Transcript Issues in the Application of Information Technology for

Information Technology for
Strategic, Competitive
Advantage: Technologies,
Management and the Real World
Virginia Franke Kleist, Ph.D.
October 28, 2003
Assistant Professor
Division of MIS/Management
Welcome to the Technology
Part of the Program
Purpose of this class is to cover three aspects
of information technology:
1. TECHNOLOGIES: Current and new
trends in information technologies
2. MANAGEMENT: How can IT be used for
strategic, competitive advantage?
3. REAL WORLD: Real world case of
electronic commerce applications
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What about your firm?
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How are you using information technology (IT)
today in your firms and businesses?
How successful has this been for your firm?
Do you have problems that are still unresolved
with Information Technology?
Can IT give competitive advantage, anyway?
How can one identify which technologies will best
give strategic advantage?
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Instructor Background
 Educational
background
 Professional background
 Research focus:
– Biometrics Industry Cost/Benefit
– Biometrics Industry Performance
– Metrics in Technology: The ROI
– Electronic Markets
– Network Security infrastructures
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What are the latest
technologies of interest?
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TCP/IP and the Internet
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CPU’s and hardware
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Software and the open source code movement
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Client/server computing
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Storage area networks
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Interactive multimedia
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Developments in Electronic Commerce
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Databases and Datamining
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Handhelds, M-commerce
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Knowledge Management tools and Artificial Intelligence
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Technologies: TCP/IP and the
Internet
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Codes, bits and bytes
 Analog vs. Digital transmission
 Packet switching and circuit switching
 The IP address, TCP/IP layers
 Domain name resolution
 The world is becoming digital
 Physical vs. Logical connectivity
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Technologies: CPU’s and
Software
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Hardware components of a computer system
Buses, CPUs, MHz, RAM, Gigs and cache
Bits and Bytes, storage
Moore’s Law and price points per MIPs
Mainframes, RISC computers, Parallel processing
Open source movement in operating systems
Enterprise Resource Planning software
Object oriented programming
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Technologies: Client Server
Computing
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Distributed processing vs. centralized
processing
 Network computing
 Servers
 Bridges and routers, gateways
 Network management
 Ethernet and Token Ring
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Technologies: Storage Area
Networks
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Mirrors and provides redundancy
 Fibre channel connectivity
 EMC, Compaq, HP
 Fits with trend to pushing density of
corporate data further out into the “cloud”
network
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Technologies: Interactive
Multimedia
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Groupware
Voice over IP
Streaming technology
Flash, Maya, sophistication of Electronic
Commerce pages
MP3
Peer to peer sharing of applications
Seeing corporate uses in training applications
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Technologies: Electronic
Commerce
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The client/server/database three tier model
 HTML, JavaScript
 XML vs. EDI
 ASP and ActiveX, PHP, CGI
 Ultradev, Flash, DW and development tools
 Security and encryption issues
 Intranets and Extranets
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Technologies: Databases,
Datamining
Data is the company’s strategic asset (PWC)
 Data warehouses, multidimensional
databases and data marts
 OLAP vs. OLTP processing
 Informix, Oracle and Red Brick
 The database management system
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Technologies: Handhelds and
M- Commerce
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How does a cell phone work?
WAP technology
Palm and Visor
The Win CE platform
Linux in the small devices
EPOC operating system
What is M-commerce and what does it mean to
me?
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Technologies: Knowledge
Management Tools and Artificial
Intelligence
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Examples of Knowledge Management
systems
 Expert systems: the earthenware dam
 Neural Networks
 Fuzzy logic
 Intelligent agents
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Management: Information
Systems Planning
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IS plan maps to the corporate strategic plan
 Variety of IS planning styles: CSF,
Enterprise, other formal structures
 Plan itself: What are the components?
 Organizational change from systems:
TQM, BPR, paradigm shifts or simple
automation?
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Management: the Systems
Development Life Cycle
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Systems analysis
 Systems design
 Programming
 Testing
 Conversion
 Production mode and ongoing maintenance
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Management: Implementation
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The RFP document
Financial issues for IS planning
The payback concerns
Programming: the mythical man/month
Construction issues
testing and maintenance
end users
prototypes and pilots
outsourcing
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Management: Security Issues
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System quality, reliability, accuracy
 Data security controls
 The firewall and internet issues (hackers,
viruses, trojan horses, denial of service
attacks)
 Encryption, DES, SSL, SET
 Biometrics
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Strategic Advantage: IT at
work
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IT and changes in the organization of
business: flatter, leaner, teams, JIT, global
 Datamining and Walmart
 E-commerce and the supply chain at Dell
 M-commerce and Progressive Auto
 Internet and Egghead
 American Airlines, Baxter, Citibank
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Strategic Advantage: How does
one come up with this idea,
anyway?
(Laudon and Laudon, 2000)
Porter’s Value Chain: primary and support
activities
 The competitive forces model: Threats
from new market entrants, suppliers,
substitute products and customers
 Core competencies
 Network economics
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Some Problems from IT for
Competitive Advantage
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The productivity paradox
Tangible vs. intangible benefits from IT
Future cash flows analysis
Unique vs. staying even with competition
Value from simple automation projects
Value from highly risky, but strategic IT
projects
Risk vs. return issues
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How can your firm benefit
from IT?
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In supply chain management through
inventory management
 In the customer interface via ecommerce
 In logistics through GPS/GIS
 In client management through groupware
 In marketing through datamining
 In internal management through Intranets
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Real World: The Dell Case
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How did Dell achieve success?
What IT technologies did Dell use?
How does Dell use ecommerce successfully?
What are the ways that Dell uses IT for strategic,
competitive advantage?
What is Dell’s business model?
Will Dell be able to keep this success going, given
the recent troubles?
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