Abstract
Information technology (IT) has become an integral part of organizations, yet very few organizations have fully exploited the integral role of IT in supporting organizational and business processes. IT can be used to support business processes ranging from multi-national corporations with mainframe computers to small and medium businesses that own a single computer. IT plays a major role in supporting business processes and making informed decisions, therefore if used well by organizations it will benefit them enormously hence giving them a competitive edge over competitors. These roles of IT could be seen as an enabler, initiator or even a facilitator with the help of technologies such telecommunication and networking, computing among others. This discussion therefore looks at how IT supports business processes and decision making to give an organizations competitive edge.
Introduction
Information technology (IT) has become a theme of severe concern for management .The impressive intensification of IT has massive potential for improving the performance of organizations. However, the massive investment made in IT puts mounting pressure on management to rationalize the investment by quantifying the business value or significance of IT to an organization.
IT refers to the convergence of computing, telecommunication and imaging technologies. IT is evident in areas of data processing, information gathering, storage, knowledge creation and accumulation as well as expediting communication. From the recent trend of events in organizations IT has shown a great, quick and radical effect on organizations and the activities that they perform and it is showing no signs of stopping or even slowing down. As a matter of truth IT plays a role in many, if not most, of the everyday processes and operations of organizations and businesses today (Mohsen, 2003). In the earlier years the top management of organizations looked at IT as a mere supporting player within the overall strategy of the organization. However there has been a positive change in top management view about IT due to the manifestation of successfully implemented IT Projects.

A business process can be seen as a socio-technical system, that is “a set of interrelated work activities characterized by specific inputs and value added tasks that produce specific customer-focused outputs. Business processes consist of horizontal work flows that cut across several departments or functions. (Seth, 1998).
Competitive advantage refers to a sustainable clear cutting edge that an organization has over its competitors as it achieves its goals and objectives. Such an advantage is normally valuable, rare and not easily to copy. It can be inform of better quality products, better customer service, reduced costs among others.
There is therefore a clear manifestation that IT is now taking an important role in the different business processes of an organization such as creating innovation, causing new product development, streamlining business processes among others. This discussion also looks at how IT with the help of the different types of information system helps managers to make informed decisions as far as IT and its influence on business processes is concerned. The decisions made here will either increase a firm’s competitive advantage or earn it a competitive disadvantage.

Improved relationship of customers and the organization.
Organizations can use IT to improve their relationship with customers. This can be achieved through using IT to develop applications like customer relationship management systems which enable quick responses to customers’ needs through allowing customer involvement, participation and open opinion expressions about the organizations services. Such systems also provide a wider availability of information about an organizations products and services. Thompson (2002), acknowledges that technologies such as customer relationship system reengineer the relationship between the customers and the organizations. He said CRM’s concentrates on the retention of customer by capturing customer data from every interaction, from multiple access points and then consolidate and transform it into personalized predictive knowledge. He gave an example of Cisco Systems which has used the Web-based CRM technology to create a “virtual enterprise” and the results showed the barriers to information at Cisco became incredibly low and the company saved over $270 million in annual operating expenses while improving customer satisfaction. This in a way locks in the customers making it difficult for them to switch to a competitor which provides a competitive advantage to an organization.

Changes in business processes.
Farbey et al., (1994) acknowledges that IT is a vital component in the transformation of an organization. It facilitates the streamlining of the administrative and business processes and enables the decentralization of the scope and scale of the business. Streamlining business processes can lead to a reduced cost of operation and enhanced efficiency and effectiveness in business operations consequently translating into better quality products and service. Similar to the above findings, Davenport and Short, (1990) also agree that IT can help to identify alternative business processes and also achieve multiple objectives in redesigning processes. They gave an example of American Express which improved quality, cost, and time of its credit authorization process by using expert systems.This technology incorporates the knowledge of American Express best authorizers in an “Authorizer’s Assistant” expert system. The successful redesign led to 25 percent reduction in the average time for each authorization, a 30 percent reduction in improper credit denials and a 7 million annual reduction in costs due to credit losses. This can significant give an organization a competitive advantage over the competitors
Links with business partners.
IT links its company with its business partners efficiently and effectively. This is made possible through the use of inter-organizational systems developed with the help of IT. Such IT systems or application include shared databases, networks, groupware and telecommunication systems. This makes it possible to meet the need for ever-close coordination in the business environment through information dissemination process as well as standardizing the format in which all receive such information. For example, multinational firms, once constrained by severe geographical and technological limits, now enjoy the benefits of networking, which enables round-the-clock exchange of information on production performance, among other things. In relation to the above Magnet, (1992) agrees that IT links business partners. He gives an example of Texas Instruments where the process for new product development was dramatically improved when a design team in different countries used global network and advanced computing resources to work on design directly without sequential flow of documents. As a result, the development cycle time for various products decreased substantially (more than 30 percent in some cases).This therefore can result into a competitive advantage for such a company.

In organizations today managers no longer depend on intuition or experience to make decisions. They rather depend on information available to them. This information is made available with the help of information systems which guides the managers while they make the informed decisions. Information systems are a component of information techology.Therefore with the help of some business processes in an organization, we discuss how IT supports decision making in respect to some business processes

Functional Area | Business Process | Organizational level | System | Description | Competitive advantage | Manufacturing & production | Assembling productsQuality controlProduction planningProduct development | OperationalKnowledgeManagementstrategic | Machine control systemsquality control systemsProduction planning systems | Control the actions of the equipments or machines(TPS)Control the quality of products with the help of computersDecide on the quantity of products to be produced and when to produce themDecision to develop new product lines | There is a reduced error rate, downtime as well as increased capacity and production flexibility. This leads to operational flexibility which can lead to producing many product designs with a faster delivery
This will help the organization to produce quality products than the competitor. Producing quality products is one way of improved customer service. This can lead to a competitive advantage
Helps managers to determine the demand levels of a product hence they are able to make informed decisions on how much to produce based on previous demand trends. This ensures that right amount is produced which boosts costumer confidence about a company’s ability to always provide products which leads to loyalty.Helps top managers to make informed decisions on introducing new product lines in the organization | Sales & marketing | Order processingMarket analysisPrice analysisSelling | OperationalKnowledgeManagementStrategic | Order processing system.Market analysis systemsPrice analysis systemsSales forecasting system | Enter, process and track ordersIdentify customers through data on demographics, consumer behavior and trendsDetermine prices of products and servicesPrepare long-term sales forecast | Timely information availability to management about inventory & sales levels which reduces management’s response time and making the company more alert and responsive.
Focus on a specific market segment so as to create a niche that is not fully filled which can lead to increased customer satisfaction because information obtained and analyzed by the system can be used to create products that meet or exceed customer expectations this leads to customer loyalty.This helps organizations to adopt favorable pricing strategies for their products or services. This is because such a system can critical analyze the costs of operations, bench mark competitors prices and then come up with a favorable pricing strategy like cost leadership strategyBased on previous trends, these systems can help top managers to forecast long-term future sales. This can help organizations to make informed decisions on whether to increase promotions or not. |
Conclusion
From our discussion we may reasonably claim that IT has significantly supported business processes, enabled informed decision making at the different levels of the organization as well as impacting changes in organizations today. With IT firms have become much efficient and flexible in their operation using mechanisms that were once unimaginable. The ever-dynamic organizational environment, where IT is pivotal, will continue to transform. With IT Organizations are deemed to become more immediate and adaptive, quicker to respond to and capable of working with the dynamic organizational environment efficiently hence giving them a competitive advantage.
As a final point, in as much as IT plays and will continue playing a critical role in the work environment , we find it vital to note that IT is not the only basis for progress neither is it the only catalyst of change. It’s therefore crucial to keep in mind that the other factors like human resource, cultural factors as well as society. These factors as well play a significant role in organizations business processes.
References.

Choi, C.F., Chan, S.L. (1997), "Business process re-engineering: evocation, elucidation and exploration", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 3 No.1, pp.39-63.
Davenport, T.H., and Short, J.E. (1990), “The new industrial engineering: information technology and business process redesign”, Sloan Management Review, No. Summer, pp. 11-26.
Farbey, B., Land, F. Target, D. (1994), "A taxonomy of information systems applications: the benefits’ evaluation ladder", European Journal Information Systems, Vol. 4 pp.41-50.
Magnet, M. (1992), “Who is winning the information revolution?”, Fortune, November, pp. 110-7.
Mohsen, A. (2003),"Information technology and business-process redesign", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 9 Iss: 4 pp. 440 – 458.
Seth, V.,William, K. (1998) “organizational transformation through Business Process Reengineering”,Prentice Hall,USA
Thompson, B. (2002), “CRM: building the collaborative enterprise”, Business Week, April 29.