How effective is 99 Cents Only Stores' strategy for IT infrastructure investments? Explain your answer.

Case Study Assignment KL Worldwide Enterprises Inc.: Putting Information Technology to Work Submitted by Mark Lemoine September 14th, 2012

This article makes up Chapter 1 of the free, open access book titled, Information Systems: A Manager's Guide to Harnessing Technology, by John Gallaugher. Please ensure that you read the entire Chapter 1 of the book consisting of 3 parts (Part 1 Introduction; Part 2 Don’t Guess, Gather Data; and Part 3 Moving Forward).

With the amount of information and moving data, the development and use of these systems is imperative to stay ahead, innovative, and secure as a company. With such an overload of different information it would be nearly impossible for an individual to organize or recognize different patterns that a developed system can. Although, wise people are needed in order to create and develop them and without their knowledge and insight the systems can never be created successfully in the first place. People, information, and information systems are all an important parts of the puzzle to analyze data and create new management information systems that enable new ways to stay ahead of

Some discipline-specific questions 10. Are the accounting and financial-related evaluation items sufficient? Are they effective? 11. Are there sufficient evaluation items for IT-related activities? How would you evaluate IT performance? 12. What information technology strategies and projects add value to the business organization, operations, tactics? 13. How would you use IT to help enhance the budgeting process? 14. Are the management and strategy-related

These factors influence the internal environment of an organisation and they help in identifying the past and the present of the company, It also provides a frame work for reviewing strategy position and direction of the company.

(TCO B) List three organizational factors that can prevent a firm from fully realizing the benefits of a new information system, and provide examples of each.

After reading the case, one continues to come up with new problems and issues along the way that are related to information technologies. The three main problems we encountered in this case are lack of IT knowledge, inappropriate planning, and ineffective and inefficient Resource Management. Each of these issues requires specific attention to fix the next problem and so forth. The solution to attack each individual problem or issue will be explained as follows.

Q：Large numbers of companies are using their information systems as a strategic tool to improve their competitive advantage. Choose one of these companies (Toyota or Wal-Mart) and prepare an essay of 1500 words on: a) how information systems are used strategically by the company to gain a competitive advantage b) discuss if it is possible for the company to maintain this advantage in the future.

99 Cents Only Stores is one of the leading retailers in the deep-discount sales industry. The first 99 Cents Only Store opened in 1982, and the company now operates 194 retail locations, including 150 in California, 19 in Texas, 15 in Arizona, and 10 in Nevada. The stores carry mostly name-brand general merchandise, including food and beverages, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, house wares, hardware, stationery, toys, gifts, pet products, and clothing.

A host of external factors influence a firm’s choice of direction and action, ultimately its organizational structure and internal factors. These factors, which constitute the external environment, can be divided into three interrelated subcategories there are as follows:

4. What would you recommend managers to do insure a smooth integration of the information systems, given the

• Factors that can either impact positively or negatively on the organization from a strategic management point of view

A Report submitted to Prof. J.M. Shah for the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the subject Information Systems for Management under NMIMS University

Legal factors Incorporate segregation law, shopper law, antitrust law, occupation law, and wellbeing and security law. These elements can influence how an organization works, its expenses, and the interest for its items.

The article then goes on to break down each of these factors into subcategories and from there he defines the impact each factor potentially has on a business. Just to name a few, Barnat (2005) defines one of the factors as political and regulatory forces which define any restrictions and mandatory guidelines that must be met in order for an organization to function legally. In terms of environment government tends to occupy both the macro-environment and operating environment. Because of this governments have a great amount of influence on an organization’s external environment in general and as such must be included as a major factor for any organization with long or short term plans.