How IT benefits BlueCross BlueShield

History:
BlueCross BlueShield Association is a large healthcare provider that is comprised of 38 separate health insurance organizations and companies in the United States. They provide health insurance to over 99 million Americans. Blue Cross and Blueshield merged in 1982. The companies that comprise Blue Cross Blue Shield are licensees that are independent from the association that offers health insurance plans to certain regions. They also act as administrators of Medicare. 

How Information Technology is used to benefit Blue Cross Blue Shield and its Patients:
www.bcbs.com

Information Technology helps Blue Cross Blue Shield by helping their patients get the information they need for service, learning new things that is happening that affects the association, and helping Blue Cross Blue Shield market their brand through their website.

For example:

There is an article on their website that is titled "Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Joins Federal Partnership: Private-public Partnership collaborates To Identify and Prevent Healthcare Fraud." According to this article, billions of healthcare dollars are lost to fraud each year and people are exposed to harmful or unnecessary care. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association wants its patients to know through its website that they are making sure they are keeping their patients safe as possible from healthcare fraud. They are also improving affordability for its members. They, in 2011, saved their members 295.8 million dollars; which is an outstanding number.

Also, they promote a Blue 365 promotion on their website for members only. Blue 365 is a program that is sponsored by Blue Companies that helps you stay healthier for cheap. They offer discounts for members to save on products and services for a healthier lifestyle. These products and services include but not limited to health and fitness clubs, weight-loss programs, healthy travel experiences and etc. They use information technology to post these deals on their Blue365 website or to send promotion to their members email addresses.

Here is a list of Blue Cross and Blue Shield members that provide this service:

• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Arizona
• Florida Blue
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Lousiana
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield  of Massachusetts
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield  of Michigan
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield  of Montana
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield  of Nebraska
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield  of North Carolina
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield  of South Carolina
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield  of Vermont
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Northwestern Pennsylvania
• Capital BlueCross
• Carefirst BlueCross BlueShield
• Federal Emplyee Program
• Highmark, Inc
• Highmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Delaware
• Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield  of New Jersey
• Independence Blue Cross
• Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield

To summarize this blog, Blue Cross and Blue Shield is a large healthcare provider that uses information technology such as the internet and email to provide information on new innovations within the assocation and promote new deals for its members.

What is increasing returns?

INCREASING RETURNS

According to Wikipedia, increasing returns refers to changes in output resulting from a proportional change in all inputs (where all inputs increase by a constant factor). When output grows by a same proportionate change then it is called a constant returns to scale or abbreviated CSS. When output grows by less than that proportionate change, then there is a decreasing returns to scale. When output grows more than that proportionate change then there is increasing Reuters to scale. 

An example of increasing returns in the real world would be when you make a product that is innovative and the product becomes really valuable as sales increase. An example of this would be the Apple iPod, a popular MP3 device. This product has competitors such as Microsoft's Zune and others. However, through its competitve advantage and through its fancy features it is always the product to have every time they roll out a new version of it.

If we have increasing returns, then we will be able to make more profits while we increase our product line. This is a really good thing because sometimes in the industry, if you make more you will sometimes lose money.

If I wanted to sell guitars in a company and I had increasing returns. I can make more brands and style of guitars. Fender Guitar Company is a very prestigious and popular guitar company. They make lots of brands and styles of guitars. The Fender Stratocaster is an iconic guitar that's style is mimicked by many guitar companies. Jimi Hendrix is a posterboy for this guitar. His white Fender Stratocaster was the image of rock and roll during his time. They also have the Fender Telecaster, which has more of a bluesy sound. They also have their own line of lower cost guitars called Squires. Their guitars look like the Stratocasters and Telecasters however they do not have the Fender logo on it.

IT and Its Integral Role in Producing Strategic Value

Information Technology and Its Integral Role in Producing Strategic Value

Information Technology is important in today's business world because it makes companies' operations run efficiently and handles massive quantities of information that would otherwise be time-consuming and near-to -impossible to handle without it. According to the article, "How Strategic is It? - Assessing Strategic Value", strategic value is about competition, pricing, cost, and product or market differentiation.

Information technology helps companies compete by using computers and its applications to gather information about its competitors,the economy, what is popular in their business niche, what sells and what doesn't, and also helps companies compete by producing faster and cost effective ways to produce their products. For example, Amazon is one company that uses information to sell their products.They gather user data and process it to show the user what other people bought who bought the same product they did. Walmart is another company that uses information technology to produce strategic value. A retail giant such as Walmart has lots and lots inventory that they need to manage. Walmart can't compete with other retailers if it does not keep up with its inventory and if Walmart runs out of a certain product, customers will go somewhere else to buy it and the store loses money. Through the use of computers, RFIDs, and other information technology, Walmart uses information technology to produce strategic value for its stores.

Information technology plays an integral role in pricing as well. Companies will use the internet and other information technology to gather information about prices of other companies. If Target's prices on their products became much cheaper than Walmart's, then Walmart will go out of business. Pricing is vital in our society because we always want the best prices. Pricing is vital in our economy. This is just a fact.

We can also use information technology to find out about costs as consumers. As consumers we are always looking for the best deals. When we want to find the cost of a restaurant, we can use internet applications such as UrbanSpoon, to research which restaurants fit into our budgets. Also we go to different groceries stores to find the best prices on groceries. The internet is a great way to find threads, blogs, articles, and other websites to discover which places has the best cost for us. Also companies can use information technology to calculate which processes or which investments will yield the best costs for it.

Information technology can also be used to promote product and market differentiation through the use of advertising throughout the internet. Companies use information technology to make flashy advertisement on the computer, television, billboards and other things to show consumers their product has value for them. For example, Apple has presentations with flashy powerpoint slides, videos, and demonstrations about their latest products and innovations. This cannot be done without the use of information technology.

Knowledge Economy Vs. Physical Economy

Knowledge Economy:

According to Wikipedia, a Knowledge Economy is a something that refers either to an economy of knowledge focused on the production and management of knowledge in the frame of economic constraints, or to a knowledge based economy. A knowledge based economy is the kind of economy based only on the production, distribution and the use of knowledge. A knowledge based economy is vital because it supports the physical economy.

Physical Economy:

In the physical economy, we focus on things that we buy and sell that are tangible. When I go into a clothing store and I buy a shirt, I am participating in the physical economy. I can also go into a grocery store and buy some food. That is an example of me participating in the physical economy.

How the two relate to each other:

The knowledge economy and the physical economy relate to each other because you need knowledge to create the physical economy. If you wanted to mass produce a guitar, you will need knowledge to make a guitar. This knowledge includes, types of wood, design, spacing of frets, pressure of strings so that guitar doesn't break, placing of bridge, electric or acoustic amplification, primer and painting, and other things of that nature. The knowledge of making guitars helps companies mass produce these products and sell them to the public.

Implications for professionals in the business world:

Many professionals can utilize both the knowledge economy and the physical economy to be successful in the business world. For example, using a knowledge economy can help inform people and help them utilize that knowledge for creating products and help enhance the physical economy. The physical economy is important everywhere. It creates jobs, helps sustain governments in their endeavors, and helps sustain a population with financial needs, which is vital in many well off countries. Companies like Apple consider both the knowledge and physical side of the economy. They need feedback from their core customers to see what products appeal to them. A current trend in the gadget market is tablet computers. Apple used this knowledge to help them design the iPad. With the help of its sleek design, powerful computing power, access to broadband, the utilization of the Apple App Store, and creative marketing, this company has made profits knowing that tablet computers are a new trend in products.

Another example of companies using knowledge economy to help the physical economy are car manufacturers. Companies like GMC and Ford recognized the need for fuel efficient cars because of the rising of gasoline prices. They stopped producing some models, increased fuel efficiency on their newer models, and even introduced hybrid and electric cars to appeal to the physical economy. They also know people value more power in their cars as well so they produced high horsepower and high fuel efficiency combination of cars to be able to compete in the physical economy. The knowledge economy is focused  on information. Companies use this information to stay competitive in the physical economy.