In Bermuda, many — if not most — of our international businesses are part of a multinational enterprise that stores and manages massive amounts of data, runs complicated business operations, and generates detailed financial, resource and customer reports across many borders.

In a perfect world, in the interest of affiliate consistency and interoperability, multinationals want their global operations to seamlessly perform across all borders and networks, regardless of jurisdictional differences.

However, in reality, divergent legacy systems, incompatible proprietary systems and histories of global business acquisitions may all result in compatibility, integration and cost-efficiency challenges.

Those challenges can also arise because a foreign affiliate has, by design or opportunity, successfully drifted into profitable business lines and operations that the enterprise would like to pursue and replicate globally.

Regardless of the reasons, at some point multinational businesses will likely need some form of realignment, consolidation and regrouping to better manage the global enterprise.

Those business alignment projects can be merely remedial or they can be transformative, but they all take time to plan, implement and complete across geographies from the date when the governance decision is made to align its businesses internationally.

The foundation of all such international business restructuring is the exercise to determine how the business ought to be structured and what the best governance model is to implement and manage the required business alignment.

That deceptively simple-sounding analysis strategically focuses corporate directors and executives on what the enterprise’s overall global architecture should be, and what operational infrastructure is best suited to build, operate and manage those business processes consistently across geographies.

It is important to note that despite the integral role of IT in global business alignment, not all alignment projects are solely IT-based. Sometimes business divisions are sold or bought, sometimes products or services are discontinued or introduced, and sometimes affiliate relationships are shifted.

However, in almost all cases, an operational blueprint or business process architecture is adopted to serve as the compass for such enterprise transformations. And almost always, IT enables those blueprints to be transformed into functioning business processes.

In fact, it is difficult to imagine how any global alignment project could be undertaken without relying on a broad range of information technology and data solutions to structure, implement and operate those enterprise business processes in a uniform, reliable, resilient, legally compliant and cost-effective manner.

The mission of such projects is to configure and combine multiple IT solutions and data management systems — often across numerous jurisdictions — to create and enable the precise business operations and management systems that are prescribed by the approved architectural blueprints.

The assembly and integration of all the many IT components that are required to ensure that the prescribed business processes will be implemented, used and managed across all geographies can be complex.

Whether the enterprise solution manifests as any combination of hardware and software, third-party cloud solutions, outsourcing services or as a “Software/Data as a Service”, all such projects demand the accurate and complete translation of the architectural business objectives into contractual terms and conditions that define how that IT infrastructure will successfully realise the desired global business alignment.

From a project risk management perspective, the most important aspect of the transformation project is to ensure that every element of the required IT infrastructure will perform in full compliance with the operational, functional and business requirements and specifications that were originally dictated by the business process architecture and blueprint.

Conversely stated, the leading cause of transformation project failures and vendor disputes — especially at a global level — arises out of the failure to translate the various IT components, modules, networks, databases, and related IT services into clear and contractually stipulated specifications, performance service levels, key performance indicators, and all other material outcome criteria.

Of course, those contractual terms will include alignment specifications for interoperability, compatibility, connectivity and integration.

Each architectural blueprint for business transformation is a jigsaw puzzle that depicts the desired global realignment outcome. And each contributing IT transaction is a piece of that alignment puzzle that must all fit together.

Therefore, once the business alignment requirements are well defined by a global architecture, the successful integration of global affiliates into that business alignment will depend upon the degree to which all the enabling IT components that will be sourced for that purpose will perform in accordance with their contractually stipulated operational specifications and service performance requirements.

• Duncan Card is a partner at Appleby who specialises in IT and outsourcing contracts, privacy law and cybersecurity compliance in Bermuda. A copy of this column can be obtained on the Appleby website at www.applebyglobal.com. This column should not be used as a substitute for professional legal advice. Before proceeding with any matters discussed here, persons are advised to consult a lawyer.