Coordinating linked activities is also an important way to reduce the combined time required to perform them. Hence co-ordination is increasingly important to competitive advantage. (Clarke 1994) And Information system has the biggest role to play in this type of coordination. So the link that we can see here is that Information Systems lead to better coordination which in turn leads to better information which helps in better product design and implementation which in turn leads to product differentiation. Thus we see that a high degree of intangible value is added to the organization. Thus though we see the investment in IT in company's balance sheets but their returns being intangible are mostly hidden. Below we consider two examples of how IT has been used to differentiate and thus gain competitive advantage. .
Satyam is India's premier network and ecommerce company. It is mostly into data/internet services, retail internet access, and e-consulting services. Sify's total subscriber base grew to 550,000 as of September 30, 2001. Sify's average revenue per unit, or ARPU, has started rising after several quarters of continuing decline. In addition, margin pressure is easing with decline in bandwidth costs. Revenues from Sify's franchised network of cybercafes - "Iway"s - grew by approximately 30% in Oct quarter as compared to June quarter. . The number of cybercafes grew to 520 from 427. "Iway"s are operational in five cities in India. (sifycorp.com 2003) What Satyam is uniquely done is to build a central database of all its members (i.e. who pay for browsing in any of the Satyam Iway cybercafes. Each member has a user ID and a password protection, so that he is protected from the manipulations of the café operator. This is a unique differentiation as compared to local internet cafes across Indian cities. Once a member has paid up the amount he can be assured of no more hassles. Local café owners cannot duplicate it since they do not have a nation wide network or a central database.