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Describes grassroots effort which culminated in Digital's winning a competitive bid for the outsourcing of Kodak's internal telecommunications business. Describes the "Telstar" project, from the initial identification of the business opportunity to the process of crafting a partnership contract. Discussion topics include obtaining managerial and peer support, mobilizing informal networks, building an ad hoc team, managing relationships across organizational boundaries, and planning the transition from project team to ongoing operations. As the case ends, a key player must be replaced and a decision must be made concerning which Digital group will manage the new business. Russ Gullotti, the Digital executive who has overseen this effort considers how to help the team achieve a successful contract negotiation and subsequent transition to operations. Should also prompt discussion about leadership under ambiguity and management of innovation.

Describes "Frantic Friday," the day the Digital-Kodak contract was scheduled to be signed. Designed to be handed out in class.

How can one company gain access to another's resources or customers without merging ownership or management? New information partnerships can help diverse companies develop strategic coalitions through the sharing of data. This has been made possible by a quantum improvement in hardware and software. Customers benefit from these innovations as well. Their desktop work is made simpler, and the standards by which they compete are made more universal.

Illustrates many of the political and economic challenges that any industrial initiative must overcome.

Describes the development of a new information technology-based trade document administration environment for the city-state of Singapore. A considerable effort, involving many governmental and private sector organizations, results in a new set of practices and procedures that positions Singapore for leadership as the port of preference in the Pacific Rim.

Companies rarely achieve radical performance improvements when they invest in information technology. Most companies use computers to speed up, not break away from, business processes and rules that are decades, if not centuries, out of date. But the power of computers can be released by "reengineering" work: abandoning old ways of working and creating entirely new ones.

After a period in which many companies experimented with decentralizing their information systems (IS) organization, companies are now consolidating data centers, giving central IS staffs more authority, and establishing companywide standards and procedures. The result is a hybrid organizational model that allows companies to benefit from the cost savings and control that centralization provided but with the user-responsiveness and flexibility that decentralizing permits.

The old models of computer-based competition no longer apply. The new era is driven by the greatest upheaval in computer technology since the earliest days of the industry. The game is shifting from who can build the newest proprietary electronic tools to who can use and modify available tools more effectively. In terms of competitiveness, it is increasingly difficult for computerized distribution systems to bind customers to products. The future of electronic distribution is in neutral electronic markets that sell products from different vendors and make their data available to all.

Provides a brief update about the OTISLINE application and service center concept. Includes discussions of the chairman's perception of the impact of OTISLINE on customer service and the field organization's response to the OTISLINE service. Includes a description of a 1989 pilot program for the introduction of radio frequency-based, hand-held terminals to field mechanics. Finally, the chairman of Otis offers what he believes will be the next OTISLINE success story at Otis Elevator Co.

Introduces a framework for identifying and analyzing the ethical and policy issues triggered by the various capabilities of information technology (IT). Ten IT capabilities are defined (access, capture, speed, permanence/storage. duplication, tracking, monitoring, data recombination, job redesign, and supplier power) and mapped against five managerial issues they can trigger (privacy, ownership, control, accuracy, and security). These five issues are then mapped against four policy areas that might address them (data policy, intellectual property rights, worker's rights, and competitiveness). Key questions are raised and various examples of IT's impact on managerial decision making are presented. Finally, four models of ethical analysis are suggested as possible tools for approaching these managerial choices: stakeholder analysis, utilitarian goal-based analysis, rights-based analysis, and duty-based analysis. Useful in an introduction to the management of IT, as well as in a business ethics course.

In 1989, Frito-Lay designed an information technology infrastructure to support time-based competition and organizational restructuring. The company planned to provide timely flexible information to all major decision makers at all levels. This case describes the information support architecture and its anticipated effects.

The AUCNET system links buyers and sellers in the wholesale used car market in Japan. Video images delivered via videodisk or satellite along with an inspector's opinion and objective character based data are used to conduct a realtime auction over computers and telecommunications links. Over 1,000 cars are sold in a once-weekly auction. The company is considering exporting the technology to the United States. The following issues are raised: 1) What are the characteristics of markets which are suitable for this technology? 2) What are the important management issues with respect to implementation and operation of such an Electronic Market Access Forum? 3) What is the impact on market structure? and 4) What issues are raised in trying to move the technology to new markets?

In this case study, presented in the form of electronic mail messages sent within Middleton Mutual, the CIO is trying to introduce the company to expert systems. But the new systems would cost about $1 million, and the capital expenditure committee is leaning against the idea. Irma Wyman, vice president of corporate information management for Honeywell, Inc.; Thomas L. Pettibone, vice president, information systems, for New York Life Insurance Co.; John D. Loewenberg, senior vice president, corporate information systems, Aetna Life & Casualty; and Diogo Teixeira, systems consultant at McKinsey & Co. discuss the case.

A major obstacle to the implementation of information technology is the lack of understanding between company technical experts and senior managers. One way to blend both perspectives is to establish a task force that solicits input from management and creates a set of principles to guide subsequent investments in IT. By drawing on 10 to 15 statements that reflect management's basic beliefs about how the company should use IT, the task force translates the language of corporate strategy into computerese. These statements, or principles, can help speed up the decision-making process and ensure that every IT investment helps the company achieve its strategic goals.

Gives the voting results for the Power Systems Division's Vax System upgrade project.

Provides an overview of the system development process in large organizations. Describes traditional life cycle approaches as well as more recent methods, e.g., prototyping. The objective is to familiarize students with the terminology and issues involving system development that arise in other MIS cases and discussions. A rewritten version of an earlier note.

Describes the organizational components of the typical IT organization in a large corporation. Points out common problems and issues for each component of the organization. Also addresses the leadership issues for the IT function, and focuses specifically on the Chief Information Officer role. A rewritten version of an earlier note by L.M. Applegate.

General Electric Canada used sociotechnical design techniques to restructure its financial, administrative, facilities, and information technology service from a decentralized, hierarchical organization to a centralized organization composed of self-managing, multi-skilled work teams. The case explores the role of information technology in supporting and enabling the intensive information sharing and communication required by the new organization design.

Because technology now develops faster than before, in the future managers will be able to choose the kind of organization they want. New structures, associated with adhocracies, networks, or "cluster organizations," will spring up around old ones. Information technology will enable cluster-type organizations to have the benefits of small scale and large scale simultaneously. Teams will accomplish most work, with leadership shared among members, and workers will be better trained, more autonomous, and more transient. Finally, expert systems will make decision making better understood, and computers will allow control to be exercised separately from reporting relationships.

An information systems vice president has one hour to make an ethical decision: should a software program, left inadvertently on the company's computer, be copied and stored? Copying the program would protect clients' assets, but it seems to violate the vendor contract. Thus, responsibilities to various stakeholders (customers, vendors, and stockholders) can be examined in an information systems context.