Business transformation using a configurable IS/IT strategy to achieve organizational success

Information technologies (IT) are evolving very past and consequently, the ways the companies are doing business are changing as well. It is critical that firms change the ways they do business as the changes incur in user needs and network computing environment. For firms, IT are playing a key part improving organizational productivity and work efficiency Specifically IT are becoming more critical for the fast-cycle firms which are characterized by high information intensity Having capabilities to respond to customer needs and provide necessary service in a timely manner is important part of their business. Over the years, much of business process reengineering (BPR) effort have been emphasized as a way to change the ways firms do business, and they have brought varying degrees of success. In our paper we don't examine these varying degrees of BPR success but instead we go beyond IT-enabled BPR and examine the application of groupware (i.e., Lotus Notes, Internet/lntranet) and collaborative computing to leverage structural and resource differences in firms as key drivers of differentiation. Especially, with the explosive growth of the internet/intranet and electronic commerce, firm's capabilities to support intra- and inter-organizational communication, information sharing, and collaboration are being emphasized. And, firms are moving fast to have necessary information technology infrastructure in place to accommodate their business process changes. In the new trend of technology development, firms are definitely moving beyond the reengineering and making the "virtual corporation" or "virtual collaboration" a sure reality.