Strategic Analysis and Selection of Information Systems Essay

Strategic Analysis and Selection of Information Systems - Essay Example For the purpose of this assignment, two articles will be reviewed for inclusion into the essay. The first is Collaborative Computing and True Enterprise Architecture is Still Two Years Away, by Worthen and the second is B2B: Execution of the Concept is Key to Success by M. Sawhney. The purpose of this assignment is to explain the relationship between business strategy in IT strategy, determine any problems that occurred with strategy formulation, determine if there were problems with strategy implementation, and determine if there were problems with the strategic process. In order to fully understand the concepts presented in this assignment, it is first essential to know the definition of the words that will be discussed herein. Strategy can be defined as "a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often "winning". Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand by its nature of being extensively premeditated, and often practically rehearsed. Strategies are used to make the problem or problems easier to understand and solve" (Wikipedia, 2008). Strategy formulation then can be defined as "the process of determining appropriate courses of action for achieving organizational objectives and thereby accomplishing organizational purpose" (Kotelnikov, 2008). Strategic processes are made up of macro processes within an organization. "All organizational work is part of one or more processes. At their very broadest, macro processes can span an entire organization and cut across all major function s or departments. Examples of macro processes include the design and development of new products/services; producing products or delivering services; product order or service request fulfillment; invoicing/accounting, and collecting money; inventory management and logistics; information management; admitting, discharging, and transferring patients; or generating leads and making sales" (Clemmer 2008). Article 1 B2B: Execution of the Concept is Key to Success, by Mohanbir Sawhney Problems with Strategy Formulation When forming their strategy, "Their logic seemed elegant: create marketplaces that would match buyers and sellers, bringing improved liquidity, efficiency and transparency to B2B transactions, and make money through transaction fees from the trades, Once the buyers and sellers were on board to conduct transactions, the exchanges could augment that core functionality with value-added services such as logistics management, credit and settlement, and supplier verification" (Sawhney, 2002, p. 1). Yet, the B2B boom that was supposed to happen did not. This happened when investors started to question the business model upon with the new B2B concept was based. In other words, it was not the strategy formulation that was the problem; it was the strategy implementation. Problems with Strategy Implementation The article says itself, "One might conclude from the evidence that the idea of a B2B exchange is fundamentally flawed. However, it's not the concept of the exchange that is flawed but the execution of that concept" (Sawhney, 2002, p. 1). The article cites the chicken-and-the-egg concept as the reason for the failure of the B2B concept; i.e. it is hard to get buyers without suppliers and it is hard to get