How Does Information Systems Enhance Business Strategy?

Organisations today find themselves operating in an environment that is changing rapidly. The process of analysing the implications of these changes and modifying the way that the organisation reacts to them is known as business strategy.

Strategy is a set of complicated tactics formulated by the executives of a company directed towards the achievement of company’s goal (Salmela, 2002). It is about all the path ways that a company would follow to reach its ultimate goal. It is a company’s strategy which helps to identify what it does better than the other companies in the industries, which may be different from what it does best. For successful strategy formulation and implementation, a company should know the needs of customers and should have knowledge of its competitors. Through a good strategy a company would identify that opportunity which makes it different from the others (Thompson, 2005).

1.1. A strategy is a term used to describe the firm’s “overall efforts to gain and sustain competitive advantage” (Rothaermel, 2013, p. 9). The “translation of the strategy into action takes place in the firm’s business model, which details the firm’s competitive tactics and initiatives” (Rothaermel, p. 11). Basically, a strategy will explain how a firm will make money but the difference between a strategy and the business model is the business model explains how the firm intends to make the money AND puts it into action; the strategy just gives the theory. Business models put strategy into action. A strategy focuses on the company in

According to Slack et al. The corporate strategy or business strategy is the guide lines for the whole corporation’s businesses in relation to its markets, customers, and the competitors (2007). In the same context, the same authors discussed the link between the corporate strategy and

1. Identify the firm’s business strategy: A business strategy is the firm's working plan for achieving its

A strategy is a “game plan” that distinguishes the company from its competitors, so that it can attract customers and succeed.

A business strategy is concerned with major resource problems e.g. raising the finance to create a brand new industrial plant. Strategies are also involved with choosing on what products to allocate major resources to.

The overall strategy of a business is what gives a business direction and a way forward. This in turn relates to

Business strategy is the long term operating plan of a company; this plan specifies vision, mission and objectives through the development of policies. Information strategy can be used to implement the business strategy of a company; technology can be the tool by which a business can achieve its goal. The marrying or collaboration of the two is an ideal, to which companies theorize is the future. In the case of Jack Lowry of Goldman Industrial, the collaboration of business strategy and information strategy should be in the here and now. (Worthen 2001)

Business strategy drives organizational strategy and IS strategy. The organization and its Information System should clearly support defined business goals and objectives.

In term of business strategies, there should be hundreds definitions, especially in such a huge field as marketing. Marketing strategy is the process that the firm uses to translate its business objectives and strategies into market activities. To be more specific, a marketing strategy enables the company to select a target segment and localize the desired position that the products aim to target customer then specify the plan for the promoting activities to get the goal (Silk, 2006). The key for the managers and their business to achieve success is to understand how to harness the organization’s resources to meet customer’s needs using marketing analysis, understand competitors, consider political issues, technological and external and internal changes, government actions as well as globalization (Gauzente et al., 2004)

There is no exact definition for Strategy because it is defined in different ways as some people think that make a plan to get success in future is a strategy while others think that future is hard to predict. Exceptionally, some Japanese companies have no strategies though these companies have a good cost and continuous improvement. The definition for strategy is to explain the direction and scope of any company for the long term to achieve advantage for the company or to fulfill the needs and expectations. Strategy is different from Operational effectiveness and they work in different manner in the companies. Michael Porter, who is a professor at Harvard Business School and a strategy expert, says that it should determine how organizational resources and skills should create advantage. Accordingly, Strategy can also be defined as an organizational change during actions in the organizations for better and advantageous results or to determine how we win and get success in the future period. It is a needful developed plan with respect to market to compete the world. Organizations should be responsible for competitive changes according to the market. It is the main goal for any Organizations. Business/IT strategy is very important to know the success rate of your business. Apart from Business Strategy, the other two main types of strategy are Corporate Strategy and Team Strategy. These strategies give competitive advantage of cost leadership, differentiation and focus. The

The strategy is commonly regarded as the prerogative of the business executive. The purpose of the business strategy is to achieve a competitive advantage, that is to say the ability to generate a sustainable profit higher than concurrent, although cases of companies whose performance remains permanently above market remain extremely rare. The business strategy is basically to answer three questions:

A strategy is said to be a plan that is made for the long term success of a product or brand. It is extremely important to have a strategy in order to figure out a direction towards which any company is able to focus all its resources efficiently and achieve desired outcomes. Formulating effective strategies is a considerably long process in itself that combines analysing several factors, situations and issues that are already present in a company and looking to improve on them alongside trying to implement various innovations and ideas to collectively create a direction towards which they can move and direct the resources available to them.

Information system (IS) can be any sorted out mix of individuals, equipment, programming, interchanges systems, information assets, and arrangements and techniques that stores, recovers, changes, and spreads data in an association. Individuals depend on cutting edge data frameworks to speak with each other utilizing an assortment of physical gadgets (equipment) data handling directions and systems (programming), correspondences channels (systems) , and put away (information assets) . By Patterson a data framework is a gathering of interrelated parts that work to complete info, handling, stockpiling, and yield and control activities with a specific end goal to change over information into data that can be used to bolster determining, arranging, control, coordination, choice making and operational exercises in an association. Each business association in this time needs a information system (IS) to keep track of all business exercises, right from business arranging, till the item conveyance