Strathmore University

FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
MIT 8104: STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

CAT 2

INSTRUCTION

ATTEMPT ALL QUESTIONS.

QUESTION 1

Nicholas Carr wrote the 2004 book Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion
of Competitive Advantage (Harvard Business School Press) and the 2003 Harvard Business
Review article "IT Doesn't Matter." In these widely discussed works, he argued that the strategic
importance of information technology/system in business has diminished as IT/IS has become
more commonplace, standardized and cheaper. His ideas roiled the information technology
industry, spurring heated outcries from executives of Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and other
leading technology companies, although other commentators defended his position.

Make a strong stand about this issue. (20 marks)

QUESTION 2

An enterprise's value chain for competing in a particular industry is embedded in a larger stream
of activities that Michael Porter terms its 'value system', but which might be more usefully
referred to as the 'industry value-chain'. This includes suppliers and distribution channels. Figure
below reproduces Porter's representation. Competitive advantage is a function of how well a
company can manage the entire industry value-chain. A corporation can create competitive
advantage by co-ordinating its links in that chain.

Porter's Industry Value-Chain

(Porter 1980)
Identify five major influences that affect an enterprise's activities in this chain. (15 marks)

QUESTION 3

Organisations are facing the reconceptualisation of the role of information technology in

business. Scott Morton proposes five levels of complexity at which reconfiguration can be
applied. Figure below reproduces his schematic:

Scott Morton's Five Levels of IT-Induced Reconfiguration

(Scott Morton 1991)

Discuss in more details each level. (15 marks)