Management Checklist: Performing a Strategic Systems Analysis

To align IT with the business and use information systems effectively for competitive advantage, managers need to perform a strategic systems analysis. To identify the types of systems that provide a strategic advantage to their firms, managers should ask the following questions:

$1.1.$ What is the structure of the industry in which the firm is located?

$1.$ What are some of the competitive forces at work in the industry? Are there new entrants to the industry? What is the relative power of suppliers customers, and substitute products and services over prices?

$2.$ Is the basis of competition quality, price, or brand?

$3.$ What are the direction and nature of change within the industry? From where are the momentum and change coming?

$4.$ How is the industry currently using information technology? Is the organization behind or ahead of the industry in its application of information systems?

$2.2.$ What are the business, firm, and industry value chains for this particular firm?

$1.$ How is the company creating value for the customer$$through lower prices and transaction costs or higher quality? Are there any places in the value chain where the business could create more value for the customer and additional profit for the company?

$2.$ Does the firm understand and manage its business processes using the best practices available? Is it taking maximum advantage of supply chain management, customer relationship management, and enterprise systems?

$3.$ Does the firm leverage its core competencies?

$4.$ Is the industry supply chain and customer base changing in ways that benefit or harm the firm?

$5.$ Can the firm benefit from strategic partnerships, value webs, ecosystems, or platforms?

$6.$ Where in the value chain will information systems provide the greatest value to the firm?

$3.$ Have we aligned IT with our business strategy and goals?

$1.$ Have we correctly articulated our business strategy and goals?

$2.$ Is IT improving the right business processes and activities to promote this strategy?

$3.$ Are we using the right metrics to measure progress toward those goals?