|
Archive@NYU >
Stern School of Business >
IOMS: Information Systems Working Papers >
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2451/14387
|
| Title: | A VALUE-CHAIN BASED MODEL FOR SUPPORTING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENTS |
| Authors: | Dhar, Vasant |
| Issue Date: | Oct-1991 |
| Publisher: | Stern School of Business, New York University |
| Series/Report no.: | IS-91-29 |
| Abstract: | Business organizations are thinking increasingly in terms of information
technology solutions to business problems, as opposed to data processing
for supporting the business. Information technology is now viewed as an
important means for achieving competitive advantage. For firms in
hardware/software business it is therefore becoming increasingly
important to provide clients with the means to do an analysis of
business needs and strategies and to think in terms of providing global
IT solutions that address these needs. The value-chain model articulated
by Porter (1985) attempts to link IT solutions to business strategy. It
is based on a simple economic theory: a firm remains competitive by
virtue of being a low cost producer or differentiating its
products/services; accordingly its strategies must be based on
countering forces (such as new entrants, substitute products, bargaining
power of buyers and suppliers) that erode these advantages . Information
technology is considered a key factor in being able to deal with these
forces Accordingly, how much to spend and where to spend on information
technology is determined by how well it enables the firm to deal with
its dominant forces (threats). Porter's model has found widespread
appeal among practitioners (notably information systems executives) due
to its simplicity and intuitive appeal. Several methodologies have been
designed around this model that encourage executives to "think
through" this model in order to identify technologies that could
provide competitive advantage. However, there are no existing
formalizations of the value-chain model either by industry, market
structure, or organizational structure. We have been developing such a
model for a specific industry (insurance) with the objective of building
an executive support tool that can show interactively, how a proposed
technology or organizational change can impact specific metrics/values
of interest of business processes defined at various levels of
abstraction, and thereby the bottom line. By using such a model, an
executive can also analyze technology and resource requirements required
to transform one set of business processes into another, more desirable state. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2451/14387 |
| Appears in Collections: | IOMS: Information Systems Working Papers
|
All items in Faculty Digital Archive are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved.
|
