Week Two B.I.T

Week 2: blog site

Q1. explain information technology's role in business and describe how you measure success?

A1. I.T is mainly an enabler, and a facilitator of various business functions. I.T has developed into a global tool of linkage of various data, to optimize business technology's efficiency and effectiveness.

I.T items are controlled through three categories key performance indicators, efficiency I.T metric and Bench marking.

1. Key performance indicators: measure the synchronization's of internal operations of I.T with business set goals.

2. Efficiency I.T metric: measures the actual performance of the system; and effectiveness I.T metrics: measures the impact of I.T on the daily business operation.

3. Bench marking: is a continuous process that measures system results or benchmarking values, compares them and identify improvements.

Q2.  List and describe each of the forces in Porter’s Five Forces Model

These are the following steps to Porter' five forces model;

1. the threat of the entry of new competitors;

profitable markets that yield high returns will attract new firms. with this is mind it becomes identifiable that brand equity, customer loyalty and barriers to entry will be analyzed with competitor entry.

2. The intensity of competitive rivalry;

for most industries, the industry of competitive rivalry is the major determinant of the competitiveness of the industry.

* The level of advertising expense
* Powerful competitive strategy
* Sustainable competitive advantage through innovation

3. The threat of substitute products or services;

the existence of products outside of the realm of the common product boundaries increases the propensity of customers to switch to alternatives

* Buyer switching cost
* Buyer propensity to substitute

4. The bargaining power of customers

The bargaining power of customers is also described as the market of outputs, the ability of customers to put the firm under pressure which also affects the customers sensitivity to prices changed.

5. Bargaining power of suppliers

The bargaining power of suppliers is also described as the market of inputs. suppliers of raw materials, components, labor and services to the firm can be a source of power over the firm, when there are few substitutes.

Q3. describe the relationship between business processes and value chains?

A business process; is a collection of related structured activities that produce a service or product that meet the needs of a client

A value chain; is a chain of activities for a firm operating in a specific industry. the business unit is the appropriate level for construction of a value chain, not the division level of corporate level

Thus the relationship these to two share is that, they both work hand in hand. The value chain is the product evaluation of worth which must be processed so the business functions can flow properly

Q4. compare porter's three generic strategies 


the three main generic strategies are as follows;

Cost leadership strategy: is about minimizing the cost to organization of delivering products and services. The cost or price paid by the customer is a seperate issue.

Differentiation strategy: involves making your products or services different from and more attractive thoes of your competitors. "organisations need: good research/development and innovation"

The focus strategy: companies that use focus strategies concentrate on particular niche markets and by understanding the dynamics of that market and the unique needs of customers within it.