It Strategy Ivk Chapter 16 Analysis

Question One: Is IT standardization and innovation (or flexibility) in conflict in an organization like IVK?

IVK’s current situation suggests that there were following problems associated with its IT standardization policies:

1. At IVK, the business managers and business units make their own decisions about what systems and tolls to acquire. The problem arose when business units or managers decide to purchase software or hardware that IT department could not support. In order to support the newly purchased software or hardware, IT staffs often need to learn how to install the software and support it. This results in additional, unnecessary costs.

2. Historically, IVK was mainly using products from Microsoft. This became problematic as the company started bringing Unix-based platforms. Every time a new Unix-based platform was purchased, IVK had to create a bridging application to connect it to the company’s existing platforms. If any modification is made in either platform, then the IT team would have to modify the bridging application as well. Often times, people forgot to include changes to bridging application in project plans and had to work additional hours that were not scheduled. The total overhead increased as a result.

Conflicts associated with IT standardization and innovation:

Different applications purchased by business units and managers, along with the variety in the company’s infrastructure, limited the IT department’s flexibility and the ability to adapt to the competitive environment. More specifically, lack of IT standardization policy encouraged variety in the company’s IT infrastructure, making it extremely complex and difficult to manage. As the IT department used resources managing the complex IT infrastructure, IVK’s ability to adapt to changing market dynamics was gradually being reduced. This reduction in fact is detrimental to the IVK, as the company will not be able to react quickly to its competitors.

Question Two: Which...