Competitive Advantage, Necessity, and the Three IT Assets Bradley C. Wheeler Kelley School of Business Indiana University

IS Group Assessment  Answer these questions based on your personal perceptions.  Just mark the first answer that comes to your mind for each question.

Data Processing Era Value from Info Technology (Requires new organizational learning in each era) Network Era Micro Era Adapted from Nolan, 1995 Three Eras of Info Technology You are here.

New Resource View Scarce Resources  Time  Talent  Management Attention Plentiful Resources  Money  Computing Power  Service Providers Adapted from Geoffery Moore Are you rationing and leveraging the right resources?

Six Manageable Trends 1. IT influences different industries, and the firms within them, in different ways 2. Telecommunications, computing, and software technologies will continue to evolve rapidly 3. The time required for successful organizational learning about IT limits the practical speed of change Applegate et al. 2001

Six Manageable Trends (cont.) 4. External industry, internal organizational, and technological changes are pressuring firms to buy rather than make IT software and services 5. New technologies both enable and require dramatically different approaches to execution 6. Managing a long-term partnership between general, IT, and user management is crucial

Leaders in the Network Era Behavioral “People” Technical “Tools” “ B usiness T echnologist”. Organizational “Strategy”

Technology Treadmill... Competitive Advantage Competitive Necessity IT Investments Organizational Learning Can IT contribute to long-term competitiveness?

Investing in the Three IT Assets Human Asset Relationship Asset Technology Asset High- Performing Unit Sharable Platforms and Databases Shared Risk and Responsibility Adapted from Ross, Beath, & Goodhue, SMR, Fall 1996

Managing the Three IT Assets  Business and IS leaders need to regularly discuss the strength of each asset.  Consider how changes in one will have intended or unintended effects on other assets. Examples? Interventions?  What is the trajectory of the IT Assets? Virtuous Spiral or Death Spiral?

Competitive Advantage, Necessity, and the Three IT Assets Bradley C. Wheeler Kelley School of Business Indiana University