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The CIO addresses a decision to replace salesmen netbook PC's with iPhones, including converting the company's sales and customer applications to the iPhone platform

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. How are organizations attempting to compete on their ability to capture, analyze and act on information? How do you win with data and analytics? MIT Sloan Management Review conducted a global survey of nearly 3,000 executives to learn how they're turning the data deluge and analytics into competitive advantage -or trying to, anyway. The major comprehensive analysis is still to come, but in these two companion articles ("10 Insights"and "10 Data Points"), readers will find an early snapshot of how managers are answering the most important question organizations face. To answer that question, SMR has teamed with the IBM Institute for Business Value to build a new innovation hub and research program called "The New Intelligent Enterprise." Through the SMR and IBM IBV collaboration, The New Intelligent Enterprise aims to help managers understand how they can capitalize on the ways that information and analytics are changing the competitive landscape. What threats and opportunities will companies face? What new business models, organizational approaches, competitive strategies, work processes and leadership methods will emerge? How will the best organizations reinvent themselves to use technology and analytics to achieve novel competitive advantage? How will they learn not only to be smarter, but to act smarter?

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. As information technology becomes increasingly critical within large, global organizations, chief information officers are being held to higher standards. In addition to streamlining business processes, reducing enterprise costs and improving work force effectiveness, top management also wants the IT department to be a strategic business partner -to forecast the business impact of emerging technologies, lead the development of new IT-enabled products and services, and drive adoption of innovative technologies that differentiate the organization from competitors. Although organizational charts and standardized processes can be helpful, the authors find that these traditional tools are not flexible enough to support the types of internal and external collaborations and partnerships that large, global IT organizations need to maximize value. The key to delivering both operational excellence and innovation, they argue, is to allow innovative solutions to emerge unexpectedly through informal and unplanned interactions between individuals who see problems from different perspectives. Based on their research at Monsanto and 11 other large companies, the authors argue that CIOs who learn to balance formal and informal structures can create global IT organizations that are more efficient and innovative than organizations that rely primarily on formal mechanisms. The authors found that organizational network analysis provides a useful methodology for helping executives assess broader patterns of informal networks between individuals, teams, functions and organizations, and for identifying targeted steps to align networks with strategic imperatives.

This case study profiles the high-growth social games industry where users played games like Farmville and Mafia Wars on social networks like Facebook and MySpace, with the goal of socializing with friends and/or meeting new people. By 2009, the social games industry was expected to grow to 250 million people playing, up from just 50 million one year ago. By the end of 2009, social gaming had gone from being considered the "wild west" of gaming in the U.S. to one that was a bright spot in the gaming industry (where video game and console sales were declining at a rate of 20 percent a year), taken seriously by all of the industry players, including traditional publishers like Electronic Arts. By the end of 2009, the world of social gaming was an exciting industry, and one with an open-ended future. As the industry continued to grow and develop, U.S. social games players had all eyes on Asia where companies had innovated in terms of monetization models, new platforms like mobile and game content.

The executive director of British Columbia's Neonatal Services Program (BCNSP) is thinking about her last meeting with the officials at the British Columbia Ministry of Health Services (MHS). Following a report indicating that in 2007 to 2008 the province had sent 98 expectant mothers and newborns to the United States for treatment, the province was considering adding more neonatal intensive care (NICU) capacity. Political pressure was mounting after one of Canada's national newspapers covered the problem in a front page story. The MHS asked the executive director to suggest bed allocations and other improvements to address the situation.<br><br> This case is useful in a management science of service operations course. Students may be asked to describe a model to address the situation, and students with familiarity with a graphical simulation could be asked to build a model.

A student is trying to incorporate various analytical tools to assist in selecting National Hockey League (NHL) players to a fantasy hockey pool, using individual player data from the NHL seasons 2006 to 2009. The student must come up with a strategy in which 16 players are selected for the 2010 season.

Atul Mahajan nicknamed 'AM,' a wealthy Indian, sits on the board of Kisan Group, his family's chemical company (family and company names disguised). Charged with managing the Mahajan family wealth, he has formed a private equity group that helps build mid-market companies. He has also launched a few technology-enabled ventures of his own, including a company that failed in its attempts to sell a service that used encrypted and masked barcodes for document authentication and a successful company that provided administrative and data management support for pharmaceutical clinical trials. Now, apparently with sufficient resources to contemplate another entrepreneurial venture, AM wonders whether to revive the document authentication business, with a turnkey solution or one or more services that would use encrypted RFID tags instead of the older barcode technology. This teaching case was developed based on interviews with Mr. 'Mahajan' and two other employees. The case provides an opportunity for students to investigate technical, strategic and operational uncertainties and challenges associated with building a business around a new technology. For business schools that are attempting to 'globalize' their curriculum, the case offers the benefit of presenting the point of view of a well-connected Indian entrepreneur.

WoodSynergy Inc. had become a midsize player in the fine woods supplier industry. The firm purchased stock woods from a number of producers and processed them to meet specific customer specifications. WoodSynergy had recently launched a number of IT-based supply chain management initiatives and was interested in assessing the current progress. The senior management at WoodSynergy had long felt that efficiency improvements to the firm's supply chain could be made through increased information integration. This case introduces the student or student teams to the growing role of information technology in supply chain management.

This note complements Note on Logistic Regression, product #9B10E005 and Note on Logistic Regression - The Binomial Case, product #9B10E012. The focus of this note is to show how to calculate the associated p-values of the estimated beta coefficients using Microsoft Excel. It also illustrates the procedure based on the example from the Note on Logistic Regression - The Binomial Case.

In 2002, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) set up operations in China, following its major client, GE Medical Systems. TCS China operations also supported the software needs of multinational and regional companies expanding in China, while providing the company with a platform to grow its local clientele base. In 2006, TCS announced a new global business initiative which included plans for large-scale operations in China. The aim was to grow its China operations to become TCS' second global delivery centre after India, functioning as its offshore IT outsourcing hub for the Asia Pacific region. In addition, China's growing domestic software market presented attractive opportunities for IT services. TCS shifted its focus to China's financial sector, as many of China's domestic banks were then undergoing a period of major organisational transformation. Given this, in 2007, the company set a target to increase its China-based manpower strength from 800 to 6,000 by 2011. However, the tight supply of IT talent in China was a major challenge and in early 2010 TCS' manpower strength reached 1,100. The company set a new target to quadruple its manpower strength to 5,000 by 2014. Product/service innovation was an essential catalyst to sustain its growth momentum and to maintain a competitive edge in the Chinese market. What steps should the company take to tap the rising demand for outsourcing services while tackling the problems of achieving service excellence in a resource-tight situation?

The media frequently report on the high cost of various health-related treatments. As there is a limit to the resources available to public and private health plans, they are not able to make all new treatments available. This raises questions about how to determine which treatments should be offered under a health plan. Cost effectiveness analysis has emerged as a powerful tool to help determine priorities and guide these policy decisions. This note is intended as a background reading for a first class on pharmacoeconomics or cost effectiveness analysis.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Information systems are traditionally designed to impose structure on processes, while innovation activities require a tolerance for ambiguity and failure and the flexibility to redefine goals when opportunities or roadblocks arise. Yet the potential of information systems to improve the innovation process is too great to dismiss them out of hand. Undertaking research to learn how leading innovators have used IT to make their innovation activities more effective and efficient, the authors found that companies require three things in order to do so. First, they need specific IT-enabled organizational capabilities, which are formed by combining their IT assets with non-IT assets to enable the across-the-board processes essential to developing and applying innovations. Second, companies need a strong set of IT-based tools to effectively sustain the central activities required for innovation and to support the analytical work that innovators need to transform ideas into products, processes and services. Third, companies need a system of control that allows workers to access and use the IT resources effectively. The authors'research provides numerous lessons for an organization's innovation leaders, IT managers and top leadership -- particularly the CEO. The primary lesson for innovators, for example, is that the IT department can be an active partner in innovation, not an enemy. When all of these stakeholders understand the role that information technology can play in streamlining and accelerating the innovation process, a company will be well on its way toward producing more innovations, and better innovations, with the resources at its disposal.

This note discusses logistic regression using binomial data. Also discussed is an explanation of how to estimate the parameters from logistic regression using Microsoft Excel (without any add-ins). The note is a follow up to Note on Logistic Regression, product #910E05, which discusses the case with Bernoulli data.

The case describes the circumstances surrounding Google's reconsideration of its China strategy. Google officially announced in January 2010 that its Chinese website, Google.cn, experienced cyber attacks from within China. Google further announced that, as a result, it had decided to reconsider its approach to China, including the option of a complete exit from the Chinese market. The case presents Google's performance in China, the details of the cyber attack and the heated public discussion following Google's announcement. Students are asked to consider actions that Google should take and the corresponding, underlying rationale.

In 2003, Rob Carter, CIO of international express courier FedEx, launched the 'Six by Six' (6 × 6) IT transformation program: a major rationalization and centralization effort to improve FedEx's IT service delivery to its business partners. This teaching case deals with the 6 × 6 efforts made by the IT department for Europe, Middle East, Indian sub-continent and Africa (EMEA). The case focuses on two objectives of the 6 × 6 program: (a) creating a consistent IT environment and (b) increasing delivery bandwidth to the business. Historically, FedEx Express in EMEA had granted high levels of empowerment to local business and IT people. Moreover, FedEx had always supported a 'can-do' mentality in both business and IT people. Consequently, the IT department was expected to keep the enterprise systems architecture resilient and supportive of longer-term enterprise growth, while keeping the IT development pipeline aligned with the often unpredictable stream of requests from empowered business constituents. The story begins in 2007, when a new Vice President for IT was appointed for the region. Part A deals with the IT department's efforts to set up a central systems architecture and IT resource estimation review process. Part B deals with demand-side prioritization issues. The suggested teaching plan assumes that Part A is discussed before the students receive Part B. Instructors can use this case to introduce their students to a realistic view on the complex puzzle of establishing enterprise-wide business-IT engagement patterns through IT governance in an empowered and operations-focused business environment.

The case deals with issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability in the specific setting of a medium-sized enterprise (Host Europe) in the IT industry. Host Europe is the third largest web hosting company in German-speaking Europe. In recent years, the company has put substantial efforts into living up to its CSR and improving sustainability. The case presents the IT sector in Europe and Germany and highlights several industry-related issues such as "green IT" (especially in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and e-waste) and the digital divide. Host Europe has already implemented a couple of measures, such as building a new energy-efficient green data center, switching to renewable energy, promoting virtualization, introducing several workplace measures, pursuing efforts to improve family friendliness, and publishing a sustainability report. However, there are still some challenges ahead and students are asked to think about further efforts of Host Europe to complete its path to becoming a responsible and sustainable medium-sized IT company.The case can either be used as an introductory case for CSR in medium-sized businesses and sustainability in the IT industry, or in advanced-level CSR and sustainability courses. As an introductory case it provides in-depth insights into a company that has already put substantial efforts into becoming a responsible and sustainable IT company. Students learn about various sustainability and CSR issues and measures in the specific context of a medium-sized enterprise. As an advanced case for CSR and sustainability, it can be used to build upon the existing knowledge of students and to ask them to come up with other ideas and a sophisticated strategy to pursue further CSR and sustainability. For example, since Host Europe is not certified according to environmental or social standards yet, students could come up with a detailed and customized plan on how to implement such a management system for the company.

Set in November 2007, the case is about a soon-to-launch social networking website (Yumcha) in Australia intended for the country's significant Asian population and diaspora. The case describes the process that Yumcha's founder went through in establishing the entity, including her initial motivations and business rationale. The case goes on to describe the dilemma facing the founder in choosing a web developer for the site, including whether to source the developer from new online bidding platforms. The challenges involved in this relatively new means of sourcing and bidding for technical talent are presented. The case also outlines the strategy questions facing the founder concerning expanding the social networking venture in an external environment that has seen the rapid development and expansion of numerous other social networking websites.

This case describes the implementation of a business intelligence project in a South American holding composed of Chilquinta Energía, the third-largest distributor of electricity in Chile and one of the leading energy companies in Latin America, Energas S.A., which distributes natural gas to 34,000 customers in Chile, and Tecnored, an energy service company. Balanced scorecard concepts are not easy to put in place and the Chilean group decided to adopt an original and difficult approach: to learn and implement the BSC without the traditional leadership of external consulting. Despite the success of the implementation, the case outlines the ongoing challenges facing this type of multi-functional project.

This case presents the logic and execution underlying the launch of Data.gov, an instantiation of President Obama's initiative for transparency and open government. The process used by Vivek Kundra, the federal CIO, and his team to rapidly develop the website and to make available high-value data sets for reuse is highlighted. The case recounts Kundra's experience at the state and local government levels in developing open data initiatives and the application of that experience to the federal government. The case demonstrates the benefits of making government data available in terms of both engaged citizens and the potential for new innovations from the private sector. Potential drawbacks of open access including security and privacy issues are illustrated. Issues related to the role of government in releasing data and the balance between accountability and private-sector innovation are explored.      

In the spring of 2010, Intel was regarded as an important champion for a new broadband technology called WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). WiMAX transmitted large amounts of data over radio signals, and offered much greater range than Wi-Fi. It also offered much faster connection speeds than 3G networks run by AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. WiMAX was a new space for Intel, and the company hoped it would yield the same type of profitability and success for Intel that Wi-Fi had. Between October 2008 and May 2010, Intel had joined forces with Clearwire, Sprint, Motorola and other partners to launch WiMAX in about 30 U.S. cities. Intel's vision for the deployment of WiMAX evolved from fixed wireless (for broadband connectivity to homes and businesses) to portable wireless (laptops) to mobile wireless (handheld devices and high-end smart phones), as the company spent billions of dollars on acquisitions and investments in the WiMAX arena. But Intel faced many challenges with WiMAX. A large infrastructure would have to be built from the ground up in the U.S. and around the world, and WiMAX needed a least a few major cellular operators to choose it as their next-generation (4G) technology. Intel would have to create a new 4G ecosystem to convince equipment manufactures to embed WiMAX technology in its devices. In addition, WiMAX faced stiff competition from other new wireless technologies, including LTE (Long Term Evolution), which AT&T and Verizon planned to use when they upgraded from 3G to 4G technology. Although WiMAX had a two- to three-year lead over LTE, the size of the mobile operators already committed to LTE threatened to make WiMAX a niche technology.