Standard Commercial Corporation is involved in two main business segments--tobacco and wool.  The company operates as one of the largest leaf tobacco dealers in the world and is a leading wool trading concern.  It purchases, processes, stores, sells, and ships tobacco that is grown in over 30 countries and sells processed leaf tobacco to cigarette manufacturers in over 85 countries.  Standard Commercial also trades greasy and scoured wool and operates processing facilities in Australia, Europe, and the United Kingdom.

Project Summary

Conducted an automation review and established a technology architecture for this international trading corporation which operates tobacco and wool trading operations in the US and the UK.

Background

Having entered the wool trading business in the late 1980’s through acquisitions, the wool business had remained an independent operation from the tobacco business. With operations of both divisions scattered around the world, senior management questioned what benefits to be gained from a single information technology infrastructure. They hoped that communications across the organization could be speeded up and improved, inventory monitoring and trading applications could be universal and costs could be contained.

Requirement

Perform an IT architectural review and provide recommendations for an infrastructure and application strategy.

Approach

• Tours were conducted of UK, US and German facilities.
• Workshops and interviews were held with senior management representatives of both divisions and different operations in each division.
• Research was conducted to identify similar business operations and investigate their use of IT.
• A report was prepared and an accompanying presentation to provide senior management with an understanding of the vision and implementation plan.