- What strategic moves has Under Armour made to become more of a digital company? - What...
Fantastic news! We've Found the answer you've been seeking!
Question:
- What strategic moves has Under Armour made to become more of a digital company?
- What problems has the company faced as a result of implementing an integrated ERP solution (SAP HANA)?
- Based on the information in the case, how do you think technology will drive fashion in the future? Explain your answer.
Transcribed Image Text:
Under Armour Finds a Chip in Their Armor The Business Problem Under Armour (www.underarmour.com) was founded in 1996 by Kevin Plank, a former University of Maryland football player who was tired of having to change his sweat-soaked cotton shirts over and over during their twice-a-day practices. From his grandmother's basement, he designed the first HeatGear® T-shirt and sold it under the company name of Under Armour, which was designed to keep players cool and dry under even the hottest conditions. Plank also designed a ColdGear® fabric that keeps athletes warm and dry in cold conditions and the AllSeasonGear® that keeps them comfortable between the extremes. He then drove up and down the East Coast selling these items from his trunk. By the end of 1998, Plank had to find a new location. He could no longer sustain his operation in his grandmother's basement. So, he moved the company headquarters to a warehouse in Baltimore. Since this beginning, Under Armour has grown into one of the leading athletic brands of clothing, equipment, and more, successfully competing with brands like Nike and Adidas that have been around almost 50 years longer. Fast forward to 2013, when Under Armour changed their focus from designing and selling clothing and equipment to considering the entire athlete. They acquired several popular apps-EndoMondo, MyFitnessPal, MapMyFitness and developed their own app, UA Record. According to a March 2017 Forbes article, Under Armour had more than 200,000 subscribers across their suite of apps. This influx of data provides the company with potential insight into the physical characteristics of their entire user base of athletes (size, weight, sports, training and eating habits, etc.) and their use of equipment. However, having access to data and making use of those data are not the same thing. As Under Armour grew and gained access to more data than they have ever seen, their organization faced significant challenges. They needed to consolidate and analyze the data and to restructure their organization to be able to quickly adapt to the changing needs of their users, to which they now have direct, real-time access. The IT Solution Under Armour needed a system that would allow them to integrate the multiple sources of data they had purchased, to perform real-time analysis of their data, and to determine the best course of action, as quickly as possible. They determined that the best integrated ERP solution partner to accomplish these objectives was SAP. SAP (www.sap.com) is a software corporation that makes ERP solutions. They are headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, but they have regional offices in more than 180 countries including more than 45 offices in the United States. Specifically, Under Armour decided to implement the SAP HANA product, which SAP designed to reduce complexity, to run anywhere (meaning ubiquitous access across platforms and devices) and to provide real-time results. SAP HANA is intended to speed up the implementation of an ERP by allowing legacy silos to remain intact. SAP HANA will draw data from those silos and make use of these data without requiring the client to migrate everything. This sounded exactly like the solution that Under Armour needed given that they had acquired multiple data sources. The Results Under Armour faced (and is facing) challenges implementing SAP HANA due to issues outside the fashion industry and the solution provider (SAP). In a conference call regarding quarterly earnings on October 31, 2017, the company's president, Patrik Frisk, admitted that Under Armour had experienced serious challenges with change management. Frisk attested, "While these enhancements are designed to enable us to more effectively and efficiently operate our business and, ultimately, enhance productivity for the long term, the implementation caused disruption in our supply chain operations during the quarter. This led to delayed shipments and loss of productivity, which negatively impacted our third quarter results. During this system migration, we have encountered a number of change management issues impacting our workforce and manufacturing partners as they adapt to the new platform and processes." Under Armour Finds a Chip in Their Armor The Business Problem Under Armour (www.underarmour.com) was founded in 1996 by Kevin Plank, a former University of Maryland football player who was tired of having to change his sweat-soaked cotton shirts over and over during their twice-a-day practices. From his grandmother's basement, he designed the first HeatGear® T-shirt and sold it under the company name of Under Armour, which was designed to keep players cool and dry under even the hottest conditions. Plank also designed a ColdGear® fabric that keeps athletes warm and dry in cold conditions and the AllSeasonGear® that keeps them comfortable between the extremes. He then drove up and down the East Coast selling these items from his trunk. By the end of 1998, Plank had to find a new location. He could no longer sustain his operation in his grandmother's basement. So, he moved the company headquarters to a warehouse in Baltimore. Since this beginning, Under Armour has grown into one of the leading athletic brands of clothing, equipment, and more, successfully competing with brands like Nike and Adidas that have been around almost 50 years longer. Fast forward to 2013, when Under Armour changed their focus from designing and selling clothing and equipment to considering the entire athlete. They acquired several popular apps-EndoMondo, MyFitnessPal, MapMyFitness and developed their own app, UA Record. According to a March 2017 Forbes article, Under Armour had more than 200,000 subscribers across their suite of apps. This influx of data provides the company with potential insight into the physical characteristics of their entire user base of athletes (size, weight, sports, training and eating habits, etc.) and their use of equipment. However, having access to data and making use of those data are not the same thing. As Under Armour grew and gained access to more data than they have ever seen, their organization faced significant challenges. They needed to consolidate and analyze the data and to restructure their organization to be able to quickly adapt to the changing needs of their users, to which they now have direct, real-time access. The IT Solution Under Armour needed a system that would allow them to integrate the multiple sources of data they had purchased, to perform real-time analysis of their data, and to determine the best course of action, as quickly as possible. They determined that the best integrated ERP solution partner to accomplish these objectives was SAP. SAP (www.sap.com) is a software corporation that makes ERP solutions. They are headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, but they have regional offices in more than 180 countries including more than 45 offices in the United States. Specifically, Under Armour decided to implement the SAP HANA product, which SAP designed to reduce complexity, to run anywhere (meaning ubiquitous access across platforms and devices) and to provide real-time results. SAP HANA is intended to speed up the implementation of an ERP by allowing legacy silos to remain intact. SAP HANA will draw data from those silos and make use of these data without requiring the client to migrate everything. This sounded exactly like the solution that Under Armour needed given that they had acquired multiple data sources. The Results Under Armour faced (and is facing) challenges implementing SAP HANA due to issues outside the fashion industry and the solution provider (SAP). In a conference call regarding quarterly earnings on October 31, 2017, the company's president, Patrik Frisk, admitted that Under Armour had experienced serious challenges with change management. Frisk attested, "While these enhancements are designed to enable us to more effectively and efficiently operate our business and, ultimately, enhance productivity for the long term, the implementation caused disruption in our supply chain operations during the quarter. This led to delayed shipments and loss of productivity, which negatively impacted our third quarter results. During this system migration, we have encountered a number of change management issues impacting our workforce and manufacturing partners as they adapt to the new platform and processes."
Expert Answer:
Answer rating: 100% (QA)
The detailed answer for the above question is provided below Answer I What strategic moves has Under Armour made to become more of a digital company Answer i When it comes to embracing digital and vir... View the full answer
Related Book For
Principles of Information Systems
ISBN: 978-0324665284
9th edition
Authors: Ralph M. Stair, George W. Reynolds
Posted Date:
Students also viewed these accounting questions
-
Based on Management Close-up 5.2, how do you think technology is likely to change strategic, tactical, and operational planning in the future? Explain your answer.
-
Based on the information in this case and at Starbucks' Web site (www.starbucks.com) describe the market segment(s) to which the firm appeals. What attracts the segment(s) to Starbucks?
-
In your future endeavors, how do you think you might find yourself applying statistical concepts Under what conditions might you find yourself creating an Excel pie chart, running a correlation, or...
-
Using Dirac delta functions in the appropriate coordinates, express the following charge distributions as three-dimensional charge densities p(x). (a) In spherical coordinates, a charge Q uniformly...
-
The company has $200,000,000 in common stock equity with an estimated 10% annual cost of capital. You recently issued $100,000,000 in corporate bonds that currently pay a 6% annual yield. Finally,...
-
See Figure P129. The shaft rotating at 220 rpm carries a spur pinion F having 60 teeth with a diametral pitch of 10. The teeth are of the 20, full-depth, involute form. The pinion delivers 5 hp to a...
-
Which of the following is not related to C.I. engine: (a) Fuel pump (b) Fuel injector: (c) Carburetor (d) Flywheel
-
Ensign Landscape Design designs landscape plans and plants the material for clients. On April 1, there were three jobs in process, Jobs 39, 40, and 41. During April, two more jobs were started, Jobs...
-
The big hope housing company uses a predetermined overhead rate to allocate overhead based on Direct Labor cost. This years budget includes Overhead equal to $500,000 and Direct Labor cost of...
-
An engineer has a DAQ with a 14-bit A/D converter and a voltage range of 0 to 10 V. They are measuring vibrations around 20 Hz, so they sample at f= 100 Hz to avoid aliasing. They add a DC offset of...
-
For this discussion board, your topic will center on cybercrime. Some say that the viewing of pornography on the internet is actually reducing sexual assault in the United States. Others say that it...
-
A museum wishes to display eight paintings next to one another on a wall. In how many ways may this be done?
-
I recently found a real-life advertisement in the newspaper: (Only the phone number has been changed.) Suppose that you have won a \(\$ 20,000,000\) lottery, paid in 20 annual installments. How much...
-
In Problems 20-52: a. State the type; and \(\mathbf{b}\). Answer the question. You owe \(\$ 5,000\) due in 3 years, but you would like to pay the debt today. If the present interest rate is...
-
Find the sum of the first 10 even positive integers.
-
Evaluate the expressions in Problems 11-18. \(\sum_{k=2}^{5}(100-5 k)\)
-
To compile the forecast balance of production and consumption of bread and bakery products in the Kharkiv region for 2021 on the basis of the following data: In 2020: consumption of bread and bakery...
-
To balance the chemical equation SiH3 + O2 SiO2 + HO, you could introduce coefficients a, b, c, d and write aSiH3 + bO2 cSiO + dHO then write linear equations for each element. The equation for Si...
-
What are the pros and cons of public Wi-Fi access?
-
Name four operating systems that support the personal, workgroup, and enterprise spheres of influence.
-
What is the difference between the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and the Children's Internet Protection Act?
-
Baggai Enterprises has an ROA of 10 percent, retains 30 percent of earnings, and has an equity multiplier of 1.25. Mondale Enterprises also has an ROA of 10 percent, but it retains two-thirds of...
-
International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), which currently pays a dividend of \($3.40\) per share, has been the subject of two other examples in this reading. In one example, an analyst estimated...
-
An analyst is preparing a forecast of dividends for Hoshino Distributors for the next five years. He uses a spreadsheet model with the following assumptions: Sales are $100 million in Year 1. They...
Study smarter with the SolutionInn App