• Nortel - Re-inventing I/S

    With changes in both technology and the environment, Nortel has had to evolve from a company that sells a collection of telecommunication products to a company that sells integrated packages of products that satisfy specific customer needs. In the past, I/S has been spread across the various product divisions, supporting a highly decentralized corporate structure. Now it has been charged with transforming itself to facilitate the company's need for greater integration, including a move to standardized systems. I/S must re-define its role and restructure itself to fulfill its new mandate. After an extensive analysis and design exercise, the I/S function has been re-visualized as centering on three key processes: client management, solution delivery, and business support. This represents a significant change from a traditional I/S shop that focuses on building applications and infrastructure. While there is broad support for the changes in principle, actually getting the new processes fully articulated and implemented presents a significant challenge.
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  • LARG*net

    This case documents the origins and development of a collaborative interorganizational system. This system is an experimental broadband network being used to trial both ATM technology and new applications such as the transmission, retrieval and archiving of medical images. Director of LARG*net confronts the difficulties of technological innovation and interorganizational management. It provides an illustration of the technical difficulties in integrating different systems, ensuring security, and the ramifications to an organization's own systems when connectivity with other organizations is attempted. It highlights the fact that IT infrastructure is more than just physical hardware. At the same time it raises the issues of handling accountability and responsibility across organizational boundaries.
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