Managing Information Technology

528 Part IV • The Information Management System

Strengths

• Major transaction control systems are relatively new, functionally adequate, well-documented, maintainable, and opera-
  tionally efficient.


• The IS department has demonstrated effectiveness in adding new technologies (e.g., Web-enabling certain systems).


• There is a stable, competent professional IS staff with expertise in designing and programming transaction processing
  systems.


• Our IS outsourcing partner seems to manage a reliable, cost-effective data center.


• There is substantial use of our in-house electronic mail operation, frequented by most business managers in the company.


• There is substantial information technology expertise among business managers in both line and staff organizations.
  Weaknesses


• A single point of IS contact for internal customer operational problem diagnosis and resolution has not been established.


• There are limited data center performance measurement systems.


• There is a lack of emphasis on transaction-based systems development productivity.


• There is a high degree of technology specialization (narrowness) among IS professional staff and a limited degree of
  business orientation.


• There is limited departmental use of information technology beyond simple decision support and participation in common
  transaction processing systems.


• Few business managers make effective use of the Internet.
  Opportunities


• The IS department enjoys a high degree of credibility among the large and growing internal customer community.


• The role of the business manager in collaborating with the IS department has been institutionalized, facilitating ease
  of future system implementation.


• There is a growing base of internal customers who understand a wide range of information technologies and want to use
  IT for their business.


• The Internet provides data and interaction capability that would be of substantial strategic use to the firm.
  Threats


• The IS department’s effectiveness is threatened by pockets of internal customer negativism, especially among top
  management.


• Some business managers are developing a high degree of technical competence, which they employ in a nonintegrated
  fashion by developing separate workstation-based systems.


• The accelerating pace of technological change and proliferation of information technologies pose risks of control,
  obsolescence, and difficulty in maintaining IS professional staff competence.


• Extensive internal communication networks and internal customer access to external databases pose security risks to our
  data.


• The IS department is still not an integral part of company’s business planning process.

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

FIGURE 12.7 SWOT Analysis Example

ANALYSIS OF COMPETITIVE FORCES Competitive
advantage can come about by changing the balance of
power between a business and the other actors in the
industry (Porter, 1985). As seen from the strategic sys-
tems examples in earlier chapters, a company interested
in finding a strategic initiative can:

• Inhibit the entry of new competitors by raising the
  stakes for competing in the market or by redefining the
  basis for competition in at least one dimension (e.g.,
  price, image, customer service, product features).


• Slow the application of substitute products/services
  by providing difficult-to-duplicate features.