Strategic Management For Engineers-Mühendisler İçin Stratejik Yönetim

Strategic Management for Engineers

ZORLU&IBM STRATEGIC ALLIANCE
The two big companies Zorlu Holding and IBM has just agreed upon a strategic alliance covering the information technology infrastructure management at Zorlu Group by IBM
This strategic outsourcing process is one of Turkey’s biggest outsourcing activities The main reasons for Zorlu Holding’s relying on IBM are as follows;
The management of the infrastructure of information systems belonging to Zorlu, can be performed better and more cheaply by a specialist, IBM IBM’s specialities are mainly based on business solutions and information technologies, so the experience can be used as a competitive advantage by Zorlu Holding a this stage
Another logical reason for Zorlu Group’s outsourcing its information system’s management to IBM is that; information systems management is not a core competence of Zorlu Holding Zorlu Holding’s main competences are distinctly differentiated from each other Like building a financial portfolio for risk distribution, Zorlu Holding distributes its main budget between different business areas such as textile, consumer electronics, banking and energy production IBM is a more experienced player in technology-development areas, so, by shifting its infrastructure to IBM, Zorlu Group will be able to expose the RISK to changing technology and changing buyer preferences
Another benefit from which Zorlu will gain advantage is; speeding the decision making process of its information systems operations According to the top executives, the cost of coordination and operations will be decreased by 30%
In addition to this, Zorlu Group is a firm which has expanded through the world in the atest years By shifting its MIS management to IBM, Zorlu Holding will be able to concentrate on its core businesses from which it can collect cash Moreover, IBM has the capabilities to respond to suddenly changing customer needs and as Zorlu Holding operates in sectors in which customer requirements may change rapidly
Furthermore, if Zorlu Group tries to impose the innovative culture to its diverse companies, it may be able to integrate these values by reflecting IBM’s innovative culture
Zorlu Group also exports its products/services to foreign (international) markets In these areas of business, product reliability, high percieved quality, firm reputation and brand image are important competencies In order to be able to focus on these capabilities, Zorlu outsources its inner information systems management to IBM
However, there are some pitfalls of outsourcing such as hollowing out capabilities and losing touch with activities and expetise but Zorlu, by giving the management and technical support of its information systems infrastructure to IBM, will not give up its main activities
On the other hand, IBM has become a service-oriented firm rather than a hardware and software producer in the latest years IBM gives outsourcing services for more than ten years to big companies and these companies prefer IBM because both in the short run financial revenues and in long term, complex technological infrastructure’s management requires working with specialist and experienced companies According to the resarches that was made in 2004 by IDC, an international research company, 21 of the biggest 100 outsourcing agreements were signed by IBM
The era of business has come to such a stage that, being the main service supporter of the big companies of the world has become one of IBM’s important strategies worldwide At present, IBM has arrangements worth more than 111 billion dollars worldwide including outsourcing services

*Creating flexible infrastructure systems that will enable Zorlu Group to expand its position in the market
* Making improvements relatind to the service levels
* Forming the systems that are capable of measuring the usage of infrastructure resources belonging to Zorlu Group
* Designing the processes of all information technologies’ assets and decreasing the cost of information technologies of Zorlu by 30%

As a consequence, in a business environment in which technological development is rapid customer needs and requirements are diverse and market growth is high, by giving the management of its information technologies infrastructure to IBM as an outsource, Zorlu Group will be able to improve in its market position in both domestic and international market