This paper will provide overview of transnational IT operations and consider various factors associated with transnational IT operations. This paper will also address the advantages, disadvantages, and issues related to transnational IT operations. Language, cultural diversity, local customs, and control issues will be considered in this paper related to transnational IT operations. This paper will also focus on transfer of work, global network, service levels, and quality issues associated with transnational IT operations. Transnational Organization
Capstone Encyclopedia of Business (2003) defines, “the transnational firm is a network of specialized or differentiated units, with attention paid to managing integrative linkages between local firms as well as with the centre. The subsidiary becomes a distinctive asset rather than simply an arm of the parent company. Manufacturing and technology development are located wherever it makes sense, but there is an explicit focus on leveraging local know-how to exploit worldwide opportunities” (Para. 7). Transnational IT Operations
Transnational organization requires the integrated IT operation to manage the operation spread across different countries. A transnational IT operation is a necessity of organization for success of business and organization integrate the global business activities using global information systems. Transnational IT operations help organization to exchange information consistently to its locations, and provide collaboration platform. This also allows flexibility to individual location for customizations according to local market demand as well (Linton, 2013). Transnational IT Operations Advantages
Transnational IT operation provides benefits of business continuity because business can continue even if IT resources of one place go down because of any natural calamity or technical issues. This provides a collaborative platform for all location to interchange information and learn from experiences. Transnational IT operation creates a virtual community between local and global business locations that helps in sharing knowledge, collaboratively work to improve productivity, and bring innovative ideas together. Transnational IT operations help organization to build an efficient supply chain for raw materials and products distributions and consumptions. Transnational IT Operations Challenges
Transnational IT operation requires to handle challenges occurred because of languages of different nationals, cultural diversity, local customs, and control issues. There are challenges associated with transfer for work, work quality, and service level. Transnational IT operation needs to address the issues of local business, and provide customizable solution based on requirement of local business. Technological infrastructure
Transnational IT operations require technology infrastructure to provide platform for information exchange and collaboration. This infrastructure should be able to support various local business systems and integrate them to make one global information system. Global networking
Transnational IT operations require global network to connect the local businesses situated across globe. Work Service levels
Success of transnational IT services depends on the well defined work service levels and standard for work because there is dependency on IT infrastructure including communication network. My team has service level agreement (SLA) for availability of services provided by vendors, and we also had interdepartmental SLA for the turnaround time of a work request. Work service level help to manage the transnational It operations by provide the baseline for service availability, and it also enforce the accountability of the teams involved in operations. Transfer of work
Transnational IT operations require that work get transferred from one team to other location team. My project was using “follow the sun” model for transfer of work, and we used to transfer work to team in US and Mexico when our shift completed or vice-versa. Each shift was handover to the next shift in different country through shift handover e-mail and handover call to ensure that all issues have been discussed that occurred in shift. It is essential to have open communication bridge open between different offices
so that work can be transferred from one IT office to other office. Work Quality issues
Transnational IT operations requires quality standards and practices to ensure that same quality of work be delivered from different location. Work quality issues can be avoided by implementing quality standardized processes and practices in transnational IT operations. Language
Language plays an important role in success of transnational IT operations because this is the base of communication and al communication medium requires a common language between transnational IT operational team. My project everyone we communicating in English but team had some problem in understanding the context that other team was referring. American English, Indian English, and Mexican English accents are different from each other, and it requires extra effort to understand. Davison (2003) provide a good example of communication between different transnational teams as, “although English is one official language in India, pronunciation and accents can vary tremendously. Many vendors put call center employees through accent training. In addition, cultural differences include religions, modes of dress, social activities, and even the way a question is answered. Most leading vendors have cultural education programs, but executives should not assume that cultural alignment will be insignificant or trivial” (Culture). Cultural diversity and Local customs
It is important to overcome the cultural differences barrier for success of transnational IT operations. Wasieleski (2007, Apr) provides information about how cultural difference creates issues at work in her article communicating with cross-cultural Crews, “Zerah’s research has found about 35 percent of workplace problems are caused by language barriers while 65 percent are caused by cultural differences” (cultural differences). Team located in different country will perform better when they have understanding of culture of people they are dealing with, and this will create virtual community based on individual culture respect. Local Government Regulations
Transnational IT operation face challenge of meeting government regulations of all countries in which organization has operations. My Team was required to meet Indian labor law for human resources and American laws for information security as well as privacy. Following double regulation makes it difficult to have offices in every country for transnational IT operations, which is why organization chose strategic locations to have few offices for supporting global IT operations. Control Issues
Transnational IT operation requires the delegated chain of control for effective management of local team, and they need global management as well to oversee the local team. My team has one manager for each location, and there was project manager, who was responsible for controlling and monitoring the global operations altogether. There was some situation when local team manager and global manager had conflict, and it required conflict resolution skill along with open communication channel to resolve the issue. Conclusion
This paper has provided the overview of advantages and challenges associated with transnational IT operation. Transnational IT operations is required to support the globalized business and market demand but brings challenges of language, cultural difference, and control issues. It is important for success of this operational model that there are standards and process defined for transfer of work, work quality, and global infrastructure network.
Reference
Davison, D. (2003, December 9). Top 10 Risks of Offshore Outsourcing. Retrieved from http://www.zdnet.com/news/top-10-risks-of-offshore-outsourcing/299274 Linton, I. (2013). Transnational IT Operations as a Strategy. Retrieved from http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/transnational-operations-strategy-4238.html Lovelock, C. H. (1999). Developing marketing strategies for transnational service operations. The Journal of Services Marketing, 13(4), 278-289. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/212604937?accountid=458
