Introduction

- The pace of change in the modern world requires that we find ways to manage the
complexity of business systems while embracing the opportunities that are created
by change.
- Goals of this course:
o To learn how to analyze the strategic potential of information and its
applications in business
o To develop knowledge and insight into managing the implementation of
business applications
o To discover how change management is key to the implementation process
- We will discuss the strategic drivers of information and related business
applications.
- Competitive pressure is forcing companies to rethink the ways in which they do
business and even the types of business that they do
- Businesses live and die on the quality of their decisions and their ability to rapidly
and effectively change how they make those decisions
- Every business has a purpose
o Usually to survive and to profit
- Successful enterprises develop strategies for defining and achieving their purpose
- Johnson and Scholes define strategy as follows:
“Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term: which
achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within
a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder
expectations.”
- In other words, strategy is about:
o Direction:
o Where is the business trying to get to in the long-term?
o Markets, scope:
o Which markets should a business compete in and what kind of activities
are involved in such markets?
o Advantage:
o How can the business perform better than the competition in those
markets?
o Resources:
o What resources (skills, assets, finance, relationships, technical
competence, facilities) are required in order to be able to compete?
o Environment:
o What external, environmental factors affect the businesses’ ability to
compete?
o Stakeholders:
o What are the values and expectations of those who have power in and
around the business?
- The industries that have moves into the centre of the economy in the last 40 years,
have as their business, the production and distribution of knowledge and information
rather than the production and distribution of things
- Two major themes in managing business information will be investigated during this
course:
o Strategy

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 o How do we create strategies to resource and control information flows
and usage within the organization for effective delivery of value?
o Implementation
o How do we manage the projects and the impact of change on staff
within our organization associated with the introduction of new ways of
using information and new technologies?