Permanence, Inc. is a multinational manufacturing company with facilities and offices in twelve different countries around the globe. The company has fallen on hard times in
recent years mostly due to slow fulfillment and an aging product line. The company is best described as a hierarchy with a centralized management structure and standardized information systems and work processes. Production quotas are decided on by the CEO and the management team and provided to operating managers at the distant locations.
Marketing is handled centrally with the advice of consultants and marketing personnel at the distant sites. Materials are sourced in the United States and shipped to relevant sites.
The company realizes that its days are numbered if it does not adapt to changes in the
market. One of the ways that the company has decided to react to its problems is by acquiring and implementing enterprise systems. Please help the company improve by answering the following questions:
a. Which structural approach to IT governance should Permanence choose? Thoroughly justify your assertion.
b. From a conceptual standpoint, is there necessarily a one-to-one correspondence between governance structure and organizational structure? Explain.
c. Given the problems faced by the company, how should they constitute their IT portfolio profile to address their concerns.
2. Revisit the company description above. Assume that Permanence will shift to a decentralized/networked organizational structure and simultaneously apply full-scale
ERP to the solution of its problems.
a. Determine, explain, and justify a project management structure and plan that includes a sourcing strategy