Chapter 1 / Foundations of Information Systems in Business ● 41

3
REAL WORLD Sew What? Inc.: The Role of
Information Technology in Small
CASE Business Success

W hat do Sting, Elton John, and Madonna have

in common? Besides being international rock
stars, they all use theatrical backdrops designed
and manufactured by custom drapery maker Sew What? Inc.
Based in Rancho Dominguez, California, Sew What? pro-
went full time in 1997 and incorporated in 1998. The im-
portant role technology plays in running a successful small
business hit home when she lost a big contract. The poten-
tial client said that without a Web site, her company “lacked
credibility.” “Before losing that contract, I thought, ‘I run a
vides custom theatrical draperies and fabrics for stages, sewing business, a cottage craft. I don’t need a Web site,’”
concerts, fashion shows, and special events worldwide and she says. Duckett admits she was rather cocky, mainly be-
has become an industry leader in rock-and-roll staging. cause she had grown her business “quite well” by word of
Founded in 1992 by Australian-born Megan Duckett, mouth alone. “I quickly learned the error of that thought
Sew What? has grown from a tiny kitchen-and-garage op- process. You can’t have that attitude and stick around,” she
eration to a multimillion-dollar enterprise, thanks to Duck- acknowledges.
ett’s never-say-no approach to customer satisfaction. “When Losing the contract also coincided with a period of low
I see a problem, I just don’t back down. I find a way to over- growth between 2001 and 2002. That’s when Duckett de-
come it and I use everybody I know to help me,” she says. cided to embrace technology. Using Microsoft Publisher,
What made it possible for a one-woman business that she designed and built her own Web site. “You figure things
started in a kitchen to evolve and grow into a multimillion- out and learn how to do it yourself when budgets are thin,”
dollar company with 35 employees? Megan Duckett at- she admits.
tributes her success to hard work, quality workmanship, and Duckett kept working to improve the site and make it
especially information technology. better for her customers. A year later, feeling that the site
Sew What? has enjoyed explosive growth in recent years, needed refreshing, she signed up for a 10-week course in
reaching $4 million per year in sales by the end of 2006. Dreamweaver and again completely rebuilt the site. Yet an-
Company president Duckett credits much of her firm’s rapid other Web site reconstruction helped Sew What? grow into
growth to its ability to leverage information technology and a company with customers around the world and a clientele
the Internet to drive sales. “Before we put up our Web site, list that includes international rock stars, Gucci, and Rolling
sewwhatinc.com, our business was almost all local,” says Stone magazine.
Duckett. “But after launching the Web site three years ago, In 2005, Duckett decided she needed to improve the
we now have clients all over the world. In fact, last year our site’s navigation because “I wanted it to be sleek and to pro-
revenue grew 45 percent on the previous year’s sales, and this vide a really good customer experience. That was beyond my
year we are on target to enjoy a 65 percent increase on 2005 abilities, so we hired a Web marketing consulting company
sales. And nearly all that growth came from Web-driven sales.” to build a custom navigation system for the site.”
Although the company’s Web site may take center stage, She worked with the hired guns on branding, search en-
managing all the business the site brings in requires a lot of gine optimization, overall design, and site layout. Duckett
effort behind the scenes. In particular, Duckett relies on a still provides all the content, including text and images.
solid IT infrastructure to help keep the company running There’s also a Spanish version of the site, and the profession-
smoothly. “We are a customer-centric company,” notes als tuned up the main site’s search features to include spell-
Duckett. “It’s critical that we have excellent back-office in- ing variants for different English-speaking countries. For
formation technology to manage the business and deliver example, you can search for the American spelling of theater
outstanding service to our customers.” or the British and Australian version, theatre.
Sew What? runs most of its business with Intuit’s Quick- The site also lets potential customers review all kinds
Books Enterprise Solutions Manufacturing and Wholesale of color swatches and teaches them how to calculate accu-
Edition software and Microsoft’s Windows Server operating rate measurements for their projects; the differences be-
system installed on a Dell PowerEdge 860 server, sporting tween a scrim, a tormentor, and a traveler curtain; the
an Intel Xeon processor and 146 gigabytes of disk storage. proper care and feeding of a variety of drapery materials;
According to Duckett, “Running our business requires a lot and a lot more.
of storage. In addition to customer information and vital While perusing the Dell Web site one day, Duckett saw
operational and financial QuickBooks files, we need to store a news article about the Dell/NFIB Small Business Excel-
thousands of drapery and fabric image files, customer instruc- lence Award. The National Federation of Independent Busi-
tion document files, and other types of data.” Sew What?’s nesses (NFIB) and Dell Inc. present this annual prize to one
additional computer support includes an older Dell Pow- small business in recognition of its innovative use of tech-
erEdge 500 server dedicated to a few smaller applications and nology to improve its customers’ experience. The winner
a variety of Dell desktop PC systems for employees. receives $30,000 worth of Dell products and services, a life-
Sew What? started in 1992 as a part-time endeavor, with time membership to the NFIB, and a day at Dell’s headquar-
Duckett cutting and sewing fabric on her kitchen table. She ters with Michael Dell and other senior executives.
42 ● Module I / Foundation Concepts

“The description of the kinds of businesses they of the year” among those with up to 100 employees. A few
were looking for perfectly described Sew What?” Duckett months earlier, Sew What? had received an SMB 20 Award
realized. “Everything they were looking for, we’d done, so I from PC Magazine, which honors 20 of the most technologi-
decided to enter. My husband [and business partner] laughed cally innovative small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)
and reminded me that I never win anything.” Writing the each year. “Small and medium businesses drive today’s econ-
essay for the contest caused Duckett to reflect on everything omy. However, they often don’t get the attention and recog-
she and her employees had achieved over the years: “We got nition they deserve,” said PC Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Jim
to sit back and feel really proud of ourselves. Just that proc- Louderback. “We want to highlight the hard work, techno-
ess was enough to invigorate everyone in our weekly pro- logical leadership, and innovative spirit of thousands of SMB
duction meetings.” companies throughout the world.”
The contest judges also recognized Megan Duckett’s Duckett plans to use her prize winnings to add a bar
passionate commitment to customer satisfaction and use of code system that can track the manufacturing process at the
information technology for business success, so they awarded company’s warehouse. In the drapery business, fabric is
Sew What? the Small Business Excellence Award. Winning stored on a roll in the warehouse and then moves through
the award proved to be a very emotional experience. Look- different stages: receiving, cutting, sewing, shipping, and so
ing at the caliber and achievements of the nine other final- forth. The scanning process will enable Duckett’s team to
ists, Duckett figured Sew What? would remain just a top-10 track how long the fabric stays in any given stage. These
finalist: “I could not believe that a big company like Dell—so data will give them a better idea of their costs, which will
entrepreneurial and advanced in every way—would look at then help them produce more accurate price lists.
our little company and recognize it.” “We don’t need to charge an hour and a half for labor if
Like other small business owners, Duckett puts an enor- the cutting only takes an hour and 15 minutes,” Duckett
mous amount of physical and emotional energy into her notes. Currently, the company uses a handwritten system of
work. “Winning this award is so flattering on a personal sign-in and sign-out sheets that, she says, takes too long and
level,” she says. “This business is ingrained in every cell of introduces too many errors. “The new system will also let us
my body, and to have someone saying, ‘Good job,’ well, in track the progress of individual orders,” she promises.
small business, nobody ever says that to you.” “We’ll be able to provide better service by keeping the cus-
That may have been true previously, but Sew What?’s tomer updated.”
technology leadership and business success continue to earn
recognition. In March 2007, the company received a Stevie Source: Adapted from Lauren Simonds, “Pay Attention to the Woman Be-
Award for Women in Business for “most innovative company hind the Curtain,” SmallBusinessComputing.com, July 21, 2006.

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS REAL WORLD ACTIVITIES

1. How do information technologies contribute to the 1. Search the Internet to help you evaluate the business
business success of Sew What? Inc.? Give several exam- performance of Sew What? Inc. and its competitors at
ples from the case regarding the business value of infor- the present time. What conclusions can you draw from
mation technology that demonstrate this conclusion. your research about Sew What?’s prospects for the fu-
2. If you were a management consultant to Sew What? ture? Report your findings and recommendations for
Inc., what would you advise Megan Duckett to do at Sew What?’s continued business success to the class.
this point to be even more successful in her business? 2. Small businesses have been slower to integrate informa-
What role would information technology play in your tion technology into their operations than larger com-
proposals? Provide several specific recommendations. panies. Break into small groups with your classmates to
3. How could the use of information technology help a discuss the reasons for this state of affairs, identifying
small business you know be more successful? Provide several possible IT solutions and their business benefits
several examples to support your answer. that could help small businesses become more successful.