Manging Information Supply Chain

To whom it may concern,

I have seen the video and here is my perception on the how the Information System was managed and implemented.

What was the first question the CEO asked him to answer?
The Red Cross CEO asked Steve Cooper, "Are we spending too much money on IT" which implies, The Red Cross feels that they are spending too much money on IT.

Describe why this question is very hard to answer?
The reason is; there is a gap between tangible spending vs non-tangible spending. What unit of measurement is used to measure the value of information and what value is information.

How to value information?
If your competitor is willing to pay for the information then it has value. Steve was assigned the task to figure out away to put it on the balance sheet. Create a quantitative measure on the Information System to put on the balance sheet. Information is can be valued on a personal or/and business senses anywhere from credit cards, bank statements, inventory, design, etc....

Who owns your information?
Credit report agency buy an individual personal information from financial companies. The fact is that our personal information is not owned by the individual, but owned by by people willing to pay for you information.

Describe the information supply chain (Information system that are designed to manage information, collection=manufacturing=distribution).
The internal information supply chain helps making decision making. This information is needs to be captured, which is raw materials and transform into something useful and understandable in some type of staging format to be able to be transported.

What is the main problem the Red Cross IT team ran into?
Internally allot of the information that is stored is obsolete and is not holding value anymore. The external environment effects the information supply chain, The Red Cross follows state guides and was told not to go in and help until later while they evacuate the area . They found out the didn't have enough resources to accommodate Katrina.

What do you think about the job they do during Hurricane Katrina?
I think they did a excellent job sharing information and establishing communication with an environment that does not any infrastructure. They created a AD HOCK environment and had a temporary information supply chain to share information. They capture information and distributed money throughout the Katrina disaster.


Regards,
Raul