Alcan - IT Principles Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Alcan - IT Principles - Case Study Example The rate of change in the operating environment is subject to consumer demand, government regulations, or fundamental changes in the proprietary technologies. Alan is in the mining sector with operations in primary metal, engineering products, packaging, and Bauxite and Alumina (Dube, Berner & Roy 2009). These areas of interest are very mature technologically with well-developed value chains. There is very little groundbreaking change that can force system-wide changes to the business processes. As compared to fields like IT and electronics, the areas of interest of Alcan are slow to change. Therefore, on the scale of change, we conclude that Alcan is an organization that does not change rapidly. Analyzing the operations of the company by sources of competitive advantage shows that the company relies on efficient operations to improve its bottom line. Again, the products developed by Alcan have been in the market for a very long time and the applications are not changing in any significant way to warrant the use of development of new products as a source of competitive advantage. For instance, the technology for making soft drink cans relies on the aluminium sheet produced by Alcan. Therefore, Alcan cannot rely on developing better sheets for making cans as a source of competitive advantage (Dube, Berner & Roy 2009). These two characteristics classify Alcan as an efficient, predictable operator. There are five governance archetypes used in IT governance according to Weill and Ross. They include Business Monarchy, IT monarchy, Federal System, IT Duopoly, Feudal and Anarchy. The archetypes delineate governance systems that span from a very centralized system to completely unmitigated structures. Alcan is at different levels in each of the five decision areas identified by Weill and Ross. The development of the global IT direction for the organization has not been the role of any one person. In fact, the case shows that each business unit developed its own IT agenda and pursued its own direction in IT development.  Ã‚