical technicians. Up to the time of the case, it has relied on traditional customer channels such as catalogs, phones, and faxes to communicate product offerings, promotions, and availability, and to take orders. It is now attempting to transition into a "bricks and clicks" distributor with a strong Internet presence. It has already made substantial investments in an eCommerce web site and in "back office" ERP software to improve the fulfillment performance of its four distribution centers. The ERP software has not lived up to expectations in all areas, and the company must decide whether to invest in more modules for this system that might address its shortcomings. It must also decide whether to make a significant additional investment in customer relationship management software. At the time of the case, Moore must decide whether it has "enough" of the "right kind" of IT. The decision is complicated by the fact that the company has recently made substantial IT investments that have impacted financial performance and caused organizational disruption. In addition, it is not clear that all of Moore 's known issues related to customer retention and satisfaction will be addressed by the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) under consideration
Problems and Challenges faced:
From strategy point of view, Moore faces a situation of ?Grow or Go?. It is presently sandwiched between big suppliers and smaller suppliers and thus presently it is still a ?Me Too? supplier.
Since the business is primarily of distribution, so obviously customer alignment becomes a very important key to success. Moore has rightly sensed this,
Moore Medical Corporation is strategically focusing on practitioner business by offering a relatively broad product range (thereby providing ?one-stop shopping?.
Moore Medical is a medium-sized distributor of medical supplies to practitioners such as podiatrists and emergency medical technicians. Up to the time of the case, it has relied on traditional customer channels such as catalogs, phones, and faxes to communicate product offerings, promotions, and availability, and to take orders. It is now attempting to transition into a "bricks and clicks" distributor with a strong Internet presence. It has already made substantial investments in an eCommerce web site and in "back office" ERP software to improve the fulfillment performance of its four distribution centers. The ERP software has not lived up to expectations in all areas, and the company must decide whether to invest in more modules for this system that might address its shortcomings. It must also decide whether to make a significant additional investment in customer relationship management software. At the time of the case, Moore must decide whether it has "enough" of the "right kind" of IT. The decision is complicated by the fact that the company has recently made substantial IT investments that have impacted financial performance and caused organizational disruption. In addition, it is not clear that all of Moore 's known issues related to customer retention and satisfaction will be addressed by the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) under consideration
Problems and Challenges faced:
From strategy point of view, Moore faces a situation of ?Grow or Go?. It is presently sandwiched between big suppliers and smaller suppliers and thus presently it is still a ?Me Too? supplier.
Since the business is primarily of distribution, so obviously customer alignment becomes a very important key to success. Moore has rightly sensed this,