1. Ecological Migration - Natural, social, and business foundation shits
1. discontinuity through the shift of social / business foundation like from agricultural age to industrial age, and from industrial age to information / knowledge age
2. Our work / living environment has shifted from post industrial age into the information age with global connectivity through internet.
3. the need to separate virtual operable and physical operable becomes quite urgent. As we know, certain things can not be operated through digital connectivity. This provides an incentive for product / service differentiation for local physical enhancements and competition.

 
2. Solid Foundation of IT (Information Technologies) as a pre-requisite
1. Competition on routine work - See figures 2-1, 2-2, and 2-9 and Table 2-1
2. The fundamentals of organization (p.39)
1. Levels - operational, knowledge, management, and strategic
2. Functional areas: Sales and Marketing, Manufacturing, Finance, Accounting, Human Resources.
3. Types of Information Systems
1. Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
2. Knowledge Work Systems (KWS) and Office Systems
3. Decision Support Systems (DSS)
4. Management Information Systems (MIS)
5. Executive Support Systems (ESS)
3. Awareness of the shift and / or newly constructed universe
1. None is able to keep track the huge change of human innovation and new business models
2. As a manager or a knowledge work, one must constantly discover the new innovations and their impact on one's own living space.
3. The survival work includes not only the concrete and overt business information systems and business models (schemes) - how a company is going to make money from it; but also the un-imaginable new schemes that remains in the head of possible competitors ready to be deployed.
4. identity crisis of being competitive
1. strategic information systems (p.53) "changes the goals, products, services, or environmental relationships of organizations to help them gain an edge over competitors. Systems that have these effects may even change the business of organizations." Track switching is customers' recognition chaos. Many companies are not those we think they are any more. Some professionals who learn computer skills for an edge in the job eventually become computer professionals.
2. "hard-side" of Sears, "soft-side" of Sears, or the "problematic side" of Sears? Isn't this what identity crisis is about? This is just one example that a company as good as Sears can be in crisis when one enters into an unknown world.
3. Using the toy industry as an example, the new internet toy stores could sell toys for all ages and for anything invented in the past. This capacity is far superior than the old brick and mortar store like Toy R Us could be done in the past gloria 10 years. Now Toy R Us has its share of identity crisis. Well, it was a little over a year ago during 1999. Now all the toy companies enter into another stage of chaos.
4. AOL - a proprietary content service provider, a portal, a virtual mall, .. Shifting one's emphasis likes ameba. But AOL is not alone, Yahoo, Amazon.com, etc. all have been on the process of continuous transformation.
5. Microsoft - a PC operating system and desktop software company, or an internet company? Linus vs NT, Mac vs. NT, Graphical Unix vs. NT These are just a very tiny few problems Microsoft is now facing. Again, after 3 months, Microsoft entered into an even more chaotic situation with the possibility of breaking into 3 companies.
5. Survival background expectancy # 1:  Competitive Forces
1. The traditional competitors -- Novel, Unix
2. The Suppliers -- Microsoft developers
3. The Substitute products and services -- Unix, Lotus Notes, Internet browsers like Netscape
4. The Customers -- mature GUI (graphical users interface) users who are ready to use any graphical systems, most office workers
5. New market entrants - Open Systems and their forerunner, Linus under the new IPO company called Redhat and more as time went by.
6. Business Models (Schemes) for survival (pp. 54 - 58)
1. Product Differentiation
1. NT vs. Novel
2. NT vs. Linus
2. Focused Differentiation
1. DataMining
2. Mass Customization and One-to-One marketing
3. Data Imaging, Electronic Behavioral profile and privacy
3. Tight Linkages to Customers and Suppliers
1. Switching costs
2. Core competent, core business, business partners and virtual corporation
3. Dependency and disaster plans -- Just-in-time but just-in-case...
4. supply chain management
4. Becoming the Low-Cost Producer
1. Total information integration
2. Supply chain management
3. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
7. Surval background expectancy # 2: Leveraging Technology in the value chain (pp. 58 - 59)
1. Primary activities and Support activities
1. Database Management - ascending to the prime time
2. Shifting conditions and associated values
1. Pay now or Pay latter
2. One time benefit or continuous cash flows?
8. Implications for Managers and Organizations
1. Protective Governance on Strategic Transitions: discontinuity means a life-or-death decision for almost every moves.
2. Constantly engaging and evaluating strategic alliances and information partners
1. Even more, when do you "sleep with" your competitors for an edge?
3. Processual re-ordering: re-engineering on organizational processes, business processes, and leadership processes
4. Management is constantly conversing with himself the following questions (p.61)
1. How is the industry currently using information systems?
2. Which organizations are the industry leaders in the application of information systems technology?
3. How is the industry changing?
4. Should the firm be looking at new ways of doing business?
5. Are significant strategic opportunities to be gained by introducing new information systems technology?
6. Where would new information systems provide the greatest value to the firm?
7. What is the current business strategic plan, and how does that plan mesh with the current strategy for information services?
8. Does the firm have the technology and capital required to develop a strategic information initiative?

Homework

1. Read Window on Organization Improving Mercantile Mutual's Customer Image on page 45. Use search engines on internet to find out 3 different document imaging companies. How do these companies differentiate their products and target their customers.
2. page 33
1. What is an information system? Distinguish between a computer, a computer program, and an information system. What is the difference between data and information?
2. What is information system literacy? How does it differ from computer literacy?
3. What is the relationship between the network revolution, electronic commerce, and electronic business?
3. page 67
1. What is a strategic information system? What is the difference between a strategic information system and a strategic-level system?
2. Define and compare the competitive forces and value chain models for identifying opportunities for strategic systems
3. What are the four basic competitive strategies? How can information systems help firms pursue each of these strategies?