Strategic Information System: An In-Depth Analysis of Tesla's Strategy

This report provides a detailed analysis of Tesla's strategic information system. It begins by outlining the critical success factors and primary objectives of the company, including its mission statement. The report then delves into the current information system, identifying its strengths and weaknesses, and proposes a new strategic information system to address existing loopholes. The analysis includes an organizational chart, an examination of control weaknesses, and the relevance of new technologies. The proposal encompasses various aspects, including a description of the technology platform, financial and non-financial attributes, and user views. Furthermore, the report addresses potential security risks, data breaches, and appropriate accounting controls for the new system, concluding with a comprehensive overview of the findings and recommendations. The report aims to provide insights into how Tesla can enhance its strategic information system for improved business sustainability and competitiveness.

Running Head: STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM: TESLA
Strategic information system
September 27
2018
Tesla

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Critical success factors of Tesla.................................................................................................3
Primary objectives of Tesla........................................................................................................5
Information might be helpful in analysing the objectives..........................................................5
Mission statement suitable for the client business.....................................................................5
Organizational chart of tesla......................................................................................................6
Current system of tesla...............................................................................................................6
Identification of specific control weaknesses within Tesla........................................................7
Primary features of the new system and best solution to the client...........................................7
Relevance of new advanced technologies..................................................................................9
The proposal that include various items...................................................................................10
Description of the technology platform...............................................................................10
List of financial and non financial attributes........................................................................11
Four users views that are source documents........................................................................11
Potential security risks and data breaches................................................................................13
Data breaches.......................................................................................................................13
Appropriate accounting controls for the new system...............................................................14
Conclusion................................................................................................................................14
References................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
In the globalizing economy, there are several challenges that organizations are facing to make
business such as privatization, globalization, increasing competition, and increased customer
expectation demands. All these challenges are coupled with the information systems and
communication technologies that the organizations are using in the era of globalization. A
strategic information system can change an organization’s long-term sustainability and its
success position significantly in the national as well as global market. This is driving leaders
to create or differentiate their information systems including a significant change in their top
management to plan a more sustainable business strategy for a longer time period
(Alshubaily, and Altameem, 2017). Along with all these today’s market defines other critical
success factors like high-quality standard, time-to-market, economic business design, and
high speed along with speed of innovation. Tesla is one of the biggest supercar
manufacturers. Tesla is changing the customer experience with electric cars. It was founded
in 2003, by Elon Musk and Martin Eberhard. Since then it is trying to enhance the technology
in the field of electric transition (Tesla, 2018).
The below give report is the demonstration of effective analysis of a strategic information
system that is already existing in the company. Along with this, the below report is provided
to give a brief introduction to the new proposed strategic information system to make
business more competitive and sustainable in the existing emerging market. In this report, a
complete analysis of Tesla’s strategic information system is done. This report will identify
the critical success factors and primary objectives of the company. Also, this report will
create a formal organizational chart and analyze the information system to identify its
strengths and weaknesses. All this analysis in this report will produce a new strategic
information system within the report to address such loopholes in the existing information
system of the company.

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Critical success factors of Tesla
Success factors of an organization are the elements which motivate and stimulate the
organization's productivity along with enhancing its overall performance at times when the
company needed those most. For an organization, critical success factors can be defined as a
set of operations or activities that help the organization to grow successfully ensuring its
business sustainability for a longer time period (Statistica, 2018).
Figure 1 Growth chart of Tesla Inc.
[Source: Critical success factors of Tesla Inc., 2018]
These success factors vary from organization to organization and also industry to industry. To
identify these critical success factors of Tesla, the research work found that there are seven
different factors that can be considered as the critical factors of Tesla for all its success and
survival in the global market. These success factors of Tesla are given as below:
Monopoly: Tesla was started with a tiny submarket which could be dominated easily. This
was the market for high-end production of electric supercars. The company did not compare
its business with that F-150 model of Ford in terms of the production volume. This ignorance
of the existing competition made tesla to collect fair revenue by selling its 3,000 pieces at the

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rate of $109,000 per piece. Now the company has taken over the market of electric
transportation in the supercar segment. Tesla is expanding its concept of manufacturing
electric supercars with the demonstration of company’s new model S. Company CEO Elon
Musk claims that the Model S will be the mass-market car for the company (Steinbuch,
2015).
Technology: In terms of technology for electric cars, other world-class brands in the
automobile industry rely on Tesla. Today, companies like Daimler, Mercedes-Benz, and
Toyota. Daimler uses the battery packs of Tesla in their cars, Tesla's powertrain is used by
Mercedes-Benz, and Toyota uses the motors produced by Tesla. In this series, General
Motors has created a task force to trek the tesla’s nest moves in terms of technology. This
makes the company leaders in the technical segment for electric supercars.
Timing: Timing is the most critical factor for an organization. Taking decisions is one thing
but taking decisions at right timing is another and this little difference can create a huge gap
between the organization and its success. Tesla has secured a $465 million loan from US
department of energy which was unthinkable in 2003 and today also. But Tesla played the
game perfectly and in 2010, one and a half year earlier just before Solyndra imploded under
the administration of Obama, the company did it. This much subsidy was the most significant
factor for the company and this was possible only because of the right timing in the business.
Team: Elon Musk is a consummate engineer and a salesman also. Therefore, he assembled a
team that is very good at both the essential elements of his business. Elon Musk describes his
team as equivalent to the special force that is hardworking and intelligent both at the same
time. The company maintains the enthusiasm of its employees along with the expectations of
something new or that is a discovery to the world. In simple words, Elon Musk asks his
employees to produce or design something that is impossible for the rest of the world. But at

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the same time, he plays the role of team leaders and motivates the team as well. This creates
an environment suitable for teamwork and ultimately he along with his team get success as
well.
Primary objectives of Tesla
 To most objective of the company is to create more and more demands along with
raising its sales up for the electric car of Tesla Motors.
 Concentrating on building awareness of the brand for a long time along with
maintaining the brand reputation (Teslamotorsdeca, 2018).
Information might be helpful in analyzing the objectives
For technology generators like Tesla, to achieve its high objectives and bigger goals a lot of
data and information in the same field is needed at topmost priority. Company’s high
standardized structure has to be restructured to achieve its goals. This will help the company
to reduce the cost of overpriced products that the company is manufacturing now. For this
company has to revise its systems and strategies to introduce significant improvement, if
demanded. Re-structuring to make the business sustainable will also help the company to
compete with its rivalries. Reducing cost can play the role of strategy change for the
successful achievement of its objectives and goals (Devadevan, 2013).
Mission statement suitable for the client business
To accelerate the acceptance of sustainable transportation by creating mass-market electric
cars as soon as possible (Musk, 2013).

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Organizational chart of Tesla
Figure 1: Organizational chart of Tesla
The current system of Tesla
In order to build a sustainable market, Tesla has managed to build some strategic and
technical advanced information system to compete with its top competitors from the global
market. The company is up-to-date in terms of its information system. The company always
modify its existing information system by making the significant change into macro elements
of their existing information system. All these changes are made to cope up with the existing
market and also to take a competitive advantage in the growing market (Burger, Kreutzkamp,
Hagge, Lappe, and Robben, 2003). These macro element changes are comprised of change
into the company’s sales strategy, operational management, varying its environmental
standards, advancement in the technology, and global marketing strategies of the company.
An information system used throughout the organization is the same at the global scale as the
goal of the company is the same for the global market. Tesla is also known for its
Manufacturing
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manufacturing system that has been re-named as lean manufacturing. Still, the company’s
manufacturing system is the best that an organization can have.
Identification of specific control weaknesses within Tesla
In the recent time, increasing globalization and advancement in the technology has taken the
manufacturing industry at its peak. Such changes in the manufacturing industry are
demanding for the strategies to grow in between the market of immense competition that the
globalization has created. The recall has been the biggest failure for Tesla that has affected
the brand value of the company. Along with this company is facing so many threats
associated with the weakness of the company, in the international market as well. There were
times when Tesla was unable to control its management system. Such weakness harmed the
company a lot in terms of the company profile and its brand value. These factors also affected
the company sales in the international market. At the time, while manufacturing the sample
cars company has faced problems like authentication problem, issues with suppliers, and
fraud related issues (Robinson, et al., 2014). In this list, the company has also faced issues
with its suppliers as well. In order to resolve all these weaknesses, the company has adopted
many strategies. In the beginning, the company was working to identify its weaknesses and
finding their solutions. This concentration made the company to resolve them within the time
period the company decided for the same.
Primary features of the new system and the best solution to the client
In the emerging world, technology is one among the factors playing a critical role in the
success of businesses. Advanced technology is helping the organizations to enhance their
business, significantly. And when it comes to the technology, Tesla always impresses the
global market with its technology. In the last decade, the company has emphasized the world

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with its technology implementation in its various operations including its products (Windahl,
Andersson, Berggren, and Nehler, 2004). In the same time, the automobile world has also
seen the technology evolution through the Apple car play and Android auto. These examples
are setting a new benchmark for the technology implementation in the global industry of
automobile. These technologies of linking the smartphones with cars are new standards for
the company. In order to cope up with these standards, the company is looking forward for
the expansion and exploration of its Smart device link technology along with its existing
Tesla Entune system in its products. Along with this, the company is working on its basic
objective of making transportation environment-friendly, a core team of the company is
working on smart driving along with significant environmental effects. Some of the features
of this new system developed for the organization are listed below:
 Transitioning the world towards sustainable energy in transportation
 Providing power with a swift response to the car
 It also ensures the reduction of thermal power and using maximum sustainable power
for transportation
 Elimination of harmful CO2 emission
 Improves the engine torque to experience the feel of power
 Implementing fully electric operating motor up-to full efficiency along with full
effectiveness
This new system will ensure the customer satisfaction in terms of their expectations for the
power and efficiency of the electric motor. From the beginning, Tesla is working on hybrid
vehicles that make the company different from others and also increases the customer
expectations from the company in the same segment. In this order, once Tesla implements

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this new system, it can break the loopholes of its existing system to make business revenues
along with ensuring the sustainability.
The relevance of new advanced technologies
EDI (Electronic data interchange) is one of the vital and significant processes that help in
gaining competitive benefits in the international market. Electronic data interchange enables
the accurate, fast and reliable exchange of data between the computer systems of the
companies that do business together (Dobbe, 2016). By implementing and using EDI, the
company has been able to increase the competitiveness and success. It decreases costs and
enhances operational performance and effectiveness across the organization. EDI further
accelerates sharpness accuracy and data exchange. Tesla uses this innovative and unique
technology for better inventory management and accurate accounting. The electronic
transactions are done by the customers because these transactions are more effective and
efficient. The customers use EDI to work with dealers that have unique and dynamic EDI
systems in place. The company uses this technology to reduce and prevent data entry errors
and fraudulent activities further it also maximizes productivity without increasing employees
within the organization. It is analyzed that EDI documents are based on the accepted and
unique standards and principles (Covalentworks, 2018). This process takes less time and
resources to meet the long-term business requirements and targets of the business. Apart from
this, Tesla also uses manufacturing resource planning to conduct business activities to a large
extent. It uses ample resources and material in an effective manner. This is an effective
system which is used by Tesla to manufacture attractive and unique vehicles for the target
audience in the international market. MRP system helps in handling the problem and
complaints of the customers related to delays and facts. Moreover, it also minimizes the cost
of the firm and increases outputs and revenue in a right manner. Besides this, MRPII system

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helps in better planning and to make unique decisions related to production. With these
advanced and innovative technologies, Tesla is able to compete with competitors in the
global market. The entire success and profitability of the firm are dependent on advanced
technologies and resources that help in attaining various rivalries advantages widely
(Truecommerce, 2018).
The proposal that includes various items
The proposal shall include the following items
Description of the technology platform
Tesla uses ample technologies to enable a ride-sharing platform called the Tesla network
through which owners would be able to rent out their cars as autonomous taxis. It will help to
stand out against competitors internationally. It is stated that the company has a benefit that
many people are unable to understand: it is much more than an automotive corporation. Tesla
provides an innovative and advanced technology platform for the various customers in the
international market. The company’s cars have been created from the ground up as computers
on wheels. After the various analysis, it is analyzed that the company is diversifying its
business activities and functions with the help of advanced technologies. Tesla vehicle is
another unique and effective technology platform that is commercializing the battery. On a
large scale, the company is rendering grid-scale energy storage systems to the various
organizations to gain cost benefits internationally. The open software system is implemented
by the company to take various benefits globally along with this, Tesla also uses the AGL
system (Automobile grade Linux) in order to customize the software widely. Aside from this,
technology also leads innovation and creativity in the competitive market. It is one of the
significant sources to get access to relevant and significant information at any time about the
automobile vehicles (Nvidia, 2018).

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List of financial and nonfinancial attributes
(Source: https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/reducing-complexity-in-an-accounting-
system-by-using-the-rea-datamodel-to-design-a-relational-database-2168-9601-
1000237.php?aid=89582)
(Source: https://www.b2ttraining.com/business-analysis-glossary/ )
Four users views that are source documents
The source document is essential to determine and analyze the growth and progress of the
firm. This also plays a significant role in Tesla to attract and retain more and more customers
internationally. Tesla Motors designs, manufactures, develops and sells various electronics
vehicles and energy storage systems. Along with this, source documents are also important to