BISM1201
Transforming Business with Information Systems
Assignment 1
Information Systems Theory
Semester 1, 2025
Information Systems Development in a Competitive Business Environment
InnoTeck Solutions is a rapidly growing technology firm that specializes in providing AI - driven automation solutions for medium-sized enterprises. The company has gained significant traction in the market due to its innovative approach and customer-centric services. However, as the industry evolves, InnoTeck is facing intensified challenges from multiple sources.
Their core products include:
1. Decision Support Systems
o Analyze business data and provide actionable insights.
o Helps businesses optimize supply chains, manage risk, and improve customer engagement.
2. Chatbots and Virtual Assistants
o Provides customer support automation through various technologies.
o Customizable for various industries, including retail, healthcare, and finance.
3. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Add-ons
o AI integrations for existing ERP systems to improve forecasting, demand planning, and inventory management.
4. Sustainable Solutions
o Focus on environmentally friendly automation by optimizing energy consumption and promoting paperless workflows.
o Uses ethical AI practices to ensure transparency and accountability in automation.
New startups, leveraging cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) models, have begun offering similar automation solutions at highly competitive prices. These emerging companies benefit from reduced infrastructure costs and scalable operations, making it increasingly difficult for InnoTeck to maintain its market lead. Additionally, enterprise clients are becoming more sophisticated in their requirements, demanding highly customizable solutions with superior integration capabilities. Many businesses are engaging in competitive bidding processes, further tightening profit margins for InnoTeck.
At the same time, the company relies heavily on third-party AI models and cloud infrastructure providers, whose rising costs of data storage and computational resources have created financial strain. The reliance on external providers puts InnoTeck in a position where changes in supplier pricing or policies could significantly impact its business model.
Meanwhile, traditional automation methods, such as established ERP systems and custom-built software, continue to serve as viable alternatives. Some clients, wary of reliance on third-party automation vendors, have chosen to invest in internal development teams rather than outsourcing their automation needs.
Beyond these market shifts, large multinational corporations with extensive resources are aggressively expanding into AI-driven automation. With access to top-tier talent, significant R&D budgets, and powerful marketing strategies, these companies are capturing market share at an accelerated pace. InnoTeck’s leadership team recognizes that maintaining a competitive edge will require a fundamental shift in business strategy.
In response to these challenges, InnoTeck is exploring potential avenues for low-cost leadership, product differentiation, market niche focus, or strengthening their customer and/or supplier intimacy. The leadership team is considering all options but the decision on how best to move forward remains a crucial one.
As a strategic consultant for InnoTeck, you have three tasks to complete:
Task 1 (12 marks)
Strategy and Information System (IS) Consultancy Report (maximum 600 words)
As a strategic consultant for InnoTeck, you are writing a consultancy report to your client, InnoTeck. In this report, while providing your analysis of the company’s challenges in scenario, you should
1.1) Select ONE strategy from the following four options, and define and justify your chosen strategy in detail, explaining its relevance to InnoTeck’s current challenges in the business market. In your report, you should explain specific challenges that InnoTeck faces, how your chosen strategy directly tackles these issues, and potential risks or limitations of implementing this strategy.
I. Low-cost leadership
II. Product differentiation
III. Market niche focus
IV. Strengthening customer and/or supplier intimacy
1.2) In doing so, describe how a related IS solution can support InnoTeck to achieve your chosen strategy. Be specific about system functionalities that align with your strategic choice. Be specific about how the suggested IS solution could create value for InnoTeck.
1.3) To ensure InnoTeck is trusting your solution, you should research the web and provide a real-world example of a real-world company that has successfully implemented a similar strategy. Take note of the following items when you choose the real-world example:
● Choose an example that is specific and relevant to your argument.
● Use “Google” as your search engine and read reports and cases from industry forums, online magazines, industry journals, case studies and research papers. Avoid using commercial advertisements, Wikipedia, or opinion blogs as your source.
● Please avoid repeating the examples already discussed in lectures/tutorials. Using the already used examples from your textbook or course material will result in zero mark.
● Compare InnoTeck with real-world examples of similar companies that have successfully leveraged IS for competitive advantage.
● Support your arguments with sound reasoning, statistics if needed, and references to relevant academic sources ofIS and strategy concepts.
● Practice academic referencing including in-text citation and list of references at the end of your report. Details of referencing method is in the later sections of this document.
Important Note for Quality of Analysis: Your Task 1 essay should go beyond surface-level observations. Provide a critical assessment of why the selected strategy is suitable for InnoTeck, considering the company’s competitive landscape, Porter’s competition theories and industry dynamics.
Please avoid major firms such as Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Amazon, Samsung, UPS, Walmart, Toyota, and avoid repeating the examples already discussed in lectures/tutorials. Using the already used examples in classes will result in zero marks for task 1.
Task 2 (5 marks)
Ethical Considerations (maximum 200 words)
Briefly discuss TWO ethical challenges InnoTeck might encounter when implementing your recommended strategy and IS solution. Use in-text citation and practice academic referencing in your answer (1-2 references suffices). Your references can come from industry reports or academic journals and conference papers, books, resources, industry protocols, standards or frameworks.
Important Note for Quality of Analysis: Some of the ethical considerations you can choose to address are Data privacy and security, Transparency and accountability in AI usage, and Sustainability including social and environmental impact.
Task 3 (3 marks)
Strategy vs. Technology (maximum 100 words)
Briefly analyze whether strategy or technology would be the primary driver of competitive advantage for InnoTeck if your recommendations are implemented. In doing so, provide evidence from your analysis in Task 1 to support your argument, making clear whether the strategic direction or the technological capabilities are more decisive. Your argument should be brief and clear within the word limit.
References are not required for this task.
AI Acknowledgement
Ethical Use of Generative AI in Academic Work (50-200 words)
● Include a short acknowledgment regarding your use of any generative AI tools (e.g., Copilot) in your work. In your acknowledgement
● State clearly:
o Whether you used such tools or not.
o Ifused, describe how they assisted you (e.g., for brainstorming, refining arguments, summarizing sources).
o Ifused, how did you verify the accuracy of information provided by AI tools before incorporating it into your case study?
o Ifused, how did you ensure that your final submission maintained your authentic academic integrity despite AI assistance?
● If used, please list your prompts (eg. Prompt: What is low-cost leadership? Copilot: Low-cost leadership is a business strategy …etc).
IMPORTANT: Missing AI Acknowledgement Task will result in 2 marks deduction from total mark of your assignment. There is no extra mark for this task.