bject to reaching some threshhold of adequacy in the other. In Exhibit 2, Somogyi & Galliers (1987) provide examples of applications of information technology which are consistent with these two strategic stances, mapped against the particular enterprise activities to which they contribute. Another important consideration in positioning is 'competitive scope', or the breadth of the enterprise's target markets within its industry, i.e. the range of product varieties it offers, the distribution channels it employs, the types of buyers it serves, the geographic areas in which it sells, and the array of related industries in which it competes. Under Porter's framework, enterprises have four generic strategies available to them whereby they can attain above-average performance. They are: cost leadership; differentiation; cost focus; and focused differentiation. Porter's representation of them is reproduced in Exhibit 3. Exhibit 1: Porter's Forces Driving Industry Competition(Porter 1980) According to Porter, competitive advantage grows out of the way an enterprise organises and performs discrete activities. The operations of any enterprise can be divided into a series of activities such as salespeople making sales calls, service technicians performing repairs, scientists in the laboratory designing products or processes, and treasurers raising capital. Exhibit 2: Examples of IT Applications to Porter's Strategic Stances(Somogyi & Galliers 1987) Low Cost Differentiation Product Design * Production engineering * R&D databases * and Development systems * Project control Professional work stations * systems Electronic mail * CAD * Custom engineering systems * Integrated systems to ...
