Strategy formulation, often referred to as strategic planning or long-range planning, is concerned with developing a corporation’s mission, objectives, strategies and policies. It begins with situation analysis: the process of finding a strategic fit between external opportunities and internal strengths while working around external threats and internal weaknesses.

Please complete the following Group Strategy Project:

1) As a team conduct research online regarding the role that information systems (IS) have in creating an organization’s competitive strategy. Discuss specifically how the IS integrates the organizational strategic vision and accomplishes a competitive advantage for the organization.

2) As a team, choose one organization from the information technology (IT) industry to use as a reference for the following 6 prompts.

For example our text discusses several IT organizations such as Google, Sun Microsystems, Frontier Communication, Dell and Apple, Inc. Strategy is defined and is tied to the mission of the organization. Examples of mission statements are provided in our text (Figure 1.2 in our text).

3) Review your IT organization’s mission statement.and e xplain what the mission statement tells us about the IT organizations strategy?

4) Determine if there is alignment or misalignment between business strategy and IS strategy from the organization’s mission statement? Discuss the alignment or misalignment. 

5) Use Porter’s five forces to make a qualitative evaluation of the industry’s strategic position. Be sure to explain each of the five forces. 
(Porter’s five forces): 
Threat of new entrants: Are new entrants being attracted to the market, and are there barriers to entry in the industry? 
Threat of substitute products or services: Are there other products that could be alternatives to offerings in the chosen industry? 
Bargaining power of customers: What degree of bargaining power do the buyers have in terms of putting the industry under pressure to provide more products or less cost? 
Bargaining power of suppliers: What is the importance of raw materials, components, labor, and services that are required for the industry, and are there substitutes for those inputs? Discuss the possibility of switching suppliers, if necessary. 
Intensity of competitive rivalry: Does the industry have a sustainable competitive advantage? 

6) Using Porter’s fve forces model, discuss whether or not the IT organization has a competitive advantage. 
 a) If this IT organization has a competitive advantage, how did they attain the competitive advantage? (Ex: information, technology)
 b) If this IT organization does not have a competitive advantage, describe how information or information technology might be used to provide a winning position for the IT organization. 

7) SWOT is an acronym used to describe the particular Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that are potential strategic factors for a specific organization. Analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the IT Organization. (list at least 5 for each)
 

8)  List strategic technology recommendations that your team has for this IT organization. (list at least 5)