The Use Of Information Systems For Innovation In Organizations

Example 1 – Ford

Information systems play a vital role in their efficient functioning of the organizations in today’s world. Due to increasing competition and changing market needs, the organizations are coming up with their own innovative ideas as well as strategies to ensure they remain updated with the present market trends. Information systems and information technology innovations also aim to ensure better application developments for addressing the needs of the customers in a more efficient manner to ensure improved customer satisfaction.

The following report will discuss four major innovations in the field of information systems for the organizations and the other aspects such as its advantages as well as disadvantages. By the end of this report, the reader will have a clear understanding of the different aspects of the information systems and information technology innovations and how they are implemented within the organizations (Pal et al. 2014). Organizational success factors as well as recommendation for future development will also be discussed.

Example 1 – Ford motor company:

Ford is one of the market leaders in the manufacture of automobiles in today’s markets. It had recently come up with information system innovations in order to improve its business and other operations across its different offices across the world. It uses information systems for the business managers, supply chain management (SCM) as well as customer relationship management (CRM) (Kaplan and KP Innovations 2014). It has helped Ford immensely to achieve elevated success in the recent past and is continuing to innovate on its business strategies using information systems.

In the year 2000, Ford Motor Corporation came up with the “Ford Production System”, aimed to develop better relationship with the customers (O’Brien and Maracas 2011). Its main aim is to develop a better pull-based system to ensure a synchronized production, stability as well as continuous flow of data and information across the system. Using this system Ford could inform the suppliers well in advance regarding the exact time and place where components would be required. To achieve that, Ford could tell suppliers exactly when and where certain components would be needed days in advance, to reduce buffer stocks extensively (Jones 2014). This would greatly improve the supply chain management of the organization.

Another important aim for the organization was to come up with an improved system of customer relationship management. This was achieved by an information system known as Order to Delivery. It was designed to deliver finished products to the customer 15 days before the actual date of delivery, as promised to them for their orders (Nambisan 2013). The main aim of this system was creating a lean, predictable as well as flexible process that that brought together the coordinated efforts of all Ford components. This ensured Ford could provide the components to the customers just the tie and place they need them thereby ensuring to fulfill their technique of “just-in-time” (J and Quaddus 2013). This innovation in information systems ensured better customer satisfaction, improved selection of customers as well as improved stability and cost cutting for the organization.

Success factors:

• A good image: Ford has an exceptionally good brand value that helped it win the trust of the customers for a long period of time.
• Excellent cost planning: For has been successfully able to determine the cost factors essential for it to expand its business strategically using the innovations in information systems.
• Innovative innovations in products: For has successfully manufactured fuel efficient, electric as well as solar powered cars using innovations in technologies combined with the efforts in the innovations in information systems.

Lessons learnt:

• Information system innovations only helped the company to grow in domestic markets within the United States.
• Lack of future technological plans or innovations in the field of fuel-efficient cars.

Recommendations for Ford motors:

• Technologies that are more advanced as well as innovative business strategies should be incorporated in order to expand the business on a global scale to help the organization reach countries where it has still not began its operations.
• Information systems used in the company should be more advanced especially in the design of the fuel-efficient cars in order to come up with more attractive and cost effective line of products for the customers.

Example 2 – EBay

Recently EBay had come up with an innovation in information systems within the working principles. In the year 2009, it came up with strategic information system (SIS) also known as competitive information systems. The fundamental aim of the information system was to refocus on the feedbacks of the other information systems that gathered feedbacks form the market places regarding customer queries and other concerns. It was aimed to increase the overall efficiency of the organization as well as automating the existing patterns of information flow as well as organizational operations. This enabled EBay to be at a better and sustainable competitive advantage. EBay had also used information systems in order to provide premium services as well as innovating products to address the needs of the customer in a better way there by ensuring higher customer satisfaction. Information systems are also being used by the company to determine cost-cutting avenues (Holtshouse 2013). One of the most important benefits of SIS is that it has eliminated inventory as well as saving cost for EBay and has turned EBay into the first ever online auctioning platform in the world.

Success factors:

• A great idea: The innovative idea of EBay to come up with the first ever online auctioning platform aided by the usage of information systems and advanced technologies is one of the key success factors for the company.
• A business model without sales force and inventory: This business model again helped in the further success of the company, which again make use of the strategic information systems.
• A proper management information system that ensured that the right products are available for the right customers at the right point of time thereby ensuring better customer feedbacks for the organization.

Lessons learnt:

• The rate in which EBay comes up with an innovation in either its products or even the business strategies cannot cope up with the dynamic change of the market as well as the customer needs.
• Little or no decentralization business.
• Limited international business.

Recommendations for EBay:

• It should come up with a more flexible faster rate of innovation to meet the rapid changes of the markets. This will ensure it eliminates the risk of imitation.
• Decentralization should be increased using innovative information system to increase business flexibility in the ecommerce market segments.
• EBay should expand its business operations globally.

Sony Corporation has been able to tap the innovations and advantages of information system for its working operation in the recent past. It has come up with a number of innovations that help in automating tasks within the organization as well as improving the quality of media they broadcast (Mishra and Prasad 2015). Multiple technological advances in the field of VFX as well as other technologies have been used by the implementation of information systems within the organization in order to improve the employee as well as the end user experiences for the organization (Kellermann and Jones 2013). Some of the applications of information systems in the field of innovations are:

• Business systems planning (BSP): It combines the planning of top-down bottom-up implementation and focuses more on the business processes and organizational objectives as well as tasks. Data needs as well as classes are determined by the analysis of the business processes using the advanced information system (Du Gay et al.2013). Similar data forms the databases. Individual systems are installed base don the timetable as stated by the final plan of the BSP.
• Strategic systems planning (SSP): It an analyses important areas of functionalities within Sony and combines generic information requirements of data entities and the subject databases. This architecture helps in deriving newer systems as well as their schedules of implementation.

• Standardized information system’s within the organization to ensure there is transparency in task and data flow (Macdonald 2017). This improves the control as well as efficiency of the business operations.
• Crucial role of knowledge management systems in Sony’s collaboration with its BPO partner WNS for the proper outsourcing of knowledge as well as technical support for the customers to ensure better business ethics and operations.

Lessons learnt:

• Lack of innovations in mobile devices and marketing strategies of the existing mobile devices.
• Sony lacks proper security infrastructure within the organizational network.

Recommendations for Sony:

• Information systems can be innovated and implemented to design better mobile devices such as tablets, mobile phones, music players etc.
• Information technology should also be improved in order to ensure better data security within the organization to prevent issues such as data theft or privacy breach by the hackers.

SA950 series of monitors from Samsung shows the best in class innovation in information technology in the recent past and provides the best 3D experience ever. An ultra-clear display with photo accuracy of 100% using innovative advance information technologies that use vibrant as well as true-to-life colors (Pearson and Saunders 2013). The active 3-D technology from Samsung gives a full 1080P display resolution so that every details of the picture is catchable in the picture. Its compatibility with third party video cards and availability of display ports for connections in the highest available bandwidth makes it even more attracting and beneficial for the end users (Laudon and Laudon 2015). It also includes the TriDef 3D software for gaming. The monitor also supports 2D to 3D conversion in real time and an eco-automatic motion sensor powers the monitor on when the user is sitting in front of the monitor and powers it off when he walks away, and powers it down after you walk away. A Light Sensor matches the brightness of the screen according to the brightness of the room thereby pleasing the eyes of the viewers as well as saving energy at the same time (Chae, Koh and Prybutok 2014). An extremely well designed narrow bezel and a slim panel makes the overall getup of the SA950 series of Samsung monitors unparalleled in the markets.

Success factors for Samsung:

• Market creation capability: Samsung has management information systems as well as efficient customer relationship management solutions that help it to market its products efficient across the global markets.
• Innovation in technologies: Information technology innovation such as SA950 3D monitors help in increasing sales for the organization.
• Capital Power: The information systems are effectively used within the organization to decide the budget as well as the cost factors for the different projects within the organization thereby ensuring cost cutting and better capital management.

Lessons learnt:

• Samsung focusses more on launching “counter-products” against the launch of a particular product form another company but they do not really come up with their own innovative line of products.
• Presently, Samsung supplies the display units for all the apple products. In the event of Apple launching their own televisions in the near future, it can prove to be a major competition for Samsung. Presently Samsung is doing quite good in the television markets all across the world.

Recommendations for Samsung:

• Samsung should utilize its innovations in information systems to come up with more line of products for the dynamic needs and competitive nature of the markets (Learn.scu.edu.au, 2018).
• Samsung should be equipped with innovative television technologies and ideas for the future incase Apple poses stiff competition in the near future for Samsung.

Example 3 – Sony Corporation

Organizational factors:

Attitude to Innovation should always be towards the growth of the organization as well as ensuring incremental innovative practices. Employees should be flexible in adapting to the communication as well as the new ideas within the organizations to ensure successful implementation of the information systems and their innovations (Bishop et al. 2014). They should be motivated by the managers and receive adequate training regarding the newer technologies.

Individual factors:

The personality, ability of cognition as well as motivation should always be high for the employees and they should be optimistic about any innovation or change in the information systems within the organizations (Li et al. 2013). The employee’s should have a positive attitude and willingness to learn even at a group level when they work as a part of a team within the organizations.

Management factors:

The management should be cooperative with the employees and address their concerns such as employee job satisfaction as well as other concerns prior to implementing any new strategy to ensure its successful implementation within the organizations.

Market factors:

• As soon as a product is launched in the market, the competitors launch a counter product with other eye-catching features (Stair and Reynolds 2013). Therefore, the ever-changing dynamic nature of the markets need an ever-changing dynamic rate of change of the innovations in technology as well as systems.
• Change in the economic condition of the markets again causes issues of the newer products such as price fluctuations etc.

Industry factors:

• The success or effect of an innovation depends on the industry to which it belongs. For instance, an innovative service or product in automobile the ecommerce industry is not as flexible as an innovation in the ecommerce segment.

Social and economic factors:

The children often misuse more innovative products with increased features, which is a negative impact on the society (e.g. misuse of social media by children below the age of 14). Advanced information technologies also increase the risks of data breach by the hackers and ransom amounts of money that they ask form the organizations. In addition, the elevated prices of the new electronics offering advanced and innovative features are overpriced which affects the overall economy based on the demand and supply of the particular product on the market (Yoo 2013). In addition, often they are underprices which causes the companies to incur substantial losses.

Technological factors:

• Technologies are always developing and everyday a new technology is being invented (Decker et al. 2013).
• This is a loss of useful capital for the companies since the technologies used yesterday is obsolete today and an overall new innovation has to be designed for the organizations to maintain their places in the market.

Political/policy factors:

• Laws of gain as well as profit appropriation, also known as the law of motion of a market economy should be considered.
• Law governing the economy development should be clearly defined by the organizations.
• Law related to supply and demand should be defined to understand the demand and supply of the prevailing market conditions failing which even the most innovative product will not be a failure in the markets.
• Government laws related to environment as well as corporate code of ethics have to be strictly followed by the organizations.

Conclusion:

Therefore, it can be concluded from the study that even though there are multiple advantages of innovations information systems as well as information technology for the organizations there are still areas of improvement and considerations for the organizations prior to implementing them. The external as well as internal factors should be properly evaluated failing which the innovations will fail to capture the markets. The economic as well as the social conditions of the markets should be well analyzed by the organizations before launching its products in any country. The companies should also follow government regulations. The organizations will reach newer heights in the future provided it considers all the important aspects before launching innovation in the market.

References:

Bishop, A.B., Wanish, P.J., Pecoraro, A.S. and Narkier, S.D., EMC Corp, 2014. Integrated forensics platform for analyzing IT resources consumed to derive operational and architectural recommendations.

Chae, H.C., Koh, C.E. and Prybutok, V.R., 2014. Information technology capability and firm performance: Contradictory findings and their possible causes. Mis Quarterly, 38(1), pp.305-326.

Decker, M.R., Bronson, N.W., Greenberg, C.C., Dolan, J.P., Kent, K.C. and Hunter, J.G., 2013. The general surgery job market: analysis of current demand for general surgeons and their specialized skills. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 217(6), pp.1133-1139.

Du Gay, P., Hall, S., Janes, L., Madsen, A.K., Mackay, H. and Negus, K., 2013. Doing cultural studies: The story of the Sony Walkman. Sage.

Holtshouse, D.K., 2013. Information technology for knowledge management. Springer Science & Business Media.

J, X. and Quaddus, M. (2013). Managing information systems: Ten essential topics.. 1st ed. Amsterdam, Holland: Springer & Atlantis Press, pp.ISBN: 978-94-91216-88-6. (J and Quaddus, 2013)

Jones, C.B., 2014. Geographical information systems and computer cartography.

Kaplan, J. and Mills, B., KP Innovations LLC, 2014. Display screen with a transitional computer-generated icon.

Kellermann, A.L. and Jones, S.S., 2013. What it will take to achieve the as-yet-unfulfilled promises of health information technology. Health affairs, 32(1), pp.63-68.

Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2015. Management information systems (Vol. 8). Prentice Hall.

Learn.scu.edu.au. (2018). Blackboard Learn. [online] Available at: https://learn.scu.edu.au [Accessed 21 Nov. 2018]. (Learn.scu.edu.au, 2018)

Li, Z., Wang, W., Yang, C. and Ragland, D.R., 2013. Bicycle commuting market analysis using attitudinal market segmentation approach. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 47, pp.56-68.

Macdonald, D., 2017. Ford Foundation. .

Mishra, O. and Prasad, A., 2015. INNOVATIONS IN E-BUSINESS. INNOVATIONS, 4(8), p.5.

Nambisan, S., 2013. Information technology and product/service innovation: A brief assessment and some suggestions for future research. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 14(4), p.215.

O’Brien, J. and Maracas, G. (2011). Management Information Systems.. 10th ed. USA.: McGraw-Hill, pp.ISBN: 978-0-07-337681-3. (O’Brien and Maracas, 2011)

Pal, R., Golubchik, L., Psounis, K. and Hui, P., 2014, April. Will cyber-insurance improve network security? A market analysis. In INFOCOM, 2014 Proceedings IEEE (pp. 235-243). IEEE.

Pearson, K. and Saunders, C. (2013). Managing and using information systems: A strategic approach.. 5th ed. Hoboken, USA: John Wiley & Sons Inc., pp.ISBN: 978-1-118-28173-4. (Pearson and Saunders, 2013)

Stair, R. and Reynolds, G., 2013. Principles of information systems. Cengage Learning.

Yoo, Y., 2013. The tables have turned: How can the information systems field contribute to technology and innovation management research?. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 14(5), p.227.