Boeing Case Study Questions
1. a) Why would a large and complex company like Boeing employ off-the-shelf
application-specific software for accounting, human resources, supply chain
management and other core business processes?
a. .
b. .
c. .
d. .
e. Add additional lines as appropriate
b) What reasons could CIO Hinshaw use to justify Boeing’s shift in software acquisition
approach toward Salesforce.com?
a. .
b. .
c. .
d. .
e. Add additional lines as appropriate
c) On the other hand, why would Boeing develop in-house some of the software
applications used in conjunction with the design and production of its products?
a. .
b. .
c. .
d. .
e. Add additional lines as appropriate
2. What are the pros and the cons for establishing a limited list of general purpose
software products that employees may use within Boeing?
PROS
CONS
3. In terms of system software, Boeing employs a broad list of these, highly technical
software products. The firm purchases some of these products from commercial
vendors like Microsoft and Oracle; while others, like Linux, Boeing obtains from open
source providers on the web. Explain Boeing‘s reasoning for making the move to Linux
in its data centers.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
.
.
.
.
Add additional lines as appropriate.
Boeing Software Acquisition Case Study
Case Description
The Boeing Corporation is the world's leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of
commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined. Additionally, Boeing designs and manufactures
rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, satellites, launch vehicles and advanced information
and communication systems. As a major service provider to NASA, Boeing operates the Space Shuttle
and International Space Station. The company also provides numerous military and commercial airline
support services. Boeing has customers in more than 90 countries around the world and is one of the
largest U.S. exporters in terms of sales.
Boeing has a long tradition of aerospace leadership and innovation. Their broad range of
capabilities includes creating new, more efficient members of the commercial airplane industry;
integrating military platforms and defense systems through network-centric operations;
creating advanced technology solutions that reach across business units; e-enabling airplanes
and providing connectivity on moving platforms; and arranging financing solutions for their
customers. Headquartered in Chicago, Boeing employs more than 158,000 people across the
United States and in 70 countries.
As one would expect, an organization of Boeing’s size, business process complexity, global
reach, and technological focus employs a wide range of computer software. In making its
software choices, Boeing has focused first and foremost on its information management needs
and related business process and worker performance enhancement, and secondarily on the
total cost of ownership (TCO) with regards to software procurement, installation, and
maintenance.
Given the nature of Boeing’s business, the firm maintains a number of data centers across the
United States. In its headquarters building in Chicago, Boeing operates a data center where its
enterprise application-specific software runs, including financial and accounting systems,
contract management systems, project management systems, human resource management
systems, marketing and sales systems, and the like. In the Seattle data center, Boeing
personnel operate all of the application-specific software required for commercial aviation
production side of the business. Here one will find software tailored for the procurement of
the raw materials and components that go into airplane construction as well as the
manufacturing, control, logistics, and distribution systems associated with airplane production.
At its high-security data center in Virginia, Boeing maintains similar application-specific systems
that enable the transacting and management of its work for the U.S. Defense Department and
NASA. Lastly, at a customer services center in Texas, Boeing employs call center management
software, trouble-ticket management software, expert information systems, and large digital
information libraries to address product problems, customer issues, and staff and end-user
training for all its commercial product lines.
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Boeing Software Acquisition Case Study
While almost all of the application-specific software employed by Boeing in managing the
enterprise comes from commercial software development companies (including SAP, Oracle,
Computer Associates, IBM and others), software applications employed to design and manage
the production of spacecraft, missiles, and military aircraft must be developed internally within
Boeing. In the past, Boeing did not employ any outsourced application
software (a.k.a. application service providers) to fill in the gaps in its
application-specific software portfolio. The Boeing IT services team would
search for and acquire any additional application software – which would then
be hosted and operated on-premises, on company servers. More recently,
Boeing has found success with implementing Salesforce.com for the customer
John M Hinshaw
relationship management activities. CIO John Hinshaw stated, “I’m a strong fan
Boeing CIO
of Salesforce.com…For business service applications it has real promise.”
Where Boeing employs a wide range of application-specific software products within the firm, it
has by contrast seriously limited employee choices when it comes to general purpose software.
Here Boeing purchases Microsoft Office for personal productivity word processing,
spreadsheet, presentation, and data analysis software; Adobe for digital media creation and
editing, and AutoCAD for computer assisted design. Internet Explorer serves as the
organization’s standard Web browser, and Outlook serves similarly as the standard e-mail
interface. Anyone who wishes to use a product outside of the standard offering must obtain
special permission from executive management.
In the area of systems software, Boeing also maintains a wide range of products. At the
desktop, because of the use of standard Intel-based personal computers across the firm, the
most current Windows operating system prevails. However for specialized workstations that
run engineering applications and CAD systems, Unix operating systems are employed. By
contrast, Boeing data centers run different operating systems, including Microsoft, Sun Solaris,
IBM, and Fujitsu, depending upon the server or mainframe computer under discussion.
Increasingly, these commercial operating systems are being replaced by open-source Linux
systems as the standard for data center servers. Boeing also employs a number of heavy-duty
information security products such as: network and Web firewalls products, intrusion
detectors, anti-virus and anti-malware software, encryption software, user authentication
software and so forth. Other system software tools at Boeing include network management
and optimization, printing production management, and data storage management software.
prepared for MISM2301 Rev’d Jan 2014
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Boeing Software Acquisition Case Study
Case Study Questions
1. a) Why would a large and complex company like Boeing employ off-the-shelf
application-specific software for accounting, human resources, supply chain
management and other core business processes? [list]
b) What reasons could CIO Hinshaw use to justify Boeing’s shift in software acquisition
approach toward Salesforce.com? [list]
2. On the other hand, why would Boeing develop in-house some of the software
applications used in conjunction with the design and production of its products? [list]
3. What are the pros and the cons for establishing a limited list of general purpose
software products that employees may use within Boeing? [table]
4. In terms of system software, Boeing employs a broad list of these, highly technical
software products. The firm purchases some of these products from commercial
vendors like Microsoft and Oracle; while others, like Linux, Boeing obtains from open
source providers on the web. Explain Boeing‘s reasoning for making the move to Linux
in its data centers. [table]
prepared for MISM2301 Rev’d Jan 2014
Page 3
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