The Australasian Produce Cooperative: a Global Information Systems Project

This case describes how the Australasian Produce Co-Operative (APCO), a marketing co-operative in a land-based industry in \u27Australasia\u27 attempted to create a global information system. APCO is among the 20 largest food enterprises in the world. Information systems took on increasing importance as the enterprise refined its global operations in the last decade. In the six years between 1996 and 2002, this case demonstrates the many pitfalls in the process of evolving an international information system as it follows APCO\u27s global system development. It shows the difficulties surrounding the definition of requirements in a large multinational firm and how such a definition is intertwined with the pre-existing politically charged environment that characterizes the global firm. Further, the case demonstrates how the failure of the information technology department to interpret correctly the organization\u27s strategy changes resulted in antagonistic forces in which business resistance finally defeated all attempts to install a standard global information system