Global Information Systems

1

• Global Information Systems

Olayele Adelakun (Ph.D) Assistant Professor
CTI   Office Room 735 CTI 7th Floor Phone
312-362-8231 Fax [phone] Email
yele_at_cs.depaul.edu Web http//facweb.cs.depaul.ed
u/yele
2

• Global Information Systems

Example of Project Reports http//www.american.ed
u/academic.depts/ksb/mogit/country.html
3
What Is Information?

• Data
• Information
• Knowledge
• Global IS

4
Global IS ?

• Global IS management is complicated by the wide
  diversity in
• Cost
• Quality
• Maturity of national IT infrastructure
• Local products
• Scope and sophistication of IT applications
• Human resources for global operations
• Technology skills and expertise
• Labor and technology cost
• Culture

5
Information Technology Impact on Transnational
Firms

• International, Multinational, or Transnational
  Firms?
• The worlds top 10 branded goods, 1996
• 1 Mc Donalds 6 Gillette
• 2 Coca-cola 7 Mercedes-Benz
• 3 Disney 8 Levis
• 4 Kodak 9 Microsoft
• 5 Sony 10 Marlboro
• Source Interbrand and Kochon, Nick. (1997). The
  worlds greatest brands, NYNew York University
  Press.

6
Globalization

• A definition
• As increased permeability of traditional
  boundaries such as nations, time and space
  (Parker, 1998)

7
Information Technology Impact on Transnational
Firms

• Geographical Transfer of Work
• High-cost labor to high quality and low cost (?)
• E.g. Citibank moves its credit card operation
  from high-cost New York city to Sioux Falls,
  South Dakota.
• American Airlines moved a significant amount of
  its data entry work out of Dallas to Barbados.

8
Information Technology Impact on Transnational
Firms

• IT Impact on Transnational Companies
• Global Networking and Expertise Sharing
• IBM and PriceWaterhouseCooper have developed very
  sophisticated IT
• (Email, groupware,teleconferencing, etc)
• Global Service Level
• E.g. The truck transportation industry
• Ability to determine when and what at ends.
• But not in between cities for emergency pickups.
• Satellite technology
• Customer emergencies, nearest road services etc

9
Information Technology Impact on Transnational
Firms

• IT Impact on Transnational Companies
• Time-Based Competition
• Required response time in the global community is
  dramatically shrinking.
• CAD linked internationally
• Ability to operate continuously around the
  globe
• Cost Reduction
• much tighter information links between overseas
  operations, customers, and suppliers allow a
  firm to eliminate significant slack from its
  manufacturing systems resulting in significant
  reductions in buffer inventories and staffing
  levels and general acceleration in asset
  utilization..
• - is a huge increase in operational dependence on
  networks, central processors, and so on.
• - high level of redundancy in networks

10
National Characteristics IT Support

• Sociopolitical
• A country industrial maturity and forms of
  government are particularly important factors
  when considering the use of IT.
• E.g. Food vs. Medicare vs. Technology
• Language
• A common spoken language facilitate technical
  communication and sharing of relevant
  documentation.
• When it is lacking, the potential for errors,
  mishaps, or worse is greatly increased.

11
National Characteristics

• Local Constraints
• Local cultural traditions
• Differing union agreements, holidays, tax
  regulations, and customers procedures all force
  major modifications of software for applications
  like accounting and personnel.
• The procedure in one country might be
  unacceptable / inappropriate in another country
  and might
• Economics
• Serving the interests of different national
  cultures in a transnational IT organization often
  means building country-specific solutions.

12
National Characteristics

• Currency Issues
• Currency restrictions and exchange-rate
  volatility also complicate the operation of
  international information service activities.
• National Infrastructure
• The cost and availability of utilities
  (Telecommunications, Stable Electricity,
  transportation system etc.) can place important
  constrains on feasible alternatives.

13
National IT Environmental Issues

• Availability of IT Professional Staff
• Inadequate availability of systems and
  programming resources, a worldwide problem, is
  more severe in some settings than others
• Brain drain syndrome
• Corporate experts vs. local champions?
• Central Telecommunications
• The price, quality, and availability of
  telecommunications supports vary widely from one
  country to another.
• High tariffs in some countries (e.g. Some
  European countries
• Varying standards
• Outstanding international gateways and terrible
  inside the country, vice-versa.
• Communication quality, availability and cost
  differ widely among countries
• A profitable home-country on-line application can
  become cost-ineffective, inadequate, or
  unreliable in other countries.

14
National IT Environmental Issues

• National IT Strategy
• In some countries e.g. France, Singapore, UK and
  Germany, the development of national IT strategy
  is of key national priority
• General Level of IT Sophistication
• The speed and ease with which companies can
  implement or develop an IT activity are linked to
  the general level of IT activity in the country
• A firm located in a country with substantial base
  of installed state-of-the-art electronic-based IS
  and well trained, mobile labor can develop its IT
  capabilities more rapidly and effectively than if
  this condition did not exist.

15
National IT Environmental Issues

• Size of Local Market
• The size of local market influences the number of
  vendors who compete for service in it.
• In small markets, a companys preferred
  international supplier for particular hardware
  and for software may not have a presence, thereby
  complicating services.
• Technology Awareness
• Awareness of technology globally poses problem
  for effective applications development in less
  IT-sophisticated countries because it leads
  subsidiaries to promote technologies that they
  neither understand, need, nor are capable of
  managing.

16
Corporate Factors Affecting IT Requirements

• Nature of Firms Business
• Some firms businesses demand that key data files
  be managed centrally so that they are accessible,
  immediately or on a short delayed-access basis,
  to all units around the world
• E.g. Airline reservation files for international
  air carriers.
• Strategic Impact of IT
• If IT is strategic to the company, tighter
  corporate overview is needed to ensure that new
  technology (with its accompanying new ways of
  operating) is rapidly and efficiently introduced
  to outlying areas.

17
Categories of Strategic Relevance and Impact of IS
Developing an appropriate IT strategy.
High
Factory
Strategic
IT are important but they are not fundamental to
the firms ability to compete.
Totally depending on it. Essential for its
ability to Compete.
Strategic Impact of existing IT system
Support
Turnaround
Not absolutely depending on totally
uninterrupted, fast response-time to
achieve operating objectives.
Strategic Impact of IT on existing operations
and future strategy is low.
Low
Low
High
Strategic Impact of IT applications under
development
18
Corporate Factors Affecting IT Requirements

• Corporate Organization
• A full-blown level of international activity may
  involve regional headquarters (in Europe, Far
  East, etc.) to coordinate the activities of the
  diverse countries
• Vertical, horizontal, Cross-boarder relationships
• Company Technical and Control Characteristics
• Companies with a strong tradition of central
  control find it both appropriate and relatively
  easy to implement IT control worldwide

19
Transnational IT Policy

• Architecture
• Implementation of appropriate telecommunication
  architecture, operating systems, and database
  standards are of central importance.
• (where data would be stored, storage form, update
  policy, etc.)
• Central Hardware/Software Concurrence or Approval
• The objective of a central policy for acquiring
  hardware and software are to ensure that
  cost-effective global networking is acquired,
  that obvious mistakes in vendor viability are
  avoided, and that purchasing decisions achieved
  economies of scale.
• Central control of software standards can ensure
  that software is written or sourced in a
  maintainable, secured.
• Implementing such standard can be expensive and
  time consuming in relation to the potential
  benefits.
• Large strategic investments, should be subject to
  central review in transnational organizations

20
Transnational IT Policy

• Centralized vs. Decentralized Software
  Development
• IT Communications
• Frequent IT directors meetings
• (Technical briefings, application briefings,
  company directives)
• Corporate-subsidiary exchange visits
• Newsletters
• To communicate staffing shifts, new technical
  insights, major project completions, experience
  with packages and vendors, etc.
• Education
• Joint education programs e.g. CD distribution

21
Summary

• Global IT Coordination and Management
• Extraordinarily complex
• Corporate responsibility but limited local
  authority
• Awareness of new technology is important
• Good understanding of corporate and national
  cultures
• Appropriate reporting structures
• Global IT strategy in some cases
• Long term perspectives
• Influenced by local conditions e.g infrastructure
  and service availability