Using Technology for Sustainable Strategic Advantage

Using Technology for Sustainable Strategic payoffAuthor Stephen WalshFor the purpose of this paper a review of current applied science has been carried emerge in response to the question of engineering providing little or no sustainable strategic wages. In the subsist twenty old age or so the digital revolution has transformed the way of life lineage carries out commerce in the developing world, whether on the ground or online, commerce has increased dramatically and technology has unquestionably facilitated that growth. Over ecstasy years ago in 2003 author Nicholas Carr published a wide discussed member in the Harvard Business Review titled (Carr, 2003) IT doesnt matter. In the article Nicholas argued that the opportunities for gaining IT establish advantages were receding. Best practices were built into softw ar or otherwise replicated and as for IT encouraged industry transformations most of the ones that were going to happen had already happened or were in the proces s of happening. Carr argued that IT is like other infrastructure technologies that lost their combative electromotive force once they became accessible and affordable to all. Has technology changed line of credit purpose makers to gain strategic advantage over competitors in light of the developments in technology of the last number of years. The following paragraphs provide project at recent trends in technology and whether these trends eject provide a sustainable strategic advantage going forward to decision makers.The attainment of strategic sustainable advantage from technology is immensely important to small and strong suit sized telephone circuit and prominent organisations, in 2017 at that place is a innumerous of ways in utilising technology and in particular info systems technology to rectify credit line operations. Organisations smoke employ breeding systems to fundamentally break the cost of doing line of descent (Booth, 2011) or reduce the cost of mi litary control processes and or lower the costs of customers or suppliers, i.e. using online personal line of credit to consumer personal credit line to trade archetypes and e-procurement systems to reduce operating costs. An practice of a railway line to business model is an Irish start up by the name of Bullet HQ which is aiming to disrupt the accountancy marketplace with its online accounting and payroll softw atomic number 18 targeted at small and medium endeavours in Ireland. Eighty percent of companies in Ireland are SMEs with four staff or less and this software is tailored to business owners for the purpose of doing their books, payroll and all tax re wricks thus enabling them the metre to run other business practices related to their operation and replaces the expense of hiring an accountant.This course of study dropd by Bullet HQ is employing bribe technology which has engender a great shift in the way business organisations pick out their IT operations. The arrival of software as a dish up (SaaS) applications allow business organisations to run a virtual business in which business functions are outsourced to cloud serves. (SaaS) applications scram emerged as one of the advanced technologies utilising cloud deliberation and has great potential for the strategic circumspection of IT technology in propulsive business environments. As the orbicular economy has crept back from recession it has pose paramount to organisations to reduce risks and assure safe returns for their investments. Most companies are without delay trying to find ways of cut down their operation and productions costs and diminution IT costs are part of it. Companies have started to find solutions to operate their instruction systems on a pay-as-you-go basis instead of investing huge amounts of musical accompaniment in IT infrastructure and this has become possible with the recent developments in cloud computing. With software-as-a-service models companies only need to pay for what is procedured and hind end adjust service agreements as IT requirements increase or fall over time. (Gartner, 2012) Has stated oecumenic software-as-a-service revenue was forecast to reach 14.5 billion dollars in 2012. (SaaS) distri aloneion will experience wellnessy growth through 2017, when worldwide revenue is send to reach 40 billion dollars. Traditionally fulfiling business culture systems is a major undertaking for business in that it weed cost a signifi seatt amount of money for organisations small or large. Organisations need to drive IT consultants and IT professionals to deploy solutions with their current systems and data needs. The requirements for the timeframe, budget and human resource for the effectuation of these business solutions pose a signifi raiset risk for organisations. The on require model of software-as-a-service removes the typical requirements related to traditional software delivery models. (SaaS) applications can be a ccessed anytime from any personal computer or device with an net profit connection. Strategic benefits such as high adoption rates, lower initial costs, updates and provider managed upgrades, and seamless integration with existing Enterprise Resource preparation (ERP) systems makes software-as-a-service as a major differentiator in the IT services management market. A study by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, 2014) highlighted that software-as-a-service helps enterprises with the highest aim of (SaaS) adoption to have strategic advantages by providing differentiation in enterprise efficiency, deeper collaboration, better decision making and market agility.The Internet of things (IoT) sensors plus actuators machine-accessible by networks to computing systems is not a futuristic trend but it is here(predicate) now and has received enormous attention over the last five years. A report by Mckinsey states that net income of things has a potential economic impact of 3.9 trillion dollars to 11.1 trillion dollars a year by 2025. (IoT) is crafting a rising world, a calculable world where people and business can manage assets in a better informed way and make more timely and informed decisions about what they want or need to do. This tender connected world will bring spacious changes to consumers and society as a whole. For the premier time ever the wandering phone will no longer be the most vulgar device used to connect people to the lucre it will be cars, home appliances, industries, cities and wearables. It is expected by 2020 that there will be 28 billion connected devices worldwide with more than half being internet of things devices. As all these things are connected new opportunities will build up for industries, cities and organisations. Current examples of internet of things technology include connected smart buildings whereby the Ericsson concourse implemented solutions to assist facility managers in space utilization, space mana gement, the plan of maintenance based on usage, temperature control, air quality and ventilation optimisation thus in turn providing optimised funding gives. A large vomit up of new technologies is emerging that enable new set and capabilities for connecting the next new (IoT) device to a new generation of analytics and applications. From a business strategic perspective internet of things represents an opportunity to collect real time information about every physical operation of an organisation. Internet of things sensors can enchant information real time and transform raw (IoT) data into business and operational insights using effective data analytics. Assets equipped with sensors give an information system the capability to communicate, capture and process data and in turn that will create massive opportunities in distribution, blueprint and production efficiency. (Jacques Bughin, n.d.) states that business to business applications will account for almost seventy percent of the value that is estimated will flow from (IoT) in the next ten years. Nearly 5 trillion dollars would be generated almost exclusively in business to business settings i.e. factories, agriculture, healthcare environments, mining, gas and oil, construction and office settings. Here in Ireland there has been many developments in the internet of things sphere, (Kennedy, n.d.) Crossmolina in Co.mayonnaise will be the first town in Ireland to implement a smart lighting system, the US technology firm Silver Spring whose tech manages over 23 million devices in cities around the world has deployed an internet of things platform for Mayo County Council for smart street illumination and besides a residential zipper efficient project for the council with the project been part funded by the Sustainable zilch Authority Of Ireland (SEAI). Peter Mcloughlin, executive engineer of Mayo County Council has stated that the technology enhances the councils objective off reducing energy usage, red ucing cost and reducing C02 emissions and also increases the capacity of the community to relate with and see their energy use. another(prenominal) development is the rollout out nationwide of a Sigfox platform across Ireland by the the Irish startup VT Networks. Sigfox is an internet of things network that uses low power, wide field of battle communications to connect up devices from smart meters, smoke alarms, interactive billboards and robots. VT is targeting Irish business with services that include home solutions, smart metering, smoke alarms, protection sensors and security sensors on gates for farmers, machine monitoring devices and recovery and track of stolen farm items.The internet of things revolution will have a verify of aids for dealing with health related issues, especially prolonged health issues that use up resources in Irish Hospitals. A project before long being tested using internet of things technology is a project by North East Doctor on Call to enable par amedics to see patients and enable remote diagnosis by GPs and consultants along with the use of internet of things sensors in the home. On the research front academic and industrial partnerships led by research groups such as Tyndall, CRANN, Connect, Insight, TSSG and Adapt have put Ireland on the world centre stage for internet of things breakthroughs.The foregoing paragraphs have given an overview of currently technological trends and it is clear that these trends are here to stay and in terms of providing a sustainable strategic advantage these technologies will provide long-term advantages to business going forward. The principal heart and soul of utilising these technologies for business decision makers is to be innovative in their thinking. It is vital for business people to understand the use of information technology and in assure to stay ahead of the competition they should work with technical people to get hold of this, by working with an IT consultant small business owners across Ireland for example can gain an advantage on competition by implementing aerodynamic processes to their business resulting in profitability, higher revenue growth and productivity growth. An information technology consultant will provide excellent guidance in helping a business gain an advantage over competitors. adept of the ways the consultant would do this is by using (Porter, 1985) Michael Porters five forces model, aspect at the rivalry of competitors within the clients industry, by looking at the scourge of new entrants within the clients industry, the threat posed by substitute products which king capture market share, the bargaining power of customers and the bargaining power of suppliers. By analysing these five competitive forces and consultant can then implement a strategy to counter these forces, A business must develop and implement strategies to effectively counter the above five competitive forces. (OBrien, 2011) suggest that organisations can follo w one of five basic competitive strategies, which are based on Porters three generic strategies of broad cost leadership, broad differentiation, and center strategy. The five competitive strategies are cost leadership, differentiation, innovation, growth, and alliance. The following conveys how Information systems could be a critical enabler of these five competitive strategies,1. Cost Leadership Organisations can use information systems to fundamentally shift the cost of doing business (Booth, Roberts Sikes 2011) or reduce the costs of business processes or/and to lower the costs of customers or suppliers, i.e., using online business to consumer business to business models, e-procurement systems to reduce operating costs2. Differentiation Organisations can use information systems to develop differentiated features or/and to reduce competitors differentiation advantages, i.e., using online live chatting systems and social networks to better understand and serve customers using te chnology to create informediaries to offer value-added service and improve customers stickiness to your web site/business(Booth, Roberts, and Sikes 2011) applying advanced and established measures for online operations to offline practices (i.e., more exact and systematic ways of measuring efficiency and effectiveness of advertising) (Manyika, 2009)3. Innovation Organisations can use information systems to identify and create (or assist in creating) new products and services or/and to develop new/niche markets or/and to radically change business processes via automation (i.e., using digital modelling and exemplar of product design to reduce the time and cost to the market (Chui, 2011). They also can work on new initiatives of establishing pure online businesses/operations. At the comparable time, the Internet and telecommunications networks provide better capabilities and opportunities for innovation. Combinational innovation and Open innovation are two good examples. There are a large number of component parts on the networks that are very big-ticket(prenominal) or extremely different before the establishment of the networks, and organisations could combine or recombine components/parts on the networks to create new innovations (Manyika 2009). Meanwhile everyone is connected via personal computers, laptops and other mobile devices through cabled Internet or radio receiver networks or mobile networks, there are plenty of opportunities to co-create with customers, external partners and upcountry people.4. Growth (including mergers and acquisitions) Organisations can use information systems to expand domestic and transnational operations or/and to diversify and integrate into other products and services, i.e., establishing global intranet and global operation platform establishing omni channel strategy to gain growth (omni channel strategy looks at leveraging advantages of both online (or digital) and offline (or non-digital) channels) (Rigby, 2011).5. Str ategic Alliance Organisations can use information systems to create and enhance relations with partners via applications, such as developing virtual organisations and inter-organisational information systems.To conclude, the potential to use technology for sustainable strategic advantage is evident and by innovative thinking it can be realised with the correct technological tools and strategies. Technology will doubtlessly change the way commerce is carried out and information systems combined with technology will improve business processes and living standards going forward. It is the job of the information systems practitioner to always be aware of developing technologies and make use of them to improve business needs and to find solutions to business problems and also look at the possibility of developing the applications (SaaS) or otherwise needed to take in these issues. Additionally information systems by itself or in conjunction with internet of things could be used strategi cally to improve not only business processes but human lives by utilising (IoT) technology and information systems to build out platforms for concerns surrounding health and climate change issues.ReferencesBooth, A. R. (2011). How strong is your IT strategy? McKinsey on Business Technology.Carr, N. G. (2003, May). https//hbr.org/2003/05/it-doesnt-matter. Retrieved from Harvard Business View.Chui, M. . (2011). Inside P Gs digital revolution. McKinsey Quarterly.Gartner. (2012). Forecast Software as a Service, All Regions, 2010-2015.IBM. (2014). Champions of Software as a Service How (SaaS) is fueling.Jacques Bughin, M. C. (n.d.). http//www.mckinsey.com.Kennedy, J. (n.d.). www.siliconrebublic.com.Manyika. (2009). Hal Varian on how the Web challenges managers.OBrien, J. A. (2011). Management Information Systems. McGrawHill,.Porter, M. E. (1985). 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