What Are Potential "Competitive Challenges" in Higher Education?

Higher Education (HE), like business, is involved in quite a bit of competition, especially in the areas of recruitment, retention and obtaining student program or certificate completers. Knowing how to partner with IS to provide the student body as well as the faculty and staff with the resources they want and need can help to sway persons to become or remain involved in a HE institution. In today's society with an ubiquity of online resources, HE institutions must remain or become on the top of their game, so to speak, if they wish to appeal to or retain their own members and members of the society who come in to be educated. There is stiff competition in presentation of HE, as far as advertising traditionally and online, technology offered, courses and programs offered, and today, as we see in this class, the format in which the education is being offered as well.

There are also stiff completive challenges for obtaining the best of the best in HE faculty and staff, especially in HE institutions that specialize in research. HE must provide the tools and devices, as well as provide the time necessary for faculty and sometimes administrators to work on research endeavors that will ultimately better their reputation and subsequently entice others to join their institution of noted reputability.

As noted in the Pearlson (2006) reading, Michael Porter's theory of competitive advantage dictates that three areas of competition are always in play:

1). Cost Leadership

You want those attending the HE institution to feel they are receiving a valid and profitable education for a price they perceive as a worthy investment. Places of HE also want to ensure that they are operating to their highest efficiency at the lowest cost possible in doing so, in order to be highly competitive against the many other sources of HE also offered on the market. In other words, you want "to offer the most bang for the buck."

2). Differentiation

You want those within the institution to feel that they are receiving something unique. In HE that means finding ways to deliver a quality education or work environment in a way that makes those involved feel like they are receiving something grandiose in attending or working for your place of learning vs. doing so for another. This could mean offering an ease in resource or information allocation to the student that they might not find elsewhere, such as online formatsfor registration or course selection, online catalogs or student handbooks, or even nifty technological incentives that appeal to your demographic, such as integratedscreen savers for their pc's or notebooks or something similar. Or perhaps it is an extensive degree audit that you offer, that is easy to read and helps guide them in maintaining their objective and ensuring they are selecting the courses they need to in order to obtain their desired goal. Even online and instant chatting or help services that have extended hours could help to differentiate your HE institution from another. As for employees, perhaps offering incentives or fantastic benefits will help you compete in the HE market. There are many ways to differentiate or make yourself look unique to those involved in your place ofeducation, and doing so in a cost effective manner can only increase your chances of getting to or remaining on the competitive edge.

3). Focus.

You may want to consider limiting your scope to a narrow market whom your resources will benefit or custom-fit your offerings to a select group of people. This in conjunction with one of the two aforementioned areas of competition can help you to have a solid competing position in HE as well. An example that instantly comes to mind for me here is the University of Phoenix. Even though I know next to nothing about this school, I do know that they advertise so effectively that I am very aware that they offer a program tailored to online learning. They have effectively honed in on a narrow market (student who are interested in Distance Learning) and that gives them a bit of a competitive advantage against others who may offer the same type of services but do not advertise it so liberally. Or you could offer encouragement to aspecific set of persons who are not normally targeted to try and entice them into your program, giving them sufficient reason to want to be there.

For example, as noted in additional reading (Poole), engineering and computer science programs in HE are rarely frequented by minority students. If you offer these programs, and of course, this is just an example, you could focus your recruitment efforts where you know minorities will be present and fine tune your program to benefit this group of people in a way that is unique enough to want to draw them to your learning institution.

Also in the Pearlson (2006) reading are D'Aveni's strategies for competitive edge, which are the Shareholder Value model (a spin on differentiation where specialized knowledge sets you apart from the crowd) and the Unlimited Resources model, another spin on differentiation where an abundance of resources allows you to be innovative and hence high on the competition scale as you are better able to absorb any bumps along the way that might occur vs. a HE institution with a small-scale or limited set of resources to draw from.

I personally like the Hypercompetition model the best, which simply said, states that in order to remain a competitor you cannot get comfortable in your settings, no matter how successful they currently are. The marketplace changes rapidly and new offerings are arising every day. Keeping your eyes and ears open and strategically planning changes that are cutting edge is a great way to differentiate yourself and become a formidable competitor. This model pretty much dictates that you tear your own business apart to examine the weaknesses and fix them, before someone else comes in and does it for you.

Another area of competition in HE is the comparability of IS Departments to other institutions. Does your HE institution have the most efficient IS that it could. Are you utilizing the department to the highest capability you have? Does your IS department have the resources to help pave the way for adequately competing in, as Pearlson so adequately states, such an 'information-intensive' society as we live in?

What are some implications of not factoring IS into academic/business decisions?

As we saw in the case study, Delta lost a lot of money and their good name by not factoring IS into their business decisions. They kept putting off an updating of their IS system because they did not have effective leadership and they were comfortable with what they had (not to mention they had some critical happenings that detracted from IS as well). Not factoring IS into your decision making processes can lead to profit loss, enrollment loss, employee loss, and even a loss of your good reputation (of which even a temporary state can be devastating). The public is more savvy than ever on technological advancements and they know if you are lagging in the services you offer. You must stay on top of IS management in order to avoid some very serious consequences, a point well illustrated by the case study (1-2).

Another implication of leaving IS out of your planning is that you may drive your students, staff or faculty, right into the arms of your competitors, if you are not offering the highest level of ease in functioning that is available. For example, if your institution is not offering instantaneous ways to receive information via Internet, or making available simple and effective measures for members to communicate, research, apply, register, and/or otherwise receive or give information as needed or desired, then you are directly affecting customer service satisfaction in a negative way, and ultimately driving down profits, just as in the business setting, as people will turn elsewhere to find what they want or need. You are basically feeding the competitor your losses for their dinner and snack if you shy away from offering the best IS has to offer with the every day and specialized areas within your HE setting.

If you do not factor IS in your decision making processes, you can also lose clout (and damage your reputation) in an arena that is ever increasingly becoming familiar with and embracing the role IS plays within HE. By disregarding the importance of such a vital function within the institution you are basically saying to your comrades and competitors that you do not wish to move your institution ahead to the place where it could be. You are saying you prefer stagnation and that never looks good in a competitive market. This can also mean you lose vital contacts that you may need for other areas within HE.

Not factoring IS into your decisions can also lead to poor implementation of the resources you have at hand. If IS is making the decisions for you, more or less, on their own, they may among many other scenarios, not know what it is your department could use to best benefit the jobs that are being done within. This means you are not working efficiently or effectively and that you could be, in fact probably are, wasting valuable time, and money, as well.

Resources:

Pearlson, K.E. & Saunders, C.S. (2006). Managing and using Information Systems: A strategic approach. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Poole, Gina and Poucher, William (2007). "Advancing tech through competition," University Business, Vol. 10 No. 3, p 92