FREE online courses on Information Technology - Chapter 5 MANAGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - Take Advantage of Liberalized Electronic Communications

 

The trend toward deregulation in the U.S. is also sweeping foreign countries. France has split France Telecom from the PTT and established it as a quasi-public organization. In the past two decades, France Telecom has replaced an outmoded phone system with a mass-market communications network called the Minitel system. It is also a leader in providing packet switched data communications through Transpac. Changes such as these facilitate the development of the international communications networks essential to managing in a global environment.

 

One of the major problems in sharing data is identifying it. A story is told that a large computer vendor once looked at its logistics systems and found that ”ship data” meant six or seven different things depending on the system involved. In one system it might be the promised ship date, and another the date the item the loading dock. To obtain economies of scale from sharing data and systems, the firm must have a common vocabulary of terms and definitions.