Information Technology in Vietnam (and Southeast Asia): Discussion Cases

Book excerpt: Over the past decade, Vietnam has become a major player in the rapidly growing region of Southeast Asia. Anyone who has visited the country has sensed the extraordinary energy of its commercial activities. Few outsiders, however, have been granted access to the individual decision making processes that have driven this rapid development. With the publication of this book, that situation has changed. The ten discussion cases included in the collection examine important choices facing Vietnamese decision-makers in a broad range of contexts. Examples of these contexts include: a locally developed ERP considers how to compete with much larger international players, a coffee shop examines how IT might be harnessed to address employee theft, a burgeoning eCommerce site that leads in book sales wonders what it should sell next, an IT manager tries to decide whether or not to risk failure by accepting a promotion to a new level, a textile manufacturer seeks to use IT to more effectively manage production, a local investment company attempts to redesign its portal, and the list goes on--and even includes one entry from Vietnam's neighbor, Thailand. The ten case studies provided in this book are all open, authentic, discussion cases. What makes them open is that none of them have a "right" answer--although each has strong and weak responses to the situation described. They are authentic because each has been meticulously researched by its authors and, with the exception of some of the names (which have been disguised), they describe an actual situation faced by the key decision-maker. Most importantly, what makes them discussion cases is the fact that they are specifically optimized for use as a basis for discussion in the classroom, the teaching technique known as the case method.