INFO3009
Strategic Information Systems Planning
INTRODUCTION
Organisations face
considerable problems in getting the best out of IT investments.
Problems
IT significantly affects the success of businesses.
Business changes faster than IT system can adapt.
Technology changes faster than businesses can absorb the
change.
IT affects business relationships and processes.
IT investment is expensive.
IT must enable business to respond to unplanned future
needs.
Legacy IT inhibits flexibility
Executive interest in IT rarely goes beyond costs and
timing.
Little informed discussion between IT and the business.
There is little awareness of the effect of IT decisions
in the business future.
Short
term technology decision limited long-term flexibility.
Questions
How do we link business and
information systems?
How do we assess new technologies
and select the right technologies for the organisation?
How do we use information systems to
give use competitive advantage that is sustainable?
How do we integrate internal and
external IS needs?
How does IT affect organisational
architecture?
Do companies really plan and is SISP
necessary?
Is there a relationship between
progress in IT and progress in the business.
Themes
IS planning in turbulent
environments
Competitive Advantage
IT / Business Alignment
IT Service
Strategy
Knowledge Management
IS planning in small companies - can
it be done?
IS planning in the
public sector.
The
Role of IS
In order to under SISP, we
need to clarify our view on the purpose of IT/IT in organisations and consider
the view(s) taken by the organisation.
IS can provide for:
Operational efficiency
Better services
Co-ordination between partners.
IT as a
business driver.
- Innovation and change
IT as business support -
Reducing uncertainty
Increasing efficiency.
Either seen as:
Commodity Service
Provider
- IT is for efficiency
- Budgets are driven by external benchmarks
- IT is separable from the business
- IT is seen as an expense to control
- IT managers are technical experts
OR
Strategic Partner
- IT is for business growth
- Budgets are driven by business strategy
- IT is inseparable form the business
- IT is seen as an investment to manage
- IT managers are business problem solvers
IT enables
organisational architecture
Supports business processes
Influences organisational structure
Substitutes
organisational structure
Information Systems are
strategic
They may
Determine position in the
marketplace;
Produce greater
productivity through greater efficiency;
Provide new products and
opportunities;
IS Planning
Planning involves thinking
ahead and designing future action.
But there are many
approaches to this.
IS planning tends to think
in rational analytical ways:
Thinking
ahead
Rational
analysis
Draughtsmanship
Design
Logic
IS planners may take a
classical approach to planning:
Uses structured planning
techniques.
Formal and rational
Hierarchical command and
control
Identifies what should be
However, in practice strategy
tends to be ad-hoc, evolving, often ill thought-out, improvised!
Strategists in management
recognise that there are many approaches and that most strategic managers have
moved away from the classical approach.
As usual, IS is lagging behind the rest of the business.
What is
SISP?
Strategic Information
Systems Planning is about the creation of a strategy or direction for the
procurement and use of information systems within an organisation.
Determining
a portfolio of applications
Includes
Formulating IS objectives
Defining strategies and policies
Developing detailed plans
Involves
Future analysis to predict changes
over expected life of portfolio
Forecasting horizon
Planning horizon
Large
scale comprehensive studies
On-going
small scale studies
Methodology
- user and IS specialist committee
Vendor development
Define
or revise portfolio of applications
What? Infrastructure
etc.
SISP
DEFINITIONS
SISP is the process of identifying
a portfolio of computer-based applications that will assist an organisation
executing its business plans and realising its business goals.
Lederer & Gardiner 1992
SISP is the means of
identifying application systems which support and enhance organisational
strategy. It also provides a framework for the effective implementation of
these systems.
Fidler & Rogerson,
1996
An IS strategy brings
together the business aims of the company, an understanding of the information
needed to support those aims and the implementation of computer systems to
provide that information. It is a plan for the development of systems towards
some future vision of the role of IS in the organisation.
SISP involves the
continuous review of computer technology, applications and management structure
to ensure that the current and anticipated information and process needs of the
organisation are met in a way that provides an acceptable return on investment,
is sensitive to the dynamic politics and culture of the organisation and is
aware of the sociological environment within which the organisation exists.
McBride 1998
SISP
requires:
An understanding of the
nature of the organisation, its goals and objectives, where it is going, its
culture, and how it ‘thinks’;
An understanding of
information technology, what is available, how IT is changing, what the
potential uses are;
An understanding of
information needs, what information flows through the organisation; what
decisions are made as a result; how information supports business processes;
An understanding of people,
what their roles are in the organisation, what their objectives and motives
are, how they implement business processes;
An understanding of the
environment, what influences the organisation - legislation, markets,
technology, media.
SISP
puts this all together.
It requires technical and
managerial understanding;
Planning the details and
thinking holistically;
Rational, analytical
know-how and political sensitivity
Alignment
Our prime objective is
alignment:
to ensure that the IS provision
matches the business needs in what it does (context), how it does it (process)
and when it does it (timing).
Alignment is a two way process:
the business determines the IS needs but also IS influences the business.
Increasingly IT is changing the way business operates:
E-commerce changes the way
transactions are done and customers communicated with.
Production Control and
Manufacturing IS alters the way manufacturing is done and provides
opportunities for customised manufacturing.
Customer information
systems provide the basis for the development of call centres.
Alignment may be:
Reactive:
- following after the business strategy or
Proactive
- leading the business strategy, proposing new ideas.
IS/IT strategy cannot be
considered independently of business strategy.
Before we can propose IS we
must understand the business.
This diagram has its flaws.
A major issue is the
alignment of business strategy and IS strategy
There is a lack of
integration because
IS does not participate in
business planning
IS does not understand the
business.
IT too technologically
directed.
Management not committed to
IT.
King and Teo's Levels of Integration.
Based on survey research,
King and Teo proposed four possible levels of
integration:
Type 1: Separate planning with
administrative integration.
Weak
relationship between business strategy and IS strategy.
Little
effort to use IT to support business plans
Type 2: one-way linked planning with
sequential integration.
Business
strategy provides the direction for IS strategy.
IS
strategy focuses on supporting the business strategy
Type 3: Two-way linked planning with
reciprocal integration
Business
strategy and IS strategy are interdependent.
IS
strategy supports and influences business strategy.
Type 4: Integrated planning with full
integration
Little
distinction between business strategy and IS strategy
Business
and IS strategy are developed concurrently in the same integrated planning
process
The type of integrative
approach a company takes may depend on the attitude to information systems
Towards
a balanced view of IS/IT strategy
We need a balance:
Flexible planning
Staged
implementation.
Constant review
Sensitivity
to environmental changes.
Advantages
of SISP
Identify most desirable
applications in which to invest.
Help an organisation use
its IS to carry out existing business strategy.
Help it define new business
strategy
Failure to do some planning
may result in:
Missed opportunities
Duplicated
systems.
Incompatible systems
Wasted
resources.
Decision-making on
incomplete information
IT dictating business
processes
IT not supporting business
processes
Outsourcing
of key assets.
How is
SISP done?
Look at business structure,
function, processes, culture
Look at existing IT
Look at available
technology.
Carry out interviews.
Develop policies.
Develop application
portfolio.
Plan schedules for
migration, implementation etc.
SISP
involves:
Identifying information
needs and process needs.
Reflecting on the context
and culture
Examining
current IT architecture for match and mismatch.
Identifying approaches for
shifting IT architecture to meet information needs.
Modifying information needs
in the light of IT shift.
What we are trying to do is
establish a symbiotic relationship between the IT and the organisation that
hosts it.
A virtuous circle of
business and IS/IT strategy
Working towards the point
where there is no separation between corporate and IS strategy.
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