http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/1792 2013-05-19T02:07:27Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68561 Engaging Non-IT Executives in IT Infrastructure Decisions Fonstad, Nils O.; Subramani, Mani This case study describes how information technology (IT) managers from Insurance Co. successfully engaged non-IT executives in IT infrastructure investment decisions. This enabled IT and non-IT stakeholder groups to take greater control of shared resources and achieve synergies that neither group could have achieved on its own. We describe three factors that enabled this type of engagement. First, the infrastructure group and the application development group developed strong internal IT capabilities to strengthen local alignment. Second, IT leaders also introduced short-term and long-term engagement opportunities for IT and non-IT stakeholder groups, representing local and enterprise-wide interests, to interact with each other. Finally, participants created several resources for managing interdependencies between applications, IT infrastructure services, and business objectives. Once engaged, and drawing on their capabilities and resources, IT and non-IT stakeholder groups developed a better understanding of how local applications related to each other and to shared resources, such as IT infrastructure. 2008-07-01T04:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68560 Credit Suisse: Engineering a Global Financial Services Business Ross, Jeanne W.; Kwan, Ernest; Levy, Ari In 2010, Credit Suisse was attempting to leverage its global scale by integrating key business processes across geographies and business units. The IT unit, under Global CIO Karl Landert, assumed a pivotal role in enabling business integration. But the IT unit had developed distinctive cultures and capabilities reflecting two very different business units—private banking and investment banking—and different geographies. To help understand and develop the skills needed to support business integration, Credit Suisse’s IT unit developed clearly defined job families and career paths for its 8,000 IT professionals and 4,000 contractors. This case examines the transformation of the IT unit as it implemented its job families and defined IT roles that would help Credit Suisse become a global financial services business. 2010-12-01T05:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68559 Global IT Management: Structuring For Scale, Responsiveness, and Innovation Kien, Sia Siew; Soh, Christina; Weill, Peter As businesses expand globally and reconfigure their value chains, they must cope with a variety of complex challenges in managing their IT resources. This research examines how enterprises attempt to simultaneously achieve scale economies, responsiveness to business needs, and innovation. These three strategic objectives often raise conflicting requirements. Through interviews with CIOs and other senior executives of global enterprises, we identify a set of structural elements implemented to meet these requirements—shared services, centers of excellence, and value managers. Firms carefully design these elements to balance their inherent global-local tensions and help achieve the three strategic objectives. 2010-02-01T05:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68558 Plenia Locatel Group: Globalizing from Venezuela Gibson, Cyrus; Levy, Ari In 2009 the founders and top executives of Plenia Locatel Group, a retail business in Venezuela specializing in health care products and services, were planning a global expansion of the business. Founded by two close friends in 1994, the business grew through franchising and customer focus to 46 stores in Venezuela and 12 more in Colombia, Mexico, Miami, and Russia. As a basis for their globalization, the founders and executives sought to formalize and introduce structure in operations and management and had recently implemented an ERP for operational transactions. A basic issue was how to replicate business success and brand image, built over years of personal involvement and franchisee relationships, without losing the customer service focus in each store. 2009-05-01T04:00:00Z