MANAGING GLOBAL INFORMATION STRATEGY: XEROX, LTD.

The diversity of information management (IM) issues and problems that a large multinational company may face are illustrated by showing how Xerox Ltd. managed its IM strategy over a ten-year period. The case study details the IM developments and shows how the Xerox IM team managed by focusing on a six-pronged strategy: business processes, data and information, applications, technology, organization, and human resources. The problems that Xerox faced in each of these areas are discussed and management’s approach to resolving them is described. In essence, Xerox’s move to managing-by-process required matching changes in IM capability to support it. Xerox’s earlier approach, which entailed a decentralized IS model, became inadequate for supporting the dynamic process model, and ultimately customer needs. The case then shows how the process model became heavily reliant on the capabilities offered by IM. As business processes and information systems became increasingly intertwined, Xerox aligned the development of both models and effectively brought their management and coordination together. A centralization strategy was key to bringing these latter changes about.