It and Research

1. It and Research Strategists have viewed IT as a potential technological ressource thathelpsorganizations to do thingsbetter. Focus on how IT bringsvalue to the company. Until the 1980s Focus on it-strategies (IT investment and implementation) and It-planning (It-infrastructure).

2. The strategicgrid model wasintroduced, which is a tool in assessingwhether and how IT is strategicallyimportant to an organization. IT can have fourroles in an organization. - If IT in use is percieved as havinghighstrategicimportance and if the systems currentlybeingdevelopedareperceived to beimportant, the importance of IT to the organizationcanbetermedstrategic.

3. If in contrast, curerentdevelopmentprojectsare not perceived as beingimportant, the role of IT canbetermed ”Factory”. • If current systems are not perceived as strategic but the ones in the development pipeline are, IT canbeviewed as a means to provide a business ”turnaround”. • For organizations in which IT has lowimportancetoday and no potential technologiescanbeused to alter the business, IT canbeseen as a support.

4. Porters five forces and IT • Youcanuse Porters five forces to describehow IT createsvalue, strategically. • Erectingbarriers to entry • Creatinghighswitchingcosts • Altering the balance of power in relation to suppliers • Changing the basis of competition and • Creting new products. Remenberthat IT is a potential source of competitiveadvantage.

5. The recognitionthat IT does not automatically generate valuedominatedmuch of the research during the 1990s. Now companiescanuse the WEB for sales, marketing, procurement and other operations, which have given the companiesnewoptimismabout IT. • Lets look at e-commerce and howe-commercecangeneretevalue.

6. In the e-commerce model wearelooking at four variables: • Efficiency (highlights the advantage of e-business in reducingtransactioncosts) Costsarereduced and more options areavailable in selectingtransaction partners • Novelty (new transactionstructures, new transactionalcontent, new participants….)

7. Market systems – customers, suppliers and competitors • This chapterfocus on CRM and SCM systems. CRM interact om the marked side of the business model whereyou find the customers and the competiters. SCM interact on the factor market the origin of suppliers and production input.

8. Lock-In ( loyalty programs, difficult to switch supplyers, dominent design Amazon ect…) • Complementarities (the valuelies in reduced distribution cost and getting the customerafterentering the net to pik up the products in the shop and hopefullybuy more)

9. Customer Relationship Management • CRM systems aredesigned and used to improve the understanding of the customers and the market and, in the long term, improve a firm’smarket position and profitability. • CRM systems include software and technology for collecting and maintaining data and provide tools to analyse and report data aboutcustomersand competitors. Customers only have to makeonecall and theywillget the right serviceperson.

10. Supply Chain Management • The idea of SCM systems is to support all activitiesrelated to procurement of production input, storinginventory, distributingfinishedgoods and manageing the supplychain. • With SCM systems youcantrack and trace all yourmaterial over geographical and organizationalboundaries.

11. At last the activitiesthatare most affected by SCM systems areprocurement, inboundlogistics and outboundlogistics.