Managing Information Systems

For this assignment you will have to prepare a paper that critically discusses how organizations apply the strategic use of IS/IT to achieve competitive advantage. Some aspects and issues you may discuss in your paper could include (but are not limited to):

Question 1:

• Critically Discuss at least one (1) successful and one (1) unsuccessful examples of organizational attempts at gaining and enhancing competitive advantages via IS/IT in the industry/sector your organization are competing in or the organization you have chosen.
• Need to clearly spell out the gained or intended competitive advantage.
• Need to clearly present the key information the cases (e.g., purpose, process, journey, outcomes, success factors and lesson learned) more need space for discussion. 

Question 2: 

Critically discuses the success factors and lesson learned highlight some success factors for the successful example and lesson learned (i.e., what went wrong?) for your unsuccessful example.

• Clearly indicate success factor and lesson learned.
• Clearly highlight key factor before further expiation. 
• Present good expiation of identified factor. 
• It is better to have a separate section to discuss factor and lesson learned. 

Question 3:

Critically discuses various factors influence the success and the failure of organizational attempts at gaining and enhancing competitive advantage via IS/IT. 

• Some internal factors could include organizational (i.g, culture, structure, process, size industry, products  & services) individual, and management factors.
• External factors market, industry, social, economic, technological and political/policy factors.
•  Are internal factors more important than external factors? Or the other way around?

Question 4

Critically discuses the sustainability of comparative advantages gained via IS/IT some through are:

• Critically discuses whether IS/IT can give the sustainable competitive advantage to the organization.  
• What is the some challenge or issues?
• What can be done or need to be done to achieve sustained competitive advantage gained via IS/IT? What are some critically factors? 

You should apply relevant knowledge discussed in your unit. You should prepare for this assignment by reviewing the literature (i.e. by using ProQuest 5000 database at http://www.scu.edu.au/library/index.php/) and searching the World Wide Web (i.e. via Google). You should show evidence that you have read at least 10 references, which must be published after January 2012, in the literature (including references from academic and professional publications) to prepare this assignment. A variety of references are expected including books, refereed journals, case studies, newspapers, magazines and electronic references.

Introduction

An information system is a system that helps us to maintain, create, store and distribute data. Unlike most people think, it is much beyond just computers and software (Baskerville & Wood-Harper, 2016). The assignment examines how competitive advantage can be obtained by the effective use of IS/IT. A suitable organisation or industry will be selected, and the use of the IS/IT will be demonstrated with its help (Galliers Robert, 2014). Also, it will be examined what factors help in the successful implementation of IS/IT, what issues are faced during its implementation and what lessons can be learnt from unsuccessful attempts while implementing IS/IT. In an organisation, sustainability is very important. Hence, it will be discussed how we can make the implementation sustainable over the long run. If the process is not sustainable, then it hardly makes any sense to implement it and spend a fortune on it. One more important factor is that there should be proper transparency while executing and planning the use of an information system. 

An example of a Successful Implementation of IS in the Financial Sector

Most of the financial institutions today suffer from an ill-maintained information system (IS). Over the last ten years, many organisations have moved to the management information system (Nkuru, 2015). Many have been successful as well. In this example, it will be considered the case of the Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (SACCOs) in Kenya (Nkuru, 2015). 

The main issue with these SACCOs was that either they didn't have an automated system or they lacked the efficiency in their present system (Kaburu, 2013). Due to a lack of proper MIS, they were not able to introduce e-banking, card payments and mobile banking. Managing the information efficiently and effectively was the need of the hour for these SACCOs to reduce the operational costs. 

To tackle this issue, the ICT department setup was done with the proper formulation of ICT policies. It is also recommended to start building capacity through knowledge increase, proper training, and the transfer of skill. Best standards and practices are something that cannot be ignored. Hence, those were also employed for the easy and smooth functioning of the IS (Kaburu, 2013).

A proper training program was conducted for all the staff members, and the skills of the staff were increased further. Initially, there was a reluctance to change, but with time it was streamlined.