PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING CASE TO SOLVE THE QUESTION ASLO TRY TO KEEP ALL ANSWERS STRAIGHT TO THE PIONT AND BRIEF . PLEASE ANSWER THE QUESTIONS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE Macys is one of very few brands that can credibly be called an icon. Its flagship store in Herald Square in New York City, together with its long-running Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade, are perhaps its most prominent commercial and cultural legacies. In recent years, the company behind the Macys brand, Macys, Inc., has undertaken an extensive and by all accounts successful effort to transform Macys from a regional to a national brand. Though enormous in scope, the physical, logistical and organizational dimensions of the change in which hundreds of regionally branded stores across the United States took on the Macys namerepresent only the first stage of the companys plan to redefine itself. Although Macys national branding strategy might have given it a bigger footprint, CEO Terry Lundgren is betting that the future lies in offering a more localized, personalized and ultimately smarter retail customer experience. Lundgren is the charismatic force behind My Macys, a sweeping initiative designed to embed a customer-centric orientation into every aspect of the companys operations. More than just a catchy name, My Macys reflects the way Macys wants its customers to view their relationship with the company. It is a relationship marked by a level of personalization that manifests and grows stronger each time customers interact with the brand, whether online at macys.com, at a local store or traveling in another city. The aim is consistency and the key is data. macys.com implicitly understood that to successfully implement the kind of customer-centricity envisioned, a comprehensive customer data strategy was a prerequisite and developing one would not be easy. Its first order of business was to consolidate the various data repositories that had accumulated from predecessor companies. Realizing the foundational importance of this work to its long-term customer data strategy, macys.com turned to IBM and its 20-plus years of experience working with Macys to provide the guidance and tools it needed. Now some two years down the road and with the first stage of its transformation virtually complete, macys.com is working toward putting in place the architectural elements it needs for its most fundamental capability: a 360-degree view of its customers to support a strategy of multichannel integration. This, notes Darren Stoll, Group Vice President of Marketing Operations and Analytics at macys.com, will mark an important milestone in Macys journey. Aggregating our customer data and achieving the 360-degree view of the customer will put macys.com at a starting point for customer-centric innovation, explains Stoll. Once we achieve that view, well be in a position to operationalize it in a way that personalizes and enriches the customer experience. The Macys customer-centric strategy is about growing its core business by strengthening customer loyalty and ultimately increasing wallet share. The companys unflagging commitment to the transformation program even in the face of major retail downturn is a measure of its confidence in its strategic direction. Senior management has decided that Macys needs to tailor merchandise more to local tastes, that the colors, sizes, brands, and styles of clothing and other merchandise should be based on the sales patterns in each individual Macys store. For example, stores in Texas might stock clothing in larger sizes and brighter colors than those in New York, or the Macys on Chicagos State Street might include a greater variety of makeup shades to attract trendier shoppers.

4. Identify five value chain activities and describe how Macys has incorporated information systems into each one. Pick 3 primary & 2 support activities. (5 points)

5. Explain how enterprise applications improve Macys organizational performance? (Pick two enterprise applications that are the most relevant to them) (4 points)

6. Which strategy is Macys following? Identify one strategy and briefly justify your answer (2 points). Provide two examples of how Macys uses IS to support that strategy. (2 points)