Impetus Solutions manufactures automotive and vehicle parts in Cleveland. To increase the core functioning of manufacturing operations, it has decided to implement SAP in its IT operations. Its IT operations are carried out in India. The top management decided how this team should come into existence. Discussions were held. A few suggestions that came up were outsourcing the SAP operations to another IT company or having a separate dedicated team in the organization. The pros and cons of these ideas were evaluated and the result was a separate team.
As the company is now entering into its SAP operations, it requires good quality SAP HR so that a separate work team is put into place. It has hired a few SAP resources who have around four to five years of experience across the locations. It also appointed a separate leader to manage all the SAP resources. A few members of the manufacturing team were also included in it so that proper business knowledge is there among the team members. A virtual team and cross-functional team were put into existence by hiring a distributed workforce. The top management decided to start with the functioning of the SAP team. The teams coordinated through teleconferences over AT&T. The team started functioning, and all the activities and discussions were carried out virtually.
A mid-year progress check was conducted, which found that the team was performing its operations well.

Questions
1. Do you think going with the idea of virtual teams was correct? Justify.
2. What other alternatives could you suggest to implement SAP operations in the company?
3. Discuss the complexities of a virtual team.