Rio Tinto Alcan is one of the world’s largest producers of bauxite, alumina and aluminum. Based in Montréal, it is one of five product groups operated by Rio Tinto, a leading international mining group. The group operates large-scale, long-life assets on six continents and in 27 countries. This includes a significant presence in Canada, Australia and France. Rio Tinto Alcan currently owns, operates or has an interest in bauxite mines, alumina refineries, aluminum smelters and power generating plants. Alcan was diversified and distributed group across the globe with numerous M&A acquired companies, handling IT systems worldwide. Major IT support was in IS solutions and IT infrastructure and other project decision were made by business heads.
The case describes the evolution of IT management at the MNC during the period from 2006. At that time IT governance and the IT function itself were undergoing a complete transformation. The case follows the Vice President of Corporate Information Technology from the time of his arrival at Alcan: his observations on the current state of IT management his appointment to the position of Chief Information Officer and the development of his new strategic plan for IT management. The case presents the main features and challenges of IT management at Alcan up until the middle of 2006. The case reflects on the characteristics implications and challenges represented by IT management in a large global organization.
Accenture IT Governance Model: Alcan
According to the Accenture IT Governance Model, the right model should offer a precise road map for IT governance decision-making and a framework for allocating responsibility and accountability among top-level executives, CIO, and business unit executi...
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... There is a lack of rigor in IT operations because of numerous late project deliveries and cost overruns. Therefore, it can be argued that Ouellette’s plans support the recommendations outlined in question 4.
Accenture IT Governance model at Alcan
According to the Accenture IT Governance model, effective IT governance depends on the organizational attributes of the firm. It is apparent that Alcan is an efficient, predictable operator that focuses on operational efficiency. Accenture experts assert that such companies rely on maintaining low costs and offering mature capabilities through cost saving and sharing devices, co-sourcing and outsourcing. Ouellette’s plan aims at attaining complete integration, which moves towards cost saving and sharing devices. Therefore, it is evident that Ouellette’s plans are consistent with the suggestions made by Accenture experts.
The driving forces of globalisation have a direct impact on the success of the iron ore mining industry in Australia in terms of the national and global economies. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Group, both as Transnational Corporations (TNCs), have further increased industry sales and exports, and reduced the costs of production by utilising economies of scale. Mine expansion and the opening of new mines in the iron-rich areas of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have resulted in great benefits for the Australian economy and rapid national growth in the global economy.
The company is involved in the production of raw materials used in metal industries such as copper, diamond, bauxite, core, uranium, and iron ore. Rio Tinto is equally famous for mining industrial minerals such as titanium dioxide, gypsum, talc borates, and salt. The Strategic management theory has key elements that relate to Rio Tinto during and post crisis era. Both the internal and external environments must balance for the success of the business. The external environment affecting the operations of the company comprise of the customers, competitors, and the immediate community. Rio Tinto is based in Australia, though it h...
Asemi observe that Management Information System (MIS) is one of the information systems that is computer based. Besides, Asemi defines MIS as “an organizational method of providing past, present and project information related to internal operations and external intelligences. It supports the planning, control and operation functions of an organization by furnishing uniform information in the proper time frame to assist the decision makers,” (2011). The aim of MIS is to satisfy the general information need of the entire manager in an organization. Before the advent of computers, the process of decision-making was one that was full of built-in advantages and ad hoc methods. Computers technologies have changed the landscape of the decision-making process completely by making the process less demanding and easy to undertake. The reason for this situation is that information technology has made access to information more automated, efficient, effective, timely, and less ambiguous. Consequently, the ordinary t...
IT projects require buy-in from stakeholders. There are several reasons to get buy-in before starting an IT project, some of which include investment during development and commitment to transition away from old processes to the new system upon completion. Unilateral IT projects often lack the level of investment and commitment required for a successful IT project. This becomes even more critical as the scope and size o...
Another aspect that Cheryl discovered was that was that half of the structure and organization of systems and procedures of the company met the industry standards. The company’s IT department had designed its operations based on the firm’s needs. The IT organization was structured according to internal
Rio Tinto is a multi-listed company (ASX:RIO, LSE:RIO,NYSE:RIO) ,after 140 years operation which through a long series of mergers and acquisitions to put itself as world 2nd largest leading mining company, the business range is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. also it is one of the top three iron ore giants, which totally control more than 80% of the iron-ore export market in the world. [ ] The production of Rio Tinto are many commodities which includes Iron Ore, copper, aluminum, coal and diamonds. The subsidiaries are around the world which included United Kingdom, Australia, Papua New Guinea, United States, Brazil and Canada etc. [ ] In 2014, the revenue is USD 47.664 billion, Profit is USD 6.499billion.
Autonomous truck fleet and trains are used to transport the ore from pit to the port increasing efficient movements of material and increased productivity. Rio Tinto’s business transportation is seaborne, and decisions are based on rigorous analysis focussed on adding long term value. Cargoes of the Group’s operation of nearly 250 million tonnes per annum contribute to 10 percent of the World’s dry bulk trade. There is a close co-operation between successful freight management and sales functions of Rio Tinto’s various business units worldwide(RioTinto
Iskandar, M., & Salleh, N. A. M. (2010). IT Governance in Airline Industry: A Multiple Case Study. International Journal of Digital Society, 1(4), 308-314.
The IT PMB includes the Associate CIO for Capital Planning and Governance, officials from the Office of the Chief Engineer, the Enterprise Architecture Lead Representative, and staff from the Mission Directorates, Centers, and CLT. The group, chaired by the NASA Deputy CIO, serves as a forum for top-level oversight and evaluation of Agency IT programs and projects. Six Program Boards below the three high-level boards make operational decisions on a variety of issues including IT security and software applications. Historically, NASA has operated as a decentralized organization based on the philosophy that its Centers and project managers should be given as much freedom and autonomy as possible to accomplish
Henderson and Venkatraman proposed a model for business – IT alignment; it was intended to support the integration of information technology (IT) into business strategy by advocating alignment between and within four domains (see figure 1). The inter-domain alignment is pursued along two dimensions: strategic fit (between the external and internal domain) and functional integration (between the business domain and the IT domain). The objective of this model was to provide a way to align information technology with business objectives in order to realise value from IT investments. The authors argued that the potential strategic impact of information technology requires both an understanding of the critical components of IT strategy and its role in supporting and shaping business strategy decisions and a process of continuous adaptation and change. Hence, they presented a model that defines the range of strategic choices facing managers.
Bauxite is dug out of the ground and refined into alumina. Alumina is produced commercially by the Bayer Process. This is done by 4 main s...
When it came to IT, things really got out of hand. There was no clear path as to how money would be spent on it. IT was responsible for handling almost all of the transactions needed for the hotel. Things such as occupancy, check in/out, product inventory were all part of the IT infrastructure and there were several different configurations of hard/soft-ware, platforms and interfaces.
MidSouth Chamber of Commerce is an organization that rely heavily on their information systems. Lassiter, Hedges and Kovecki who has no information technology background were taken into computing operations. Introducing a new system is not an easy task until an organization has senior IT professionals and backup plans. In the end, it was the lack of proper management and lacked intimate knowledge of information systems made them depend on outside persons to make decisions that caused all these problems.
My interest in Information Systems Management was drawn when I was working on my final year project at Maharashtra Institute of Technology under the able guidance of the head of the Computer Engineering department. Professor R. K. Bedi’s support provided a much needed boost to my confidence in my programming skills. This new found confidence, in conjunction with the organization management skills I had acquired through active participation in extracurricular activities like “Tesla”, in inter college programming fest, made me realize I wanted to pursue a program that had comprised a blend of both the computer science and management disciplines.
Palvia P., Palvia S. & E. Roche (1996) Global Information Technology and Systems Management. Ivy League Publishing