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1. How would you advise Salgado to proceed on the issue of upgrading Zara’s POS systems? I feel that Salgado’s dilemma embodies the concept of the duality of information systems. Zara’s IT systems are both a constraint and an enabler to their organization. Their IT infrastructure is incredibly stable and easy to operate, which allows them to successfully achieve their business strategy of quickly delivering the latest fashions to their stores. However, due to the obsolete platform that their entire IT infrastructure is built upon, it is fast becoming a potential constraint to the further expansion of their business. Since the operating system their software uses is no longer manufactured or even supported by the manufacturer, there will come a time when growth will be limited by lack of available POS terminals that would work with their existing software and hardware. Because of the disastrous constraint potential that Zara faces by continuing to use an obsolete operating system, I would advise Salgado to upgrade Zara’s POS systems in the very near future. In order to methodically plan and implement this upgrade, I would advise Salgado to follow the innovation process when strategizing implementation of the new IT infrastructure. Since Inditex already has a technology steering committee, I would suggest that he use this as a platform for the generation of ideas for the first phase of this process. For the proof of concept and pilot stages, I would suggest Salgado carefully choose a few stores to test the ideas for the new infrastructure and implementation. This will allow the team to experience and troubleshoot as many issues as possible before large-scale implementation of the updates. Finally, during the transition stage, the new infrastructure can be officially rolled out to all Zara stores. I would further suggest that the transition stage be

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