GE, Dell, Intel, GM and others: Debating the competitive Advantage of Information Technology

1)      Do you agree with the argument made by Nicholas Carr to support his position that IT no longer gives companies a competitive advantage? Why or why not?

Nicholas Carr thinks that Information technology is no longer an innovation. Taking strategic advantage from information technology is similar to taking strategic advantage from electricity or transportation in the business process. It’s been so common that everybody uses it and it’s the infrastructure that every business builds, in order to run a business. So, he believes rather than defining it as an important tool for organizational management it should be categorized as a basic business process. I think he could be right to some extent but it may not be fair to compare information technology with electricity and transportation. Because technologies keeps on being better and better everyday. Just because almost business organization uses it, it doesn’t mean that it has limited use and it cannot be developed and elaborated further more. He may be right saying that information technology is making a business much costly, but minimum investment for the desired result, and accomplishments of those results is the main point of using information technology in business. He has several worthy issues which are appreciable, but the most glaring flaws of his issues are complete disregard for the benefit, information technology has been providing to the business organizations and one sided understanding about information technology.

2)      Do you agree with the argument made by the business leaders in this case in support of the competitive advantage that IT can provide to a business? Why or why not?

Business leaders in the case are the ones, who have deployed information technology in their business in order to get competitive as well as other benefits from information technology. They have very strong and practical conviction about importance of information .......click below to read all.

technology for competitive advantage in business. As they pointed out, information technology is not only about what you are using it’s also about how you are using it. How much to spend in IT as well is the important question to answer before going for a technology. So, if decisions about IT are made in right time, for the right cause in a right way, only then it could be effective. Business cannot face the competition if it doesn’t have complete information about every single thing that matters and information technology makes it possible to get that information in systematic way when required. Since, there is always something new and big coming next day in this field so it would be foolish to underestimate the power of information technology in order to enhance the competitive advantage of business so I agree with the argument made by the business leaders in this case in support of the competitive advantage that IT can provide to a business.

3)      What are several ways that IT could provide a competitive advantage to a business? Use some of the companies mentioned in this case as examples. Visit their websites to gather more information to help your answer.

Information technology provides the complete information about what is to be known in order to take useful steps in business to face the growing competition. Information technology gives the clear picture of business trends and practices and helps in making the most appropriate decisions in consideration to competitive business environment. Through the use of information technology business organizations can benefit lots of competitive advantages. Some of them are listed below:

·         By using information technology organization can substantially reduce the cost of business process and enjoy the benefit of being low cost producer in an industry.

·          Information technology can help in developing new features to differentiate products and services so that organization could provide different products from its competitors.

·         Through new inventions and innovations from information technology business organization can create new and unique products and services along with new market niches. Innovation can also enhance the quality of their products and services.

·         Information technology helps the organization to expand volume of its production. It helps in making a global market and to diversify and integrate their products and services.

·         Organizations can use IT to create virtual organizations of business partners along with the benefit of establishing linkages and alliance with costumers, suppliers, competitors and consultants.

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