Information System Report: AAHS - Competitive Advantage and Strategy

This report analyzes the importance of implementing an information system for AAHS, an animal healthcare provider in Australia. It highlights how such a system can provide a competitive advantage by improving data management, enabling better decision-making, and facilitating efficient communication. The report details the types of information systems, problems faced by AAHS, and the information required for competitive positioning. It also explores how AAHS can utilize the internet, intranet, and extranet to engage with stakeholders. Furthermore, it discusses change management strategies and provides recommendations to mitigate potential security and ethical issues like identity theft, hacking, and data breaches, ensuring the protection of stakeholders. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for AAHS to upgrade its systems to gain a competitive edge in the market, providing a comprehensive overview of the benefits and challenges associated with the implementation of an information system.

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Information Systems
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Executive summary
This report shows the importance of putting in place an information system for AAHS, a
company that is involved in providing healthcare for animals in Australia. The reports analyses
the importance of information systems to a business in enabling it to have competitive advantage
in the market through providing the management with data that enables it them to make better
decisions. The report also has recommendations on what AAHS should do to protect
stakeholders from the negative impacts that come with installing an information system for
example, identity theft.
Introduction
An information system is a software that helps a company in functions of organizing and
analyzing data. It therefore turns raw data into useful data that can be used in decision making by
the management. An information system has three main functions in an organization . These are;
they act as a communication system by gathering and distributing information and allows
managers to communicate more rapidly (Business knowledge for IT in private wealth
management, 2009). This information helps employees collaborate in a structured way. Second
function of the information system is in operations management. AAHS can benefit from
information system because they allow a company to operate more efficiently. Information
processed can be used by the company for competitive advantage or to differentiate yourself by
offering better customer service. It also helps in decision making because information given is

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accurate and up to date. Other function of information system is that it helps in record keeping by
storing documents , operational data and communication records (Hofkirchner, 2012).
Types of information systems
Transaction processing system is used to process transactions that result from day to day
business operations, for example, purchase orders and paychecks. Another type of information
system is the management information system in which business owners rely on reports from
various parameters such as inventories and sales data, operational performance data for tactical,
strategic and operational planning. The other information system is the Decision Support System
that is used by managers and owners to make a decision and know its impact before the decision
is implemented (Smedinghoff, 2008). The other type of information system is the executive
support system, which helps the managers identify the long term trends for strategic planning.
Problems faced by the company
Lack of an information system is one of the major problems faced by AAHS, this has
limited the information and records that they can keep in regards to the animals. Another
problem is the management of the animals when treating because of the growth that the company
has had. After treatment of the animals there is the management part of it where the owners are
supposed to be provided with information regarding the animal and regular updates . This is not
easy without an appropriate information system that disseminates information about the animal
to the owner. Cost of installing the operating system is yet another problem that the owner faces,
there is definitely a huge capital outlay required to set up IT infrastructure across the branches.
Also another problem is the security and safety of data that the owner is worried about (Melo-
Pinto, Teodorescu and Fukuda, 2003).

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Information required by the company and how it gives the company competitive
advantage
Some of the information required are; the name of the owner of the animal, the day the
animal was taken ill, the condition that the animal was diagnosed with, the medication that the
animal was given and of course the health history of the dog. All these information is vital and
gives AAHS competitive position (Stahl, 2004). The competitive position is brought about
because, the vet and the nurses are able to follow up on how the animal is fairing before and after
medication. The personalized services provided by AAHS gives them a competitive advantage
over other players in the market. This is why AAHS needs an information system. The
information and the result of the analysis of it have always been of vital importance in any
decision-making process.Every day we take a very important number of decisions that mark to a
greater or lesser extent the results of our commercial work (Stahl, 2004). The Commercial and
Information
As business people, we make decisions every day at all times. In many cases, we take them with
very little margin of time or without the possibility of consulting, especially in negotiation
processes that, sometimes, are very fast and we can not for the clock to consult anyone.
Types of Commercial Information
There are two types of information that are useful in our commercial work: external information
that is related to our competitive environment and internal information, which we have within
the company (Motiwalla and Hashimi, 2003).

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External information is composed of that which affects our sales ecosystem or competitive
environment: customers, competitors, regulations, commercial events, among others.
Internal information is that which comes from customer analytics and the work we are doing
with potential clients.These two sources of information properly combined are a commercial tool
of tremendous power and that in most cases we are not able to take advantage of our benefit. It is
not that the information is not within our reach, especially that which we have internally (Taniar
and Rahayu, 2004). It is not even a problem of ignorance. I have always thought that a good
commercial has a lot of information consciously or unconsciously, but we lack a system that puts
in value that information, analyze it and share it with the rest of the commercial team, even with
other departments of the company (Olivé, 2007) .For this reason, it is necessary for companies to
manage the information they have in order to reach conclusions on which to base our
commercial strategy, but that information can not be left alone in the strategic plan. It can not be
owned by a few, since in the day to day, we all make decisions and we need to base them on
contrasted information, especially those that are most in contact with the market.
How the company can utilise the Internet, intranet and extranet to engage with key
stakeholders
The internet creates opportunities for communication, networking, sales and marketing
and information retrieval (Barney, 2018).. AAHS can use the internet to interact with clients and
other members of the industry by building awareness of their market. They can use the internet
to share information from other market players (Olivé, 2007) . AAHS uses Intranet for its digital
communication. The intranet is critical for providing space for storage, access and also
development of electronic materials. The intranet speeds up workflows and reduces errors in

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business , thus it is important for employees and management as it enables them to make better
decisions (Taniar and Rahayu, 2004).
The extra is also important because it connects multiple intranets together, therefore it
facilitates cooperation between AAHS and other clinics that offer animal health care because it
enables them to share information. It also enables companies to connect with customers in a
setting that is more controlled than the internet.
Change management
First, one of the ways to manage the organizational changes is by training the staff and
management of AAHS, this way there will be little resistance for the new information system
changes being implemented and also increase collaboration between the employees and other
stakeholders.
Summary and Recommendations
AAHS should consider upgrading its systems with a new information systems because it
will give the company a competitive advantage in the market. The possible security and ethical
issues that may arise include identity theft, hacking and other forms of cybercrimes. Identity theft
may arise when details of customers credit cards or other details such as names and others .For
employees, the problems that they may face are example fishing, where some information from
the organization is retrieved in dubious ways. The solution to these problems is to put enough
security controls such as passwords, firewalls and updated antiviruses. The company should also
train its workers on how to use the information system to leverage on the system.

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.
References
Barney, J. (2018). Strategic Management And Competitive Advantage. [S.L.]: Pearson.
Business knowledge for IT in private wealth management. (2009). London: Essvale Corp.
Hofkirchner, W. (2012). Emergent Information. Singapore: World Scientific.
McNurlin, B., Sprague, R. and Bui, T. (2009). Information systems management in practice.
Motiwalla, L. and Hashimi, A. (2003). Web-enabling for competitive advantage. Hershey,
PA: Idea Group Pub.
Olivé, A. (2007). Conceptual modeling of information systems. Berlin: Springer.
Smedinghoff, T. (2008). Information security law. Ely: IT Governance Pub.
Stahl, B. (2004). Responsible management of information systems. Hershey: Idea Group
Publ.