Developing and enforcing internal information systems standards: InduMaker’s standards management process

Abstract

It is widely agreed that standards provide numerous benefits when available and enforced. Company-internal Information Systems (IS) management procedures and solutions, in the following coined IS ‘standards’, allow for harmonizing operations between company units, locations and even different service providers. However, many companies lack an organized process for defining and managing internal IS standards, which causes uncertainties and delays in decision making, planning, and design processes. In this case study of the globally operating InduMaker (anonymized company name), an established manufacturing supplier, we look into the company-internal management of IS standards. Theoretically grounded in the organizational and IS-focused literature on business process modelling and business process commoditization, we describe and investigate InduMaker’s newly developed Standard Management Process (SMP) for defining and managing company-internal business and IS standards, with which the multinational pursues offering clear answers to business and IT departments about existing IS standards, their degree of obligation, applicability, and scope at any time.