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