Strategies for Global Systems
The global system is the developing communications framework intended to eventually connect all telecommunications and computer networks worldwide. Sometimes called a network of networks, the GII would eventually make all electronically stored or transmitted information accessible from anywhere on the planet.
The global system can be managed by using the following strategies:
(a) Understand the global environment: The architecture of any information system is always depending on understanding the environment where the business will be operating. Similarly, when building an international system one should understand the global environment as follows:
The overall market forces or business drivers: every business must respond to a business driver that will influence the business direction,
Negative factors that create management challenges: these are the factors that could stop the development of the business in the global environment.
(b) Consider a corporate strategy: Going global is required to have a strategy for how the business will compete in the global environment there are many choices such as:
- Focus on domestic competition only,
- Sell to the globe from a domestic base,
- Organize production and distribution around the globe.
(c) Organization structure: It is very important that the organization structure of the business is pursuing the developed strategy so you could answer the following:
- How will you accomplish a division of labor across a global environment?
- Where will production, administration, accounting, marketing, and human resource functions be located?
- Who will handle the systems function?
(d) Implementing the strategy: Executing the strategy requires management and business processes that are designed for the global environment, implementing the strategy aims at:
- Making the organization design come alive.
- The design of business procedures.
- How can you discover and manage user requirements?
- How can you induce a change in local units to conform to international requirements?
- How can you re-engineer on a global scale?
- How can you coordinate systems development?
