Competitive advantage can be widely discussed as it a must for any organization to have in order to succeed within its industry/rivals.

It is a set of combined elements that determine the success of any organization & intertwined with its competitive advantage; building its competencies and compatibilities thus steering towards it. What I’m saying here that to reach competitive advantage there must be a set of combined features.

Still competitive advantage should be flexible according to market needs, challenges, constant changes and global perspective.

Information systems are the dynamic demo of any organization. I think it starts with the human resources department and should be integrated in with the overall strategy of the organization.

What is the role of the ‘Information Systems ‘or the Human Resources Information Systems with the success of any organization? Does it have a link with its competitive advantage? What are the elements that lead to competitive advantages?

Any organization is a structured entity, defined by its membership(number of employees), and authority responsibility relationship (organization structure). Information system links & interlinks all the functional areas of the organization; thereby developing Management Information System, which is an important management tool. If the question is about information system dealing with HR and has been named as Human Resource Information system, then the elements are specifically related to the employees at all levels in the organization which will tell about employees' educational background,experience, achievement, on the job performance, training needs if any, potential for growth etc. These information will help in identifying and developing Human Capital as per the strategic requirement of the organization to create competitive advantage for growth and development. Competitive advantage can be created through strategic approach towards organizational resources, which are Human resource, Financial resource and Technological resource.

Thank you for your enlightenment, it’s always great to think of any business matter from different angles and in a comprehensive way. Yes, I agree too that competitive advantage can be created through strategic approach towards organization resources. It should aim for a specific achievement which will be an advantage later for one of the resources. Then it will make be a difference, each company or organization has its own competitive advantage which leads to its success. Not easily obtained, hard to maintain and like you suggested with a strategic approach.

Thank you again Dr Jaharkanti for your time to clarification.

Thank you Ahmad, the HR department is crucial in any organization. IT aims to add value to the whole organization. And moreover, the use of technology has become the basic feature of any organization now, It contributes to improving the whole organization to achieve their goals. And would like to quote if I may be excused from Dr Jaharkanti, it is ' Information system links & interlinks all the functional areas of the organization; thereby developing Management Information System, which is an important management tool.' And like to add that the HR department has become crucial in any organization as well.

There are so many functions for the HR department & management and organization success is related to the HR on one hand and the IS on the other. It is intertwined.

This topiic covers 3 areas (HRM, Information Management, Competitive Strategy) and several levels of thought (operational effectivenes and efficiency, and strategic)

Frist question would be: what is the current competitive advantage of the organization? Second question: what is the intended competitive advantage (if none) for the future? The first level competitive strategy inclludes 1) product leadership, 2) service leadership, and 3) cost leadership. Second tier: a) brand, b) distribution network, c) speed, and d) knowledge. Example: Intel has product leadership, brand, speed, and knowledge as competitive advantage

Once you have a competitive advantage in focus or intended, everything else falls into place in support and alignment. On the strategic level HR core function would be 'competency' development and management, and information management is the accelerator. And, I would argue Knowledge Management would be the magnifier.

For HR system to be strategic, you would need to elevate its function from data and information management to knowledge management. It is a tall order. Thus far, people I come across cannot tell the difference between data and information, as well as information and knowledge, let alone data management, informaiton management, and knowledge management (including experts in the field)

To answer your question about direct impact, that would be 'speed'. You can gear up your HR-IS for speed. However, the hurdle/bottleneck is the speed of current company-wide decision-making process paticularly strategic decisions.

a real tough question/challenge....

Hello Dima

Anthony has a good point. Any department performs functions that are either transactional or strategic or both. Competitive advantage is associated with strategic functions of different departments and the organization's top management. Especially, the function concerned has to be aligned to the business strategy so as to be called strategic. And, it should have tangible impact on the behaviour of the employees that is needed by the business strategy so as to contribute to the success of the organization. Keeping in mind this view of competitive advantage, HRIS mostly plays a hygienic factor role in the success of an organization. But some enlightened organizations do use it as a crucial part of the knowledge management system, then it could be seen as promoting competitive advantage.

@Debi, thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Well connected. Yes, I guess it is all linked together, competitive advantage with the strategic function and in different departments. Besides like you said, the employees play a vital role in the success of the organisation. In addition, knowledge management systems is a must for any organisation to succeed.

Every organization has it own management systems. But I am still wondering if one could really locate a function that over rides the other functions of HRIS in targetting the competitive advantage.

Mean while I am aware now that every company has one outstanding funtion that aids and reach the competitive advantage in any information managemetn system. Different organizations have different strategies, different competitive advantages that they target to move their companies to success and eventually profit, At the end of the day, it all depends on the organization itself and needs.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and for your time.

@Anthony, thank you for the valuable information and for sharing these great points you tackled and apologize for late response.

You have enriched me with your opinion. I appreciate such argument. I know it is a tough challenge question and thank you again for your valued contribution of rich knowledge and for your time.

@Dima, you are most welcome.

In our 'knowledge economy' or 'Information age', information and knowledge become increaseingly impactful. As in HR function, skills and knowledge in information management (including data management) and knowledge management play a major role in organizational competitiveness. HR has to take on greater responsibility in developing competency manangement, perfromance management, organizational learning, and including IM and KM of coruse.

Information is power. IS provides timely information torelated stakeholders. Timely information helps a company to behave in time which bring competitive edge to the company. A particluar company should use its information to time. Timely actions such as timely order processing bring financial benefit to company.

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Thank you Haitham.

You are most welcome Dima, best wishes

Dear Dima Bseiso

I think that, although organizations today are competitive, it is thanks to their human talent, yes, to that we add the use of different technological tools, allowing ease of communication and agility in the tasks to be developed by the Human Resources department.