ABSTRACT
Multinationals in Southeast Asia continue to implement Web-based technology for a variety of reasons: the enhanced coordination, communication and, critically, control that it offers. In the precrisis environment, MNC headquarters claimed to be suffering from a lack of detailed knowledge as to the activities of their far-flung subsidiary units. But the way in which computer-based technology overcomes these barriers to space and time has enabled corporations to gain clear and precise snapshots of their local concerns. Concurrent with this desire for instant information is the need to implement the technology that would enable this information to be logged and traced over time. This chapter progresses our analysis of electronic technology with a complementary exploration of corporate information tracking methods. These are typified by the Total Quality Management (or TQM) movement, which in turn has engendered a wide-ranging series of quality assurance protocols, foremost among which are the International Organization for Standardization (or ISO) 9000 standards.
