IS596
IT in Emerging Countries
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Olayele Adelakun (Ph.D)
Assistant Professor CTI
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Office: Room 735 CTI 7th Floor
Phone: 312-362-8231
Fax: 312-362-6116
Email : yele@cs.depaul.edu
Web: http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/yele
Agenda
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Expectation?
Course Overview
Areas of Interest
Lecture Notes
Expectations?
1.
Reasons to study IT in
Emerging Country
2.
What would you like to
get out of this course.
Agenda
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Expectations?
Course Overview
Areas of Interest
Lecture Notes
Course Overview
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Objective
Topics
Course Materials
Assignments
Objectives
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A better understanding of the IT challenges facing
organizations in emerging countries
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A better understanding of issues involved in building
a success global software team.
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Students will have a practical exposure to the reality
of information technology (IT) in an emerging/developing country (Brazil).
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A visit to Rio
Topics
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Information Technology Impact on Transnational Firms
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Global Software Teams
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Assessment of Global Software Teams
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Problems of Global Software Teams
Solutions to the Global Software Teams Problems
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Crossing Borders
Telecommunications Infrastructure
Development Methodology
Architecture and Task Allocation
Building the Dispersed Team through Trust,
Communication, and Personal Bridges
Specialized Management Techniques
Offshore IT Outsourcing
Course Materials
Case studies
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HBS Cases
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Submarino.com: The Challenges of B2C
Commerce in Latin America. Case 801-350
PSA: The world’s Port of Call. Case 802-003
Other supporting documents
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Readiness for the Networked World: A guide for
Developing Countries by Center for International
Development at Harvard University.
Grading
Individual Assignments
10%
Class Attendance and Participation
30%
Group Assignment
20%
Paper
25%
Group Presentation
15%
Total
100%
Group Assignment
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About 3-5 Students per group
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Analyze one category of the readiness guide.
No single category may be selected by two
groups
Deliverables include
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Group contribution to the class web site
Presentation of readiness for ICT (only one category per
group)
Question
Agenda
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Expectations?
Course Overview
Areas of Interest
Lecture Notes
Reference Discipline
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Political Science
Economics
Law
Management
International business
Human computer Interface
Cross cultural studies
Law
Sociology
Psychology
Telecommunications
Computer Science
Globalization
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A definition:
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As increased permeability of traditional
boundaries such as nations, time and space
(Parker, 1998)
GLOBAL IT ISSUES
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Issues of Interest
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To what extent does the growing power of information
technology enable globalization?
To what extent does increased globalization create demand
and markets for ever more refined information technology?
Do the new technologies enable firms to consider new markets
and new activities?
Do the desires of firms for international activities create
demand for new technologies?
Are uses for information technology in a global setting merely
the logical extension of domestic information technologies?
Does operating internationally create new areas of decision
making such as the structure for direct foreign investment
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(Iyer, 1988)?
IT in Emerging Countries
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Area of Interest
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National or Country level
Multinational firms (IT vendors and non-IT
vendors)
Local vs. global issues
Groups and teams
Individual
IT Issues in Emerging Countries
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Global IS Issues
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At the National level
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Social and cultural issues at the country level
Economics
Technology sophistication at the country level
IT policy and legal issues
IT Issues in Emerging Countries
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Global IS Issues
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At the organizational level
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Issues involving matching global IS strategy with global
business strategy
Issues on the technical platform for Global IS
applications
Issues involved in International data sharing
Issues of global IS projects
IT Issues in Emerging Countries
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Global IS Issues
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At the group level level
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Global software teams co-ordination
Global project management
Distance and time differences
Cultural issues
IT Issues in Emerging Countries
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Complexity in Understanding Global IS
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Global IS is an extremely broad topic.
There are numerous potential stakeholders.
Global IS can be addressed from the perspectives of
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(1) national governments,
(2) economic regions (e.g. EU),
(3) multinational and domestic firms,
(4) firms building vs. using IS technology,
(5) IS (or other) departments within firms,
(6) labor markets within countries, and
(7) consumers.
(8) different business processes across boarders
IT Issues in Emerging Countries
Based on detailed interviews with IS executives
charged with managing international IS, Ives and
Jarvenpaa (1991) outline four aspects of global IS:
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Matching global IS strategy to global business strategy;
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Issues involving the technical platform for global IS
applications
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Issues involved in international sharing of data; and
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Issues of IS projects spanning cultures.
IT Issues in Emerging Countries
Other ways to study IT in Emerging Countries
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The impact of information on people of different cultures;
The differences in information sought and used by people
of different cultures (and the strategies and approaches to
decision making and other task performance by people of
different cultures); and
The mechanisms for developing information systems to be
developed and/or used by people of different cultures.
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For example to what extent do design methodologies used in
France, Germany, Japan, or India account for specific cultural
values,
Can lessons learned in these countries enrich design
methodologies used in Canada or the U.S.?
Diffusion of IS in developing countries
Agenda
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Expectations?
Course Overview
Areas of Interest
Lecture Notes
Globalization and Information Systems
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Forces Driving IT in Emerging Countries
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Demand for new global consumer
New global business customer
Global outsourcing
Global product R&D
Internal development
Individual development
Globalization and Information Systems
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Transnational Corporations
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The traditional organizational form is changing to
one that is both integrated and more similar to a
network organizational structure. This new form is
labeled transnational corporation.
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Globally efficient
Strong locally
Big and small at the same time
IT is central to the success of its operations
IT is part of the corporate strategy
Globalization and Information Systems
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Global demand
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The global customer
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Global sourcing and integration of the supply chain
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Global design (e.g. ford CAD)
Harmonization and standardization of report requirements
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Products are being assembled from multiple sources and
information systems are used to coordinate the logistics
Global product R&D and shorter product cycle
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Demand for global services and products (hotel, airline, etc.)
Account
Global strategy
Economy of Scale
Globalization and Information Systems
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Implication of Globalization on IS department
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IS department need to be global as well
Integrated Network in which global systems
maintenance and development efforts are
increasingly shared across boarders
This means that responsibilities are shared
globally.
Globalization and Information Systems
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Implication of Globalization for the IS function
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The Integrated Network IS Organization
Development of global applications that support
global processes rather than local or regional
processes.
A shift away from geographical or national
boundaries
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Decentralized
IS unit operates independently
Globalization and Information Systems
Corporate
Structure
Systems
IS Development
Centralized
Centralized databases
and processes driven by
headquarters
Headquarters centralized
development and
decision making
Decentralized
Standalone, largely
independent
Independent at each
subsidiary
Coordinated Federation
Linked databases with
Some joint development;
some application sharing formalization and
standards established
Integrated Network
(Transnational)
Integrated architecture;
shared databases and
shared global processes
Centers for global
application
Globalization and Information Systems
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Characteristics of Integrated Networks
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Common global architecture
Powerful telecommunication backbone
Uniform global systems with flexible modules
tailored to address systems worldwide
A culture of shared management
A culture of shared application building
A culture of shared innovation
Globalization and Information Systems
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Characteristics of Integrated Networks
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Global IT strategy driven by senior executives
 Financial, operations support
Standardization
 Architecture, telecom, application, hardware,
development process, quality standards etc.
 To ease communication between units and
partners
 Ease of data transfer
 Ease of application reuse
Globalization and Information Systems
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Center for Global Applications
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Is a development center that unifies all development work
for one or more global application systems
The center are responsible multiple releases of the global
applications
The center “own” the global system
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End-to-end responsibility from requirement and enhancement
requests through pilot testing and global roll-out.
Globalization and Information Systems
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Center for Global Applications
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CGA Problems
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Conflict with local or country manager
Business case must be convincing
Flexibility
Budgets source
Creation of a liaison role with the local operation
360 view.
Globalization and Information Systems
Agenda
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Expectations?
Course Overview
Areas of Interest
Lecture Notes