Chapter 3: Achieving competitive advantages with Information Systems Flashcards
How to use IT systems for cost-leadership?
Use information systems to get the lowest operational costs and prices. Efficient customer response system links customer behaviour to distribution, production and supply chains.
How can you use information system for a differentiation strategy?
Use information systems by creating new products and services or by enhancing customer convenience.
What is mass customization?
Mass customization refers to offering individually tailored products using the same resources as mass production.
What is customer experience management?
It refers to managing the experience of buying the product.
What are smart products?
products that are part of a larger set of information services sold by a firm
What is benchmarking?
Comparing efficiency and effectiveness of your business process against standards and measuring performance
What are best practices?
This is the most succesful solutions for achieving a business objective
What is a value web?
This is a collection of independent firms that use IT to coordinate value chains to produce goods for a market collectively
When are synergies created?
Synergies are created when outputs of one process can be used as input for other process, or when expertise is shared that create lower costs
What are core competencies?
These are activities in which a firm is an industry leader. Firms should use information systems to build out and strenghten these core competencies.
What are virtual companies?
These are companies that use networks to link people, assets and ideas to ally with other companies to crate goods without being limited by physical boundaries.
What are business ecosystems?
Business ecosystems are interdependent networks of suppliers, distributors etc/ Information systems are crucial for communication and collaboration
What are disruptive technologies?
Innovations that change a business environment
What is a domestic exporter strategy?
This strategy means that there is a centralization of corporate activities in a company’s home country
What is a multinational strategy?
This is a strategy where financial management is in home country, and major business functions are decentralized in other countries
What is a franchise strategy?
This is a strategy where product creation happens in home country but production is done by foreign personnel in branches of the company.
Wat is a transnational strategy?
This is a strategy where there are many regional headquarters. Supply and demand where they appear and taking advantage of any local competitive advantages
What are the four types of systems in global systems configuration?
- Centralized systems
- Decentralized systems
- Duplicated systems
- Networked systems
What are centralized systems?
systems are developed at central domestic home base. This fits with an exporter strategy
What is a duplicated system?
This is a system that is developed at home base but the operations are handed to autonomous units abroad. This fits with a franchiser strategy
What are decentralized systems?
These are systems where each foreign unit designs their own systems. This fits with an exporter and multinational strategy
What is a networked system?
This is a system where development occurs in an integrated way across all units. This fits a multinational (financial reporting) and transnational strategy
What is quality?
For the producer: spec comformance
For customer: durability, ease, comfort etc.
What is total quality management?
This is a philosophy stating that quality is the responsibilty of all people and functions within an organization
What is six sigma?
This is a specific measure of quality represented by 3.4 defects per million opportunities
Name 5 ways to use information systems to improve quality
- Reduce cycle time
- Benchmarking to competitors
- Improving quality of customer service
- Improve design quality and precision
- Improve production precision and tighten production tolerances
What is cycle time?
Refers to time between beginning and end of a process
What are computer-aided-design systems (CAD-systems)
These systems automate creation of designs using software
What is business process management?
Business approach aiming to continuously improve business processes.
What are the steps of business process management?
- Identify processes for change
- Analyze existing processes (BPMN-model)
- Design the new process
- Implement new process
- Continuous improvement
What is business process reengineering?
This is a radical rethinking and redesign of business processes, which can lead to productivity and efficiency gains.
