AstraZeneca & IBM: Outsourcing Mistakes and Information Management

This case study examines the IT outsourcing relationship between AstraZeneca and IBM, focusing on the mistakes made by both companies, particularly in contract management and adapting to changing business processes. The analysis delves into the specifics of their Service Level Agreements (SLAs), highlighting the provisions designed to protect both parties. Furthermore, the document explores the concept of Information Management, defining its role in organizations and discussing digital strategies for sustainable performance. It covers the importance of technology adoption, such as Electronic Health Records (EHRs), to enhance information management. The conclusion emphasizes the critical role of information management in business success and the need for strategic adaptation to market changes. The document references various sources to support its analysis and conclusions.

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Index Terms— AstraZeneca, IBM, IT Outsourcing, Information
Management, Legal rights of Outsourcing, Shared Operation,
Business Information
I. PART A: CASE STUDY
1. WHAT MISTAKES DID ASTRAZENECA MAKE?
In this entire case scenario, the mistakes that AZ
committed had been making are the management of the
business process that did not fall into the hands of perfect
time. AZ could not forecast that till their time of contract with
IBM, the business processes would change so rapidly that the
contract could not accommodate them. The organization had
so much dependence on the Information Technology
capabilities that they could not track the termination of the
contract, therefore missing one of the most intricate and
crucial part of the business.
2. WHAT MISTAKES DID IBM MAKE?
IBM made a mistake as well since there have been
knowledge transferred over the entire organization that IT
outsourcing contracts are hard to achieve and they are
subjected to changes achieving too many difficulties.
Therefore, the organization should have had a detailed view
about the contract termination about the services they were to
provide to AstraZeneca.
3. WHY ARE OUTSOURCING CONTRACTS FOR FIVE
OR MORE YEARS?
Contract outsourcing for IT takes place for five or
more years because the services provided as data center
operations, tend to provide the services in a much more
matured way of delivering services. This also applies to the
constant changes in business processes and the technological
fields. Therefore, an organization should provide for the
changes to be made according to the changing structure of the
organization and economy.
4. WHY DO YOU THINK TWO MAJOR
CORPORATIONS COULD MAKE SUCH MISTAKES?
The mishap has occurred due to the lack of
perceptiveness and bad assumptions. In similar way that
AstraZeneca could not assume that the business process
changes would be too rapid to fortify the contract they did
with IBM for IT outsourcing. IBM also made the mistake of
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overlooking the details in the contract about the the offered
services.
5. DO YOU THINK THE 2007 SLA WAS DOOMED TO
FAIL? EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWER.
It was evitable that the 2007 SLA was indeed
doomed to fail miserably. Both the companies had failed to
provide the relevant attention to the contracts that were made.
AZ could not envisage that the business processes would
change so rapidly till their time of contract with IBM. Such
that the contract could not accommodate them. Again, IBM
made a mistake as well since there have been knowledge
transferred over the entire organization that IT outsourcing
contracts are hard to achieve.
6. WHAT PROVISIONS IN THE 2012 SLAS PROTECT
ASTRAZENECA AND THE VENDORS?
One of the principles specifies the fact that the
company that is providing IT operations through outsourcing
should fix first and then get paid. This means that AstraZeneca
should fix the problems regarding the immediate problems
first and then should question about the amount of money to
be paid. For getting faster solutions, AstraZeneca has agreed
to pay to the vendor first. If any case of conflict had occurred,
both the parties could have subjected to appeal to an
independent arbiter who is able to oversee the policy of the
company.
7. WHY WOULD PARTIES PREFER TO USE AN
ARBITRATOR INSTEAD OF FILING A LAWSUIT IN
COURT?
If the company used and arbitrator, it would be less
expensive in comparison with fighting a lawsuit against the
company. It would also consume much less amount of time
and would have the less of a confrontational approach since
both the parties have regarded contacting an arbitrator
beforehand.
II.PART B: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
Information Management is a cycle of processing of
information in an organization, acquiring from one or more
sources and distribution of the information through the entire
organization spanning through the needs of the required
personnel. Information reaches its final stage in an
organization only through its disposition or archiving or
deletion (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). In the practical world, it is
still unattainable about the concept of "information
Case Study and IT Research
Name of the Student
Name of the University

management" or IM. The paper would thus put forward to
gain attainment in the understanding of the concept of
information management. This would be presented in the
format where there would a brief introduction to the subject
describing about information management, with the
description of the extended boundaries for information
management. Further it would discuss about the digital
strategies need for the sustainable performance of and
organization through information management and then it
would further have description about the technological
management structure adoption needed in favor of the
information management implementation in the organizations.
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
In today’s world it is difficult for organizations to keep up
with the continuously changing market demands. The
consumer is an individual and wants a personalized service.
Customer loyalty is much harder to keep. This creates a
tremendous challenge for organizations to keep existing
customers and attract new ones. Developments in social
media, the exponential growth of data, ever-changing laws and
regulations, and the enormous amount of touch points or
channels are examples of the continuously changing
environment for organizations. Organizations must make
choices and not jump on every new development without first
mapping the consequences.
Information Management is complex, therefore it needs
tremendous care to provide the organization with a proper
implementation plan that does not harm the organization with
any kind of data or information loss as they can become fatal
to the organization.
EXTENDING BOUNDARIES FOR INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
The business problems that the world faces today are much
more complex and it needs a much more sophisticated
approach to come to a formidable solution for it. It does not
require the analysis of piles and piles of information being
gathered and presented to produce insights about the future
prospects of the organization in comparison with the
competitors and predict the outcomes of the business. It also is
not necessary that these business information predictions
would drive any fruitful actions from it. A problem solving
attitude or approach to such a difficult decision making
process cannot be achieved so easily by using a simple
Business intelligence tool. This is what would be feasible to be
called as Collaborative Business Intelligence or the CBI.
Business Intelligence would only be primarily used for the
understanding of the information propagation in a business.
These BI tools empowered the analyst by allowing them to
slice and dice the data on an ad-hoc basis, thereby helping the
business user to get answers to important and critical business
questions. Organizations and individual consumers now leave
a footprint in various media, such as web interactions like,
ecommerce, social networking or gadgets like the mobile or
cellular phones that provide rich sources of the information.
DIGITAL STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE
PERFORMANCE
The implementation of this technique can even be witnessed
now in the field of sports where this is applied to see the
potential and predictive winners of a particular match, For
example, if we look carefully into the matches of the game
cricket, we would be able to see that there are some situations
where before the match even ends, somewhere in between, the
screen shows the projected scores and the predictive winners
of the match that is going on. However, this does not fall true
to the situation as sports is an extremely unpredicted scenario,
but still the information attained so far helps in the prediction
of the projected score and predict the winners.
Another of the usages of this sustainable technology is seen
to help the traffic administrations of any country in keeping
the traffic management in big cities by reducing congestion
and promote the good usages of the roads. While not all
pervasive, data analytics have begun to play an important role
in predicting the future, and organizations that adopt this
strategy are reaping huge benefits. It is beginning to spell the
difference between success and failure in a sharply
competitive market place.
Information Management and Knowledge Management are
in this regard more or less possess similar features.
TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION FOR INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
In companies or organizations that are mostly based on
providing service to other people, knowledge is considered to
be an intangible and central asset. The management of
knowledge in an industry generally Information being used,
reused, created and disseminated. Thus, the Information
management has come into the light to manage the
information that had transferred within the entire organization.
Let us assume that in case of a healthcare organization, the
information are varied and cannot be channelized through a
single structural arena. This would be done to some extent by
the implementation of Electronic Health Recorder or
Electronic Medical Recorder, most commonly known as EHR
and EMR (Ginter, 2018). This is a device that follows the
context of the latest technical advancements and provides the
user in collection a patient’s electronically-stored health
information in a digital format.
Therefore, this new system implementation can be the latest
technology that helps to move forward towards maintaining a
better Information Management in the organizational
structure.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it can be said that the Information
Management is one of the most vital assets of a business
organizational structure. This is attained in extremely complex

ways since the use, reuse, transfer, management and storage of
information in an organizational structure is a very intricate
process. It also has to be kept in mind, that if a business does
not come up with the implementation of strategies to abide by
the rapid change in the business era, it would start falling short
of its competitors and lag far behind them in the long run. The
only tradeable asset for a business in this scenario forms in the
face of Information Management. Therefore, it can be said that
Information Management is a critical process, although
attained by proper business strategies and implementations.
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