4 What are/discuss some of the common, IT oriented organisational responses to theses pressures?

IT has attempted to respond to such pressure through the implementation of the following organisational strategies. These include the following:
* Strategic systems: the planning which gives the business direction as to the goals they wish to achieve to secure a competitive advantage.
*Customer focus: many business have used the internet to access a market that has an endless supply of customers. As such goods and services advertised on websites, allows for businesses to acquire marketshare and profits. IT has allowed customer details to be remebered through personalising a sign-in and an account that keeps a record of customer tastes, pattern of consumption etc.
*Made to Order and Mass Customisation: through high demand of products accessible online has allowed products to be made as required, cutting down inventory costs and unused materials. Technology has also stepped in where the human element of the business (personnel operating machinery) have been cut out and have been replaced by mechanisation and robotics., which allows for mass production of goods to be down efficently.
*E-business and E-commerce: has contributed to the way people interact, operate and function within a business. Examples of this include emailing systems, faxes, telephone calls etc to communicate among businesses.

5. How are IT architecture and IT infrastructure interrelated.

IT architecture is a high-level map or plan of the information assests of the organisation which intergrates the overall organisation and the indeividual user.
IT infrastructure are the phyical feature of the organisation including IT components and IT management which supports the business.
They are itnerrelated as they work together achieving the goals and objectives of the business and how the physical requirements of IT will support, tailor and execute these needs to suit the operations of a business.

6. Is the Internet an infrastructure, and architecture or an application program? or something else. Why?

The Internet is all threee of these: an infrastructure, and architecture and an application program. Each of these elements work together to achieve the plans first established by the architecture, put into the infrastructure and to be an applicable program to help execute the duties of the business.