IT for Competitive Advantage

IST 601

Term Paper (200 points)

Due the beginning of class Thursday, December 7, 2006

The intent of this course is to examine how information technology can be used for competitive advantage. This term paper gives you an opportunity to evaluate how a particular organization has used information technology to attain that sought after competitive advantage. Select a real-world organization that used IT to gain this advantage and prepare a critique of how the organization used IT to its advantage. The following areas should be covered in your report:

Organization Description: This description should include information about the organization such as its size (number of employees), annual revenues, the type of business it's in, its position within the market (i.e. market leader). Include any other information that defines the organization.

Include a strategic analysis of your organization. You may choose any accepted technique to analyze your case. Examples include a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunites and threats), Porter's Five Forces Model, the Value Chain Model, Balanced Scorecard approach or others you have learned. Analyze and discuss the nature and problems of the organization's corporate and IT strategics and then analyze its structure and systems.

Opportunity: Describe an opportunity within the organization that could be realized using IT. For example, an organization may need improved customer service, may need to eliminate inaccurate inventory problems, or may simply need to improve communication among the numerous global business units. Select a opportunity of significant magnitude for the organization - any critical path process would be appropriate. Providing an electronic means for salespersons to enter their expenses would not be considered appropriate even though the salespeople may consider this a worthwhile opportunity.

Mention any constraints that limit the selection of the solution. Examples would be lack of funds, technical expertise, or absence of a telecommunciations infrastructure.

Solution: Describe how the organization used IT to seize the opportunity presented above and add value. This could involve purchasing new hardware or software or simply redesigning a business process. List any problems that occurred with implementing the solution. Identify any positive outcomes. Be sure to include the success or failure of the action.

Discussion: Discuss the solution selected. Was it the correct solution? Do you agree with it? Was it used effectively? Should another solution have been tried? I am looking for original thought here.

Ideas for this assignment can be found in popular business magazines such as Business Week, Business 2.0, and Information Week. I have numerous copies of Information Week you can use for ideas.

The term paper must fulfil the following requirments:

• Must exhibit good writing. Attention must be paid to:
• spelling
• grammar
• excessive verbage
• well-expressed thoughts
• flow between sentences and paragraphs
• Must provide adequate content
  • complete descriptions
  • appropriate graphics such as charts, figures, etc.
  • sufficient analysis of the problem and solution
• Must include:
  • Title Page
  • Executive Summary
  • Table of Contents
  • Appendix
  • References (if appropriate)
• Must be professionally presented
  • clean, white paper (it is not necessary to use a high quality bond paper)
  • pages must be typed (12 pt. Times Roman font) and lines double-spaced
  • must be visually attractive
  • diagrams must be neatly drawn and labeled
  • turned in on time
  • should be placed in some kind of a cover
  • should be of sufficient length to answer all the questions (20 pages would not be unreasonable)

Project deadlines:

• Proposal
• 4 pages - double spaced, 12 pt. font, 1 inch margins
• state the organization you will analyze and how you plan to proceed
• Due September 26th, 2006
• Final Project
• Due December 7, 2006