Adv Top in Enterprise Analysis Essay

1. What is the main thrust of the strategy that AOL has been pursuing? In 1999, the major problem facing the â€Å"AOL Anywhere† strategy was how high-speed, broadband technologies would impact the company’s future growth. If AOL were to remain dominant against its competitors, it, too, would have to offer broadband access. Indeed, the emergence of broadband was the motivation behind the AOL/Time Warner merger, which was announced on January 10, 2000. The merged company became a formidable presence in the Internet, media, and entertainment fields. 2. What appear to be the strengths of this strategy? Do you think AOL’s strategy is proactive or reactive, and why? One of the strengths of the strategy is that the company was able to expand into the next level of the media venues that the world was achieving. The strategy was a reactive one, AOL needed to make major changes to adapt the new technologies in the new worldly age. 3. Telecommunication capacities are doubling every six months. What are the implications of this for AOL’s strategy? What are the implications of this for IT and other functional managers in most firms today? The merger for AOL did cause some implications for the company, one was expense, AOL would have needed to hire new employees that were skilled in the new areas of the company and create a new division for the company to keep and manage the new areas. 4. Research reveals that office automation as an issue has been declining in importance for IT executives. What might this mean in terms of strategic information systems? Strategic information systems (SIS) are information systems whose unique functions or specific applications shape an organization’s competitive strategy and provide it with competitive advantage. Office automation in the IT system is not an easy accomplishment, systems are used constancy with no breaks by far more personal across a company, the process needs to be monitored and watch. 5. The six strategic thrusts we presented are not mutually exclusive. Discuss the implications of this fact. * Differentiation, Cost, Innovation, Growth, Alliance and Time these six strategies have their good and bad aspects for the company. The good points are that the strategies can help the company meet its goals; the bad points are working against the company if the goals are not meet in their set dates and times. 6. De-regulation has encouraged new entrants into the airline industry. Given the enormous advantages of competitors who own reservation systems, how can new entrants overcome barriers to entry? By sharing the technology with other companies who wanted to be in the airline business, Sable shared the technology for the reservation system. They also became the company that managed, updated and maintained new technologies for the system. 7. Discuss the role that IT managers play within a firm as it seeks to improve its competitive posture. What contributions can they make, and in what areas must they take the lead? IT manager keep their departments in the lead by including all department from IT as well as other areas from within the company. They will also attend seminars for new technologies that are coming out onto the market, I know in previous companies that the managers would attend these seminars for this very purpose, they also will upgrade their systems such as workstations every three years and major server systems every 5 – 10 years depending on its rate of use by the company. These timelines will usually keep the company in the completive edge since they will need to know what other companies are using and if they are happy with the technology. 8. What are the implications of new wireless technology such as Satellite TV, Web-enabled cell phones, and other handheld devices to the financial industry? One such implication is that new technologies are a risk for any company to take, especially early on in the development and test stages. Apple for instance knows this very well, The took a chance when they introduced the iPhone to the world. They could have had a disaster on their hands if they had not played the part correctly. 9. Discuss the importance of telecommunications to the Federal Express’ strategy. Telecommunications in the federal express industry is very important, it has allowed the industry to have the companies and the customers to work together and make the ability more efficient. Telecommunications systems enhance information flow between organizational entities, bridging the gap in space and time. 10. What is the significance of new economy e-business systems? Give some examples of the impact of telecommunications on internal business systems. Although expensive, the importance has provided the companies that use the internet for some of the services are more attractive to customers. Some of the features enabled the customers to make orders and ship their packages themselves online, this helps the company with scheduling because then they can determine a particular place and time for the customer to bring the packages to them to be processed. 11. How might firms seeking international competitive advantage rely on information technology? What strategic thrusts might they employ? Recognizing the immense importance of e-business, many firms are rapidly building infrastructures, re-engineering business practices, and developing partnerships with suppliers, distributors, and others as they adopt new technology. Case Study 2 1. Use on-line library databases to identify articles in trade publications that provide case studies of ERP implementations. These articles may provide some insight into each of these questions: a. How widespread is the use of ERP across certain industries? ERP systems help organizations deal with the supply chain, receiving, inventory management, customer order management, production planning, shipping, accounting, human resource management, and other business functions. b. What are the benefits reported from implementing ERP? Organizations have a business justification for implementing ERP systems. The business benefits of ERP include improved accessibility of information; real time access to data benefits the organization, improved cycle time for orders, decreased financial close time, and reduced operating costs, and lowered inventory levels. c. What are its limitations? One of the limitations is time, most ERP plans need years to full implement and show the true level of success. 2. Research and learn about the implementation of ERP. Use trade publications and on-line library databases (e.g., ABI Inform, ProQuest, First Search, Wilson Select Plus, available through your library) to conduct a search for articles. d. Find a success story of ERP implementation. What factors contributed to the success of this implementation? Some of successes in the case studies that I read have to do with the proper planning and the timeline goals of the business plan. e. Find a story of problems encountered with an ERP implementation. What factors contributed to the encountered obstacles? One common factor that I notice was the human obstacle, companies needed to rely on a good staff to make the company run smoothly and grow. The ERP implementation time line takes years to complete, and as long as the company has the staff it does succeed.