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CHAPTER 4 • THE INTERNAL ASSESSMENT 119

results are printed. Individuals can independently work through the software, and then the
program will develop joint recommendations for the firm.
An individual license for CheckMATE costs $295. More information about
CheckMATE can be obtained at www.checkmateplan.com or 910–579–5744 (phone).
The Web site www.strategyclub.com has become a leader in the world in providing
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for business persons worldwide.

Management Information Systems Audit
Questions such as the following should be asked when conducting this audit:
1. Do all managers in the firm use the information system to make decisions?
2. Is there a chief information officer or director of information systems position in
the firm?
3. Are data in the information system updated regularly?
4. Do managers from all functional areas of the firm contribute input to the informa-
tion system?
5. Are there effective passwords for entry into the firm’s information system?
6. Are strategists of the firm familiar with the information systems of rival firms?
7. Is the information system user-friendly?
8. Do all users of the information system understand the competitive advantages that
information can provide firms?
9. Are computer training workshops provided for users of the information system?
10. Is the firm’s information system continually being improved in content and
user-friendliness?

Value Chain Analysis (VCA)
According to Porter, the business of a firm can best be described as a value chain, in
which total revenues minus total costs of all activities undertaken to develop and market a
product or service yields value. All firms in a given industry have a similar value chain,
which includes activities such as obtaining raw materials, designing products, building
manufacturing facilities, developing cooperative agreements, and providing customer ser-
vice. A firm will be profitable as long as total revenues exceed the total costs incurred in
creating and delivering the product or service. Firms should strive to understand not only
their own value chain operations but also their competitors’, suppliers’, and distributors’
value chains.
Value chain analysis (VCA) refers to the process whereby a firm determines the costs
associated with organizational activities from purchasing raw materials to manufacturing
product(s) to marketing those products. VCA aims to identify where low-cost advantages
or disadvantages exist anywhere along the value chain from raw material to customer ser-
vice activities. VCA can enable a firm to better identify its own strengths and weaknesses,
especially as compared to competitors’ value chain analyses and their own data examined
over time.
Substantial judgment may be required in performing a VCA because different items
along the value chain may impact other items positively or negatively, so there exist
complex interrelationships. For example, exceptional customer service may be espe-
cially expensive yet may reduce the costs of returns and increase revenues. Cost and
price differences among rival firms can have their origins in activities performed by
suppliers, distributors, creditors, or even shareholders. Despite the complexity of VCA,
the initial step in implementing this procedure is to divide a firm’s operations into spe-
cific activities or business processes. Then the analyst attempts to attach a cost to each
discrete activity, and the costs could be in terms of both time and money. Finally, the