MIS 2101: Management Information Systems
Based on material from Information Systems Today: Managing in the Digital World,
Leonard Jessup and Joseph Valacich, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007
Also includes material from The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first
Century , Thomas L. Friedman, Farrar, Straus and Giroux , 2007
Also includes material by David Schuff, Paul Weinberg, and Cindy Joy Marselis.

The integration of systems and business processes is now a global issue and opportunity
“The idea of charging for calls belongs to the last century.”
Niklas Zennstr öm, Skype
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Globalization created a new world characterized by:
 Worldwide communication
 Collaboration without barriers
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Tom Friedman . . . Pulitzer Prizewinning New York Times foreign affairs columnist and author of the renowned book on globalization, “The
World is Flat”
Tom’s book discusses the factors that have contributed to the increasing connectedness — or “flattening”— of the world
Information Technology is playing a key role

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Tom Friedman’s “The World is
Flat” Video
 As you watch the video, take notes and be ready to discuss:
• What was the Overall Point of the video (and the book)?
• What are the 10 Flatteners --- What are their implications according to Friedman?
• Based on the video, what does someone need to do to be successful in the 21st Century
 You can also view the video on the Internet at http://video.mit.edu/watch/the-world-is-flat-9145/

Globalization 1.0
 Mainly
European countries are globalizing
 Power is the primary driver
 Industries changed
 Slow pace of change
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Globalization 2.0
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Companies are globalizing
Reduction in transportation and telecommunications costs
Mainly Europe and America involved
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Globalization 3.0
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Individuals and small groups are globalizing
Fast changes
Emergence of new industries
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 The global economic playing field has been leveled
 Competition is worldwide
 Few jobs or markets are constrained by geographic boundaries
 There are steps you can take to succeed in this world

Flattener #1:
11/9/1989: The Fall of the Berlin Wall
Windows 3.1 released
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The Wall was a physical and symbolic barrier to a flat economy
Windows removed a barrier to the creation of digital content
Started a major change from large centralized systems to small decentralized systems on a mass scale.
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Flattener #2:
Netscape went public
Triggered
 New services
 Dot com boom
 Overbuild of fibre optics
Boston, Bethesda, and
Bangalore are now neighbors.
Companies no longer control collaborative development of technology products
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Flattener #3:
Hardware and software interoperability
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Easier for applications to work with other applications (with some exceptions)
“Smokestacks” like
AOL and
CompuServe replaced or redesigned
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Outsourcing:
Moving Jobs
Outsourcing companies profited from the drop in telecommunications costs
Companies can now use talented staff from anywhere
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 Offshoring:
Moving entire operations

 Open source products: developed collaboratively and free
 Wikipedia
 Open office
 Creation/distribution of material by anyone
 Potentially threatening to
Microsoft, The New York
Times, Record Labels, and others
* Listed as “Open Sourcing” in the book
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 Integration of retailers, suppliers, and customers
 Increases efficiency.
(Why?)
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 Delegation of company’s key operations to a subcontractor
 What does UPS do in this area?
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 Individuals have access to massive amounts of information
 What types of information are easily available to you now that weren’t 10 years ago?
 How has this affected car dealers?

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 Technologies that support different types of collaboration
 Greater mobility
 Convergence of media and technoloigies

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 What does someone need to do to be successful in the 21 st century?

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Opportunities of Operating in the Digital World
 Opportunities of
Reaching New
Markets
 Former Eastern
Bloc countries provide new opportunities for international companies to reach new customers
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Opportunities of Operating in the Digital World
 Opportunities of a
Global Workforce
 Low communications costs
 Highly-skilled labor pool
Engineering Graduates in the US,
Europe and India
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 Globalization also created a set of unprecedented challenges:
 Governmental challenges
 Geoeconomical challenges
 Demographic challenges
 Cultural challenges
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 Political System
 Regulatory
 Internet Access and Individual
Freedom

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Time Zone Challenges
 Real time meetings across continents difficult
 But working around the clock possible
Infrastructure-Related Challenges
 Roads, electricity, communications services
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 Expertise related challenges
 Different concentration of skilled workers
 Different costs of workers
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 Risk taking
 Language
 Work skills/habits
 Intellectual property concepts
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Going Global: International Business
Strategy in the Digital World
 Multidomestic
Business Strategy
 Global Business
Strategy
 Transnational
Business Strategy
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Multidomestic Business
Strategy
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Low degree of integration between subunits
Flexible and responsive to the needs and demands of local markets
E.g.: General Motors
 Opel in Germany
 Vauxhall in Great
Britain
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 Centralized
 Used to achieve economies of scale
 E.g.: Coca-Cola
 Same core product
 Some different tastes made for local markets
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Transnational Business
Strategy
 Some operations centralized while others decentralized
 Flexibility
 Economies of scale
 Difficult to manage
 E.g.: Unilever
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 Multinational Information Systems
Strategy
 Often used by multidomestic companies
 Decentralized systems
 Communication between home office and subsidiaries
 No focus on communication between different subsidiaries
 Decentralized local data processing centers
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Information Systems Strategies
 Global Information Systems Strategy
 Used by companies with global business strategy
 Centralized infrastructure
 Home office coordinates most of the strategic decisions
 Communication and data sharing networks between home office and subsidiaries
 Data does not stay with local subsidiaries but flows back to the home office
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Information Systems Strategies
 Transnational Information Systems
Strategy
 Pursued by transnational businesses
 Extensive communication between home office and subsidiaries as well as among subsidiaries
 Key data shared throughout the company
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Niklas Zennström:
Cofounder and
Chief Executive Officer, Skype
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“The idea of charging for calls belongs to the last century.”
Skype has 28 million subscribers
Among the 100 most influential people transforming the world
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Transnational Development
 Wrigley Company
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World’s largest manufacturer of chewing gum
 Sold in 150 countries
 Good information systems key to conducting marketing research
 Russian marketing research branch initiated the development of a marketing research work flow automation system
 After successful testing, system was implemented in other marketing research branches
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The automobile industry is feeling the pressure of globalization
Failed attempts at making a “world car”
 Consumers have different tastes
 Differences in infrastructures derive needs
 The price of gasoline
 Variations in emission standards
 Cultural and economic conditions need to undergo more globalization to make a world car successful
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