Wachovia and Others: Trading securities at the speed of Light

1)      What competitive advantage can the companies described in the case derive from the use of faster technology and co-location of servers with the exchanges? Which would you say are sustainable and which ones temporary or easily imitable? Justify your answer.

By using faster technology in their work Wachovia corporate and investment bank made proper adjustments in their work cycle, reducing both time of the operation and cost of the production. They simplified the segments they were using for the faster connectivity from one system to another and made a very distinct and easy channel of network which consisted all the aspects of organization, from research to reporting. Speed was their main concern. The only thing they did from faster technological use was made the calculation procedure exact and accurate neglecting other business prospects of information technology, which increased their cost to some extent. Technological innovation has life cycle and there is no final thing on it. There, this thinking was temporary and easily imitable which may...... click below to read all Answers.

cost much later in future. Speed considering the availability, with the service and reliability is the positive aspects of using co relation of servers with the exchanges. These facilitate in networking and are sustainable benefits. It also enhances the productivity of the costumer.

2)      Tony Bishop of Wachovia stated that “Competitive advantage comes from your math, your workflow and processing through your systems.” Referring to what you have learned in this chapter, developing opposing viewpoints as to the role of IT, if any, in the development of competitive advantage. Use examples from the case to support your positions.

Knowing your figures always helps you to gain a competitive advantage. Calculations are very much necessary to make while deploying a technology in the business so that cost benefit can be ascertained. If a technology helps an organization to reduce the cost, by the proper and systematic management of the workflows inside an organization making a efficient processing possible then only it’s profitable to deploy technology in the business.

But competitive advantage is not only about accuracy of figures, if done only that it may not make organization competitive enough. Cost is not only the factor that ensures the competitive advantage of an organization along with costs there are lots of things that comes together to make information technology a competitive weapon. Quality of the products and services, new ideas and features included in the product and mass marketing as well is equally important to get the competitive advantage through the use of information technology. Costumer focused business structure, devoted to provide best quality products with unique features; in reasonable price covering the larger segment of market by using information technology to facilitate each function is important to gain competitive advantage. For example, in case of Wachovia calculation functions without coordination with WAN made it hard to attain desirable productivity from the use of technology.

3)      What companies in industries other than securities trading could benefit from technologies that focus on reducing transaction processing times? Provide several examples.

The organizations that have to perform in real time scenario with huge number of transactions can benefit from technologies that focus on reducing transaction processing times. When there is costumer waiting for the completion of process and there are lots of transactions that are to be performed then use of technologies that gives the speed to the process makes it easier to manage the function and ensure customer satisfaction. Organizations information system about customers should be accessed easily so that delays issues can be forbidden.

Hotel industry can benefit from technologies that focus on reducing transaction processing times. For reservations, cancellations and occupancies information should be processed fast and any delays in such processing may cost lots of customers to the organization. For guests information and their stay calculation as well as their other information faster technologies can be used to increase the efficiency of the organization through customer satisfaction by effective management and utilization of speedy information technologies.

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