A novel application of ICTs can radically change the way the business operates and generate significant competitive advantages. As evidenced in a previous article, information technologies can radically modify the business model and the products or services offered. Therefore, the innovative use of ICTs is an integral part of strategic planning.

Strategy 

In general, a strategy is a plan designed to help an organization perform better than the competition . Unlike war plans, however, business strategies usually emphasize the identification, creation and exploitation of new business opportunities rather than defeating the rival.

The strategies are usually based on the development or improvement of products / services, identification of unsatisfied needs of the consumer, customer retention or any other action aimed at increasing the value of the business through review generation software. 

A business achieves a competitive advantage by maximizing its strengths by executing some strategy. When the intention of the strategy is to create new markets, it does not aim to compete with rivals because the marking does not yet exist. Therefore, a strategic action does not always have a competitive nature considering similar products or services. However, markets rarely remain for a long time under the domain of a single organization and competition arises almost immediately. 

Extending business to the Web opens the doors to a global market with millions of potential customers; However, just extending the business to the web is no longer a guarantee for the achievement of a competitive advantage. But doing it in an innovative way is. 

Creation of competitive advantage 

A for-profit organization achieves competitive advantages when its earnings increase significantly; in a good part of the cases due to a greater participation in the market thanks to the creation of opportunities and the strengthening of some competitive advantage. The following point shows the most usual initiatives in which ICT could be applied to achieve a competitive advantage:

Costs reduction

A company can gain an advantage if it can sell at a lower price than the competition. Automation to reduce time and personnel is the usual way of using ICT to help achieve this goal.

Create entry barriers

A company can gain an advantage if the entry of new competitors is difficult. Reaching the market first, capitalizing on the experience and protecting the intellectual capital accumulated in the development of ICTs help to execute this strategy.

Raise exchange costs

A company can gain an advantage if the change to competition implies high direct or indirect costs for the customer.

Create new products or services

A company can gain an advantage if it can offer a new product or service in the market.

Differentiate products or services

A company can gain an advantage if it can attract customers by convincing them that its products are better than those of the competition with the help of review management system.

Improve products or services

A company can gain an advantage the products or services it offers are better than those of the competition.

Establish alliances

Companies from different sectors can help each other by jointly offering products or services in more convenient conditions for the customer.

  strategic actions

The maintenance and search of competitive advantages supported or not supported by technology is a constant task because competition, if possible, will imitate the leader and this inevitably reduces the advantage. 

Strategic Information Systems 

Any Information System that helps achieve competitive advantages is considered a Strategic Information System; These systems can result from the adaptation, renovation or innovative use of existing systems but can also be custom-made to support or shape strategic actions. In short, more than a category of Information Systems, strategic information systems arise from the identification of opportunities in which ICT can be used strategically as exemplified in the following figure and as it should be documented in the Technology Plan Information where for each strategic objective should be associated technological actions that can facilitate their achievement.

tic-strategic approach 

On many occasions the innovative application of ICT demands a radical review of the way in which the business executes its processes. That is, the gain of competitive advantages resulting from applying ICTs may require a process re engineering to achieve significant performance improvements. The Analysis of Times and Methods is a very effective technique to identify the potential areas in which the application of ICTs could significantly improve the performance of the business process. 

Leading Edge vs Bleeding Edge 

As evidenced by cases such as Amazon.com or eBay.com, being the first to offer an innovative product or service using ICTs has the potential to ensure great benefits and a privileged position in the market. At the same time, however, leading innovation also implies greater risk than simply imitating and trying to overcome the leader. The risk originates from the lack of previous experiences, uncertainty about market acceptance and a lack of knowledge of the real potential (and limitations) of emerging technologies.

A market study is a fundamental tool to reduce uncertainty 

But even with proper planning and prior evaluation, many organizations have failed disastrously implementing new business ideas in which ICTs only magnified in failure. The business failure that occurs when trying to be at the forefront of innovation using ICT ("leading edge") is known as "bleeding edge" in reference to the large costs that a company could incur without the expected increase in income that ends up negatively affecting income. 

Among the reasons why companies end up in the “bleeding edge” we can mention the following:  

1) the costs are significantly higher than initially incurred,  

2) the new technology does not meet the initial expectations

3) the beneficiaries - employees , customers or suppliers - do not feel comfortable with the new solution. Analysis tools such as " adoption cycle and expectations " prepared by the firm Gartner Inc . They are very useful when assessing the degree of maturity of certain technologies and light methodologies such as "opportunity evaluation" developed by the Silicon Valley Product Group.

For the reasons just stated, some organizations prefer that the competition try new technology before adopting it. The risk of this approach is to lose the opportunity to take advantage of the first benefits and market leadership, but if the technology is successful, they could quickly adopt it and even try to apply it better than the pioneers.