Standardising the Information Technology Environment at Telstra Corporation: a case study

Telstra is Australia's leading telecommunications carrier and largest single user of information technology (IT). In November 1990, the Australian federal government announced wide-ranging reforms and the introduction of competition within the telecommunications sector. Realising that it was essential for the corporation to leverage its use of technology on a firm-wide basis in order to remain a strong and flexible competitor, in 1991, Telstra embarked upon a major overhaul of its existing IT infrastructure. Central to this was the establishment of standardised operating environments (SOE) for all computing resources used at Telstra. This paper traces the development of Telstra's data network and desktop SOEs. The paper examines the strategic drivers for the SOEs, the business benefits, and issues related to Telstra's computing environment prior to, and after the introduction of network and desktop SOEs.