STUDY CASE THE NEW YORK TIMES AND BOSTON

SCIENTIFIC: TWO DIFFERENT WAYS OF

INNOVATING WITH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

DZAKI FAUZAN 0320170016

MANAJEMEN INFORMATIKA
CASE STUDY QUESTION
1. As stated in the case, The New York Times chose to deploy their innovation support group as a
shared service across business units. What do you think this means? What are the advantages
of choosing this approach? Are there any disadvantages?

 Shared service
A shared service means that it’s a resource available to all the organization’s business units. Typically,
shared services operate as a “profit center”. This means they generate internal charges (bills) for their work.
The charge-back system helps IT to quantitatively justify its existence to the organization.
 Advantages
o Pooled expertise
o Shared overhead costs
o Easier to enforce software, hardware, technology, process, and policy standards across an
organization
o Easier to share best practices across an organization

 Disadvantages
o Creates an extra layer of management between IT and end-users which may result in some loss
of responsiveness or accountability to individual business units
o Reduced flexibility

2. Boston Scientific faced the challenge of balancing openness and sharing with security and the need for
restricting access to information. How did the use of technology allow the company to achieve both
objectives at the same times? What kind of cultural changes were required for this to be possible? Are
these more important than the technology-related issues? Develop a few examples to justify your
answer.

Technology

Boston Scientific accomplished its objective by implementing an automated workflow application to

help them manage information access.

Cultural changes

Boston Scientific’s managers had to eliminate their “information silo” mentality and perceive the value
in sharing their information in a controlled and accountable fashion. Its managers also had to learn the new
technology and incorporate it into their daily processes.

Importance

Since a project will fail without both cultural and technology changes, neither one is more important.

Sample examples
 Some cultures operate under a strict social hierarchy. Enabling workers to participate in quality
improvement initiatives by providing them with production data and analysis tools would run counter to this
culture. Unless the implementation team manages to overcome this cultural barrier, managers would resist
sharing information or simply deny their employees access to the system.

3. The video rental map developed by The New York Times and Netflix graphically display movie popularity
across neightborhoods from major U.S. cities. How could Netflix use this information to improve their
business? Could other companies also take advantage of these data? How? Provide some examples.

Possible business improvements

Netflix could use this data to identify affinities between movies and ensure that its regional distribution
centers are appropriately stocked to meet anticipated demand.

External use

Netflix might consider selling its data to consumer trend-tracking organizations. Netflix need not divulge
individual customer data but instead group movie rental data by postal code. Postal codes would give marketers
the ability to tie Netflix’ data in with data from other marketing systems to help create more useful regional,
demographic profiles.

Real World Activities

1. The newspaper industry has been facing serious challenges to its viability ever since the Internet
made news available online. In addition to those initiatives described in the case, how are the
New York Times and other leading newspapers coping with these challenges? What do you think
the industry will look like 5 or 10 years from now? Go online to research these issues and
prepare a report to share your findings.
Traditional newspapers have expanded to the Internet. The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The
Economist, among others, employ a subscription model for their online services. Others, like The New York
Times, rely on revenue generated through online advertising.

Future

Users will be able to indicate their current "state" or "mode" or "status" and receive news appropriate
for the moment. For example, the "newspaper" software would present top local, regional, national, and
international headlines before work. During working hours, the user might see only new stories in various
industry or technical journals. After hours, weekends, and holidays, the news stories would focus on leisure
activities. The software will base its decision on explicit instructions (show me…, don't show me…), past
browsing habits, and the browsing habits of various affinity groups related to the individual and their current
"state". The software will adapt over time and adjust to changing preferences. It will also accept user input
regarding an article's quality. This will further "instruct" the software as well as provide the newspaper with
real-time feedback. The software will also likely consider the user's physical location and connection device
when making story recommendations. Newspapers will not charge for these features – they'll provide them
simply increase readerships. Some newspapers may experiment with a "commercial free" version for a fee.
However, if commercials become too intrusive, news providers would run the risk that users would switch to
another service. It's distinctly possible that services providers will have so much information about a user –
including real-time physical location and purchasing desires, that advertising revenue will increase. For example,
how much would a local restaurant pay to reach a user located a block away who has expressed interest in
finding a nice place to eat within the next hour? The user gets a list, perhaps a discount offer, reservations, and
GPS directions only to those places within his or her vicinity that match his or her dining preferences

2. Go online and search the Internet for other examples of companies using technology to help
them innovate and develop new products or services. Break into small groups with your
classmates to share your findings and discuss any trends or patterns you see in current uses of
technology in this regard.
Examples abound within this text and online. One example worth following closely is Google's Android
operating system and its application in smart phones and other devices. This product is a relatively new and
direct challenge to Windows CE, iOS, Unix, and others.

reference:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/nyregion/daily-news-tronc-new-york.html
https://news.google.com/news/search/section/q/future%20of%20newspapers%20new
%20york%20times/future%20of%20newspapers%20new%20york%20times?hl=en&ned=
us
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B17n0aE73BS5MDFrOWUxaFlELU0/view
http://blogstudent.mb.ipb.ac.id/?s=THE+NEW+YORK+TIMES+AND+BOSTON+SCIENTIFIC