MBA 506 Corporate Information Systems WWU

Resources like may provide competitive advantage

Brand, scale economies, switching costs, differentiation, network effects, distribution channels, and patents

4 characteristics of sustainable competitive advantage

Valuable, rare, tough to imitate, and non-substitutable

Brand

Is top of mind, represents quality, inspires trust, and likely to be recommended

Scale economies

Large fixed costs, high volumes of production, may provide bargaining power with suppliers/customers, and creates a barrier to entry for new firms

Switching costs

Customer learning curve, integration with other aspects of your life, loss of personalized data, bundled pricing discounts, shopping and acquisition costs, and cancellation costs

Network effects

Metcalfe’s law, value of a product/service increases with the number of users

Distribution channels

Required to access potential customers, retail stores, and smartphone platform

Patents

securing ownership to technology innovations, time-limited, open to theft, duplication, reverse engineering, costly and timely to prosecute, and virtually no ability to prosecute across international borders

Porter’s five forces (key framework)

1) threat of new entrants

2) bargaining power of suppliers

3) rivalry among existing competitors

4) bargaining power of buyers

5) threat of substitutes

Primary value-adding activities

Inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service

Enabling activities

Procurement, information technology, product/technology development, talent management, and executive/ legal and regulatory/ finance

Corporate strategy

A series of choices that determine the opportunities you’ll pursue, products, markets, and how to differentiate, and revenue drivers, business network. Drives positioning on market, product, business network, and boundary

Business model

Defines how an organization interacts with its environment to define a unique strategy, attract resources, build capabilities, execute strategy, and create value for all stakeholders

Business model canvas (key framework)

Structured template for documenting and analyzing a company’s business model including key partnerships, key activities, key resources, value propositions, customer relationships, channels, customer segments, cost structure, and revenue streams

IT initiative impact assessment (key framework)

Graphed based on impact to core capabilities vs impact to strategy.

Incremental improvement (low impact to core capabilities, low impact to strategy)

Process redesign (high impact to core capabilities, low impact to strategy)

Emerging opportunities (low impact to core capabilities, high impact to strategy)

Business transformation (high impact to core capabilities, high impact to strategy)

Business transformations

Designed to boost overall performance through increased revenue, lower operating costs, and better customer satisfaction and workforce productivity

Digital transformations

A specific type of business transformation that integrates digital technologies as crucial enablers in achieving the desired outcomes

Digital transformation readiness audit (key framework)

Assessing a company’s readiness to undertake a digital transformation on their resource readiness, cognitive readiness, and cultural readiness

Kroger case key takeaways

1) digital transformations must be visibly led from the top with a believable strategy and clear vision

2) partnerships and acquisitions are practical ways to accelerate a transformation given the time requires and the risk of going DIY

3) digital transformations place bets on key capabilities and capacities needed to satisfy evolving trends

Moore’s Law

Predicts transistor count on chips doubles every two years, boosting computing power exponentially

Platforms

Products and services that allow for the development and integration of software products and other complementary goods, effectively creating an ecosystem of value-added offerings

One-sided market

Single class of users generate all value (same-side exchange benefits between users)

Two-sided market

Two distinct types of users generate value (cross-side exchange benefits between user and merchant)

Social media four M’s of engagement

Megaphone, magnet, monitoring and mediation

URL (uniform resource locator)

Identifies resources on the internet along with the application protocol needed to retrieve it

http (hypertext transfer protocol)

Application transfer protocol that allows web browsers and web servers to communicate with each other

Protocol

Enables communication by defining the format of data and rules for exchange

IP address

Value used to identify a device that is connected to the internet used to identify a users physical location, tailor search results, and customize advertising

Domain name service (DNS)

Internet directory that lets devices and services be names and discovered, distributed database around the world to look up host/domain name and return the IP address, analogous to a big, hierarchical set of phone books capable of finding web and email servers and more

TCP (transmission control protocol)

Works at both ends of internet communication to ensure a perfect copy of a message is sent

IP (internet protocol)

Routing protocol in charge of forwarding packets on the internet

Components of the internet

networks, compute/storage, applications, and devices

Networking systems

Transport traffic between two physical locations, route traffic between specific nodes, and control systems manage, monitor, control, and maintain security

Data centers

Servers do the thinking, computing, analysis and AI, storage of applications and databases, lakes, warehouses, etc., and control systems manage, monitor, control, and secure the environment

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

Simplifies operations for enterprises by providing hardware (servers, storage, networking, and security)

Software as a service (SaaS)

Simplifies operations for enterprises by providing software (office productivity, ERP, CRM, financial, etc.)

Legacy system strategies

Graphed on scale of falling to growing usage vs short to long term need

Maintain until retirement (falling usage, short term need)

Tactical remediation (growing usage, short term need)

Modernize as strategic priority (growing usage, long term need)

Consider outsourcing (falling usage, long term need)

Series system design

Linear component design that is subject to failure of any component

Parallel system design

Non-linear component design that can provide redundancy to a failed component

Costs of cyber attacks

Lost revenues, brand damage/loss of customers, release of sensitive information, consultancy fees, ransom fees, recovery and restoration, and enhanced protection

Cyber security best practices

Access controls, awareness, detection, preparedness, protection, and reduce vulnerabilities

The project trade-off triangle

Scope, time, and cost are inextricably linked for a given quality

Enterprise IT projects types and risks

Infrastructure, applications, and system integration (with increasing project complexity and risk)

Waterfall software development methodology

1) requirements

2) design

3) development

4) testing

5) deployment

6) maintenance

Waterfall methodology projects are best suited for

Fixed budget, fixed and well documented requirements, require specific and detailed documentation, and use well understood technology with few surprises

Spiral model of software development

Spiraling through planning, risk analysis, design, and evaluation

Spiral methodology is best suited for projects that

Have cost-plus contracts or private/public partnership, is a new application of recent technology innovation, and highly complex system-of-systems

Agile methodology of software development

Series of <4 week sprints until project finishes

Agile methodologies are best suited for projects that

Clients wants on-going enhancements with flexible budget, frequent change in requirements, benefit from iterative development, require close collaboration between customer and development, and does not require detailed documentation

Top reasons IT projects fail

Lack of executive support, low user adoption, poor communication with stakeholder, scope creep, unclear or changing requirements, and inexperienced people