: Managing IS Through Strategic Alliances.
Why did Kathy Hudson make such a major change in IS resource management at Kodak?.
The main reason for the major change made by Kathy in the IS organization was influenced by the studies she was exposed to when she first was appointed to the role of VP in the CIS group at Kodak. She was shown several studies, the results of which revealed that Kodak's IS group "needed help". The organization was too traditional. The different groups used separate systems and were managing diverse, redundant technology platforms established under different operating standards. It was clear that the organizational structure of the IS group was too hierarchical and needed a change. In general, the Kodak IS department was facing the following challenges:.
• Enormous and outdated systems portfolio.
• Legacy systems functionally oriented.
• Ad hoc infrastructure.
• Ongoing organizational change.
• Resource allocation.
What factors contributed to her decision to outsource data center, telecomm, and PC services? .
Everything mentioned above played a part in her decision. At the heart of the decision was the fact that Kodak's core business did not come from telecom, PC services or data centers. In addition, the change was influenced by the values held by Kodak:.
• Was Kodak getting the right value for its investment in IS?.
• Where in the IS value chain did Kodak personnel add the greatest value?.
• What did IS people do that was core to Kodak's business?.
• Business managers perceived that too little value resulted from the $500 million Kodak annually spent on IT.
• Kodak IT personnel added the most value at the point where IT:.
o solved a business problem.
o or created a business opportunity.
The answers to the above pointed to outsourcing as a solution.
2. Do you agree with her philosophy and approach for selecting outsourcing partners and negotiating the agreements? What would you have done differently? .