CHAPTER THREE :STRATEGIC INITIATIVE FOR IMPLEMENTING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

STRATEGIC INITIATIVE.

Organizations can undertake high-profile strategic initiative including :

-supply chain management (SCM)
-customer relationship management (CRM)
-business process reengineering (BRP)
-enterprise resource planning (ERP)

1. Supply Chain Management

-involves the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximize total supply chain effectiveness and profitability.
-four basic components of supply chain management include :

• supply chain strategy
• supply chain partner
• supply chain operations
• supply chain logistics

Effective and efficient SCM system can enable an organization to :

• decrease the power of its buyers
• increase its own supplier power
• increase switching costs to reduce the threat of substitute products or services
• create entry barriers thereby reducing the threat of new entrants
• increase efficiencies while seeking a competitive advantage through cost leadership

2.     Customer Relationship Management

• involves managing all aspects of a customers relationship with an organization to increase customer loyalty and retention and an organization profitability
• CRM is not just technology,but a strategy,process, and business goal that an organization must embrace on an enterprisewide level.

3.     Business Process Reengineering

• a standardized set of activities that accomplish a specific task,such as processing a customer order.
• the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enteprises.

4.     Enterprise Resource Planning

• intergrates all departments and functions throughout an organization into a single IT system so that employees can make decisions by viewing enterprisewide information on all business operations

CHAPTER TWO : IDENTIFYING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

What is competitive advantage?

• A product or service that an organization's customers place a greater value on than similar offerings from a competitors.
• Unfortunately, CA is temporary because competitors keep duplicate the strategy.
• Then,the company should start the new competitive advantages.

INTRODUCTION

• Michael Porter's Five Forces Model is useful tool to aid organization in challenging decision whether to join new industry or industry segment.

                                              

• Buyer Power

-high :when buyer have many choices of whom to buy.
-low :when their choices are few.
-to reduce buyer power,an organization must make it more attractive to buy from the company not from the competitors.

• Supplier Power

-high :when buyer have few choice of whom to buy from.
-low :when their choices are many.
                                                           

• Threat of substitute product and services.

-high :when there are many alternatives to a product or service.
-low :when there are few alternative from which to choose.

• Threat of new entrants.

-high :when it is easy for new competitors to enter a market.
-low :when there are significant entry barriers to entering a market.

• Rivalry among existence competitors

-high :when competitors is fierce in a market.
-low :when competitors is more complacent.

CHAPTER ONE : BUSINESS DRIVEN TECHNOLOGY

CHAPTER 1:BUSSINESS DRIVEN TECHNOLOGY.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY'S ROLE IN BUSINESS.
-Information technology is everywhere in business.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY'S IMPACT ON BUSINESS OPERATIONS.
-Business functions receiving the Greatest Benefits from information technology.

• customer service
• finance
• sales and marketing
• it operations
• operations management
• HR
• security  

-Information technology project goals.

•  reduce costs/improve productivity
• improve customer satisfaction/loyalty
• create competitive advantage
• generate growth
• streamline supply chain
• global expansion

-Common departments in an organization .

• accaounting
• marketing
• operations management
• human resources
• finance
• sales
• production management
• management information systems.

-organizations typically operate by functional areas or functional silos
-functional areas are independent.



INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BASICS.

-Information Technology is a field concerned with the use of technology in managing and processing    information.

-Information Technology is an important enabler of business success and inovation.

-Management information systems(MIS) is a general name for the business function and academic discipline covering the application of people,technologies and procedures to solve business problems.

-MIS is business function,similar to accounting,finance,operations,and human resources.

-when beginning to learn about information technology it is important to understand such as data,information and business intelligence it resources and also it cultures.

-data : raw facts that describe the characteristic of an event.

-information : data converted into a meaningful and useful context.

-business intelligence : applications and technologies that are used to support decision making efforts.

IT RESOURCES

-people use

-information technology to work with

-information.

IT CULTURES.

-organizational information cultures include:

• information-Functional Culture-employees use information as a means of exercising influences or power over others,
• information-Sharing Culture-employees across departments trust each other to use information.
• information-Inquiring Cultures-employees across departments search for information to better understand the future and align themselves with current trends and new directions.
• information-Discovery Cultures-employees across departments are open to new insights about  crisis and radical changes and seek ways to create competitive advantages.