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The claim
that global deployment of IT will reduce cost, standardize practices, develop
good systems, and place the enterprise in a controlled environment is
theoretically acceptable, but not universally practical. Specially, while
implementing IT in the Banking Industry where banks have a large geographical
spread and a variety of customers who look for different values, the
inapplicability of global deployment is more pronounced.
A global deployment of
IT and the delivery of products/services through IT has an impact on two
sections of people: the users of IT within the organization, and the clients who
use the products and services delivered by the organization, through IT.
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D Krishnamurthy
GM–IT, Bank of India |
| Global Deployment
Problems
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Local statutory requirements (in case of
implementation in foreign branches) will vary in different locations
and may require specific security standards etc which may make large,
specific customizations necessary.
The IT maturity in those countries and also the infrastructure
availability will make global implementation difficult
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When there is a disaster it will affect all
and, hence, the business continuity plan (BCP) for localized
deployment can be simple. The magnitude of disaster management and the
requirements of business continuity systems will not be necessary in
the same scale for small areas
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IT upgradations and maintenance have to be
carried out on a large scale for the sake of uniformity and may also
require standard hardware which may not be really necessary at all
centers or may cost more
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Non-development of localized products and local
innovations, delays and side stepping of such requirements will affect
business
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Delays and escalation of cost for introducing
small solutions for local requirements will occur because it has to be
done globally for the sake of uniformity
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It will force business strategy to align with
IT strategy
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Global System may force some customers to
change their system for adaptability
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The availability of service and support becomes
a critical issue if a global implementaion is done
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Often
it results in a situation that the group/business segment continues a
parellel system or modifies the global solution to suit its
requirements, thereby causing additional cost defeating the purpose of
centralization
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The training of staff
that use such IT will be an expensive and long process where we find that it is
not really necessary for all of them to get acclimatized to the new environment
and the full functionality of the new software. Similarly, the clients have to
get used to the new way of delivery of the same product because of a new global
IT implementation, which has changed the way systems used to work earlier or
even may not use all the products the new IT solution can offer. Such a global
implementation may further require creation of awareness at the client level and
lack of such effort to make this happen will result in non-acceptance by the
clients of such new systems and cause dissatisfaction.
Hence, it will be
prudent to identify the business groups amongst the clients and put them into
different silos and map their requirements for the purpose of delivering
appropriate technology to them. The
way of delivery of the product to these groups of segmented customers will make
technology adoption by them easy and also useful to them, rather than pushing
something to them just for the sake of global implementation, which they are
unable to use/appreciate.
Similarly, for the
groups of staff who use technology.
Therefore, it is my
opinion that a global implementation of IT is to be selectively done, only after
a careful study and only where it really suits the kind of business.
As told to Goutam
Das
goutamd@cybermedia.co.in
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