INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Chapter 2

SIX MAJOR ROLES AND GOALS OF IT

1.

Increase employee productivity by reducing time,

errors and costs using
2. Enhance decision making
3. Improve team collaboration
4. Create business partnerships and alliances
5. Enable global reach all over the world taking into
consideration the culture of each nation or society.
6. Facilitate organizational transformation as the
organization evolves and responds to the ever-changing
marketplace.
2

NFL Coaches

NFL Coaches

What sources of competitive advantage can

you identify the New England Patriots have
by using information technology?

Are these long term, sustainable competitive

advantages?

From our list of Roles and goals of

Technology, what does the IS of the NFL do?
4

THREE PRIMARY USES OF

INFORMATION SYSTEMS
______________
______________
Providing
Providingsupport
supportto
tocomplete
completeaatask
taskfaster,
faster,more
morecheaply,
cheaply,and
and
perhaps
perhapswith
withgreater
greateraccuracy
accuracyand/or
and/orconsistency
consistency
____________________________
____________________________
Providing
Providingsupport
supportto
toimprove
improveday-to-day
day-to-dayoperations
operationsby
by
creating,
creating,acquiring,
acquiring,and
andtransferring
transferringknowledge
knowledge
____________________________
____________________________
Providing
Providingsupport
supportin
inaaway
waythat
thatenables
enablesthe
thefirm
firmto
togain
gain
or
orsustain
sustaincompetitive
competitiveadvantage
advantageover
overrivals
rivals

2-5

WHY USE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

IS FOR AUTOMATING:
DOING THINGS FASTER
Automation
Automation
Providing
Providingsupport
supportto
tocomplete
completeaatask
taskfaster,
faster,more
morecheaply,
cheaply,and
and
perhaps
perhapswith
withgreater
greateraccuracy
accuracyand/or
and/orconsistency
consistency
Styles of Processing

BENEFITS OF AUTOMATION LOAN

EXAMPLE

2-8

Table 2.1

IS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

DOING THINGS BETTER

Organizational
OrganizationalLearning
Learning(Informating)
(Informating)
Providing
Providingsupport
supportto
toimprove
improveday-to-day
day-to-dayoperations
operationsby
by
creating,
creating,acquiring,
acquiring,and
andtransferring
transferringknowledge
knowledge

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING EXAMPLE

2-10

IS FOR SUPPORTING STRATEGY

DOING THINGS SMARTER

____________________________
Providing support in a way that enables the firm to gain or
sustain competitive advantage over rivals
Sources

of Competitive Advantage
best-made ___________
superior ______________ service
lower cost than rivals
proprietary ______________ technology
shorter lead-times in ___________ & testing new products
brand name and ______________
more ___________ for their money

STRATEGY
2-12

IS FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

IS

and Value Chain Analysis

The roles of IS in Value Chain Analysis
The technology strategy Fit

VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS

2-14

Is a process of analyzing an organizations activities to

determine where value is added to products and/or services
and what costs are incurred in doing so.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS ROLES IN

THE VALUE CHAIN
2-15

Net Flix

Net Flix
1.

Describe Net Flixs competitive advantage and what are

the sources of that competitive advantage ?

2.

Discuss where you feel Net Flix uses of information

systems helps them add value in the Value chain.

16

MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE FOR A

SYSTEM
Business Case
Identifying the ___________ provided by an information system

Business Case Development Issues

Several common issues create difficulty in defining business
cases for information systems including:
Measurement ___________
Time Lags
___________

Mismanagement

MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE FOR A

SYSTEM
___________
___________Problems
Problems
benefits
benefitsare
aredifficult
difficultto
topinpoint
pinpoint--may
--maybe
be___________
___________the
the
wrong
wrongthings
things
Expected
Expected___________
___________not
notalways
alwaysdefined
definedin
inadvance,
advance,so
sothey
they
are
arenever
neverseen
seen(they
(theymust
mustbe
beidentified
identifiedto
tomeasure).
measure).
The
Thebiggest
biggestincreases
increasesin
inproductivity
productivitycome
comefrom
fromsystem
system
effectiveness
effectivenessbut
butmany
manymetrics
metricsfocus
focuson
onsystem
systemefficiency
efficiency
___________ Lags
Describes the ___________ in time from when the IT
expenditure was made and when the ___________ are
realized
Why?

2-18

MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE FOR A SYSTEM

___________
IS may be beneficial to individual firms, but not for an entire
industry or the economy as a whole
Strategic information systems may help one firm increase its
market share at the expense of others (redistributing)
Expectations have increased as technology has become
prevalent. We forget the gains that have been realized.
___________
IS has not been ___________ and ___________ well
Some believe that people simply build bad systems,
implement them poorly, and rely on technology fixes for
problems that require joint technology/process solutions
Inappropriate IS investments can mask or even increase
organizational slack and inefficiency
2-19

MAKING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS

CASE

Individuals in organizations generally use one, or in

most cases, a combination of the following argument
types to justify investments in information systems
Based on

BUSINESS CASE ARGUMENTS BASED

ON ___________

Arguments based on beliefs about organizational strategy, competitive advantage, in

BUSINESS CASE ARGUMENTS BASED

ON ___________

Arguments based on the notion that if the system is not implemented, the firm will lose o

BUSINESS CASE ARGUMENTS BASED

ON FEAR
Factors
Industry
to consider
factors

THE FIVE FORCES MODEL

ANALYZE COMPETITIVE FORCES IN AN INDUSTRY

How IS can have a factor in the industry

24

BUSINESS CASE ARGUMENTS BASED

ON ___________
Arguments based on data, quantitative analysis and/or indisputable factors

PRESENTING THE BUSINESS CASE

Know the _________

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN BEING AT

THE CUTTING EDGE
The cutting
Requirements
_________
need foredge
constant
forvs.
being
the
ISon the _________ edge

UTZ CHIPS CASE

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING

Analyze the industry that UTZ is in

using the porter model, is it a good
industry to be in?

What competitive advantage do you feel

Utz has? How does information play
into that competitive advantage

Where in the value chain should they

next upgrade their use of technology for
the biggest biggest gains how would
you present that to management?

28