An Analysis of Du Pont's Global Information System
The global marketplace requires corporations to manage highly complex networks of business information. These information networks cover every aspect of a company's activities, from technology to planning and personnel. This is so because "the interaction among markets, firms, and technology is a complex socioeconomic and technical process." The key to managing this technical process is information technology (IT). This fact is especially true for a firm attempting to sustain its competitive position across multinational and transnational boundaries.
If a corporation is to compete and prosper globally, its success will depend, not on its performance within individual national markets, but on its ability to integrate and manage its worldwide systems. "These systems involve partnerships with independent corporate entities that may entail the interchange of information and management processes across both legal organizational and national boundaries."
Information technology optimizes both the integration and management of global networks in four essential ways: it enables the tracking of routine activities; it helps to create information networks that share important data; it promotes better decision-making through the use of expert systems; and it provides decision support for planning and problem-solving. Companies that have entered the global marketplace have learned that designing an effective information system is essential to achieving competitive advantage. One such company is Du Pont.
Founded in Delaware in 1802 to manufacture gunpowder, E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company gradually branched into chemicals, which became its principal focus by the early twentieth century. In 1981, Du Pont acquired Conoco, which it operates as a subsidiary, in an effort to improve its competitive position in the oil market. Creators of such synthetics as neoprene, nylon, Orl...