Recapping what we have learned

Well done on working through Week 2 of the course. This week we explored the IT portfolio framework.

What underlies a business’ ability to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors?

In our case study about the Pic Nic Pak cafe we saw how automating their menu system was also informating their whole business. This shows the many different kinds of business value returns that an organisation might generate as a result of ICT investments.

A key question remains: how can an organisation compete on information that is generated as a result of its investment in ICT in the long run?

IT innovation and the information it generates creates value across the four domains of an IT Portfolio:

• Transactional assets
• Informational assets
• Strategic assets
• Infrastructure assets

Analysing the differing and interacting benefits across these domains helps any business answer that key business question. It helps businesses see how IT investment can fit with their business model.

Your task

Think about why we covered the content we did in this course. Share your most important reason in the comments. Think about and then share what you would like to investigate further.