Problem:
Senior management has approved and provided a first round of funding for your project. However, they require some modifications. They realize the potential of your idea and see an opportunity to turn it into a profit center by spinning off the system and attendant supporting services into a separate business entity that will sell product and services to the global business community (e.g. Bankers Trust, now Deutsche Bank, sold its check processing system to competitors; Amazon.com offers Amazon Marketplace and Merchants@ programs that enable third parties to integrate their products on Amazon's websites. Amazon is not the seller of record in these third-party seller transactions, but instead earns fixed fees, sales commissions, per-unit activity fees, or some combination thereof). Prepare a plan that discusses how to achieve what management suggests. Include the following:
Question 1. Environmental scan of foreign markets and conditions. Discuss a minimum of two foreign markets you suggest the organization enter and why these were selected. Discuss a minimum of one foreign market to be avoided and why. Include discussions on cultural differences, legal and regulatory differences and additional competition within respective the foreign countries.
Question 2. There is a difference between developing a system for in-house use and one that will be sold to third parties. Discuss any changes that might need to be made due to: a) selling the product for use outside of the organization; b) use of the system by diverse cultures, including technological limitations within certain countries (i.e. reliable broadband service is not available in all countries).
Question 3. Discuss possibility of using human resources within the respective foreign countries for development and/or support.
Question 4. Discuss technology transfer problems and opportunities as the result of going global.