Strategic Use of IS/IT in Innovation

This report discusses the strategic use of IS/IT in innovation with four examples of organisational attempts at achieving IS/IT enabled innovation. It also discusses the success factors and the lesson learned along with the impact of the internal and the external factors with some framed recommendations.

Running head: STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
Strategic use of IS/IT in innovation
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................................................ 3
Examples of the use of IS/IT for innovation...............................................................................................................3
Example 1: Coca Cola............................................................................................................................................ 3
Success factors....................................................................................................................................................... 4
Lessons learned...................................................................................................................................................... 4
Recommendations for Coca Cola...........................................................................................................................5
Example 2: IBM..................................................................................................................................................... 5
Success factors....................................................................................................................................................... 5
Lessons learned...................................................................................................................................................... 6
Recommendations for IBM....................................................................................................................................6
Example 3: HSBC.................................................................................................................................................. 6
Success factors....................................................................................................................................................... 7
Lessons Learned..................................................................................................................................................... 7
Recommendations for HSBC.................................................................................................................................7
Example 3: Volkswagen........................................................................................................................................ 8
Success factors....................................................................................................................................................... 8
Lesson Learned...................................................................................................................................................... 9
Recommendations for Volkswagen........................................................................................................................9
Impacts of the Internal and the external factors..........................................................................................................9
Internal factors....................................................................................................................................................... 9
External factors.................................................................................................................................................... 10
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................................... 11
References...................................................................................................................................................................... 13

2STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
Introduction
The world is rapidly evolving and is embracing new changes in the process of the
evolution. The advancement is taking place in the fields of science and technology. More
sophisticated discoveries are being made every year. One of the major factors that have
highly boosted the technological advancement is the extensive usage of the Information
Systems (IS) and Information Technology (IT). The applications of IS/IT is extensive and is
constantly supporting the organisation with the benefits from its inception (Stair and
Reynolds 2013). The Information Technology has the potential of improving the
performances for both the large scale organisations and the small scale and medium scale
enterprises. The positive attributes of the strategic use of IS/IT is considered as the success
factors and the areas where IS/IT has been unsuccessful in adding value are treated with utter
importance and the lessons are learnt from the past experiences.
However, the vast implications of IS/IT are sometimes not accepted by the common
people due to the fact that there have been areas where IS/IT have been unsuccessful in
meeting up the requirements of the people. There are impact of the internal factors and the
external factors of IS/IT on the success or failure of IS/IT in innovation (Petter, DeLone and
McLean 2013). Although the success rates of the IS/IT can be increased by the organisations
with the effective usage of the services and some guidelines that are often formulated by the
IS/IT management authority. This report critically discusses four examples of organisational
attempts at achieving IS/IT enabled innovation. It also discusses the success factors and the
lesson learned along with the impact of the internal and the external factors with some framed
recommendations.

3STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
Discussion
This section of the report contains the crux of the topic. It discusses the four examples
of the use of the IS/IT for innovation. The success factors and the lessons learned are also
highlighted in this section. This section also discusses the several impacts of the internal and
the external factors on the success or failure of IS/IT enabled innovation. Recommendations
and guidelines are also suggested with the aim of serving the organisations with assistance to
succeed in the efforts of implementation of IS/IT.
Examples of the use of IS/IT for innovation
There are several examples of the organisational attempts at achieving the IS/IT
enabled innovation. In this section four examples of the use of IS/IT for innovation have been
discussed. In the further sections, the success factors and the lessons learnt are highlighted
based on the provided examples. The four entities included in this section are Coca Cola,
IBM, HSBC and Volkswagen
Example 1: Coca Cola
The information system/information technology for Coca Cola is a sophisticated
system that works under the help of a team. The team is useful in providing an overall
business of Coca Cola using a globally accepted platform that is destined to provide
assistance through which the company can perform its business operations all across the
world. This section of IS management team of Coca Cola is duty bound and looks after the
status of all operations, that is all the functionalities of the information system are working
properly or not (Irefin and Mechanic 2014). The information system effectively handles the
business functions that mainly involves the human resources, logistics, finance and marketing
with sales and inventory. The infrastructure of Information Technology along with the
innovations goes hand in hand to fulfil the primary objective of the soft drink giant and also

4STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
the latest state in the art technologies are used for meeting the specifications of the
organisation. Security and the business oriented technologies, internal processes as well as
the data systems help in the designing of the new models of business as well as framing of the
digital platforms for the customers as that of the online communities that use the information
systems and the customer relationship management solutions. Coca Cola entails upon using
the SAP solutions in order to design complex and critical solutions of the processes of
business. This helps to facilitate the business operations and foster the company in the
commercial market. Coca Cola is one such company that looks upon developing its IT
infrastructure along with the business models that are cost effective and effectively managed
by the team of experts.
Success factors
 Addition of an innovation from the SAP that goes by the name of Continuous
Performance Management or CPM guides the company of Coca Cola to recruit as
well as retain the best employees along with establishing an effective communication
with the help of feedbacks between the manager and the employees (Aguinis 2013).
 This solution has extensively helped the company of Coca Cola to extend its business
to the various parts of the world where there was no scope of setting up the business.
It was one of the turning point of the company in fostering with the business in the
commercial market.
Lessons learned
 Coca Cola has faced issues in China regarding the usage of the various resources of
water as the main component of the non alcoholic beverage required the use of water
(Karnani 2014). This was to be addresse.

5STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
 Coca Cola was facing stiff competition and the rapid emergence of the innovative
ideas in the product lines and also in the business models from technology oriented
company such as Pepsi. This also required serious addressing.
Recommendations for Coca Cola
 Coca Cola should start focussing on the implementation of innovative resource
management systems to ensure that the company effectively uses the water resources.
 Coca Cola must strive for coming up with new ideas in setting up the product lines to
compete with the rival companies. It will be possible with the help of implementation
of innovative information systems.
Example 2: IBM
IBM or the International Business Machines has one of the best information systems
that helps the helps the clients in overcoming the technical challenges with the innovations in
Information Technology. IBM does not replace its existing systems completely, instead it is
destined towards innovation of the required tools in the field of information technology. This
helps the clients to attain agility and efficiency in the business operations (Field 2013). The
information systems of IBM help in deriving out the transformational results that are mostly
based on the digitization of the markets. Being a giant in the field of Information Technology
IBM has been able to use the information systems effectively according to the requirements
of the business.
Success factors
 IBM is comprised of the unique range of technological products and services that
involves the mixing up of the strategies with a little tweak of the disruptive
technologies such as SAP, Salesforce and Oracle frameworks and automated solutions
to come up with innovations in the field of IS/IT (Snyder 2015).

6STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
 IBM has been one of the best IT companies to incorporate the use of the information
technologies to the best of use. It is known for providing cloud solutions,
implementation of the ERP for the development of the applications and also for
offering the best cloud services in the market.
Lessons learned
 IBM is one of the organisation that has focussed on the innovation of the information
systems rather than introducing new and effective information systems that could be
of higher efficiency as compared to the existing ones (Hirzel et al. 2013).
 This technological giant has faced a lot of security related issues in the past. This was
one of the reason; the enterprise had to go through a collateral damage that affected
both the organisation and the related clients.
Recommendations for IBM
 IBM should engage itself in implementing new information systems to cope up with
the needs of the company as well as increasing the business efficiency.
 IBM in addition to all this should focus on providing the best security to the
concerned innovation systems due to the fact these are vulnerable to the hacking
threats.
Example 3: HSBC
HSBC or Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is one of the leading banks
that is presently working on the innovations in Artificial Intelligence (AI). With the use of
AI, HSBC has been able to provide the best services to the clients in the recent past. It has
been one of the significant contributor in the field of information technology and digitized
platforms (Laudon and Laudon 2016). The information systems that are being developed by
HSBC are aimed towards organisational regulations with the help of innovating the domains

7STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
of knowledge management with the use of dedicated tools and technical strategies. The
management information systems used by HSBC is meant for keeping track of the GDP
compliance within the enterprise that helps the organisation to standout in the field of
information technology and also to have a competitive advantage.
Success factors
 HSBC recently with the help of the solutions of SAP came up with HCM or the
Human Capital Management architecture of cloud that adds value to the organisation.
This was one of the greatest success factors of the organisation (Afiouni 2013).
 HSBC is one of those organisations that has an integrated Human Resource solution
with an advanced information system solution aimed towards making the company as
one of the leading human resource management organisations in the world.
Lessons Learned
 HSBC is a technology oriented company and is busy most of the times in the
development of the products and the services for the clients. The company often
overlooks the internal aspects such as job satisfaction of the employees for which it
often faces difficulties when it comes to delivering complex projects within a limited
time (Thamhain 2013).
 The scope of HSBC is confined to serving only two specific areas that are banking
and information technology. With the effective use of the information systems the
organisation will be able to have a grip on the areas that has been overlooked.
Recommendations for HSBC
 It is important that the team of experts develop flexible information systems. This will
help the organisation to be more efficient in delivering quality services to the clients.

8STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
 The potential bottleneck conditions must be prevented by keeping a track on the latest
trends in the IT market. This can be achieved with the help of a proper knowledge
management system that would help in effectively communicating with the
employees of the organisation.
Example 3: Volkswagen
Volkswagen is known for the real time innovations in the field of automobile and
services. It has relied on the use of information systems for innovation in the recent years.
The company of Volkswagen has used one of the telling information systems in the market
that goes by the name of Infor LN has completely changed the course of the supply chain
management of the organisation as well as the department of logistics of the organisation
(Mathrani and Mathrani 2013). One of the other information systems that the company has
relied upon is the use of Infor SyteLine that helps in providing a robust framework across a
vast range of frameworks. With Infor SyteLine, Volkswagen has greatly achieved the
business to business connections in the automobile sector.
Success factors
 As an automobile industry, Volkswagen has greatly achieved a status of innovation in
market of automobile manufacturing. The information systems has greatly provided a
boost to the organisation by helping them to use their resources with efficiency (Stair
and Reynolds 2013).
 Another outstanding success factor for Volkswagen is the use of information systems
for Project Management and planning. Efficient project management has enabled the
organisation to build healthier relationship with the clients by delivering the rights
products on time.

9STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
Lesson Learned
 Volkswagen uses its information systems to centralize only in the field of automobile
manufacturing. With the introduction of smart automation, the company has been
seriously lagging behind other areas other service (Zeynal, Eidiani and Yazdanpanah
2014).
 Rivals of the same field such as Tesla relies on the manufacturing of driverless cars.
This is one such area where the information systems of Volkswagen have not been
successful to contribute to the organisation.
Recommendations for Volkswagen
 Volkswagen should come up with innovative and effective ideas that would be cost
effective in implementing new information systems. The older information systems
has proved itself to be insufficient in this aspect.
 Installation of GPS trackers in the cars would help the organisation to be more
productive and user friendly as tracking of these cars would be easier just in case the
car moves out of the radar.
Impacts of the Internal and the external factors
The internal and the external factors in respect to the organisations are stated as
follows:
Internal factors
Organisational factors – The organisational factors such as the culture, structure, processes,
size, industry and the products & services often play an active role in marking the impacts of
the internal factors on the success or failure of the IS/IT enabled innovation (Tung, Baird and
Schoch 2014). In reference to the examples of the four entities stated in the above sections it

10STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
is seen that the size and the processes of the organisation are mostly involved in the success
rate of the IS/IT enabled innovation.
Individual factors – To successfully implement the IS/IT enabled innovation in the
organisation, it is important to figure out that they are in accordance with the individual
factors of the organisation. Information Systems requires the application of proper skill and
training from the employees for proper execution of the IS/IT enabled innovation (Argyris
2017). Thus, it is important to consider the individual factors as one of the internal factor that
may impact on the success of the innovation.
Management factors – The management factors are one of the important internal factors that
are required to be considered while implementing the IS/IT enabled innovation on the
organisation. IS/IT enabled innovations that require a proper management, feedback and
control (Goetsch and Davis 2014). There should be a proper management plan prior to the
implementation of the IS/IT enabled innovation.
External factors
Market – Market is one of the external factors that defines the effectiveness of the IS/IT
innovation. The market response and the acceptance has a direct impact on the success of the
previously mentioned IS/IT innovation (Christoffersen and Langlois 2013).
Industry – The requirement of the IS/IT innovation is required to be in accordance with the
industrial needs. Otherwise, in the course of implementing the IS/IT innovations, the
organisations may face serious challenges.
Social – Social factors such as the user friendliness also determines the percentage of success
of the IS/IT enabled innovation. Innovations are complex in nature, thus it is unlikely that it
can bring fortunes to the organisations without proper planning (Peek et al. 2014).

11STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
Economic – The economic factors are often known for defining the success or the failure of
the IS/IT innovation. Innovations such as the implementation of the cloud based ERP require
large periodical investments. If the organisation is not economically sufficient, such
implementations may turn out to be useless.
Technological – The technological factors are one of the several external factors that may
have a direct impact on the success or failure of the IS/IT enabled innovations. Innovations
such as the cloud based ERP require a proper technological infrastructure and a development
scope. Thus, the organisations need to be aware of these factors for the effective
implementation.
Political / Policy – It is important that the IS/IT enabled innovations abide by a certain set of
policies and guidelines. While implementing these innovations it should be seen that the
IS/IT enabled innovations does not violate the policies of implementation (Wu, Straub and
Liang 2015).
For the organisational attempts of bringing an IS/IT enabled innovation, it is
important to know about the internal and the external factors as these are the factors that have
an impact on the effectiveness of these innovations. Both the factors are important however,
the internal factors have a direct impact whereas the external factors have an indirect impact.
Conclusion
From the analysis of the above sections of this report, it can be concluded that there
are multiple factors that govern the strategic use of the IS/IT in the IS/IT enabled innovation.
Organisations are heavily dependent upon these IS/IT enabled innovations in marking the
organisational success.
This report has been divided into four sections. In the first section four examples of
organisational attempts at achieving IS/IT enabled innovation has been discussed. The second

12STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
section of the report critically discusses the success factors and the lesson learned in
accordance to the successful and the unsuccessful examples. The next section of the report
suggests recommendations and guidelines for helping organisations succeed in their efforts of
embarking on using IS/IT for innovation. The ultimate section of the report critically
discusses the impacts of the internal and the external factors on the success or failure of the
IS/IT enabled innovations.

13STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
References
Afiouni, F., 2013. Human capital management: a new name for HRM?. International Journal
of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 10(1), pp.18-34.
Aguinis, H., 2013. Performance management (Vol. 2). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Argyris, C., 2017. Integrating the Individual and the Organization. Routledge.
Christoffersen, P. and Langlois, H., 2013. The joint dynamics of equity market
factors. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 48(5), pp.1371-1404.
Field, A., 2013. Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics. sage.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Hirzel, M., Andrade, H., Gedik, B., Jacques-Silva, G., Khandekar, R., Kumar, V., Mendell,
M., Nasgaard, H., Schneider, S., Soulé, R. and Wu, K.L., 2013. IBM streams processing
language: analyzing big data in motion. IBM Journal of Research and Development, 57(3/4),
pp.7-1.
Irefin, P. and Mechanic, M.A., 2014. Effect of employee commitment on organizational
performance in Coca Cola Nigeria Limited Maiduguri, Borno state. Journal of Humanities
and Social Science, 19(3), pp.33-41.
Karnani, A., 2014. Corporate social responsibility does not avert the tragedy of the commons.
Case study: Coca-Cola India. Economics, Management and Financial Markets, 9(3), p.11.
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education
India.

14STRATEGIC USE OF IS/IT IN INNOVATION
Mathrani, S. and Mathrani, A., 2013, December. Utilizing enterprise systems to manage
organizational performance. In Information Management in the Knowledge Economy
(IMKE), 2013 2nd International Conference on (pp. 92-99). IEEE.
Peek, S.T., Wouters, E.J., van Hoof, J., Luijkx, K.G., Boeije, H.R. and Vrijhoef, H.J., 2014.
Factors influencing acceptance of technology for aging in place: a systematic
review. International journal of medical informatics, 83(4), pp.235-248.
Petter, S., DeLone, W. and McLean, E.R., 2013. Information systems success: The quest for
the independent variables. Journal of Management Information Systems, 29(4), pp.7-62.
Snyder, R., 2015. ERP Success Factors. ASBBS Proceedings, 22(1), p.425.
Stair, R. and Reynolds, G., 2013. Principles of information systems. Cengage Learning.
Stair, R. and Reynolds, G., 2013. Principles of information systems. Cengage Learning.
Thamhain, H., 2013. Managing risks in complex projects. Project management
journal, 44(2), pp.20-35.
Tung, A., Baird, K. and Schoch, H., 2014. The relationship between organisational factors
and the effectiveness of environmental management. Journal of environmental
management, 144, pp.186-196.
Wu, S.P.J., Straub, D.W. and Liang, T.P., 2015. How information technology governance
mechanisms and strategic alignment influence organizational performance: Insights from a
matched survey of business and IT managers. Mis Quarterly, 39(2), pp.497-518.
Zeynal, H., Eidiani, M. and Yazdanpanah, D., 2014, May. Intelligent substation automation
systems for robust operation of smart grids. In Innovative Smart Grid Technologies-Asia
(ISGT Asia), 2014 IEEE (pp. 786-790). IEEE.