05 Feb Leveraging Technology to Drive Competitive Advantage

Week 1 Assignment Instructions

Leveraging Technology to Drive Competitive Advantage

Read the course scenario for Reynolds Tool & Die. Based on the scenario, write a 2-page executive summary describing how you, as a senior IT manager, plan to leverage technology to achieve a competitive advantage for the company.

Title

Your paper should start with the title Executive Summary: Leveraging Technology to Achieve Competitive Advantages.

Introduction

An introductory paragraph should include the goal of the summary, which is how IT will leverage technology to achieve a competitive advantage.

Headings

Your headings should include:

I. Competitive Advantages

What are the competitive advantages the business would like to achieve? Don’t choose a lot of topics. Focus on three or four competitive goals. These could include:

i. Lower cost of products or services

ii. Greater internal workflow efficiency

iii. Expansion into new markets

iv. Introduction of a new product or service

v. Company re-organization, which could include creating separate divisions, a merger, or consolidation

II. A Current Assessment of the Internal IT Resources

Topics to address should include:

i. Current hardware, software, and services (third party, outsourcing, etc.)

ii. Suggested changes, upgrades, and additions to the environment

III. The Plan to Leverage Technology to Achieve Competitive Advantage

Be specific when addressing your plan for leveraging technology. A good way to approach this topic will be to merge Headings I & II. For example:

i. Achieving lower costs of products or services might be achieved by upgrading aging data center equipment, virtualizing file servers, and, thus, reducing maintenance expense in the long term.

ii. Investment in workflow software may eliminate time consuming manual processes, thus setting the stage for workforce reduction, which will lead to cost savings.

iii. Updated or new Customer Relationship Software may help in developing new markets.

iv. Updated or new ERP software may help facilitate new and better production techniques.

v. Cloud services could create a more nimble, flexible IT organization, quickly enabling mergers, acquisitions, or consolidations.

IV. Conclusion

Your concluding paragraph should be a brief statement reinforcing your position regarding leveraging technology and briefly summing up the document.

Cover Page and References

Remember, all papers need a cover page. Use at least one other reference for this assignment in addition to the course textbook.