to be a complete direct distribution market. Many of its
business processes were imported from Chiletabacos,
along with several members of the executive team.
Consequently, according to Jorge Soto, the general manager
of BAT Colombia, they run a very “Chilean business.” The
relationship between BAT Colombia and Chiletabacos
continued to be both close and supportive.
Market Forces in Colombia
Although the business processes and leadership style in
Colombia were similar to Chiletabacos, the competitive
environment was quite dissimilar. There were four tobacco
firms competing for the market in Colombia with each
having approximately 25 percent of the market. Two of
BAT Colombia’s competitors were Colombian companies
focused on value brands, while Phillip Morris, Inc., and
BAT battled over premium brands.
Chiletabacos was primarily concerned with MaxFli
as a competitive information tool; BAT Colombia was
more concerned with consumer information, cutting costs,
and creating efficiencies with MaxFli. The new system
enabled BAT Colombia to more quickly identify and
understand the consumer’s tastes and preferences. This
information helped them produce and target premium
brands to those willing and able to buy them.
Project Team in Colombia
BAT Colombia had aggressively adopted new technologies
to increase efficiencies for several years, but MaxFli was
their largest IT project to date. The MaxFli project team in
Colombia was led by one of their senior TM&D Managers,
Patricio Imbert. The IT personnel assigned to the MaxFli
project included some of the best and brightest IT talent in
BAT Colombia, including System Administrator Juan
Carlos Hidalgo, who had already spent 1 year in Chile
working on MaxFli.
In July 1999, at the beginning of the MaxFli project in
Colombia, Chiletabacos hosted a “MaxFli University,” and
several members of the project team spent one week in Chile
becoming familiar with MaxFli. Upon returning home, the
IT project staff began to dive into the MaxFli program. They
carefully examined each component and module to discover
its purpose, inputs, and outputs. This was essential because
there was little existing documentation to describe the
detailed specifications of MaxFli. In addition to the “MaxFli
University,” Chile sent two IT personnel on monthly 2-day
visits to Colombia throughout the implementation process.
Implementation in Colombia
BAT Colombia implemented MaxFli on time and 11 percent
under budget. Overall, the MaxFli implementation in
Colombia was considered a success. Like Chiletabacos,
BAT Colombia undertook an extensive training program.
BAT Colombia GM Jorge Soto attributes the success
primarily to the quality of personnel in BAT Colombia and
the training: “Here in Colombia, we have a lot of young,
motivated people. We have been through many changes in the
past few years and they are ready to handle more changes.”
Mauricio Leon, the infrastructure manager for
MaxFli in Colombia, agreed: “This is a very good experi-
ence we have here... because of the training.”
Even though MaxFli was widely considered a success
in Colombia, there were two major obstacles. First was the
perception that MaxFli was inadequate as a trade-marketing
system. This problem was exacerbated by BAT Colombia’s
decision to implement a multiphase rollout of the system. In
May 2000 the full system went live, but only the basic sales
force automation functionalities of MaxFli were used. The
more advanced modules that allowed for gathering com-
petitor activity, structuring the sales visit, and maintaining
merchandising material were not activated until January- BAT Colombia CIO Jaime Navas argued that this
approach was beneficial because it reduced the initial com-
plexity and smoothed the transition to MaxFli from legacy
systems. While this strategy met their immediate need for a
new sales system, it did not immediately tap into the true
value of MaxFli as a competitive information tool.
Although the system was implemented on time and
under budget, the limited initial usefulness of MaxFli may
have affected some users’ views of its value. One manager
from trade-marketing suggested: “We need a new system
for trade marketing. MaxFli does distribution very well but
with it we cannot manage individual promotions or other
trade marketing activities.”
These concerns led to the development of a locally
designed trade-marketing system named AMiT. This sys-
tem was developed for use by sales managers to coach,
monitor, and support individual sales reps. This system
runs on palm-sized HP Jornadas and aggregates MaxFli
data and automates a sales review process for the sales
manager. Sales managers use this system to improve cycle
planning and sales activities as well as to mentor sales reps.
As of Fall 2001, AMiT was only being used in Colombia.
The second major obstacle for MaxFli in Colombia
was the reliability and performance of the handheld device
(Jornada 690). Based on Chiletabacos’s experience, CIO
Jaime Navas expected reliability problems with it.
Consequently, he chose a different strategy for acquiring
the devices. Instead of purchasing the devices from a local
vendor and negotiating a service agreement for support, he
leveraged the strength of BAT Colombia’s relationship
with HP to negotiate a leasing arrangement directly with
HP Colombia.
Case Study IV-6 • The Challenges of Local System Design for Multinationals 653