Oxford Industries Inc.

Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................ 1
Scope.................................................................................................................... 2
Group 7
Ronald Tran, Crystal YX Wang, Enoch Or, James Peplow, Honze Xu

Strategic Analysis.............................................................................................. 3

Introduction of private cloud server..........................................................4

Figure 1.0 Example of cloud service.........................................................5

Discussion........................................................................................................... 5
Figure 2.0 New Governance Structure........................................................8
Recommendations.............................................................................................. 8
Conclusion........................................................................................................... 8
Referencing....................................................................................................... 10

Introduction
Oxford Industries Inc. are a producer and marketer of branded and private
label apparel for men, women and children. Their operations provide retailers
and consumers with a wide variety of apparel products and services to suit
their individual needs. Oxford industries has a long history in the US apparel
industry spanning nearly seven decades and have been at the pinnacle of
domestic manufacturing and overseas manufacturing.
Recently Oxford industries have acquired two new brands Tommy Bahama in
Seattle and London-based Ben Sherman to complement its already wide
variety of clothing apparel brands. Since the acquisition of the two new
brands and its already current list of diverse companies, Oxford industries
synergy with its current day to day financial management process, IT
Group 7
Ronald Tran, Crystal YX Wang, Enoch Or, James Peplow, Honze Xu

infrastructure and information architecture has created issues with operating

efficiencies and best practices.
At present, corporate manages all financial processes for the North American
sector while Hong Kong manage their own letters of credit and newly
acquired companies Ben Sherman UK and Tommy Bahama have their own
accounting staff with its own internal reporting. With the current disparity of
each organisations financial process, this impacts sales and inventory
budgeting due to the absence of a central IT system for recording and
aggregating this data across the entire organisation, other than the use of
Excel.
The acquisition of the two new companies has also presented the issue with
its current IT infrastructure; the hardware, software, applications and staff
skills and knowledge it uses to execute its business processes and store its
data. These new companies operate with their own enterprise resource
planning software (ERP), as well as processes and server hardware.
The challenge that is presented is the decentralisation of the financial data
and processes. Oxford Industries must meet the requirements of a centralized
database without causing any disruptions to the newly acquired companies.
To limit the effect of the newly acquired businesses and still have synergy, it
would be advised to remain from making any major changes to the current
infrastructure, software and business processes. This can be achieved by
adopting a new governance structure to involve Oxford industries and the
newly acquired brands, a new form of best practice adopted by all brands to
provide constancy and a private cloud base system to provide real time
financial data that can be accessed by all brands and Oxford industries.

Scope
At present, due to the acquisitions of Tommy Bahama and Ben Sherman, the
ERP systems of each newly acquired brand is different from Oxford's own
North American ERP system. This has caused difficulty in upgrading and
integrating legacy systems and their data into one corporate ERP system as
well as some other aspects. We recommend establishing a centralized
database such as a cloud service which is the best option for Oxford
Industries for the following reasons:

Cost Efficient
Business continuity
IT security
Accessibility
Storage Capacity
Backup and recovery and
Automatic Software Integration
Cloud storage is a model of data storage where digital data is stored in
logical pools, the physical storage spans multiple servers (and often
locations), and the physical environment is typically owned and
managed by a hosting company.

The limitations of the cloud base system and the requests of Oxford
industries will include
The inability to change.
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Ronald Tran, Crystal YX Wang, Enoch Or, James Peplow, Honze Xu

Oxford industries want limited change to the current systems

across all brands. Some changes will need to occur to obtain a
centralized database although the cloud base system will limit
change.
Possible Downtime
o Being dependent on the cloud base system is reliant on an
internet connection. The cloud base system will only be limited
by the connection available. Redundancies can be put in place
for such occasions.
o

Oxford industries new acquisition has also raised issues with management of
the centralization of the financial data. A restructure is advised to take place
prior to the start of the implementation of the cloud base system. The
restructure will involve a change in governance structure. The new structure
will include a central figure to overlook all projects followed by managers at
each brand. This will improve communication between the brands and North
America.

Strategic Analysis
Oxford is now currently facing some difficulty in their current business
process with the new acquisitions of both Tommy Bahama and Ben Sherman.
Oxford have to manage and minimise any negative impacts on the
profitability of the newly acquired companies through business and system
changes as well as establish visibility into day-to-day financial activities of
legacy companies. The acquisition causes difficulty for Oxford's decentralized
system including their current ERP system and management structure. For
example Ben Sherman UK has its own accounting team to close its own
books, end of month data is sent to Atlanta manually at each closing. Tommy
Bahama only has a small accounting team for internal budgeting and
reporting. Tommy Bahama post all GL transaction to Atlanta as they do not
have their own GL system. They currently use email which is a slow and
unsafe method of sending their financial reports and data. The data from
both companies is in different formats and is sent and updated at different
times. The newly acquired companies have different operating styles
including their ERP system and IT Architecture. Tommy Bahama is using Blue
Cherry as its wholesale ERP system, STS for retail and HIS for the restaurants.
Each brand runs on Intel servers but Ben Sherman uses Style man ERP
system which runs on an IBM server. The problems are that the current
application may not match the requirements of newly acquired businesses
and it could be disruptive to move these business to existing systems. The
management are not keen on changing the ERP system for the reasons that it
implies changing business processes and changing the way employees do
their day to day job.
Oxford has its opportunities in its ability to be to adapted and change, as it
has been doing so over the past 60 years. During 60 years development, it
has become a world class sourcing organization. They are able to accurately
target customers needs easily and have created a group of internationally
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Ronald Tran, Crystal YX Wang, Enoch Or, James Peplow, Honze Xu

acclaimed and successful lifestyle brands. The companys multicultural

background and successful operations it multiple countries have developed
its brand and earned a strong reputations internationally.
For the IT Strategy, if Oxford establish a standard to unify their financial and
IT systems corresponding to their whole business strategy they will help their
Financial Sector to manage all the reports from each subordinate company.
This will also help the companys' ability to adapt to future changes
improving scalability of the company. By using a centralized system,
collecting and analyzing marketing data will be easier. That means Oxford will
be able to obtain more accurate data to improve its marketing strategy . A
centralized system is very important for the company, and Oxford may
consider a cloud based solution to achieve this.
What can be implemented to cater for growth and demand?
Cloud computing (Centralized Information System)
Structural change: Semi-centralized

Introduction of private cloud server

The introduction of a Private cloud server could be extremely beneficial to

Oxford. With the organization constantly growing and more and more brand
will be purchased, a unified system is urgent for Oxford which is why it is
essential to cater for these needs. A private cloud server is along the same
bases as the VPN server which is currently in place. They are both regarded
as a private network but Cloud computing will look after the future of the
organization, and will help the organization become more dynamic. It will
support a variety of changing business objective such as Document within
the cloud server which will provide accessibility to remote affiliates, without
introducing further installation of devices. This function will be suitable for
Oxford as Tommy Bahama and Ben Sherman are located in different
countries. With the problems we found that the data is not in the same
format and data is sent at different times, this will solve the problems and
allow Oxford to have a clear data storage. This will also need accessibility to
the server for documenting data. Private clouds server will provide the
following:
Higher
Privacy &
Security

Cloud computing itself is exceptionally secure, private cloud is

secured behind the companies dedicated firewall, and can be
monitored by Oxford company

Greater
Control

This applies very well with the business needs, cloud can have
greater control over Oxford data, and tailor it towards Oxford's
needs, e.g. Share data and language barriers etc. Since the
system needs to accessible from three different areas internally,
it provides a more centralized approach in securing relevant data
when needed

Business
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With cloud services enabling employees to work from almost any

Ronald Tran, Crystal YX Wang, Enoch Or, James Peplow, Honze Xu

continuity

location, an on-premise IT disaster will not have the severity of

implications it could otherwise. Many employees will be able to
carry on working from another location, given that they can
access the tools and solutions they need over the internet. So
even if there is a fire, flood, theft or technology outage, it should
be possible to keep functioning normally.

Improved
Reliability

Oxford servers are always vulnerable, as they have different ERP

system that create chance of failing. Putting these servers onto
the cloud will provide additional security, and can be partitioned
accordingly.

Outsourcing Cloud can be hosted within a third party, by using data centers,
functionality this can also help save money in terms of hiring more people just
to overlook the data etc, additional security is provided as well
through the external data centers infrastructure.
Easier
upgrades

The cloud vendor is responsible for upgrading cloud solutions,

meaning subscribers do not need to worry about keeping up to
date. When new solutions become available, cloud computing
providers will invest in them and then make them available to
subscribers, that will help Oxford meet their future demands of
data storage.

By outsourcing though an operational effective approach this will greatly

reduce costs over the long run and provide adequate infrastructure,
operations and support. (lecture 6 side 7)This will not only imply a form of
standardization within the organization, but will also accommodate for better
reliability and cater for the growth of the organization. This form of upgrade
will come across as expensive but this will definitely save money in the long
run, and be a reliable source for data accessibility through all the affiliates
and all their geographical destinations. This will reduce the amount of IT staff
at hand, in which we could use the excess amount of IT staff in other areas
within the organization.

Figure 1.0 Example of cloud service

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Ronald Tran, Crystal YX Wang, Enoch Or, James Peplow, Honze Xu

Discussion
One of the major concerns of Oxfords Industries is the decentralized
information system between all acquired companies. As Oxford expands its
businesses we need to consider the full range of options that allow the
company to facilitate growth in their data and business processes. By
centralizing the information system we can ease the process of the current
and future acquisitions and allow the business to expand and improve its
business operations.
Alternative 1: Centralized Information System
By centralizing the Information system, Oxford will bring together all its IT
resources gaining greater control over the companys IS, improving efficiency
and overall integration of Oxford and its businesses. Other benefits
centralizing the information system may provide are improved security and
lowering the cost of the system when fully centralized. The main benefits
Oxford will receive if they centralize their information systems are as follows;
1. Central point of data storage
2. Data integrity
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Ronald Tran, Crystal YX Wang, Enoch Or, James Peplow, Honze Xu

3. Save resource cost

With the newly acquired businesses, Oxford now has the challenge of
controlling multiple companies and their data processes. By creating a single
point of data storage, Oxford will be able to manage data so that all
businesses owned by Oxford and all further expansion of Oxford will be able
to access the data easily throughout the company. This will help cohesion and
data sharing between the businesses and will ultimately improve processes
that involve multiple parts of the company. A single point of storage also
means that data accessed will always be up to date streamlining data sharing
through Oxford industries. With all data sharing a common storage point,
data governance will be and should be developed. Defining the quality of
data and how data will be stored will create rules keeping data uniform and
predictable, further increasing the efficiency of data use and sharing.
Although the initial setup cost of the centralized information system will be
costly, in the long run Oxford will benefit by having a central management
system used to manage all of the company data from all of Oxford and its
subsidiaries. Having a single data management team will save resource cost
in the number of employees and training required to manage the data.
Alternative 2: Decentralizing (Do nothing scenario)
A decentralized system is where multiple parties, in this case for Oxford the
newly attained businesses, are to retain their own independent information
system. This alternative is the do nothing scenario it will hinder growth for
the organisation as expansion will be more difficult and managing the
different companies with different systems will become extremely
challenging. The reason for this is because each of the companies will be
implementing their own processes and systems and so standardisation of
data throughout Oxford is reduced and difficult to manage.
Of the two alternatives we suggest that alternative 1 is the best option for
Oxford as the issue they face is when they acquire new businesses it is too
difficult to manage new financial data. To address Oxfords issue of
decentralized information systems we suggest a cloud solution so that all the
data for Oxford and their newly acquired subsidiaries will be stored in a
central location as well as making the data standardized. With this solution
we realize that yes the initial cost will be quite costly and that in the
beginning resources will be needed to assist through the implementation of
the cloud solution. Planning of the standardization of data will also need to be
developed. Once all of this has been accomplished the cloud solution will
centralize the data and be able to be accessed by any area of Oxford
including any new acquisitions not only will this make business processes
easier it will reduce the response time of financial data throughout the
company and overall improving control over Oxfords information systems.
Even though this solution is recommended there are also downfalls such as
data security and reliability on the internet. With the issue with data security
it is online therefore more vulnerable as the connection from one company to
another is online and if not protected may cause the data to be jeopardized
by unauthorized personnel. Reliability of the cloud solution is very dependent
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Ronald Tran, Crystal YX Wang, Enoch Or, James Peplow, Honze Xu

on the connection from the central data point to its businesses. If this
connection is lost to the central point no one will be able to access the data
stored until the connection is restored therefore making businesses unable to
operate its business processes. If this alternative is to be implemented more
emphasis to ensure the connection to the central data point is not lost is
highly suggested as reliance on the cloud will be paramount.
Not only will the technological aspect of Oxford need to change so will its
people and processes. Due to the discrepancies and vast distance between
all of the brands, new and old, it will be a requirement to undergo a
restructure of personnel and governance structure. It would be of high
importance that a single project manager be allocated to oversee this project
for the entirety of Oxford Industries followed by team managers at each
individual brand. The transition to centralize information and some aspects of
the IT needs to have minimal impact on culture, costs and time. By
implementing this structure (figure 1) this will ease the effect of downtime
that would be associate with the migration of data. This occurs by the
information being communicated in a downward matter to each site, then
distributed to the end user staff and the appropriate IT support staff. Having a
Project manager that oversees all projects helps track the progression of each
project and its costs. The introduction of this structure will also improve the
process in which the cloud base system is integrated assuring a smooth and
secure transition of data.

Figure 2.0 New Governance Structure

Recommendations
In this case, we recommend the corporate to rent or buy a cloud service to
integrate all the data from Tommy Bahama and Ben Sherman to be
Group 7
Ronald Tran, Crystal YX Wang, Enoch Or, James Peplow, Honze Xu

centralized in order to solve their current technical issues. Therefore, Tommy

Bahama and Ben Sherman are able to upload their data including financial
data in real-time on the cloud site for the corporate to load. After renting or
buying cloud services, corporate need to create suitable and needed
functions on cloud side such as financial report documentation to meet
corporate requirements. Both Tommy Bahama and Ben Sherman need to
back up their current data for security before they upload their data to the
cloud side.

Conclusion
As stated with the acquisitions of Tommy Bahama and Ben Sherman UK ,
Oxford industries synergy with its current day to day financial management
process, IT infrastructure and information architecture has created issues
with operating efficiencies and best practices. The implementation of a cloud
base system as advised will eliminate the problem areas surrounding the day
to day financial processes and IT infrastructure by creating a centralized
database that will be accessible from each brands ERP and computer
systems. By centralizing the Information system, Oxford will bring together all
its IT resources gaining greater control over the companys IS, improving
efficiency and overall integration of Oxford and its businesses. Oxford
Industries stated that limited change must be achieved so that the brands
will continue to function their businesses as usual. By approaching the issue
with limited change this will hinder growth for the organisation as expansion
would be more difficult and managing the different companies with different
systems will become extremely challenging. The reason for this is because
each of the companies will be implementing their own processes and systems
and so standardisation of data throughout Oxford is reduced and difficult to
manage. To ease issue of change a new governance structure was suggested
that included one central Project manager and team leaders at each brand.
This new structure will help with the communication and support processes in
which otherwise were non-existent.

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Ronald Tran, Crystal YX Wang, Enoch Or, James Peplow, Honze Xu

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Group 7
Ronald Tran, Crystal YX Wang, Enoch Or, James Peplow, Honze Xu