WK4 discussion

WK2discussioninfoInformationforcompetitiveadvantage.docx

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Organizations use information for key decisions in gaining a competitive advantage. First, if we consider Porter’s five competitive forces model, one can use information to change competitive forces in strengthening the company’s position in a competitive industry (citation – part of the document written How can Information resources be used strategically?). For example, acquiring information about a competitor’s product or service can help a company to innovate and differentiate its offering to the market by making it better or more efficient. The risk associated with this use of information is that most companies hold their success factors as top-secrets and accessing such information may lead to legal battles that cost companies a lot of money and tarnish their images. Secondly one can use information to change value-creating and value-altering factors of the company (citation – part of the document written How can Information resources be used strategically?). Internal and external assessments of customers, suppliers, and substitute products can give companies information to use in value addition for the companies like taking advantage of economies of scale with suppliers, or strategically pricing commodities to prevent customers from switching to other products or alternatives. The risk associated with this use of information can biased internal audits and in an industry which a common supplier, all companies enjoy similar advantages from the supplier.

Online universities can use information technology (IT) to gain an advantage by incorporating the new Web 2.0 mindset which focuses on automation, customer empowerment, transparency, and community (citation from Zipcar case study). Universities can use IT to create, produce, and offer various products and services to students, and make access to them easier (citation from Information resources as strategic tools). Using IT to capture, organize and retrieve information that students and lecturers mindset a university a forward push ahead of others as learning and access to course materials becomes easier (citation from Information resources as strategic tools).