Operational Capabilities of VTB To maintain a competitive advantage, VTB must build its business model with 5 strategic pillars in mind to achieve a high-performance company: leadership, innovation, information technology, organizational excellence, agility and knowledge. Vermont's management team captured this concept early in its development, but did not continue to embrace these pillars to ensure continued success. VBT has most of its operational capabilities and strengths in the IT field as its business model is heavily IT-based. They have some good operational capabilities, but also face several challenges, especially during peak seasons. Their operational strengths and capabilities are: • They hire a good workforce during peak seasons to help process and package gifts ordered by a large number of customers for delivery. • During peak hours, if and when the middleware is paused, experienced members of the IT team somehow help to sort things out and ensure that all deliveries are made on time. • They have a robust central transaction processing infrastructure to meet the operational needs of a company of this size. • They have good practices in password management and recovery mechanisms. They have redundancy built into their systems. Therefore, if one element of the network fails, their sales order systems still continue to function so that orders are not lost. • They have hosted their e-commerce applications at colocation facilities outside of Vermont and, by doing so, are able to gain a more advantageous position on the national Internet backbone. • They follow a cutting-edge approach where they purchase separate packages that they offer closer to optimal functionality instead of......half of paper......ortant and not what someone needs to work on because they deem it important. • Standardize procedures and project management. For example, using the same language or coding and decoding software. • Establish a change management process. All changes must be documented for reference by other team members. Appendix: SWOT (Attachment 1) Strengths: • Quality product • BearGrams • Closed retail stores • Effective packaging/shipping system change • Employee training and loyalty • Shelburne Factory Store Weaknesses: • Insufficient management coverage • Financial Position • Customer Service • Weak IT Architecture Opportunities: • Distribution Methods • Offshore Outsourcing • Expansion to New Markets • Technological Advances Threats: • Disney Patents/Logos/Trademarks • Competitors (Flowers, Gifts, Collectibles) • Products and Services • Seasonal market demand for products