Volkswagen Automobile Manufacturer and IT

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Introduction

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer headquartered in Saxony, Germany. Under Dr. Uwe Matulovic, chief information officer (CIO) who was earlier a leader of process development at VWAG has decided to create a new internal I.T department, which he called business process technology and organization (BPTO). He has empowered a nascent Program Management office to take over Management of all IT projects and also required all projects to have a qualified project manager to abide by project management standards.

Previously 1992 when funding priorities were marketing and selling IT was considered as an overhead and therefore Volkswagen signed a 10-year agreement with Perot systems. Over the years Volkswagen realized the need of IT in the organization, as there was insufficient knowledge in the organization and thus lead to formation of GedasUSA. Gedas and Perot worked for four years between 1999 to 2002 to rebuild the IT infrastructure to contribute to the rapidly growing Volkswagen group and its sub brands like Audi.

Volkswagen not only tried to understand the need of IT but also understood the need to diversify it self and under the leadership of chairman Dr. Bernd Pischetsrieder. He devised a strategy of diversifying in product offerings, which would help in consolidation of the brand as it would match the global demand for different vehicles such as sports utility etc.

Key strengths and Challenges
Volkswagen while in the midst of 1960’s had a crisis were sells fell sharply until 1977 when rabbit was introduced however the company had a further low point in 1990’s it was seen that the sales would go up when a new model would launch but eventually go down till the next model was introduced. The product diversi...

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...ve in future made way for more projects.

Challenges to IT Alignment

At Volkswagen the current biggest challenge to alignment is to make the company understand the need of IT fusion and the future needs of IT as businesses all across the world have adapted IT as an integral part of the business. Also at Volkswagen the current approach is correct to a greater extent but there is need to bring ELT on the same page and also there is a huge need have a greater vision and funding for IT. The key to success here lies in having each individual of the organization and rethink the IT department as technology enabled innovation were the people need to be skilled in not only business but also in information technology.

References

1. http://busi620dc02.wikispaces.com/VolkswagenCase
2. Volkswagen of America: Managing IT Priorities- Harvard business school; ROBERT D. Austin

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