Wiseman's framework of strategy development

RUNNING HEADER: Information Technology Management 1

Information Technology Management 7

Information Technology Management

Crystal Randolph

Colorado Technical University

Noel Broman

Date: July 18, 2018

Information Technology Management

Strategic Information System Assessment

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

1. High Quality Standards: This is perhaps the major strength of the information system environment. The information system quality standards as adopted by the organization meet the international standards requirement. This compliance is of great benefit to the larger information systems industry as a whole (Wood, Pollard & Turban, 2015).

2. Computerized Machinery: The Company is leveraging on the latest available technology to support its production activities. This in turn ensures that the company produced high quality products while at the same time boosting the production capacity of the company’s staff (Wood, Pollard & Turban, 2015).

3. Competent Management: The Company also benefits from a highly skilled management based on the high quality management information system it has adopted. This creates a very resourceful labor pool to be applied in the company’s management hence increasing the chances of the company’s success (Wood, Pollard & Turban, 2015).

4. A Fully Equipped Management Information System: This allows the organization to ensure inter-connectedness of its various company departments as well as its employees. Consequently, there is easy sharing of data and coordinating of activities within the organization. Also, this MIS adequately reflects the comprehensive picture of the organization and its performance at any point in time. Besides, such a comprehensive MIS enhances the problem solving capabilities within the company (Wood, Pollard & Turban, 2015).

Weaknesses

1. Imperfect updating of information system: The various security gaps that the company faces may be directly or indirectly related to its imperfect updating of its information system. This increases the likelihood of the information system to be corrupted by malware (Castillo, 2016).

2. Staff Infiltration : Some staff may be having unauthorized access to the company’s data as contained in its information system (Castillo, 2016).

3. Weak information structure: This may be caused by the imperfect programming of data flows within the information system. As such, there may be cases of unanticipated data leakages (Castillo, 2016).

4. Weak communication structure : As a consequence of late updating of relevant hardware, security errors may arise. These errors in turn may give room for malware to corrupt the company’s information system via unprotected ports (Castillo, 2016).

Opportunities

1. Flawless information systems: Flawless information systems, couples with great leadership within the company, portend great benefits for the company. For instance, such information systems enhance the accuracy of investment decision-making within the company (Castillo, 2016).

2. More accurate demand forecasting: A well-designed MIS will boost the capability of the organization’s marketing and sales department to forecast demand and sales of the organization’s products and services. As such, production is synchronized in a manner that enhances efficiency within the company (Castillo, 2016).

Threats

1. Monitoring of Network: It is possible that weaknesses in the information system may be detected, and subsequently, data is sourced from the system so as to make preparations for future attacks hence compromising the security of the entire system (Castillo, 2016).

2. Alteration of sent data: Data may be altered with the intention of causing misinformation within the company’s information system (Castillo, 2016).

3. Redundant information: Redundant information may be intentionally introduced within the system so as to cause confusion among the users of the system (Castillo, 2016).

4. Information System Overload: This overload renders the system inaccessible through disconnecting it from the computer networks and communication infrastructure within the organization, ultimately withholding service to users of the system (Wood, Pollard & Turban, 2015).

Forces presently governing competition

The case study organization is by extension in the e-commerce business. Most of its transactions with its target market are carried out via an online platform. In the contemporary world, there are many e-commerce companies while many more seek to move from traditional brick and mortar stores to having an online platform. As such information systems will continue to play a pivotal role in organizations going into the future. However, the e-commerce space has more room for more firms to enter hence threat of new entrants is a major challenge governing competition. This is because setting up an online company requires much less capital requirements and absolute costs. This reduces barriers to entry of new firms and thus the organization may face strong competition due to the increased concertation of firms (Wood, Pollard & Turban, 2015).

The organization also faces a threat of more established rivals in the e-commerce space. These are companies such as Amazon and EBay that increase the level of competition and hence limiting the market share for smaller firms. This is because established rivals have larger advertising budgets and hence a more powerful competitive strategy as compared to smaller firms. Therefore, in such a case, innovation becomes the key to a successful competitive strategy to most of the smaller organizations. The level of innovation exhibited by competing firms goes a long way to determine the distribution of the market share among these firms (Castillo, 2016).

Strategic Thrusts

As per Wiseman’s framework of strategy development, the following strategy thrusts shall prove beneficial for the organization in its plan to implement a successful information management system. They are;

1. Differentiation;

Owing to the potentially high number of competitors, differentiation of the company’s products and services becomes important in creating a competitive edge for the company. Differentiation is facilitated by innovation within the organization. For this innovation to have practical benefits throughout the company, then an information system management plan will coordinate innovative ideas and activities from the various departments and synchronize processes towards creating differentiated products and services (Castillo, 2016).

2. Cost

Ensuring low production costs is one way through which the organization may gain a competitive advantage. Therefore, an information system management plan enhances the level of effectiveness and efficiency of the work processes and activities within the organization (Wood, Pollard & Turban, 2015). These in turn helps in keeping production costs at the minimum.

3. Alliance;

Increasing the market share for the organization may entail alliances with other firms in the same competitive space. Alliances can be realized through inter-firm mergers and acquisitions. For this reason, an integrated information system management plan would prove beneficial to ensure the success of such alliances (Castillo, 2016).

References

Castillo, F. (2016). Managing Information Technology. Springer.

Wood, G., Pollard, C., & Turban, E. (2015). Information Technology for Management; Advancing Sustainable, Profitable Business Growth. Wiley & Sons Publishing.