The business strategy of Japanese Slers

The fundamental role of the System Integrators (Slers) is to provide customized IT systems or services that satisfy the unique requirements of each customer by integrating the various products and services that many IT companies produce. Originally, the IT companies in the different business segments such as the consulting business, hardware business, and software product business have complemented each other, and Slers played the roles of coordinators between these various IT companies and the customers. However, the business model of IT companies is rapidly changing. The firewalls separating business segments in the industry are becoming obsolete, and the Japanese Slers are now getting involved in the intense new competition. This thesis identifies key elements that influence the future business of Japanese Slers. It also proposes sound strategies that will enable Japanese Slers to grow solidly from the viewpoint of top management. From the technological viewpoint, my research finds that the commoditization and openness of technologies have made hardware and software product companies shift their business focuses from products to services. On the other hand, from the market viewpoint, customers are implementing the strategies that select and focus on core businesses.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Kashibe, Masahiro

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Michael A. Cusumano.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37122

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/37122