Experts See Vulnerability as Outsiders Code Software

This article discusses the increasing concerns over the amount of firms that are outsourcing their hardware and software management. Though being beneficial is of high importance in terms of time and cost savings of 20-40%; concerns are being raised by people with obvious self-interest. The potential loss of jobs relates directly to the loss of their standard of living. It also mentions that while the operations of outsource in countries like U.S, Britain and India are considered safe nervousness is beginning to grow among companies and the government, with the possibility of abuse by hackers and cyber terrorist countries.

According to the Forrester Research of Cambridge, Mass, forecasts that the acceleration in the outsourcing would result in 3.3 million American job’s moving offshore by 2015. It also estimated that 70% of these jobs will move to India, 20% to Philippines and 10% to China. Transferring every management to offshore can be risky unless evaluating the particular needs. As at Intel, all the software were being reviewed for safety though the cost is more, but it protects you from making big mistakes.

It has proven to be beneficial for companies engaging in offshore outsourcing, yet it is very important to assess the reliability of such process of management. It is also necessary to check for every possible glitch that could bring problems and increase their total cost of ownership or corrupt the system.

Experts See Vulnerability As Outsiders Code Software
JOHN SCHWARTZ
New York Times (1857-Current file); Jan 6, 2003; Retrieved on June 7, 2008 from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times

Nestle Tries for an All-For-One Global Strategy

Q2. What type of global business and systems strategy did Nestle adopt? Was this strategy appropriate for Nestlé’s business model?

Ans: The traditional strategy of decentralized strategy at Nestle had created inefficiency; preventing the company from competing successfully on e-commerce. Thus, in order to solve the problem, Nestle adopted the strategy of global standardization of operational process. This will help the company standardize and coordinate its information systems and business process rather than managing 80 different information technologies.

The adopted strategy was initially considered inappropriate for the wide spread business operations. Though at the end, it proved to be beneficial for the company in cost savings and increasing its overall productivity.


Q3. What management, organization, and technology challenges did Nestle have to deal with to standardize its business processes and systems?
Ans:
Management: The challenge faced was the decentralization of the business process. Each local organization conducted business in their own culture which prevented Nestle from leveraging worldwide buying power to obtain lower prices for raw materials.

Organization: The challenges Nestle faced in the organizational, was lacking truly global brand products. Its products were being rebranded, repackaged and reformulated according to the preferences of each region.

Technology: Technically, Nestle faced the challenges in supporting 80 different information technology units, running nearly 900 IBM AS/400 midrange computers, 15 mainframes and 200 UNIX systems. This prompted observers to describe Nestlé’s infrastructure as a Tower of Babel.