UCB: Managing Information for Globalization and Innovation
Posted by busi6517 on June 19, 2006
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Mona Lynn said
There were technical difficulties during the discussion which resulted in a somewhat fragmented discussion. Here is a high level summary that you can expand upon in this forum….
In the UCB case, the Knowledge management project was seen as a key driver for gaining a competitive advantage and therefore the most important project to focus on. The participants noted the benefits of focusing on the knowledge management project. The discussion then focused on the second priority. Participants seemed to be equally divided between additional support for research and the building/deployment of the 3R portal. The portal was seen as adding value to the sales force and had reducing office overhead.
Innovation in the IT/IS systems was also seen as being instrumental at moving forward and staying ahead of the technology curve. The new programs were seen as risky.
Gerard said
First of all nice job for the moderatores , it was a good presentation and i enjoyed the discussion with them.
I think i have some changes in my thoughts from the discussion day till today, since i was thinking that the priority should be for building the 3R portal. What i think right now is that they should focus first on the knowledge management project, since it would orginize, and store the knowledge and experience of individuals workers and groups of the company and making them available to others in the company which is a need since it will make things easier to be accessable from the portal. The scond priority should be for the 3R portal. Since throught this portal, everyone will be able to access all the information and aplications needed, and as Mona said, it will add value to the sales forces and reduce office overhear.
Peter Milne said
I agree that knowledge management and the 3R portal are the most important projects that require current funding. The pharmaceutical programs can not be overlooked though.
A company must continually evolve in order to remain competitive on the market. Thus, the pharmaceutical programs are required to search out new medicines that can be used to treat diseases and conditions. With the patent protection that there is for new drugs, it is a good idea to seek new medications that will guarantee a steady stream of income for UCB. Investment in the IT programs requires a lot of input from scientists working in the field to make the best program choices.
Neha Ummat said
After reading the case, I feel that knowledge management must definately be the priority for the year’s budget. Once this project is completed and the propera nd efficient Data Warehousing is achieved for all areas, other projects must be taken up.
Even though the 3R portal could be started in the Chemical Divison ( as that is supposed to be their first customer) at an introductory stage, the case clearly presents another aspect that Van Assche, Director-General of Chemicals is not convinced that B2B exchanges and E-commerce portals are the need of the hour. Hence, the company must invest money, time and resources into projects that both the employees and the mangement consider important rather than just the projects that sound good.
For Example: Pharma research staff consisting of PhDs, have described that their work depends entirely on computers. So for this company, investment in new research supporting software is necessary not to grow but to just remain afloat as a big company in this business. Similarly, Sales has been showing interest in a CRM portal. Relationship Mangement is definitely a very important aspect in sales and lots of research has proven that as well. If sales does not do well, and the sales force is unable to achieve their objectives, the revenues will decline or get stagnant.
Hence, I believe that a lot of factors other than just technology input or money need to considered while choosing the second project.
Zimin Chu said
In the discussion, we all agree that knowledge management will be given the first priority. The standardized document is important for UCB in a long run. It includes all official reports, research analysis and competitor information. The information can be exploited to get more useful information for the market and product analysis, so it can used as a tool to maintain a company’s competitive advantages, More importantly, the digital format is convenient for transforming from different locations.
Also, I realize the popularity of a virtual environment in a real business. Location doesn’t matter because IT enables us to access the system anywhere. For examples, the sales force is transforming to a virtual office. It makes sales representatives work more flexible although they need to visit different locations. Moreover, they can take the benefits of inventory management, data about doctor office visits…etc. Therefore, I believe the transformation is necessary and it can greatly improve the processing efficiency.
I think the 3R Portal Project is a great way to provide access by giving direct access to a personal view of the corporate portal using specific username and password. This system can make different departments and functions to communicate on an integrated and corporate level.
shanshan Wang said
In this case, UCB established IT/IS standards for its three operating sectors that could improve its consistency and efficiency in its overall operation and add values to its business. For example, the IT/IS standards helped UCB easy to implement speed of actions. They can quickly adapt a new information system within its operations. So the IT/IS standards are very important for UCB, it should continue to upgrade its standards across the company and implement central IT planning function in its three sectors.
As we discuss before, the knowledge management should be the most important project for UCB because information sharing in these three sectors had a significant source of value across the company. After UCB well managed its knowledge sources, it should deal with the 3R portal project provides internal and external information and have the ability to personalize a Web portal to deliver appropriate information based on different people. In addition, UCB should make sure these important data source secure.
Besides these IT projects, I think the innovation also is key factor to drive UBC’s profit. In UCB, the Pharma is the main sectors in the company. Innovations can help improve the drug discovery process that will maximize its profit in the long term.
In addition, UCB well used outsourcing, for example, in the organization; half of IT employees were from outsourced contracts. Outsourcing could reduce costs for the company for example, they used contractors from India that they can developed very high quality software at a lower costs. Therefore, reduction of costs also can make profits for UBC.
Greg Blacklock said
I fully support the idea that knowledge management and the 3R portal should have immediate funding priority although other projects should be undertaken in the future.
With proper development their knowledge management system if created properly and efficiently could allow them a competetive advantage in this area as could their 3R portal. Knowledge management would lead to faster patents and they would be able to know where everyone is at in their reasearch at any given moment. It could speed up decision thus creating more profit. The web portal on the other hand could be a moderately priced alternative for information distribution.
Overall could case and thought provoking questions. Good Job Guys!
Sarah Sabri said
i didn’t have chance to participate in this case, but after reviewing their presentation, i do have thoughts about the priorities of the projects in this case.
As others agreed, i think that Knowledge management Project should have the most priority in terms of implementation. through this, they are able to make mature judgment based on the historical data that has been created. knowledge management assist the potential power to create an adaptable enviorment in the company in which the staff could be alligned to new technologies. Besides, having consilidated knowledge database would facilitate the change of IT infrastructure later on. through this, they could reach their core competency and are able to take on the rest of their project in a better way.