Flowers by Sears Canada

The entrepreneur who founded Flowers by Sears Canada faces pressure from management at Sears Canada to significantly increase sales. The case deals with the role of information technology in achieving this objective, specifically, the nature and extent of interactive voice response (IVR) systems in the organization. Flowers by Sears is a virtual company, and a forerunner to today's Internet businesses. Like FTD, it has no physical stores. It relies on a network of affiliated independent florists to fill and deliver orders. The IVR directs calls to the independent florists. As such, the nature of this system has a direct and significant impact on revenue streams in the channel. This case presents IVR technology and the issues surrounding its use by geographically-distributed firms.