ers be programmed with special “initialization strings.” Traveling workers need to
take proper power and telephone jack plugs with them and they should be certain not
to plug their modem telephone line into a digital telephone system (often found in
newer hotels and office buildings) as this will severely damage their computers. It is
best to ask specifically for an analog telephone line or to use the telephone line con-
nected to a fax machine.
(c) IT Architecture and Standards. How should a worldwide IT architecture be
structured? IT architecture refers to the use, configuration, and location of IT re-
sources including protocols, network structure, software, equipment, data, and staff.
Alavi and Young^29 note that a firm’s IT architecture should be related to its overall
strategy. Strategy in this sense could be thought of as having two components: a
firm’s business strategy and its international strategy. With regard to an international
strategy, firms following a country-specificor a multinational strategywould be best
with independent IT facilities at both subsidiary and headquarters locations since
these units function relatively independently of each other (this corresponds to the In-
dependent global operations strategy of section 28.4(c)(i)).
Multinational firms often come about through financial investment in existing or-
ganizations which then become subsidiaries. As a result, the technology architecture
of these firms is likely to be different from one another because they have been de-
veloped independently by each subsidiary and in the headquarters. Additionally, be-
cause subsidiaries operate relatively independently, with the exception of financial
data, which is necessary to determine firm performance, a low level of data integra-
tion is needed among them. Since a relatively small amount of data need be trans-
ferred between headquarters and subsidiaries and among subsidiaries, direct low ca-
pacity data telecommunications links should be sufficient.
Firms following a globalstrategy with strong central control may well have cen-
tral IT facilities at headquarters that are shared with subsidiaries along with some
local IT support (this corresponds to the headquarters-driven strategy of section
28.4(c)(ii), although it might also be the cooperative strategy of section 28.4(c)(iii).
Databases may be firmwide, often refered to as enterprisedatabases and be main-
tained centrally at headquarters. Since firmwide data needs to be collected globally,
the telecommunications architecture would be a vertical hierarchy, with subsidiaries
connected to regions where data are aggregated, and regions transmitting aggregated
data to headquarters. Ives and Jarvenpaa^30 note that establishing locations for inter-
national data centers presents challenges of overlapping work hours, local labor reg-
ulations, potential theft and sabotage, and unreliable power sources.
Atransnationalstrategy suggests independent coordinated IT facilities at sub-
sidiaries and headquarters (this corresponds to the integrated strategy of section
28.4(c)(iv)). Since this strategy is predicated on rapid firm wide response to local op-
portunities, information exchange becomes critical. The data architecture of such a
firm would be distributed for convenience and fast response, but coordinated, with a
network topology providing a high degree of connectivity among subsidiaries and
headquarters.
Note that as firms evolve and shift their strategies, they may want to change their
28.6 ISSUES IN THE GLOBAL MANAGEMENT OF IT 28 • 21(^29) Alavi and Young, 1992.
(^30) Ives and Jarvenpaa, 1991.