Business Process Reengineering

Businesses have used information technology for many years to automate business process and support the analysis and presentation information for managerial decision making. However, business process reengineering is an example of how information technology is being used to restructure work by transforming business processes. A business process is any set of activities designed to produce a specified output for acustomer or market. The new product development process and customer order fulfillment process are typical examples.
Competitive Advantage with IT. Information technology can play a major role in implementing such strategies. This might  include:

• Cost Strategies: Using IT to help you become a low-cost producer, lower your customers' or suppliers' costs, or increase the costs your competitors must pay to remain in the industry.
• Differentiation strategies: Developing ways to use IT to differentiate your company's product or services from your competitors' so customers perceive your products or services as having unique features or benefits.

System Concepts. What is a system? A system can be simply defined as a group of interrelated or interacting elements forming a unified whole. Many examples of systems can be found in the physical and biological sciences, in modern technology, and in human society. Thus, we can talk of the physical system of the sun and its planets, the biological system of the human body, the technological system of an oil refinery, and the socioeconomic system of a business organization. However, the following generic system concept provides a more appropriate framework for describing information systems:
A system is a group of interrelated components working together toward a common goal by accepting inputs and producing outputs in an organized transformation process. Such a system (sometimes called a dynamic system) has three basic interacting components or functions:

• Input involves capturing and assembling elements that enter the system to be processed. For example, raw materials, energy, data, and human effort must be secured and organized for processing.
• Processing involves transformation processes that convert input into output. Examples are manufacturing process, the human breathing process, or mathematical calculations.
• Output involves transferring elements that have been produced by transformation process to their ultimate destination. For example, finished products, human services, and management information must be transmitted to their human users.

Three major roles of information systems

Information system also help store managers make better decisions and attempt to gain a strategic competitive advantage. For example, decisions on what lines of merchandise need to be added or discontinued, or on what kind of investment they require, are typically made after an analysis provided by computer-based information systems. This not only supports the decision making of store-managers but also helps them look for ways to gain an advantage over other retailers in the competition for customers.
Three major roles of information systems:

1. Support of Strategic Advantage (Competition strategy)
2. Support of Managerial decision-making
3. Support of Business Operation

Gaining a strategic advantage over competitors requires innovative use of information technology. For example, store managers might make a decision to install computerized touch-screen catalog ordering systems in all of their stores, tied in with computer-based telephone ordering systems and an Internet-based computer shopping network. This might attract new customers and lure customers away from competing stores because of the ease of ordering merchandise provided by such innovative information systems. Strategic information systems can help provide strategic products and services that give a business organization a comparative advantage over its competitors.