A Three-Tiered Approach to Global E-Commerce

This case study uses a three-tier networked enterprise model developed to facilitate better understanding and management of global business requirements in E-commerce and describes how one organization, Nu Skin deals with management of people and resources in the context of a global, networked enterprise.

An Expectation of Privacy

This case presents the ethical dilemma of an IT staff member at an academic university. E-mail is an extensively used tool at this university, and the dean suspected that the associate dean was sending personal messages on the university’s server.

End-User Computing at BRECI

The intention of the case study is to show a less-than-successful attempt at the introduction and use of information technology in a small business. Contrary to what is reported in the general and computer press, the application and understanding of technology is lacking in many small businesses that could benefit greatly from its use.

Toy or Useful Technology?

The authors present case studies of telemedicine programs at three healthcare institutions in Boston, Massachusetts to better understand why telemedicine has not spread as quickly or as far as one would expect, given its promise.

Student Laptop Ownership Requirement and Centralization of Information Technology Services at a Large Public University

A large, highly ranked public university implemented a requirement for all incoming undergraduates to own a laptop computer starting in fall, 2000. To control increased expenditures for information technology, this requirement has shifted some of the cost of technology to students by decreasing the need for centralized general-purpose computing laboratories. At the same time, a shift towards centralized academic computing support occurred. This shift was away from information technology resources, services and support based in individual departments. This shift, engineered by the newly formed office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), was envisioned to generate cost savings through economies of scale. The educational impact of the laptop requirement is starting to be felt, but adoption is not widespread in daily classroom use. Envisioned cost savings have not yet become apparent. However, laptop ownership has enabled some new classroom activities and helped to reinforce the leading-edge image of the university.

The QUIPUDATA Case

This case study shows the way in which a subsidiary company of one of the largest corporations in Peru, Backus Corporation, charged with assisting in the use of information and telecommunications technologies, implemented a quality management model, got the ISO 9001: 2000 certification, and evolved from an information technology support center to a center of benefits. It describes the evolution and development of the quality management model based on indicators used in QUIPUDATA and also describes the steps followed to get a quality certification. Moreover, it details some of the technological developments within the corporation, including the information technology tool that supports the management model and the corporate network.

Laurier IT Priorities

This case discusses a newly appointed IT officer at a smaller Canadian university who must reassess her priorities. She has found that the administrative computing system has serious problems.

Setting Up to Fail

A mantra of experienced project managers is “failing to plan = planning to fail.” In the case of Midwest MBA, a user group is not satisfied with the progress made by the central computing staff on the development of a much-needed information system

Social Impacts of Computer-Mediated Communication on Strategic Change Processes

This case is about a university, named Uni-X, which adopted and appropriated CMC to support a university-wide consultative process to inform its future strategic directions. Strategic change was required in response to a number of external political and economic factors. The President and the Executive Committee decided to use the consultative process both to increase staff awareness of the circumstances being faced by the university and to engage them in an exploratory process leading to the decisions that were to be made. The CMC system used was intended to provide equal access to information by all staff, to enable a university-wide electronic forum for discussion, and to support the coordination of a multitude of the other in-vivo tasks arising from the process. The case enables examination of (at least) three controversial issues of CMC deployment: equality of access, equality of participation, and democratizing potential. Equality of access means that all the participants have an equal opportunity to access the communication network and information resources in the system. Equality of access has to be distinguished from the equality of participation, which denotes equal opportunity to contribute to the discussion, both to affect and be affected by the opinion of others. CMC’s democratizing potential is an even more complex issue that refers to CMC’s contribution to the openness and transparency of organizational processes and to consensus-based participatory decision making. Understanding the use and appropriation of CMC by individuals as members of different groups and as members of the Uni-X University, together with understanding the uniqueness of their specific local contexts, is a prerequisite for exploring the richness of social impacts, and why and how they emerged.

Reorganizing Information Technology Services in an Academic Environment

This case looks at ongoing changes in available technology and financial constraints at a four-year, private university, and how the Information Technology Department has gone through several iterations of organizational restructuring over the last 10 years.