Chapter 15, Problem 1RQ

Explanation of Solution

Dimensions for developing international information system architecture

• The first main dimension for developing international information system infrastructure is the global environment and their business drivers and challenges.
• These are the forces within the environment which business must respond in order to drive the business positively.
• The second dimension includes corporate global strategy.
• These are the ones which are at a top level in order to accommodate local as well as regional issues.
• The third dimension includes organizational structure.
• It is the structure that may be positive in one part of the company and which is consistent in another.
• The fourth dimension includes management and business processes.
• These are processes which are more localized to the place that the firm is going to expand.
• The last dimension includes the technology platform.
• These platforms should be appealed for getting highest rate of acceptance.

Explanation of Solution

Cultural factors

• The general cultural factors include cultural particularism issues, development of a global culture within a firm, emergence of global social norms, political stability and global knowledge base.
• The cultural particularism factors include the language differences.
• By developing a global culture, the relationship between countries and divisions can be difficult to achieve.
• Emergence of global social norms includes work schedules, time to do business from a distance and so on.
• Political stability is difficult to achieve if a firm wants to expand in a country.
• Global knowledge base is an information system that requires time and effort to build that have positive effects for the firm.

Business factors

• The main business factors include global markets, global production and operations, global coordination and global workforce.
• Global market includes the patterns of consumption of goods which are becoming similar around the world.
• Global production and operations include production facilities which are coordinated at central headquarters thousands of miles away.
• Global coordination is the coordination of business factors which has expanded beyond production to include all major business functions, such as accounting, marketing, sales, and human resources systems development.
• Global workforce is the location of business activities which is based on workforce availability.
• Global economies of scale include production that is concentrated where it is best accomplished; lower production costs are exploited wherever they emerge.

Interconnection between cultural and business factors

• The cultural and business factors are interrelated.
• The spread of global communications has led to the emergence of a global culture and global social norms and has led to the development of global markets.
• Global production and coordination and the ability of businesses to make use of global economies of scale all depend upon the emergence of sophisticated global communications.
• The existence of global markets has been one of the factors making global production and operations attractive.

Explanation of Solution

Challenges for developing global systems

• The main challenges include cultural particularism, social expectations and political laws.
• Cultural particularism includes regionalism, nationalism, language differences, and different standards for electronic data interchange, email, and telecommunications.
• Social expectations include brand-name expectations, work hours and phone networks which are not uniformly reliable.
• Political laws include transborder data and privacy laws, commercial regulations, different data transfer speeds and shortages of skilled consultants.

Explanation of Solution

Reason for some firms not planning developing international systems

• The competition has not been powerful enough yet to drive them toward developing international systems for some companies.
• Some other companies lack the global strategy needed for such development, or they have inherited a patchwork of international systems built with outdated technologies and standards.
• Some companies underestimate the time, expense, and logistical difficulties of making goods and information flow freely across different countries.
• The difficulties involved in planning a system appropriate to the firm’s global strategy, structuring the organization of systems and business units, solving implementation issues, and choosing the right technical platform are too much for some other companies.
• Hence some firms have not planned for developing international systems.