Compaq–DEC Merger: IT Culture and Integration Strategy
Both Compaq and DEC need to find a unified strategy direction to pursue, not keep fighting to see which programs or software platforms by business unit will survive or not. The case study is a classic example of what happens when IT infrastructure becomes more important than the strategic growth of a merged organization. The case also illustrates how powerful IT infrastructure and information flows are in creating an effective culture or not as well. If the management team had focused =more on IT initiatives that would unify and capture the best of both companies, there is a good chance they would still be independent today.
Second, the lack of strategic vision and insight into just how profitable the B2O and mass customization strategies could have been is remarkable. Compaq and Dell could have integrated their supply chain, sourcing, manufacturing, product planning, product management and services strategies under a consolidated ERP system and attained higher growth that the fractionalized, disconnected organization they grew into did. The fact it took nearly 20 days to complete even a basic quote for enterprise systems within Compaq during this time period shows just how disconnected, disparate the IT architectures had become (Columbus, 2003). Compaq and DEC needed to use IT architectures to create a unified corporate culture supporting by strongly integrating product, marketing, service and long-term customer relationship strategies.