Questions for June 8.
Read Transformation of the IT Function at British Petroleum, pages 401-411 and 415418. (You don’t need to read the section called “Purpose, Process and People” pages 411
bottom to 415 top, which to me seems less useful.)
1. The transformation at BP is somewhat astounding! Which two or three of the
shifts summarized in Table 2 do you think were the most difficult? Explain why.
2. Consider the last paragraph on page 407. This implies that the new arrangement
may not optimize the fit of IT to local business needs. What is the justification of
this? Do you agree?
Read Pages 9-15 of “Core IS Capabilities for Exploiting Information Technology” (the
rest is less critical, I think.)
3. Which of the nine core IS capabilities from this article are provided from within
the company at BP?
Read “IT Doesn’t Matter”, by Nicholas Carr
4. What are the essential arguments on which he rests his case? To what extent do
you buy those arguments? As you might guess, we’ll talk about these in class.
Questions for June 1, 2004
All three cases or articles involve investing in IT infrastructures and then exploiting those
infrastructures for competitive advantage. Infrastructure is, like the interstate highway
system, an investment put in place that facilitates future actions or future competitive
moves, even when the specific future actions or competitive moves may not be
predictable at the time the infrastructure investment was made.
Cisco Systems: Building Leading Internet Capabilities
1. What is the IT infrastructure that Cisco has put in place in this case? What actions are
they taking to “exploit” that infrastructure?
Custom Made Apparel and Individualized Service at Lands End
2. Again, what is the IT infrastructure that Lands End has put in place, and what actions
are they taking to “exploit” that infrastructure? Will they have developed a “sustainable
competitive advantage”, or will their competitors be able to copy their actions? How
long might they have some major advantage from this innovation?
Building IT infrastructure for Strategic Advantage
3. It is interesting and useful to think of IT infrastructure as “services” or underlying
capabilities that a firm has put into place. Weill and his co-authors identify 10 different
types of IT infrastructure services that an organization might invest in, and point out that
services can be implemented at the business unit level, or the enterprise level. They also
make the interesting point that it is very expensive to develop these services, and
organizations probably have to make explicit decisions about where to invest, and at what
level (enterprise or business unit). Given SRS’s strategic directions, what types of IT
infrastructure investments make the best sense now, and why? (Assume a continuing,
even if reduced, role for SRS into the future.) [I recognize this is a pretty challenging
question!]
Assignment for May 24, 2004
Write 1 and a half to two pages, single spaced on the below questions.
Read: Tektronix, Inc.: Global ERP Implementation
NIBCO’s Big Bang
Boudreau and Robey, “Enabling Organizational Transformation…..”
NOTE: Skip the “method” section of Boudreau and Robey’s paper (midway down page 4
through midway through page 8), as it is more detail than you want to know
about the research method employed.
1. What technical or strategic factors motivated Tektronix to want to implement the
Oracle ERP? How good a fit is such a system to their strategic needs?
2. What does "Frankfort is Orlando" mean at Tektronix? To what extent is it reasonable
to standardize across all regions?
How successful was this aspect of the
implementation.
3. Why did NIBCO attempt a “Big Bang” implementation for its ERP? What did they do
to increase their chances of success at this approach?
4. Compare and Contrast the NIBCO implementation approach with the Compass
implementation approach (from Boudreau and Robey’s paper). What does each one do
well? Why did the implementers of Compass do it that way?
Questions for May 18
Cisco Systems, Inc.: Implementing ERP
Understanding the Local Level Costs and Benefits of ERP (Cases Only)
Putting the Enterprise Into the Enterprise System
Prepare a one and a half to two page (total for all questions), single spaced response to the
following questions based on the readings. Apportion your effort and space so you can
answer all three questions.
1. Although ERP implementations are notoriously difficult, Cisco seems to have been
quite successful (after a few brief hiccups). What key things did they do that contributed to
their success?
2. What kinds of problems are Forest Products and Auto Products having with their ERP
implementations? How important are these problems? What is causing Forest Products
and Auto Products to have such a difficult time with ERP? Did they just implement it
poorly, or is there some more fundamental problem?
3. Apply the ideas on strategic and cultural fit put forward by Davenport to the Cisco
case, and to the two companies discussed in “Understanding the Local Level Costs and
Benefits".
Questions for May 11
Burlington Northern
1. What is meant by the term “strategic repositioning” in the Burlington Northern case?
What is the new “vision”? What is the role of IT in that vision?
2. How compelling are the arguments for this repositioning? What are the biggest
hurdles to achieving the new vision?
Administrative Data Project
3. Consider the description of Redesigning the Procurement and Hiring Processes (pages
8-10). How effective would such a process be at deriving a new, more efficient process?
What would explain the differences between that more efficient process and the existing
process? In other words, assuming the new process really is quite different from the old
process, where did the design for the old process come from?
4. What is your prediction for the future of the ADP project? Why?
5. What would you do if you were the new vice president for finance?
Questions Due Tuesday April 27.
National Mutual
IRS
Johnson & Johnson
Please write a total (for all three questions) of 1 and half to 2 pages – single spaced 12 point
font – on the below questions.
1. What is your assessment of the future of the Profiling system at National Mutual?
What factors are important in coming to your assessment?
2. On the last page, three options are listed for future action of the ACS system. Without
necessarily limiting yourself to those options, or combinations of them, what approach
do you think should be taken relative to ACS?
3. J& J is considering standardizing and consolidating networking across the whole U.S
region, and also standardizing at least some data definitions (things like product codes,
sales etc.). What are the major benefits and difficulties in doing each of these. Is there
any reason to think that standardizing data definitions will be tougher than
standardizing and consolidating network operations?
Questions for April 20,2004
First American
1. First American has apparently succeeded in making major changes in its organization.
Enumerate some of the major things that have changed, with a brief explanation of each.
What do you think were the toughest challenges for them to meet as they made these
changes.
2. What was the role of top management as these changes were made?
Taco Bell
3. What has changed at Taco Bell by the end of the case. Enumerate some of the major
things that have changed. What was the role of information systems in these changes?
Kotter, “Why Transformation Efforts Fail”
1. For First American, pick three of Kotter’s Eight Steps (each is really a way to fail) that
are particularly relevant and explain how First American did or did not address the issue.
Then, with perhaps a different set of three of Kotter’s steps, do the same for Taco Bell.