swot analysis for information technology industry

Internal strengths supporting further industry investment in IT include improved patient safety, greater operational efficiency, and current investments in IT infrastructure. Using the popular strategic analysis tool of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis (SWOT), facing the healthcare industry and its adoption of information technologies (IT) are presented. Analysts, practitioners, patients and others have concerns for the industry. Our two examples already illustrate common types of tangible and intangible factors that may need to be taken into account (Table 1.1 'Examples of Resources in and Blockbuster Inc.').The healthcare industry is under pressure to improve patient safety, operate more efficiently, reduce medical errors, and provide secure access to timely information while controlling costs, protecting patient privacy, and complying with legal guidelines.

Later chapters will show, however, that performance cannot be explained or improved without a strong understanding of how simple resources behave, both alone and in combination, and how they are controlled. RBV writers generally devote attention to more intangible resources and the capabilities of organizations on the assumption that tangible factors are easy for competitors to copy and therefore cannot provide the basis for competitive advantage. Strengths and weaknesses, on the other hand, center on the firm itself, so they are related to the resource-based view (RBV) of strategic management. Opportunities and threats are features of the external environment as such, they are better dealt with by considering industry forces and political, economic, social, and technological (PEST) analysis. Discovering that we have the strength of great products and an opportunity for strong market growth offers us no help whatsoever in deciding what to do, when, and how much to bring about what rate of likely growth in profits. Unfortunately, it offers little help in answering the quantitative questions illustrated in Figure 1.1 ' Growth and Alternative Futures' and Figure 1.2 'Alternative Futures for Blockbuster Inc.' Typically, the concepts are ambiguous, qualitative, and fact-free. Assessing an organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats ( SWOT) is a method widely used by managers to evaluate their strategy.

Swot analysis for information technology industry