Реферат: Strategic Information Systems Essay Research Paper The

Another important consideration in positioning is ‘competitive scope’, or the breadth of the enterprise’s target markets within its industry, i.e. the range of product varieties it offers, the distribution channels it employs, the types of buyers it serves, the geographic areas in which it sells, and the array of related industries in which it competes.

Under Porter’s framework, enterprises have four generic strategies available to them whereby they can attain above-average performance. They are:

? cost leadership;

? differentiation;

? cost focus; and

? focused differentiation.

Porter’s representation of them is reproduced in Exhibit 3.

Exhibit 1: Porter’s Forces Driving Industry Competition

(Porter 1980)

According to Porter, competitive advantage grows out of the way an enterprise organises and performs discrete activities. The operations of any enterprise can be divided into a series of activities such as salespeople making sales calls, service technicians performing repairs, scientists in the laboratory designing products or processes, and treasurers raising capital.

Exhibit 2: Examples of IT Applications to Porter’s Strategic Stances

(Somogyi & Galliers 1987)

Low Cost Differentiation

Product Design * Production engineering * R&D databases *

and Development systems * Project control Professional work stations *

systems Electronic mail * CAD *

Custom engineering systems *

Integrated systems to

manufacturing

Operations * Process engineering * CAM for flexibility *

systems * Process control Quality assurance systems *

systems * Labor control Systems to suppliers *

systems * Inventory Quality monitoring systems

management systems * for suppliers

Procurement systems

Marketing * Streamlined distribution * Sophisticated marketing

systems * Centralised systems * Market databases *

control systems * IT display and promotion *

Econometric modelling Telemarketing * Competition