Page 545 - Using MIS

Q5 What Are the Challenges of International IS Management? 513

Apply these cultural differences to the management of international information systems.
Can an organization depend on the control of separation of duties and authorities in a culture
for which graft is an accepted norm? Could an organization lose valuable intellectual property
in such an environment? Or what is the utility of a personal reference in a culture in which it is
considered exceedingly rude to talk about someone when he or she is not present?
Organizations need to carefully examine how the deployment of international information
systems might be affected by cultural norms. Because of differences in cultural norms, safe-
guards need to be chosen and evaluated on a culture-by-culture basis. Additional safeguards
may be needed, but the technical and data safeguards described in Chapter 10 still apply to
international systems.

Q5 What Are the Challenges of International

IS Management?

In addition to security, size and complexity make international IS management challenging.
The components of international information systems are larger and more complex. Projects
to develop them are larger and more complicated to manage. International IS departments
are bigger and composed of people from many cultures with many different native languages.
International organizations have more IS and IT assets, and those assets are exposed to more
risk and greater uncertainty. Because of the complexity of international law, security incidents
are more complicated to investigate.
Why Is International IS Development More Challenging?

The factors that affect international information systems development are more challenging
than those that affect international software development. If the system is truly international,
if many people from many different countries will be using the system, then the development
project is exceedingly complicated.
To see why, consider the five components. Running hardware in different countries is not a
problem, especially using the cloud, and localizing software is manageable, assuming programs
were designed to be localized. Databases pose more difficulties. First, is a single database to be
used, and if so, is it to be distributed? If so, how will updates be processed? Also, what language,
currency, and units of measure will be used to store data? If multiple databases are to be used,
how are data going to be transported among them? Some of these problems are difficult, but
they are solvable, and cloud-based databases make them more so.
The same cannot be said for the procedure and people components. An international
system is used by people who live and work in cultures that are vastly different from one an-
other. The way customers are treated in Japan differs substantially from the way customers are
treated in Spain, which differs substantially from the way they are treated in the United States.
Therefore, the procedures for using a CRM will be correspondingly different.
Consider the relationship of business processes and information systems as discussed
in Chapter 12. Information systems are supposed to facilitate the organization’s competitive
strategy and support business processes. But what if the underlying business processes differ?
Customer support in Japan and customer support in Spain may involve completely different
processes and activities.
Even if the purpose and scope can be defined in some unified way, how are requirements to
be determined? Again, if the underlying business processes differ, then the specific requirements
for the information system will differ. Managing requirements for a system in one culture is diffi-
cult, but managing requirements for international systems can be many times more difficult.
There are two responses to such challenges: (1) either define a set of standard business
processes or (2) develop alternative versions of the system that support different processes in