Earl's Model in Asda Business

Earl's model is a useful tool as it looks at the organisation as a whole systematically, and provides insight on their situation. It can help provide clarification of Asda's business needs and strategy in IS use, evaluates the current IS provision and use, and provides innovation of new strategic opportunities afforded by IT. By applying this multiple methodology at Asda, they may experience many benefits, such as; improved top management support, improved resource forecasting, improved business planning, improved user communication, and a better understanding of the organisation and business.

Leg one assumes that business goals are well defined. The translation from business goals to critical success factors, to information systems strategy could be changing; therefore, integrating the three legs may prove difficult. The model also doesn't take into consideration the fact that that the different departments within Asda may have different IS needs and priorities; therefore lacks goal congruence. It can be argued that leg two is non-strategic, uncoupled from the business, and driven by the technologist.

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Leg three can be expensive and time consuming, and the recommendations that result from the analysis may be full of uncertainties, and therefore, high risk. This means that Asda will hold only a brief contingency plan, and as a result they will not be able to move rapidly with the changes being made in the market causing Asda to fall behind.

Earl's model lacks people issues and the element of participation and involvement, which would place Asda at a disadvantage if they did not incorporate it.

People issues are important to Asda, as they need to know the views, opinions, and feelings of customers and employees in order to function effectively. By using CRM7 (customer Relationship Management), as a tool alongside Earl's model, will help Asda to obtain, enhance, and retain customers.

Tesco is very competitive, and benefits from being the first-mover in the e-grocery market. Asda will have to incorporate elements of Tesco's tactics in order to compete. Earl's model does not protect Asda from the threat of new entrants to the e-grocery market, as identified by Porter8, as it ignores the major aspects that differentiates and attracts consumers to their market. Hence, it does not seem to provide a tailored fit to the specific need of the business. The static nature of the model hinders the important assessment of frequent changes in the macro environment.

Conclusions

Earl's model highlights significant benefits; it encourages Asda to maintain an independent clear business focus, supports the alignment of the organisations IS strategy with their existing corporate strategy as well as providing a consideration upon alternative offerings. Yet, major shortcomings are also illustrated by the models disregard for Asda's incapability to adjust to their specific requirements and lack of commendation for business nature understanding to enforce a competitive edge. Furthermore, there is no reference to maintaining the system, and future development.

Earl's model has introduced many e-commerce opportunities for Asda, as it helps to produce a relevant, understandable business plan. As all Earl's 'legs' are connected together, it produces an achievable strategy for their picking method, which can be taken upon successfully with the usage of more research and communication. Although competitive advantage, and people issues are provided by Earl, they are not fully sufficient. Therefore, in order to carry out a more detailed and specific analysis, other tools will need to be used alongside Earl's model, such as; Porters Five Forces, Customer Relationship Management, Total Quality Management, and The Socio-Technical model.

REFERENCES

1. Earl M, 1989, Management Strategies for Information Technology, Prentice Hall
2. Robson W, 1997, Strategic Management and Information Systems, Pitman
3. Pearlson K, 2001, Managing and Using Information Systems: A Strategic Approach, John Wiley & Sons Inc. www.asda.co.uk