Mood's In Control
fast forward ..., you were hired and have been tasked to develop a strategic information systems plan for a company. The company officers have extended an invitation for you to meet with them to discuss the direction of the company. Before this meeting, they have asked that you provide a list of questions with some explanation about the "why" of the question so they can be prepared, thus maximizing the output from this meeting.
Develop a list of questions you would ask the officers of the company and give an explanation and justification for each question. (1000 words)
Develop a list of questions you would ask the officers of the company and give an explanation and justification for each question. (1000 words)
Ahhh…me..getting hired and tasked to develop a strategic information systems plan for a company is so rewarding and such a lifetime opportunity to handle with. And voila! I am given a situation to work on and to think about. Wow…so related to how do I foresee myself one day, maybe five or ten years from now…funny thoughts anyway. But what really is this Strategic Information System all about? According to Lederer, Albert J. and Sethi, Vijay, 1996 Strategic information systems planning (SISP) has been defined as the process of identifying a portfolio of computer-based applications that will assist an organization in executing its business plans and realizing its business goals. SISP is an important activity for helping information executives and top management identify strategic applications and align IT with business needs.
Well, as expected, the company officers have extended an invitation for me to meet with them to discuss the direction of the company and before this meeting, they have asked that I provide a list of questions with some explanation about the "why" of the question so they can be prepared, thus maximizing the output from this meeting. Hmmmm…thoughts to ponder. But most of all I should know the over-all structure of my company. And to do this, I should start listing down all issues and concerns I should raise and what I wanted to know for this is where my life as a career person would revolve.
What is the mission and vision of this company? These are the services that you are responsible for and it is your place in the organization or in the company and it is not what you are supposed to achieve but it is who you are and what you do in the company.
What are its goals and objectives? Once goals and objectives are set then strategies and policies could then be eventually derived. What do you want to achieve and what are your specific and measurable targets?
What is the organizational structure of the company? Who composed the company? Who are the people behind it and who are working on it? Human resource..what is it composed of?
Why Plan and what are its plans? The scope of planning must be studied. For sure, planning is very important to obtain resources from all departments of the company in financial and facilities, staff, to align information system with the business, identify needed applications, To establish goals and schedules, to provide opportunity for communication with top management and user management, to know and analyze the outcomes and the process whether it is proactive or reactive. Planning and forecasting play very important role in this phase and must be considered also. And all these plans must be implemented and results be monitored.
Is there a need of a short term, medium term or long range plan? Why?
Yes, a need of short, medium, and long-range plans are also suggested. It is in a short range plan where the next year, the next budget period developing and operating current systems be initially done.
A medium range plan, it is when committing to development efforts for applications that will take more than one year to complete meeting management’s current information needs be protected into the future for as many years as needed to complete them. And the Long range planning is into preparing for management’s future information needs. These are not applications specific but they are investments in infrastructure and it is more on creating information designs.
What are to be assessed and why assess? The capabilities of the IT department must be assesses to know if it is ready to use the Information Technology, the status of the customer and industry, the status of the economy and government, regulations, and the technology itself.
This is actually very similar to SWOT which means Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and Threats.
What are the strategies and policies?
Why are strategies and polices have to be identified and derived? It is very important to derive strategies and policies for a most effective and focused Technology, personnel and career development, and aligning with the company. Policies have to be emphasized for funding criteria, to know how much to spend on its Information technology and information system. Allocation criteria is always a priority setting in an organization or company and its organizational arrangements must well be organized. The use of outside IT services must also be identified to be able to locate and identify outsourcing for this area. Likewise, selling IT services to outside organization might as well be of use on this purpose.
Finally, according to Somendra Pant and Cheng Hsu, 1995, planning for information systems, as for any other system, begins with the identification of needs. In order to be effective, development of any type of computer-based system should be a response to need -- whether at the transaction processing level or at the more complex information and support systems levels. Such planning for information systems is much like strategic planning in management. Objectives, priorities, and authorization for information systems projects need to be formalized. The systems development plan should identify specific projects slated for the future, priorities for each project and for resources, general procedures, and constraints for each application area. The plan must be specific enough to enable understanding of each application and to know where it stands in the order of development. Also the plan should be flexible so that priorities can be adjusted if necessary. King (King, 1995) in his recent article has argued that strategic capability architecture - a flexible and continuously improving infrastructure of organizational capabilities – is the primary basis for a company's sustainable competitive advantage. He has emphasized the need for continuously updating and improving the strategic capabilities architecture.
SISP is the analysis of a corporation’s information and processes using business information models together. Lastly, the task of strategic information systems planning is difficult and often time organizations do not know how to do it. Strategic information systems planning is a major change for organizations, from planning for information systems based on users’ demands to those based on business strategy. Also strategic information systems planning changes the planning characteristic in major ways. For example, the time horizon for planning changes from 1 year to 3 years or more and development plans are driven by current and future business needs rather than incremental user needs. Increase in the time horizon is a factor which results in poor response from the top management to the strategic information systems planning process as it is difficult to hold their attention for such a long period. Other questions associated with strategic information systems planning are related to the scope of the planning study, the focus of the planning exercise corporate organization vs. strategic business unit, number of studies and their sequence, choosing a strategic information systems planning methodology or developing one if none is suitable, targets of planning and deliverables. Because of the complexity of the strategic information systems planning process and uniqueness of each organization, there is no one best way to tackle it (Vitale, 1986).
Well, as expected, the company officers have extended an invitation for me to meet with them to discuss the direction of the company and before this meeting, they have asked that I provide a list of questions with some explanation about the "why" of the question so they can be prepared, thus maximizing the output from this meeting. Hmmmm…thoughts to ponder. But most of all I should know the over-all structure of my company. And to do this, I should start listing down all issues and concerns I should raise and what I wanted to know for this is where my life as a career person would revolve.
What is the mission and vision of this company? These are the services that you are responsible for and it is your place in the organization or in the company and it is not what you are supposed to achieve but it is who you are and what you do in the company.
What are its goals and objectives? Once goals and objectives are set then strategies and policies could then be eventually derived. What do you want to achieve and what are your specific and measurable targets?
What is the organizational structure of the company? Who composed the company? Who are the people behind it and who are working on it? Human resource..what is it composed of?
Why Plan and what are its plans? The scope of planning must be studied. For sure, planning is very important to obtain resources from all departments of the company in financial and facilities, staff, to align information system with the business, identify needed applications, To establish goals and schedules, to provide opportunity for communication with top management and user management, to know and analyze the outcomes and the process whether it is proactive or reactive. Planning and forecasting play very important role in this phase and must be considered also. And all these plans must be implemented and results be monitored.
Is there a need of a short term, medium term or long range plan? Why?
Yes, a need of short, medium, and long-range plans are also suggested. It is in a short range plan where the next year, the next budget period developing and operating current systems be initially done.
A medium range plan, it is when committing to development efforts for applications that will take more than one year to complete meeting management’s current information needs be protected into the future for as many years as needed to complete them. And the Long range planning is into preparing for management’s future information needs. These are not applications specific but they are investments in infrastructure and it is more on creating information designs.
What are to be assessed and why assess? The capabilities of the IT department must be assesses to know if it is ready to use the Information Technology, the status of the customer and industry, the status of the economy and government, regulations, and the technology itself.
This is actually very similar to SWOT which means Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and Threats.
What are the strategies and policies?
Why are strategies and polices have to be identified and derived? It is very important to derive strategies and policies for a most effective and focused Technology, personnel and career development, and aligning with the company. Policies have to be emphasized for funding criteria, to know how much to spend on its Information technology and information system. Allocation criteria is always a priority setting in an organization or company and its organizational arrangements must well be organized. The use of outside IT services must also be identified to be able to locate and identify outsourcing for this area. Likewise, selling IT services to outside organization might as well be of use on this purpose.
Finally, according to Somendra Pant and Cheng Hsu, 1995, planning for information systems, as for any other system, begins with the identification of needs. In order to be effective, development of any type of computer-based system should be a response to need -- whether at the transaction processing level or at the more complex information and support systems levels. Such planning for information systems is much like strategic planning in management. Objectives, priorities, and authorization for information systems projects need to be formalized. The systems development plan should identify specific projects slated for the future, priorities for each project and for resources, general procedures, and constraints for each application area. The plan must be specific enough to enable understanding of each application and to know where it stands in the order of development. Also the plan should be flexible so that priorities can be adjusted if necessary. King (King, 1995) in his recent article has argued that strategic capability architecture - a flexible and continuously improving infrastructure of organizational capabilities – is the primary basis for a company's sustainable competitive advantage. He has emphasized the need for continuously updating and improving the strategic capabilities architecture.
SISP is the analysis of a corporation’s information and processes using business information models together. Lastly, the task of strategic information systems planning is difficult and often time organizations do not know how to do it. Strategic information systems planning is a major change for organizations, from planning for information systems based on users’ demands to those based on business strategy. Also strategic information systems planning changes the planning characteristic in major ways. For example, the time horizon for planning changes from 1 year to 3 years or more and development plans are driven by current and future business needs rather than incremental user needs. Increase in the time horizon is a factor which results in poor response from the top management to the strategic information systems planning process as it is difficult to hold their attention for such a long period. Other questions associated with strategic information systems planning are related to the scope of the planning study, the focus of the planning exercise corporate organization vs. strategic business unit, number of studies and their sequence, choosing a strategic information systems planning methodology or developing one if none is suitable, targets of planning and deliverables. Because of the complexity of the strategic information systems planning process and uniqueness of each organization, there is no one best way to tackle it (Vitale, 1986).
