BUSINESS APPLICATIONS AND IT MANAGEMENT

Business Applications and IT Management



Business Applications and IT Management

Introduction

In November 2005, Roger Deen, the CIO of GlobShop, and his group of IT Directors sat in a seminar room at the company's head agency in Boston to talk about the imperatives opposite them. GlobShop was a five billion dollar firm that functioned over 200 duty-free and general merchandise stores in aerodromes, inn lobbies and downtown positions over Asia, Australia, North America and Europe. Being a niche contestant in the travel-retail commerce, the company's presentation swayed with alterations in air journey, tourist traffic and associated financial events. Since the happenings of Sep 11 2001, GlobShop has been committed in a sequence of cost-reduction efforts, encompassing offshoring a important piece of its IT work (Benaud 2008). Roger was considering going more IT work offshore. GlobShop has been employed with an Indian vendor, Indo- Systems Solutions (ISS), to be careful of submission development, support and upkeep of merchandising and retail schemes, and mechanical support for the company's IT infrastructure. These plans have assisted decrease IT costs by over 35%. The enterprise authority has claimed added cost-reductions and has proposed Roger to analyze the likelihood of impelling more tasks offshore (Branche 2007).

 

Should GlobShop extend to proceed more value-added IT work offshore?

Founded in 1950s, GlobShop traded foreign vehicles and liquor in US infantry bases abroad. As the concept of duty-free buying selected up in Europe, the business opened shops in chosen European and Asian aerodromes in 1960s. Spurred by the development in worldwide journey in the 1970s and 1980s, GlobShop amplified its occurrence to aerodromes in Australia, New Zealand, USA and UK. Soon, the business became a money-making contestant in the little, but increasing travel-retail market. Despite the application of some international competitors, GlobShop stayed one of premier players in this niche segment (Bordeianu 2007). The business amplified into some nations by obtaining lesser players. In late 1980s, the business opened large, duty-free specialty shops in a couple of foremost towns in USA and Europe. These shops were multidepartment luxury retail outlets that conveyed a variety of pieces encompassing tobacco goods, wines, liquor, confectionary, perfumes, jewellery, silverware, gift pieces, souvenirs, memorabilia, journey items and other products. The Gulf War in 2001 harshly influenced worldwide tourism. Since aerodrome retail formed a foremost piece of GlobShop's incomes, its sales slumped by over 15%. To reimburse for the deficiency, GlobShop shut a couple of specialty shops and halted its expansion plans. As the enterprise selected up, GlobShop came by some lesser players as an entails to go in added countries. Soon, the business was coordinated into 10 local enterprise flats as a decentralized set-up. However, acquisitions and expansion left substantial diversity in enterprise methods, managerial practices, provide string of connections organisations and schemes over the company. Dan Cwik, Vice President of Retail Operations, elaborated: “Our association was very varied in periods of enterprise methods and practices. Different nations had distinct modes to handle duty-free buying (Booklines ...