Government corporation: Gaining Competitive Advantage using Information Technology

It wasn’t long ago when people first created computers and used it as a tool in acquiring and storing information. Since then, advancements with Information Technology have been made and this world has evolved into the "Information Age”. Generally, IT is all about the use of software applications and computer hardware to manage data and helps facilitate decision making and business processes in specific fields.

Competition in almost every industry intensifies, so organizations need to create something that will differentiate them from others. In fact, IT has been utilized by organizations to develop innovative products and unique business processes to acquire competitive advantage. It is stated by Haag (6th edition book, Chap 2) that important IT applications most of these organizations used include Supply chain management (SCM) system . It is an IT system that supports supply chain management activities by automating the tracking of inventory and information among business processes and across companies. Next is Customer relationship management (CRM) system that uses information about customers to gain insights into their needs, wants, and behaviors in order to serve them better. Customers interrelate with companies in many ways, and each interaction is simple, pleasurable, and error free. Then, Integrated collaboration environment (ICE) is the setting where virtual teams do their work. A collaboration system is a software designed specifically to improve the performance of teams by supporting the distribution and flow of information.

Despite the fact that IT gives support to organizations, sometimes it creates a product that the market does not expect and threatens the leaders of existing markets. This is known as disruptive technology or disruptive innovation. When disruptive innovation emerges, established companies are paralyzed. Instead of defending their low-end products/markets, companies prefer to go to the high-end market and launch new products. Eventually, some disruptive innovation is being welcomed by customers and continuously improves, steals more market and luckily replaces the reigning product.

IT has been materialized globally. Actually, Philippines is one of the countries which is recognized as the ” premiere global destination for IT enabled services such as outsourcing”. Well, we are not really left behind in terms of technology developments. Government Corporation such as Phil. Health Insurance Corporation and SSS use IT to keep track of their client’s personal information as well as to outsource necessary information through data centers in order to cater their clients’ needs. With this, sharing of information and communication throughout the corporation will be easily and efficiently administered. Acquiring customer insights through e-mails can help them come up with better customer service programs. Furthermore, office work such as filing and organizing files can be done in no time (if the employee is not slacking off and tools are used properly) since the computer needs just one click away.

Everything has been transformed from manual process into an automated one. Recently, SSS is chosen to lead a project which will introduce a multi purpose card. It is stated in an article that “Executive Order (EO) 420 which was issued in 2005 mandates all government agencies to adopt the a Unified Multipurpose Identification (UMID) card system, a move which is aimed at saving costs for the government and the public as this eliminates the need to produce multiple ID cards as well as maintaining redundant databases."Well, it wasn’t a bad idea to create a multipurpose ID card since it will make SSS members transaction with various government agencies easier.

Personally, I am grateful to experience the convenience that Information Technology provides. We can now communicate with anyone around the globe by simply text messaging them or sending them an email which gives an almost instantaneous response. The internet has also opened up direct communication from different parts of the world throughthe help of video conferencing. IT not just only brought the world closer together but it also linked the cultural gap through helping people from different cultures to communicate with one another, and allow exchange of views and ideas, thus increasing responsiveness and reducing discrimnation. Probably the best advantage of information technology is the creation of new and interesting jobs. Computer programmers, Systems analyzers, Hardware and Software developers and Web designers are just some of the many new employment opportunities created with the help of IT.

Well, people are impulsive. As long as they can benefit from IT they’ll take advantage of it. Though information technology may have made communication quicker, easier and more convenient, it has also bought along privacy issues. From cell phone signal interceptions to email hacking, people are now worried because their once private information becomes viewable to the public. Furthermore, I think disruptive innovations are neither good nor worse. If the reigning product is being replaced by a new entrant it’s because the market welcomes it. So it’s up to the existing market to come up with a counter-attack strategy to defend its current position. This is the nature of competition. The one who survives will win while the other who gives up loses. Using competitive advantage as one's survival tool will help him stay in the competition. Moreover, I believed that the consequences of Information Technology are the results of our own actions – good or evil. In the end, we are the ones who will take resposibility.



*This blog post is part of the class activities in Datamining headed by Mr. Ramon Duremdes

You found "ME"

If by any chance you’ll meet me at the street or at the mall, notice me eating in the cafeteria or see me inside the lady’s room when I was applying lip-gloss on my lips, can you tell if I’m different from the people surrounding you? Well if there’s something special about me, maybe it’s my name. Kesper rhymes with Casper. It’s funny how people react whenever they hear my name but it’s just a usual thing for me. I’m just a typical teenager who’s enjoying the bliss of my youth. Since I was born under the zodiac sign of Taurus, it’s in my character to like a peaceful and laid back atmosphere. During my free time, you’ll find me sitting outside where I could be reading a book, singing my favorite song or just staring at the blue sky and sorting out my thoughts. Given that, most people find me very quite, behave and timid. Actually, I’m just not expressive. I’m more into creative stuffs like drawings, making scrapbooks, etc. And just like any teen age girls, I study, fall in love, laugh, smile, frown, cry, fail, recover from pain, forget, forgive and get older. I have my own priorities and goals I wanted to reach.


I am in my fourth year at De La Salle-Canlubang and will be graduating in my Business Management degree after two more terms in this trimester. Time passes by so quickly and in no time all of us will be facing the real world, the real challenge. Experiences along with the knowledge I’ve had from my professors, subjects as well as friends will serve as an important tool to help me survive the challenges in the real world. On this college campus, students are surrounded by academics with depths of knowledge, classmates from varieties of background and an opportunity for the two to converge. Just as when I learned to walk and talk as a toddler, in college, as a young adult, I develop the passion and determination I will carry with me for the rest of my life - into the workforce, in the voting booth or even in raising my children.

Datamin, short for datamining, completes the list of my subjects this term. At first, I got the idea that it’s the same as Database for management since the word ‘data’ is enclosed to it. I thought it is more of programming or creating databases. Though there are parts in the lecture which they seem alike, I’m grateful that generating databases is not really the priority of this subject. Well, I think there are more to learn in this subject so we just have to sit, listen and bear to mind Mr, Ramon Duremdes' lectures (http://monlearning. blogspot. com)