Transfer of Business and Information Management Systems: Issues and Challenges

Globalization and the emergence of the e-economy have created huge opportunities for businesses to grow and expand the scale and scope of their operations. Taking advantage of these opportunities, many businesses have responded by transferring or replicating their management systems and processes in other locations and markets where they are expanding. Moreover, there is a recent trend in business to develop and deploy systems company-wide and even in their supply chains. Enterprise Resource Planning systems, Quality Management Systems, and process improvement systems like Six Sigma and Lean Production serve as examples. The goal is to realize the economic benefits of standardization and harmonization across the board in the enterprise. There are a number of difficulties with the approaches companies have used for this purpose. For instance, it may not be possible or even desirable to prevent the divergence between identical systems that begin to evolve in different directions. Identical processes and procedures when replicated can lead to different practices and outcomes. On the other hand, there have been other instances, e.g. the successful replication of lean production systems, which have resulted in similar outcomes in different organizations and situations. This chapter identifies and addresses such issues and the challenges. It examines, based on examples and cases, different approaches for transferring management systems, processes, and practices and their effectiveness.