OKIS Lecture 3

Management > Organisational Knowledge and Information Systems > What is information? > Generalised model > Simplified example > Uses of information

Tactical uses of information

Tactical uses of information include the following, in order to take corrective action if necessary:

• Prudent day-to-day control (cash-flow, debtor, creditor control)
• Long-term view of plans and budgets
• Legal controls and up-to-date legislation
• Profit improvement and cost reduction
• Progress reporting

Vital Corporate Resource

Information is essential to a firm, for both management and strategic purposes. These can include:

• Improved customer service
• Customer intelligence (new markets, new products) - "data mining" refers to the digging deep into a database to fully understand something
• Competitive position

The point of this information is so that it can be understood and used in a creative and useful way.

Information can also bring with it strategic threat. For example, high street retail shops are being threatened by ecommerce. As a counterattack, many stores have incorporated web-based services into their strategies.

One such example is the development of websites to advertise and sell their wares in creative ways. A customer can observe and at their leisure and then go into the store to pick up their purchases, which speeds up the  whole process.

This builds trust, as a consumer can check if the physical good is as it looks on the web. In addition, they can feel safe in their purchase, as they have a fixed location to visit and a human face to speak to if something goes wrong at a later date.

Problems to address

Goals and questions

Recognition and administration