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11PART I
IT in the Organization
1.Strategic Use of Information Technology in theDigital Economy2.Information Technologies: Concepts andManagement
CHAPTER
1
Strategic Use ofInformation Technology intheDigital Economy
1.1
Doing Business in the Digital Economy
1.2
Business Pressures, OrganizationalResponses, and IT Support
1.3
Information Systems: Definitions andExamples
1.4
Information Technology Developmentsand Trends
1.5
Why Should You Learn AboutInformation Technology?
1.6
Plan of the Book
Minicases:
1. Dartmouth College2. Wal-Mart
 Appendix 1A:
Porter’s Models
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
³
Describe the characteristics of the digitaleconomy and e-business.
·
Recognize the relationships between businesspressures, organizational responses, andinformation systems.
»
Identify the major pressures in the businessenvironment and describe the majororganizational responses to them.
¿
Define computer-based information systems andinformation technology.
´
Describe the role of information technology insupporting the functional areas, public services,and specific industries.
²
List the new technology developments in theareas of generic and networked computing andWeb-based systems.
Understand the importance of learning aboutinformation technology.
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2
SIEMENS AG IS TRANSFORMING ITSELFINTOAN E-BUSINESS
➥
THE PROBLEM
Siemens AG (
 siemens.com
) is a German-based 150-year-old diversified andglobal manufacturer. With 484,000 employees, Siemens does business in 190countries and has 600 manufacturing and R & D (research and development)facilities in over 50 countries. Its product lines and services are extremely var-ied, including communication and information, automation and controls,power, transportation, medical equipment, and lighting. Besides its own 13operating divisions, Siemens AG has interests in other companies like Bosch(household appliances), Framatome (in France’s nuclear power industry), andFujitsu computers.Facing hundreds of competitors, most of which are in foreign countries, thecompany had difficulties expanding its business in a fast-changing business en-vironment and was unable to enjoy the profit margin of some of its competitors.A major problem area was the coordination of the internal units of the company.Another one was the collaboration with so many suppliers and customers. Inparticular, its
 supply chain
—the flow of materials from suppliers through manu-facturing, distribution, and sales—is very complex. Finally, it was necessary tofind ways to contain costs and to increase customer service.
➥
THE SOLUTION
By the late 1990s the company decided to transform itself into a 100 percent“e-business”—that is, a company that performs various business functionselectronically. It would do so by introducing Web-based systems and electroniccommerce applications in all of its operations. The reason for such an ambitiousgoal was the need to solve the problems caused by multiple supply chain oper-ations. Embarking on a four-year plan, the company started the transformationin 1999.Siemens had decided on a dual approach: It would use its own in-houseinformation systems capabilities where it made sense to do so, but it would alsogo out-of-house to purchase some systems from major vendors. Siemens strate-gic goals were to:
●
Improve its readiness for extended electronic commerce by standardizinghundreds of business processes across multiple divisions. (For example, thecompany went from over 300 different process applications to 29.)
●
Redesign the information technology infrastructure to enable integration of“best-of-breed”software (software components that best fit the company’sneeds, each from a different vendor), integrated into an enterprisewide platform.Besides being able to handle electronic transactions, Siemens also wanted tocreate an easily accessible central corporate
knowledge base
—a companywidestorehouse of proven methodologies (known as “best practices”; see Chapter 10).Using SAP R/3 systems (see Chapter 7), along with software from i2 Technologyand IBM, the company built functional systems that link the enterprise, ensuresupport functions, and connect with the company’s supply chain partners.
Various icons are used throughoutthe book to identify a particularperspective or functional arearelated to the nearby example.Thisicon,for example,indicates aninternational perspective.Seepage•• in the preface for a listingof all of the icons.Each chapter opens with an examplethat illustrates the application ofITin a real-world organization andthe relevance of the chapter topics.The format—problem,solution,results—helps model a way to think about business problems.
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Thank You so much. I have been searching for this book for a long time. Thnx dude you made my day!

reply06 / 29 / 2009
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