A study of subsidiaries views of information systems strategic planning in multinational organisations

This research examines information systems strategic planning (ISSP) in multinationals from the perspective of the subsidiaries. The research was carried out through interviews with the IT and business managers in subsidiaries of nine large American, European, and Japanese multinationals. The evidence from this study reveals that, in the majority of these organisations, IS planning is either centralised or moving towards centralisation. The main focus of IS planning, in many of these organisations, is to control cost and achieve scale economies. As centralisation increases IT tends to control the planning process and, as a result, IS planning becomes more tactical than strategic and is dominated by IT infrastructure planning. Project implementation was the main criterion used to measure IS planning success. However, due to the dominant role of IT, the subsidiary business managers are often less satisfied with the IS planning approach compared with the subsidiary IT managers. The level of involvement of business managers and their satisfaction with ISSP was related to the degree of decentralisation of responsibility for IS planning

EMPOWERMENT OF SUPPLIERS THROUGH EFFECTIVE AND STRATEGIC USE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES

This paper discusses the concept of supplier empowerment from the perspective of practitioners and the use of information systems and technologies in empowering suppliers. The paper is based on studies conducted in 18 companies in Europe and the US. Interviews were conducted with supply chain and IT managers in companies operating in automotive, aerospace, electronics, and fast-moving consumer goods industries as well as their suppliers and IT vendors. The interviewees view that it is now getting increasingly more challenging to manage complexities in the upstream compared with downstream market. Looking at it from a supply network perspective, it makes more sense for the entire network if the tasks related to upstream activities are empowered to suppliers. However this would require a high level of trust among supply partners, transparency and visibility of information, and effective and strategic use of information systems and technologies. With effective empowerment of suppliers, companies would be able to better focus on improving the management of downstream market and customers. Use of concepts and technologies such as vendor-managed inventories and supplier portals are common examples of enabling technologies to achieve this

Managing Information Systems and Technologies for Agility: Case Studies in Supply Chain Management.

This research examines how information systems and technologies enable supply chain agility. The research was performed through the field study method involving 18 organizations representing the OEMs, suppliers, and IT vendors within the aerospace, automotive, electronics, healthcare, and fast moving consumer goods industries. Interviews were undertaken with managers from the IT and supply chain departments. The interviewees conceptualize supply chain agility with respect to the level of agility (internal or external) and the directions of agility (upstream or downstream). While supply chain agility is essentially regarded as the capability to rapidly match demand requirements and supply constraints by sensing and responding to change in the environment, form IT perspective, it means offering products and services that could increase transparency and improve relationships between trading partners. These are exemplified through the use of emergent IS/IT services, such as Supplier Portal, Vendor-Managed Inventory, E-Marketplace, and Web-based EDI, as well as industry-wide standards and solutions

Information systems strategic planning in multinational corporations: from subsidiaries' perspective

This thesis examined information systems strategic planning in multinationals from the perspective of the subsidiaries. A research framework was synthesised from a combination of literature in the fields of multinational strategy and IS strategic planning. The research was carried out using multiple case studies involving eight multinational subsidiaries operating in Malaysia and a multinational subsidiary operating in the UK. The subsidiaries were units in four European-based, three US-based, and two Japanese-based multinationals. The main methods and instruments used for the study were site visits and semistructured interviews. Three corporate headquarters were visited, in Switzerland, the US, and The Netherlands and a telephone interview was held with another corporate IT interviewee based in the US. The evidence gathered from the case studies reveals that, in these organisations, there is a lack of alignment between IS and business strategy. IS planning is more tactical rather than strategic and is more dominated by the IT infrastructure rather than the IS portfolio. The main focus of IS planning in many of these companies is to control cost and achieve scale economies, while knowledge transfer and subsidiary initiative get less priority. IS planning in these companies is centralised or currently moving toward more centralisation. Project implementation was the main criterion used for measuring IS planning success. With a low level of involvement of the local business management in the IS planning, in general, the subsidiary business managers are less satisfied with the IS planning approach than the subsidiary IT managers. Analysis of the evidence gathered from the case studies also indicates that there are links between business orientation, IS planning orientation, IS planning approaches, and the perceived success of IS planning. Small subsidiaries also tend to have less autonomy in IS planning and IS managers who report to the financial controllers tend to be less satisfied with the IS planning approach