MIS 531 Chapter 1

Before Kaiser Permanente adopted its new business strategy, its IS Strategy Triangle was out of __________.

Alignment

The general manager for a retail clothing outlet was recently cited as saying, "IT is the cornerstone of our company. All of our decisions are based on the sophisticated systems that we have deployed throughout our organization. IT drives our decisions." What position should the manager hold regarding IT and its influence on decision making?

Business strategy should drive IS decision making

The organizational strategy should ideally _____ the IS strategy

Complement

When a company's business strategy and technology strategy are intertwined, this situation is known as _______.

Convergence

By using IS to achieve economies of scale and generate operating efficiencies, Walmart epitomizes which one of Porter's generic strategies?

Cost leadership

IS Strategy

Create technologies and logistics systems that support efficient flow of information and packages worldwide

The managerial lever includes organization, control, and _____________.

Culture

CRM stands for ________________.

Customer Relationship Management

In order to assess the critical issues in information management, a manager should know the IS infrastructure components. These are hardware, software, network and _______.

Data

GE recognized that it could only sustain its competitive advantage for a limited time as competitors attempted to outmaneuver them. What was the model that Welch applied to help solve this problem?

Destroy your business

A bank provides its customers mobile applications that significantly simplify traditional banking activities. For example, a customer can use a smartphone to take a picture of a check and electronically deposit into an account. This unique service demonstrates the bank's desire to practice which one of Porter's strategies?

Differentiation

When an organization qualifies its product or service in a way that allows it to appear unique in the marketplace, this is called:

Differentiation

Organizational Strategy

Empower employees to ensure safe transport of goods and to value commitment to teamwork

A social business strategy is designed to use social IT tools for all of the following EXCEPT:

Excluding stakeholders

Hypercompetition refers to where a firm obtains more than 5 strong competitors

FALSE

A social business strategy needs to align itself with the organization's IT strategy but not the business strategy

False

The IS strategy drives the business strategy

False

According to Porter's Generic Strategies Framework, a company that limits its scope to a narrower segment of the market is exercising this type of strategy.

Focus

Organizations seek to gain a competitive advantage by differentiation, cost, or ___________

Focus

GE employees develop a (DYB) Destroy Your Business strategy to destroy an existing competitive advantage so that they can then find fresh new ways to serve the customer by next applying a ________ strategy.

Grow your business or GYB

Technology guru Tim O'Reilly said this about the publishing industry: "To adapt, publishers need to cannibalize their own business, experimenting with new forms, new formats, and new business models." This statement is consistent with:

Hypercompetition

The plan an organization uses to provide information systems and services:

IS Strategy

This framework is called the ____________________ because it relates business strategy with IS strategy and organizational strategy.

Information Systems Strategy Triangle

General managers should take an active role in decisions about information systems. This is vital because:

Information systems are designed to support business objectives.

The "Managerial Levers" concept is useful for the following reasons:

Management should not make a change unless they align multiple issues, such as tasks, measures, values, incentives, etc.

A clear and compelling statement that unifies an organization's efforts and describes what the organization is all about is called its _________.

Mission

The physical means by which information is exchanged among hardware components is called _______.

Networking

A social business strategy is designed to use social IT tools for all of the following EXCEPT:

Networking with employees, customer and or suppliers

Which one of the following is NOT part of the information systems strategy matrix?

Personnel

Business strategies based on hyper-competition focus on customer satisfaction and profit maximization but also build in a component of business intelligence. Business intelligence helps an agile organization to:

Predict and respond to new opportunities

Business Strategy

Securely provide specialized transportation and logistics services to individuals and businesses.

L.L. Bean is an online/catalog retail company that aggressively uses tools like instant messaging to communicate with customers regarding potential purchases and uses Facebook for branding activities. This use of technology supports which strategy?

Social Business Strategy

The managerial levers identifies the crucial, interrelated components for designing an organization. The components include all of the following EXCEPT:

Social Media

Through the use of various technologies, a ski resort tracks the slopes each customer skis and the times he or she skis them. Skiers then have the ability to view this information online, and can choose to seamlessly share their accomplishments on Facebook. In addition, photographers positioned at the resort post pictures on Facebook for the skier. This ski resort has worked hard to develop a strongv

Social business strategy

Apple's introduction of the iPhone while iPod sales were still very strong is an example of DYB

TRUE

Once a firm is out of alignment, it does not mean that it has to stay that way

TRUE

To avoid unwanted consequences, altering the IT Strategy requires adjustments to the organizational strategy

TRUE

Google has disrupted a number of industries, particularly the advertising and software industries. Google's ability to quickly and aggressively provide new products and services is best described by:

The Hypercompetition Model

To remain competitive, an organization's business strategy must adapt and respond to all of the following variables. Which variable in particular does IS help to determine?

The capabilities of the organization

All of the following are likely causes of Kaiser Permanente's difficulties before their new KPHealthConnect EXCEPT for:

The failure of automated systems

There has been accelerated competition among market leaders concurrent with the increases in the quality and quantity of IT investments.

True

A general manager should

Understand the use and consequences of technologies relevant to the business

Which is not a question that can be used to understand organizational design?

Where is the organization's headquarters located?

Significant changes in IS should trigger a reassessment of the _____________.

business strategy

The ____________ is a plan articulating where a business seeks to go and how it expects to get there

business strategy

According to Porter, a company that makes its services available 24 and 7 would be practicing a _________ strategy.

differentiation

The _______________ framework suggests that the speed and aggressiveness of the moves and countermoves in any given market create an environment in which advantages are "rapidly created and eroded."

hypercompetition

Social business opportunities fall into one of three categories: collaboration, engagement or ______.

innovation

Organizational, cultural, and control variables are considered the ________ used by decision makers to effect change in their organization

managerial levers

The IS strategy can affect and is affected by changes in a company's business and _______ strategies.

organizational