Week 1 Discussion

1/12/2021 South University

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Strategy and MIS

System designers adopt various strategies of decision-making in an organization. There are four stages involved in decision making such as:

Intelligence: Gathering information to identify problems in the organization.

Design: Proposing alternative solutions to problems.

Choice: Selecting a solution from various alternatives.

Implementation: Executing the decision and reporting the progress of the solution’s implementation.

You may decide to revisit the design or choice stages when an implementation does not work. To be able to make the correct decision, you need to understand the concept of value chain analysis.

Value Chain Analysis

The value chain model is the most common analytical tool used at the business level. The model highlights speci�c activities that add a margin of value to an organization’s products or services, by leveraging the IS to achieve competitive advantage. IS is said to have strategic impact if it helps the

1/12/2021 South University

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organization provide products or services at lower costs compared to competitors or if it provides products or services at the same cost as competitors but with greater value. The organization’s value chain can be linked to the value chains of its suppliers, customers, distributors, and partners.

Digitally enabled networks are used not only to purchase supplies but also to closely coordinate and manage the production of independent suppliers. Let’s consider an example of how Lee Sport, a subsidiary of VF Corporation, implements Value Chain Analysis. Lee Sport buys and leases production capability from sewing shops in New York City to produce tee shirts and sweat shirts, which are then sent to their screen print operation in Tampa for their licensed sportswear business. The sewing fabric styles, colors, and production size scales change to meet the changing demand and buying patterns of customers at VF stores and VF factory outlets.

A value web is a customer-driven network of independent organizations on the Internet. These organizations use IT to coordinate their value chains to collectively produce a product or a service for the market.

Next we will discuss strategic IS and its functions.