Glocalize Your IS

The ability to communicate and complete processes electronically enables greater globalizing of business. But how does this affect the IS organization, and what action should CIOs take? We recently studied multinational enterprises - including BP, HSBC, Pirelli, Solectron, Southcorp and Unicef - to capture their key decision points for 'glocalizing', balancing global and local pressures.

It's important to identify the balance between global integration and local responsiveness - from a business rather than an IS perspective.

To simplify things, we use just four predominant global business governance orientations. Each has an associated IS governance orientation that identifies the most appropriate location for IS processes and roles.

Assess your global business governance orientation

Global governance orientation refers to the desire to integrate globally and the need to maintain local responsiveness. A centralized business is heavily pressured to provide global integration, but less pressured to provide local responsiveness. A federated business is heavily pressured to provide both global integration and local responsiveness. In this model assets are usually highly coordinated. A parent-led business has medium to low pressure for both global integration and local responsiveness. In this model, most assets, apart from those associated with core capabilities, are decentralized. And a multi-local business is heavily pressured to be locally responsive.

Link IS macro-processes to global governance orientations

Grouping all IS activities into three macro-processes helps to sort out where processes should be located in different global governance orientations. The three processes are: driving innovation and strategy, delivering business change initiatives, and supplying and supporting infrastructure. Each IS macro-process can occur globally or locally, or in a mix of locations.

In centralized businesses, all three macro-processes are centralized. In federated businesses, the 'driving innovation and strategy' and 'infrastructure supply and support' processes occur both globally and locally, while 'delivering change' happens locally. In multi-local businesses, all three IS macro-processes are handled locally.

Link IS roles to global governance orientations

In Gartner Executive Program's previous work we identified five roles crucial to all IS organizations, no matter how IT services were delivered: IT leadership, architecture development, business enhancement, technology advancement, and vendor management. These roles can be mapped onto the four global governance orientations to identify their best location.