Living the Dream: Torelli Bicycles Braces for a Makeover

Which of us doesn't harbor the dream of eventually chucking it all, dropping out of the corporate rat race and following our passion? But it's a rare individual who actually has the guts, the grit and the determination to pull it off.Meet Todd Linscott. A few years ago, Todd was a senior strategy consultant for IBM Global Services. Today, he's shed the suit and tie and taken up residence as the president of Torelli Bicycle Co. in North Hollywood, Calif., a 30-year-old importer of fine Italian-made racing bikes. Welcome to Todd's dream.

Funny thing about dreams, though. They can be a little unpredictable. When Todd stepped off the career track, he knew he had the raw materials to build a thriving company and realize his dream of owning and running his own successful business. He also knew that his new road to success and personal fulfillment would involve a few twists and turns. But he didn't fully realize just how fast a track he was getting on. As Torelli's reputation and sales orders began to climb under Todd's management, he soon found the company was bursting at the seams. The accounting, inventory, sales tracking and customer management systems that had sustained the importer for its first 30 years were no longer sufficient to support the kind of growth Torelli was starting to experience. It was time for a change. That's when Todd and Torelli first came to the attention of InformationWeek and SAP. SAP was looking for a small business that was ripe for transformation, a case study in the making to demonstrate the benefits of implementing the software company's tailored solutions for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs). So InformationWeek, in conjunction with SAP and SAP implementation specialist Navigator Business Solutions, began the search-and-selection process for the perfect test case. Torelli's story made its way to the head of the pack. Now, the rest is about to become history. In return for allowing InformationWeek reporters and the Navigator team to invade its small North Hollywood headquarters over the course of the next several weeks, Torelli will receive the best business solutions SAP has to offer in the SME marketplace. And we'll be there with our cameras rolling and our blogs reeling, bringing you right into the action as SAP and Navigator lend their special brand of expertise to transforming Torelli's business processes, and helping Todd make his dream a reality.