Information Management Strategy

Information Management Strategy
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Information system strategy is one of the most important factors that determine the success of an organisation. If an organisation has an effective information system strategy, it would be able to make effective and efficient decisions on timely basis (Beynon-Davies et al. 2004). With the availability of complete and accurate information, the core management would be able to make decisions that are based on the most recent and relevant information therefore the decisions made by the management would be efficient (Checkland et al., 1998). The following paper would analyze the information systems strategy of The Body Shop and it would also analyze how this organisation is responding to its changing environment by using information systems to rethink its business process.
ORGANISATION OVERVIEW
The Body Shop is a cosmetics company that runs a chain of around 2,400 stores in 61 countries all around the world. The organisation has been exceedingly successful with its products and it has enjoyed successful promotions of its products in the recent past. With an organisation of such large scale, there is bound to be a large flow of information throughout the organisation including the chain of stores. Each store would have its own information such as records of sales and other transactions and considering the number of stores being run the company, the consolidated flow of information would be very vast. The external environment of the company is such that it offers a number of opportunities of expansion of business as the industry is growing rapidly in the markets like Brazil, Eastern Europe and Asia where the purchasing power of the customers is increasing at a fast pace. The goodwill of the company is well established all around the globe and the company also has significant resources. The strategy used by the company to operate successfully in different markets is that of differentiation.
INFORMAITON SYSTEMS STRATEGY
According to the information present on the official website of the company, the company takes extra care for the security of the information that it holds. The information held by the company includes; the financial records of the company, the records of the transactions of the company, and the personal information of the customers of the company which is held by the company as a result of the membership of the customers. The company`s information systems strategy focuses mainly on the protection of the information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized disclosure, copying or copying. The company uses security safeguards that help the company in ensuring the security of the information it holds. The information held by the company is highly important as it enables the company to determine its business strategy for the future.
The safeguards used by the company include: physical measures such as filing cabin...