•Head Quarter: Epso, Finland
•Supplies Telecom infrastructure
and systems over 40 countries.
Flexibility
•Large Niche telecom equipment
player .
Product
Innovation
Rapid
Responsiveness
•Complex and deregulated
marketplace.
•Market Pressure NTC to put
uniform customer interface
Cornerstone of NTC’s
Extraordinary Growth
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
Market Pressure NTC to put uniform customer interface.
A new Organization-Wide Process
based operating mode
Product
Development

First Major challenge
 instituting an account management structure that requires
account manager to serve as an interface customer and all
divisions.. NOT JUST ONE PROFUCT LINE


Customer
Commitment
Need for Common support tools
A logistics system would allow managers
› Spend more time with customer and tp perform analysis
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
Global Business Strategy and Role of IT

Global Logistics Management

Pacing and Sequencing of Process and IT Changes

Global reengineering project Management

Critical Success Factors For Global Implementation
of IT
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• Local responsiveness
and Differentiation
• Foreign Subsidiaries to
Operate
autonomously
• Closely Managed
Worldwide activities
through central control
• Economies from
standardized product
design, global Scale
manufacturing
Multinational
• Rapid Deployment of
Innovation Worldwide
• Foreign Subsidiaries
depend on head
quarters for new
processes, products
and know hows
International
Global
NTC is moving
toward
Transitional
• Simultaneously achieve
global efficiencies, local
responsiveness and high
innovativeness.
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
Transitional Model is a moving target and is
unreachable by most firms.

Until 1997 Information Systems were tailored to
Strategic Business Units resulting in localized
configurations.

Local conjurations are major barriers to
implementing a global strategy.

The only global IT application that was truly global
was e-mail system
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
NTC had basic hardware infrastructure in place
(WAN, LAN, hardware, OS, office Automation tools)

Connected 4 plants and 40 sales and service
centers throughout the World.

The newly adopted business process approach is
seen as a driver for integrated systems

Each country will share the same or similar suit of
common systems for core processes
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• Customers want
Uniformity and
Consistency in dealing
with NTC’s product
Lines
• NTC wants top
reduce internal costs
to ensure enough
resources for business
growth
Operational
Efficiencies
Improve
Quality of
Deliveries
and After
Sales
Services
Global
Logistics
Management
Reduce Lead
Times
Decrease
Inventory
Levels
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Improve NTC’s ability to
Translate
Sales and
Marketing
R&D
Customer
Requirements
Productio
n
Customer
Support
Complete
Package of NTC
Product and
Services
Communications Link
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Responding
Administrative
Areas
Measure
Transactional
Control
Levels
Feedback
CrossDivisional
Means to
Local Offices to gain access to new product
information residing anywhere within the NTC
Information
About
Production and Delivery times
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Arguments for Simultaneous
Change OF IT and Process
Arguments for Delayed IT Change
Without the tools, the structural
change will not lead to process
change
An organization can tolerate only so
much change at one time
IT enables reengineered processes,
and reengineering success depends
on IT systems
Markets & customers don’t change
overnight; NTC has time to make
changes
NTC might be alienating its key
frontline people by giving them new
responsibilities without any support
The structural changes will make
account managers hungry for support
tools
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Arguments for Simultaneous
Change of IT and Process
Arguments for Delayed IT Change
Without the IT tools, the structural
change will not only increase the
coordination costs but also response
times to customers.
There would be an opportunity to see
how the new concepts work before
embedding them in an information
system
The lead time of a structural change is
much shorter than that of a major new
IT system
The sales organization can become
streamlined before committing to
systems
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
NTC Concentrated on Making changes in organizational
structure and providing new technology support while leaving
the process changes in the hands and discretion of the local
management.

In US business reengineering is top down. In Europe esp. Nordic
region employees are consulted for job-elated design.


Changes are made by pull from external environment and
customers rather than push from top management.
On the surface the structural changes looked drastic, in reality
they were more gradual
Account Managers will report to country and area
management rather than product division.
 Account managers were also needed to have in depth
knowledge about Product offerings.

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High risk:
 State of the art technologies
 Unstructured requirements
 Large project
(McFarlan Risk Framework)
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
Systems goals are synchronistic with market
needs(responsiveness and operational efficiency)

Fundamental information needs were explored before any
code was developed.

NTC thought through its business strategy and processes before
embarking on a systems project.

NTC considered the reuse of an existing system(TRS logistics
system) and an off-the shelf package for part of the system(it
decided against both)
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
The system architecture is flexible (standardized messagebased interfaces between modules that are divided into
global and local units)

The project champion understands the day-to-day needs
of the end users.

NTC followed a phased approach to the implementation

NTC installed a common baseline system with options for
local customization and add-ons.

There were executive visits to all the sites to sell the system
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
The project is overly ambitious

The project manager had little large scale information
systems implementation experience.

NTC had no prior organizational experience in implementing
global systems; it is unclear whether any staff had any
experience of this sort.

There were too many IT people and outside consultants
relative to the number of local managers with extensive sales
function experience.
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
There was a lack of internal IT expertise, resulting in system
maintenance and upgrade problems.

There was too long a lag time between the start of the
project (early 1993) and when the field units witnessed the
first release (mid 1995)

There was limited acceptance from employees ranging from
reluctance to resistance to giving up locally developed
systems or home-grown systems.
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
Manage the field’s expectations of the benefits; it
will take time for the field to adjust to the system
and see the tangible value from it.

Choose pilot sites where there is a real potential to
see reduced delivery times to customers.

Continue communicating to the field, stressing the
system’s benefits (i.e. , personal benefits for
account managers.)
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
Recommend to the steering committee
that incentives be instituted for the systems
use

Do an analysis of the “grassroots
applications” and understand what is
common among them (and make sure the
international logistics incorporates them,
even if in a later release)
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
The transnational model is an ideal,ever-changing target.

Electronic mail is the only truly transnational system
supporting NTC globally; yet a transnational model calls
for vertical, horizontal, external and temporal integration.

The global logistics process and systems will improve
global operational efficiencies and organizational
learning, reduce lead times, and improve quality of
deliveries and after-sales customer service.

Cycle time for IT and structural changes differ resulting
often in delayed IT implementation
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
Global reengineering projects require continual “pull” from
the field.

Global reengineering projects fail if seen as a “push” from the
HQ

Local customization must be managed.

Global reengineering is a fine dance of international
diplomacy.
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