Why do we need information?

Information has to be accurate, timely (available), complete and relevant. If not?

So, what is relevant?

Modern organisations compete in a challenging environment. To remain competitive, they must...

A business environment is comprised of a number of factors in which businesses conduct their operations. These are:

Business Environments Map

What are the 3 Major Business Pressures?

What are the 4 factors of Market Pressures?

What are 2 factors of Technology Pressures?

What are 5 factors of Societal/Political/Legal Pressures?

Given all pressures placed on a business, what do they need to develop in order to survive and compete?

Every organisation exists for some reason. Examples of this may be?

An organisational strategy is developed by 2 factors, these are?

What is the aim of a organisational strategy through goals and objectives?

What does an organisational structure establish?

An IS must align with the goals of the organisation. Why is this?

For a business to be successful, it must be:

A competitive business strategy ensures that:

How does an organisational strategy determine what information systems are used by an organisation? (chart)

In regards to Competitive Strategy, what its the best known framework for analysing competitiveness?

Why do companies use Porter's model?

What does Porter's model demonstrate in regards to IT?

How is the Web involved?

Porter’s model identifies five major forces that can endanger or enhance a
company’s position in a given industry. These 5 forces model is:

5 Forces Examples? (Table)

When can an organisation decide where it wants to position itself within it's industry?

Organisations continually try to develop strategies to counter the five competitive forces identified by Porter.
It is important to note that an organisation's choice of strategy involves what?

Companies must select a strategy and then stay with it. This is because:

After analysing industry structure, the organisation then determines the best competitive strategy. Which 4 factors has Porter identified must be consistent with strategy?

Porter identified 5 generic competitive strategies: (table)

We know that after analysing industry structure, the organisation then
determines the best competitive strategy. They then need to:

2 Examples of this?

How is this done?

Organisations use the Porter's 5 Forces and Competitive Strategy Models to design general strategies. To identify specific activities where they can use competitive strategies for the greatest impact, they use:

What is a value chain?

What does the value chain identify?

If an organisation makes a change or introduces a new way of doing something that adds value, then is makes more money. (profit) this is done by:

According to Porter’s value chain model, the activities conducted in any
organization can be divided into two categories:

What are Primary Activities?

What are support activities?

The Value chain (Chart)

Linkages - What was Porter's idea when creating the concept of Value Chains?

What is the 'holy grail' alignment of organisations?

What is Business-information technology alignment?

There are 6 characterises of excellent alignment:

Many organisations fail to achieve close alignment. Given the importance of business-IT alignment, why do so many organisations fail to implement this policy? The major reasons are:

One solution to this problem is:

What is a Business Process?

A process is comprised of 3 fundamental elements:

Why do Business Processes implement value chains or portions of value chains?

Successful organisations measure their process activities - why?

There are two fundamental metrics that organisations employ in assessing their processes. What are these and what do they focus on?

Business Processes (Table for example)

Business Process Example (Ordering an ticket from an airline)

How can an organisation use it's business processes to create a competitive advantage?

What are 2 steps in which organisations take that determine if their business processes are well designed?

How can Business Processes be documented?

What is BPMN 2.0?

4 ways why we document processes?

BPMN 2.0 Example

We know now that a business process is supported by an Information System. Why is better information systems essential to the activities of a Value Chain?

Information systems & Competitive advantage (List)

An information system is a critical enabler of an organisation's business processes. 2 reasons why?

IS play a vital role in which 3 areas?

Important notes to take from this topic: