Large corporations which aim to become global businesses are increasingly investing in information and organization infrastructures (IOIs). IOIs can be considered as a strategic investment supposed to
An IOI typically features the definition of cross functional processes, supported by a wide variety of interconnected IT applications. An IOI is a platform, or the backbone, for the organization to operate in an efficient way with its suppliers, customers and to support internal teams, departments and quasi-markets.
The research project aims at constituting a first repertoire of cases of leading international corporations in different industrial sectors, that are establishing and adopting such global infrastructures. The project will allow a first comparison of experiences and the analysis of the emerging trends.
The project focuses on the understanding and description of the strategic context and in which IOIs were conceived and launched, the key options and choices in design and implementation, the follow-up of the actual building of the IOI and the role played by ancillary activities (e.g. training of personnel) and the actual use and subsequent modification. It also will include a first evaluation of whether the initial goals have been met or modified, the learning processes occuring around the use of the IOI, its impacts on the efficiency and productivity of the firm, and other related aspects.
A particular focus is dedicated to the human resources: their involvement, their training, their varying reaction depending upon different local and cultural circumstances, their creativity and inventiviness in lerning about working with the new IOI, and finally the phenomena of inertia, resistance and drifting.
The project has several ambitions. First of all it will be international. The first case to be studied is the one of IBM. IBM has launched a couple of years ago as one of its main strategic new directions the creation of a global IOI called CUSTOMER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (CRM). It is an infrastructure aimed at streamlining the whole cycle of activities that go from identifying a business opportunity to providing a complete business solution to the final customer . In IBM, such IOI cuts across the whole organization and connects people in different countries and lines of business, aligning them to serve the final customer. This requires re-thinking the organization, training thousands of people, reshaping the whole organizational structure, designing and implementing global IT applications, and so on.
Next, the project aims at dressing some fundamental questions for the functioning and evolution of the modern corporation at the end of the millenium. Can global infrastructures be the generic and stable platforms allowing the fast recombination of resources and organizational arrangements required by rapidly changing markets and technologies? Is the rigidity of the backbone compatible with the flexibility required by the human resources and the continuous innovation ? Should IOI be conceived just as the "plumbing" of the global corporation in terms of being necessary but invisible, or can one envisage the constitution of a knowledge network? What is the role played by standards and the installed base? Will IOIs have a life of their own and impose "their" ways of doing business? Will the corporation loose its identity and autonomy given the ubiquity of IOIs? Will centralization increase together with local autonomy of organizational units? Are the traditional organizational structures and processes still so strong to be able to limit the actual impact and change potential of IOIs? What are the key factors that accelerate or hamper the way people learne to operate along an IOI? Can corporations become truly global thanks to IOIs, or will national/cultural differences still "clour" the IOI in use ?
The huge investments currently being done in IOIs require a reflection upon these themes to prepare and devise better strategies of conception and implementation of IOIs, but also to offer management a broader picture of organizational and technical consequences, that go beyond the sheer consideration of efficiency and coordination costs. The inquiry into IOIs is an inquiry into the transformation of the modern corporation and its way of doing business on an increasingly global scale.