The Disadvantages Of Information Systems For Competitive Advantage

Information systems interact with the organizations and influences the organization in many aspects of the whole organizational structure to the daily behavior. Information systems can enable strategies in four aspects including low-cost leadership, product differentiation, focus on market value and strengthen customer and supplier intimacy.

Michael Porter wrote about five forces affecting the profitability and viability of companies. The five forces are existing competitors, new entries into the market, substitute products, bargaining power of customers, and the bargaining power of suppliers. (quickmba)

Bargaining Power of Suppliers: The bargaining power of suppliers in the industry is low. There are numerous suppliers in this industry, and the large department stores have the ability to negotiate for the lowest prices. In addition, the switching costs are low, as the products are not highly differentiated. There are a large volume of purchases in the industry, allowing the department stores to exert even more power over the suppliers.

Bargaining power of supplier: High levels of competition among suppliers act to reduce prices to producers. This is a positive for Ford Motor Company. Standardization of parts allowed Ford to reduce dependency on fixed supplier/vendor which goes into producer’s favor.

As relevant to these competitive forces, the common and mutual goal of companies can be explained as better profitability with a greater market share against their rivals. Therefore, implementing Michael Porter’s Five Forces can help the companies determine the issues that may impact the company’s profitability in the long term.

Porter’s model aims to enable managers not only to understand their industry environment but also to shape their firm’s strategy. The five competitive forces are threat of entry, power of suppliers, power of buyers, threat of substitutes, and rivalry among existing competitors. “As a rule of thumb, the stronger the five forces, the lower the industry’s profit potential- making the industry less attractive to competitors. The weaker the five forces, the greater the industry’s profit potential – making the industry more attractive” (Rothaermel, 2013, p. 65). It is recommended that managers position their company in an industry in such a way that relaxes the constraints of strong forces and

Bargaining Power of Buyers - The force of the buyer’s bargaining power can reduce prices and demand higher quality products and services (Porter, 1998).

Michael Eugene Porter is an economist, author, advisor and a researcher. He is the creator of Porter Five Forces theory, which is a framework for a business. The model “identifies and analyzes five competitive forces that shape every industry, and helps determine an industry 's weaknesses and strengths” (Investopedia LLC, 2016). The five forces are competitive rivalry, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entry, and threat of substitution. This is a very important theory which a business can strengthen their position.

Suppliers have less power because there are a lot of suppliers and they all willing to accommodate and provide discounts for their customers (economies of scale).

At its core, Porter’s 5 forces describes a firms overall ability to compete in a market. We discuss our analysis of the 5 forces and how they affect SAS Corporation and its stakeholders. Please examine Figure 1.1 to view a diagram that depicts the 5 forces.

Information systems serve as the pillars for a business to stand upon and maintain stability, productivity, and profitability. According to Stair and Reynolds (2015), one major retailer, Kohl's, considers, "information systems strategic to help drive sales, satisfy customers, and make key business decisions in the extremely competitive and constantly changing retail market" (p.4). Although one business's operations or industry may differ significantly from another business, the information systems employed by either one can be generally categorized into one of the following tiers: operational level, knowledge level, higher level, and strategic level. Furthermore, each one of these tiers encompasses subdivisions of specific information systems.

Supplier Power: This highlights that it is easy for suppliers to rise up their prices. This is determined by the number of suppliers, the uniqueness of their product, their control over the buyer, and the cost of changing from one buyer to another. The scarcer the supplier choices you might have, and the more you need the help and that

The bargaining power of buyers stands in a direct relationship with the bargaining power of suppliers. If the bargaining power of buyers is substantial it increases the opportunity cost of suppliers. The greater the buyers concentration the greater their bargaining power. This bargaining power is also increased in markets where the suppliers’ concentration is high. The bargaining power is also increased when the cost of switching from one supplier to another is low. In instances where backward vertical integration is possible i.e. buyers setting up their own chains of suppliers the bargaining power of the buyer increases in that their prices may become more competitive. In a market where the buyers are more concerned over quality than price their bargaining power decreases as they are less inclined to shop

A supplier group have even more power over an industry if it is dominated by a few companies, there are no substitute products, the industry is not an important consumer for the suppliers, their product is essential to the industry, the supplier differs costs, and forward integration potential of the supplier group exists. Labor supply can also influence the position of the suppliers. These factors are generally out of the control of the industry or company but strategy can alter the power of

Bargaining power of suppliers is low due to large number of suppliers of raw materials, low switching cost and availability of attractive substitutes. (Jim Wilkinson, 2013) Therefore, we could control the price of raw materials because we can easily switch to different suppliers with lower price and higher quality, increasing our profit consequently.