Business Strategy and Information Systems

Copyright © 2014, Bradden Blair

Business Strategy and Information Systems

Management information systems concerns the use of information systems to help an organization to achieve its strategic business objectives (Kroenke, 10). Effective managers not only have a firm grasp of business strategy, but they also understand how to utilize each of the five components of an information system to advance that strategy.

The five components of an information system are intricately connected to one another. Failure to address all of the components of an information system in the strategic planning process is a lot like running a three-legged race with only one willing participant. It is highly unlikely that such an approach will be a winning strategy for you or for your organization. It is much better to consider how all five components can be used together to meet the goals of your organization.

In chapter 3, you have been given several tools to help you understand and develop corporate strategy. These tools are Porter’s five competitive forces that shape strategy and Porter’s four competitive strategies. Over the course of the semester, you will be completing a variety of exercises designed to help you to internalize these concepts. At the end of the semester, you should be able to read any financial report or sales brochure and readily identify what the strategy is for the focal organization. Your ability to extract such information and to propose technical solutions that address the needs identified in such documents will make you extremely valuable.

For most organizations, product literature can be either internally focused or externally focused. In general, such documents either clarify how a company differentiates itself from the competition (internal strategic objectives), or how the company’s products and services address the needs and strategic objectives of its customers. Importantly, unsuccessful companies are those which do not have clear business objectives, or do not do a good job of connecting the dots between their solutions and the strategic priorities of their customers.

In this lab, you will be asked to evaluate a technical product offering and technology vendor using Porter’s five competitive forces that shape strategy, and Porter’s four competitive strategies. You will complete this assignment individually, and I will assign each of you a product to evaluate.

References

Kroenke, D. M. (2014). Using MIS: Pearson Education.

Deliverables (please edit document and type in answers)

Name________________________

1. Is your product being marketed as “an information system”? If so, is that really true? Why or why not?

2. How were the five components of an information system identifiable in the sales literature, and what did the literature say about each of these components (enter “N/A” on missing items)?

Hardware –

Software –

Data –

Procedures –

People -

3. How does your product do the following?

• Enhance existing products

• Differentiate itself from other products

• Lock in customers

• Raise barriers to market entry

• Increase profit margins by decreasing costs and decreasing errors

4. Which of the four quadrants identified by Porter in his four competitive strategies best describes your case and why?

5. Try to imagine how the manager of a company, that is considering whether or not to purchase your product, would react to your literature. In roughly two paragraphs, summarize the answers you decided on from questions #3 and #4 with this perspective in mind, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of the system.

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