Coordinated Information Technology: There Is a Great

¶ … Coordinated Information Technology:

There is a great deal of interest in the implementation of Information Technology for the achievement of coordinated management of operations and other organizational aspects. In the past few years, ERP systems have emerged as effective agents for such coordination despite of the difficulties in implementing and maintaining them. On the contrary, information technology initiatives that are less ambitious have been easier to implement though they normally fail in achieving enough coordination. Consequently, large scale initiatives have been recommended because they are advantageous though the degree of their competitive advantage is uncertain. Therefore, there are numerous concerns on whether skill in implementing coordinated information technology provides competitive advantage to an organization.

ERP Implementations:

The process of implementing Enterprise Resource Planning Systems does not consist of a one-size-fits-all strategy because of the need to identify the appropriate program. The lack of the strategy also emanates from the differences in organizational goals that necessitate the need for careful planning and evaluation during implementation (Neal, 2010). Consequently, there are three different ERP implementation strategies that are most commonly used as explained below

Big Bang:

As the name suggests, the big bang enterprise resource planning system implementation process takes place in a single main event. In this case, all modules are executed across the whole organization at the same time. During the big bang ERP implementation, all the users of the systems in the organization move to the newly implemented system at a given date. While the strategy is supported across the divide, its main risk factor is the possibility of negative impacts that are associated with the instant changeover.

Phased Rollout:

In this implementation strategy, a firm moves from the existing system to the new ERP system through a range of pre-determined stages. Consequently, the changeover in this strategy takes place within an extended period of time. Therefore, small changes occur over an extended period of time because the implementation is not carried out in a single instance.

Parallel Adoption:

The final most commonly used ERP implementation strategy is parallel adoption in which the existing and new ERP system run concurrently. This strategy is regarded as the least risky process because users can learn the new system while performing their day-to-day tasks on the legacy system. The old or legacy system only becomes outdated once all the requirements and modules of the new system are met and executed respectively.

ERP Implementation and Competitive Advantage:

The implementation of enterprise resource planning systems is not an easy task because of the lack of one-size-fits-all strategy and difficulties in executing and maintaining the systems. The main disadvantage of implementing these systems is the need for change management that is likely to be recognized when it's very late. The need for change management has developed to become the major impediment of ERP systems since changes in corporate culture are mostly underestimated during the implementation process. Therefore, the implementation of these systems not only impacts the technical aspects but it also affects the people aspects of an organization. However, the main advantage or reason for the implementation of ERP systems is the achievement of coordinated management of operations and other organizational aspects.

In the past few years, ERP systems have developed to become a huge industry with committed professionals and service providers. Some of the widely recognized ERP vendors in this industry include Tata Consultancy and Deloitte. The development of these systems has been fueled by the shift to customer-centered supply chain management that is centered on global competition. Consequently, the development of ERP systems has been described as a business strategy and specific applications that increases the value of customers and shareholders through optimizing enterprise and inter-enterprise, financial, and collaborative-operational procedures (Gore, 2008). ERP implementation translates into competitive advantage through a matrix of structure and activities at several stages. Actually, understanding the competitive advantage brought by ERP implementation is through the discrete activities of the firm's operations rather an overall analysis of the firm as a whole.

Coordinated Information Technology and Competitive Advantage:

The implementation of ERP systems despite of execution and maintenance difficulties is the main way for implementing coordinated information technology. Throughout the years, the use of information technology across businesses and organizations has been regarded as the major way of enhancing a firm's competitive advantage. However, with the increased use of information technology tools across firms, there has been a significant need to adopt and implement coordinated information technology. In addition to enhancing management efficiency, the implementation of coordinated information technology is a competitive advantage to an organization because of the following reasons & #8230;

Aligning Organizational Procedures:

Coordinated information technology is a competitive advantage to a firm because it aligns the organizational procedures and activities like designing, manufacturing, marketing, and delivery towards achieving organizational goals. As a result of the alignment, organizational activities become efficient in accomplishing product development goals and providing customer satisfaction. As customers become satisfied with the quality of an organization's products, they stick to these products resulting in competitive advantage of the firm over its rivals.

Provision of Information:

There is a great need in today's business environment for information technology to encompass information that businesses create and process that information. This need helps the firm in incorporating information revolution to promote its competitive advantage. The implementation of coordinated information technology helps an organization to accomplish the great need. As a result coordinated information technology creates competitive advantage by providing information to companies regarding new methods for outperforming their rivals (Porter & Millar, n.d.).