Foreword
Profitability of an information system. Case studies

The case study presented here concerns the implementation of a Demand Planning IS in a company in the agri-food sector, AGRALI (a purely imaginary name). Our role is that of logistics manager, responsible for the project. We inform the reader that this case study is based on real elements concerning inventory levels, sales, raw material costs, inventory reduction targets, interest rates, the return on capital expected by shareholders, and the time mesh of the sales forecast.

This case study will be supplemented by a presentation of the IS deployment choices made by 4 industrial companies we consulted through telephone interviews. We will see that financial justification takes second place to the quantitative and qualitative benefits that IS can bring.