For any enterprise, the quality of the information generated based on operations internally and interactions with customers, clients, suppliers, distribution partners and service providers can quickly determine if profitability will be achieved and maintained. Information is the catalyst of economic growth and the stabilizing force in any business. To the extent a given enterprise can quickly aggregate, analyze and create intelligence from their information systems and knowledge bases is the extent they can ward of competitors, stay more agile in turbulent markets, and deliver products on time, earning a profit in the process. The skills required to implement a highly coordinated information technologies strategy is indispensable for attaining and continually fueling competitive advantage. Considering the most critical business processes any company is based on makes this point very clear. Consider the coordinated information strategies involved with managing a global supply chain network, specifically the functions of product and supplier quality management and supplier performance data (Forslund, 2010). Both of these functions are critical for any enterprise that is involved in distribution or manufacturing to deliverable high quality products that last. There is also the need for managing suppliers to forecasts, including the requirement of supply chain accuracy and forecasting performance (Forslund, 2010). Within industries where there is significant product lifecycle churn and changes to overall marketing conditions rapidly, the use of information technologies as a strategic competitive advantage becomes clear. The intent of this analysis is to illustrate why implementing coordinated technologies do in fact deliver significant competitive advantages over time.
Coordination Across Functions
Skills at Implementing Coordinated Information Technologies Are a Strategic Competitive Advantage
For any enterprise, the quality of the information generated based on operations internally and interactions with customers, clients, suppliers, distribution partners and service providers can quickly determine if profitability will be achieved and maintained. Information is the catalyst of economic growth and the stabilizing force in any business. To the extent a given enterprise can quickly aggregate, analyze and create intelligence from their information systems and knowledge bases is the extent they can ward of competitors, stay more agile in turbulent markets, and deliver products on time, earning a profit in the process. The skills required to implement a highly coordinated information technologies strategy is indispensable for attaining and continually fueling competitive advantage. Considering the most critical business processes any company is based on makes this point very clear. Consider the coordinated information strategies involved with managing a global supply chain network, specifically the functions of product and supplier quality management and supplier performance data (Forslund, 2010). Both of these functions are critical for any enterprise that is involved in distribution or manufacturing to deliverable high quality products that last. There is also the need for managing suppliers to forecasts, including the requirement of supply chain accuracy and forecasting performance (Forslund, 2010). Within industries where there is significant product lifecycle churn and changes to overall marketing conditions rapidly, the use of information technologies as a strategic competitive advantage becomes clear. The intent of this analysis is to illustrate why implementing coordinated technologies do in fact deliver significant competitive advantages over time.
Creating Competitive Advantage Through Coordinated Technologies
Today more businesses' core value is based on how quickly they can aggregate, analyze and use valuable information to make more informed decisions. The ability to move beyond using integrated information systems merely as report writing platforms or after-the-fact analytical tools has already arrived. Using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to make an entire enterprise more customer-focused and demand-driven is key to its success (Haug, Pedersen, Arlbjorn, 2010). In previous decades the use of information systems and technologies to optimize the performance of just one functional area led to a siloing of system use, which crippled companies over time, making them unable to communicate with one another to achieve strategic goals and objectives (Forslund, 2010). Enterprises began to unify their diverse enterprise systems using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), database management and sophisticated integration platforms to bring together all available information for use in accomplishing key goals and objectives. This approach to unifying information made it possible for General Electric to share information across its entire value chain, leading to greater profitability and higher market share as a result in core markets (Jones, Young, 2006). Clearly enterprises who concentrate on these aspects of performance regarding Information Technologies have a significant competitive advantage over time.
Information Technology (it) Contributions to Enterprise Competitiveness
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