Chapter 2

The Modern Organization in the

Digital Economy

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 Chapter Outline

 2.1 Doing Business in the Digital Economy

 2.2 Business Pressures, Organizational
Responses, and IT Support
 2.3 Competitive Advantage and Strategic
Information Systems
 2.4 Why Should You Learn about
Information Technology?

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 Learning Objectives

 Describe the characteristics of the digital

economy and e-business.
 Discuss the relationships among business
pressures, organizational responses and
information systems.
 Describe strategic information systems
(SISs) and explain their advantages.

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 Learning Objectives (Continued)

 Describe Porter’s competitive force model

and how information technology helps
companies improve their competitive
positions.
 Describe five strategies that companies can
use to achieve competitive advantage in their
industries.

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 2.1 Doing Business in the Digital
Economy
 The digital economy is an economy based on
digital technologies, including communication
networks (the Internet, intranets, and extranets),
computers, software, and other related technologies.
 Also called the Internet economy, the new economy,
or the Web economy .
 Digital infrastructures provide a global platform
over which people and organizations interact,
communicate, collaborate, and search for
information.

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 The Global Platform of the New
Economy
 A huge number of digitizable products; that is
products that can be converted to digital format.
Most common are: books, movies, magazines, TV
and radio programming, electronic games, music
CDs and computer software.
 Consumers and firm conducting financial
transaction digitally.
 Physical goods such as home appliances and
automobiles that contain embedded computer chips
and connectivity capabilities.

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 Electronic Business

 Businesses increasingly perform their basic

functions: buying and selling goods and
services, servicing customers, and
collaborating with business partners
electronically.
 This process is known as electronic business
(E-business) or electronic commerce (E-
commerce).

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 New Economy vs. Old Economy

Example Old New

Buying and selling text book Visit the bookstore Visit web site for publishers
and retailers
Registering for classes Walk around campus to Access campus web site
Departments, Registrar’s
office, etc.
Photography Buy film, use camera, take Use digital camera
picture, take it for processing
Paying for Gasoline Fill up your car, go inside, Use speed pass token wave
pay cash or credit card over the sensor and go
Paying the Transportation Pay cash, metal tokens Metro cards electronic cards

Paying for goods Visit store, take the item, Use self – service kiosks
pay , go
Supplying commercial photos Use newspapers, paper, Use hub-like supply chain
catalog or on line with digitized picture
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 New Economy vs. Old Economy

 Example #1: Registering for Classes

 Old Economy: You would go to the
Registrar’s Office on campus with a paper
registration document.
 New Economy: You access your campus
Web site, log into registration site, and
electronically register for classes from
anywhere.

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 New Economy vs. Old Economy

 Example #2: Buying and Selling Textbooks

 Old Economy: You go to the bookstore in
person and buy new or sell used books.
 New Economy: You go online to the
Publisher’s Web site or to Web-based
services such as Amazon.com to buy or sell
books.

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 New Economy vs. Old Economy

 Example #3: Photography

 Old Economy: You use a camera with film, which
you have to purchase and have developed; you mail
copies of pictures.
 New Economy: You can scan photos, make copies
and e-mail them. Digital cameras require no film or
processing. Digital photography and video
integrated into cell phones for immediate viewing.

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 New Economy vs. Old Economy

 Example #4: Paying for Gasoline

 Old Economy: You pump your gas and go
inside to pay using cash or credit.
 New Economy: Insert credit card at pump,
receive authorization, pump gas, receive
receipt, drive away. Another example is
Speedpass technology.

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 New Economy vs. Old Economy

 Example #5: Paying for Transportation in

New York City
 Old Economy: Using tokens for bus and
subway transportation.
 New Economy: Bus and subway riders now
use MetroCards, contactless cards that have a
small radio transmitter that transmit account
information to a reader.

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 New Economy vs. Old Economy

 Example #6: Paying for Goods, Checkout

 Old-old Economy: Customer selects goods, waits in
line for the cashier to key in price of items, and then
pays in cash.
 Old Economy: The clerk swipes the barcode of
each item and customer pays in cash, credit, debit.
Information scanned is available for immediate
analysis known as source-data automation.

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 New Economy vs. Old Economy
(Ex. #6 Continued)
 Old Economy: Shoppers take their items to a self-
service kiosk and swipe the barcodes themselves.
 New Economy: Wireless technology affixed to each
item allows you to select items that pass through a
scanner that reads wireless signals, generates a bill,
automatically debits your designated account for
payment and you leave.

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 2.2 Business Pressures, Organizational
Responses, and IT Support

 Business Pressure - The business environment is

the combination of social, legal, economic,
physical, and political factors that affect business
activities.
 Significant changes in any of these factor are likely
to create business pressure on the organization.
 The three types of business pressures faced are:
market, technology, and societal pressures.

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 IT Support for Organizational
Responses to Business Pressures

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 Three Types of Business Pressures

 Market Pressures:
 The Global Economy and Strong
Competition
 The Changing Nature of the

Workforce
 Powerful Customers

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 Business Pressures (Continued)

 Technology Pressures:
 Technological Innovation and
Obsolescence
 Information Overload

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 Business Pressures (Continued)

 Societal Pressures:
 Social Responsibility
 Government Regulation and

Deregulation
 Protection Against Terrorist Attacks.

 Ethical Issues

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 Organizational Responses

 Strategic Systems provide advantages that enable

organizations to increase market share and/or
profits, to better negotiate with suppliers, or prevent
competitors from entering their markets.
 Customer Focus is the difference between
attracting and keeping customers by providing
superb customer service to losing them to
competitors.

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 Organizational Responses
(Continued)

 Make-to-Order is a strategy of producing

customized products and services.
 Mass Customization is producing a large
quantity of items, but customizing them to fit
the desire of each customer.
 E-business and E-commerce is the strategy
of doing business electronically.

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 2.3 Competitive Advantage and
Strategic Information Systems
 Competitive Advantage: An advantage over
competitors in some measure such as cost, quality,
or speed, leads to control of a market and to larger-
than average profits.
 Strategic Information Systems (SIS) provide a
competitive advantage by helping an organization
to implement its strategic goals and to increase its
performance and productivity.

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 Porter’s Competitive Forces Model

 The best-known framework for analyzing

competitiveness is Michael Porter’s
competitive forces model (Porter, 1985).
 Model is used to develop strategies to
increase their competitive edge.
 Demonstrates how IT can make a company
more competitive.

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 Porter’s Competitive Forces Model

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 Strategies for Competitive
Advantage
 Cost Leadership. Produce products and/or
services at the lowest cost in the industry.
 Differentiation. Offer different products,
services or product features.
 Innovation. Introduce new products and
services, add new features to existing
products and services or develop new ways
to produce them.

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 Strategies for Competitive
Advantage (Continued)

 Operational Effectiveness. Improve

the manner in which internal business
processes are executed so that a firm
performs similar activities better than its
rivals.
 Customer-orientation. Concentrate on
making customers happy.

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 Information technology inside your
organization

 Let see fig 1.2 and the animation

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 Information technology outside your
organization

 Let see fig 1.3

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 2.4 Why Should You Learn about
Information Technology (IT)?
 IT is essential for work in organizations.
 IT will reduce the number of middle
managers.
 IT will change the manager’s job.
 IT impacts employees at work.
 IT impacts employees’ health and safety.
 IT is used by all departments.

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 Why Should You Learn about IT?
(Continued)

 IT provides opportunities for people with

disabilities.
 IT provides quality-of-life improvements.
 Improvements in health care.
 Crime fighting and other benefits.

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 THE END OF SESSION 3 AND 4.

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