IT in Business: A Business Manager's Casebook

1   Pinnacle Housing and DirectLet

Richard Shardlow, Charlotte Smitheman,Edna Thrane-Steen, Daniel WebsterSchool of Management, University of Bath

This report describes and evaluates the strategic role of IT as part of the competitive strategy of Direct Let. Direct Let is a subsidiary of Pinnacle Housing. It was created in 1997 to take advantage of a business opportunity in which IT played an important part. Both the industry and firm are described and then evaluated using strategic IT frameworks. The objective is to evaluate whether Direct Let has gained business benefits from its use of IT and whether the use of IT is strategic in nature. The primary research is based on interviews and observation within Direct Let. The interview questionnaire ...