Information Technology Relevant

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Information Technology Relevant Concepts and
Themes
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Relevant Concepts and Themes
Concepts of managing IT in Organizations
Factors of influence
Six major themes
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Concepts of managing IT in Organizations
1. Strategic relevanceVaries across industries,
across time, within a firm.
2. Corporate cultureValues and assumptions about
corporate planning, philosophy of control, and
speed of innovation.
3. Contingency action planningAn ever changing
environment implies planning for inconsistencies.
4. Technology TransferIntroducing some-thing or
some-process that will be both constrained by its
environment, and change that environment.
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Concepts of managing IT in Organizations -
Strategic Relevance
Varies across industries, across time, within a
firm.
Business within a business
Many different IT business solutions
espoused Copied solutions are risky
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Concepts of managing IT in Organizations -
Corporate Culture
Values and assumptions about corporate planning,
philosophy of control, and speed of innovation.
How IS Business Should be Managed
Culture Characteristics
Corp Planning
Formal / Informal
Culture Specific
Phil. of Control
High / Low
Speed of Innovation
Fast / Slow
All
Necessary set of systems (generic tools)
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Concepts of managing IT in Organizations -
Corporate Culture
Corporate Planning
Speed of Innov
Formal
Informal
Fast
High
Slow
Phil. of Control
Fast
Low
Slow
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Concepts of managing IT in Organizations -
Contingency
An ever changing environment implies planning for
inconsistencies.

• Know that change will occur
• Construct alternative actions (scenarios)
• Technology is a recent contributor to a
  changing environment

Seek outside information Deploy resources
flexibly (matrix)
What does this concept tell us about staffing?
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Concepts of managing IT in Organizations
-Technology Transfer
Introducing some-thing or some-process that will
be both constrained by its environment, and
change that environment.
Learning as a way to understand this concept

• Cannot know it all at once
• Direct or indirect learning
• Formal informal
• Learning generalities (learning yourself)

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Relevant Concepts and Themes
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Factors of influence

• 1. A young technology
• First significant usage in the late 1950s
• 2. Technology growth
• Continually going through identity crisis
• 3. IT/User coordination
• Two culture phenomena with integrating devices
  such as steering committees
• 4. Specialization
• Languages, DBMSs, CASE, etc.
• 5. A shift of focus from accounting transaction
  applications to DSS or mgmt control

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Relevant Concepts and Themes
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Six major themes
1. Competitive Posture (Strategic Impact)
2. Changing technologies
3. Organizational learning (Assimilating tech)
4. Sourcing Policies
5. Application Development
6. Power balancing (Partnership)
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Six major themes
1. Competitive Posture
IT effects industries differently, and firms
within them differently.
High
Ops/Prod
Low
Low
High
Marketing
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Six major themes
Marketing
Yes/No
1. Does the business require a large number of
routine interactions each day with vendors
for ordering or requesting information? 2. Is
the product choice complex? 3. Do customers need
to compare competitors product/service/price
configurations simultaneously? 4. Is a quick
customer decision necessary? 5. Is accurate,
quick customer confirmation essential? 6. Would
an increase in multiple ordering or service sites
provide value to the customer? 7. Are consumer
tastes potentially volatile? 8. Do significant
possibilities exist for product
customization? 9. Is pricing volatile
(can/should salesperson set price at point of
sale? 10. Is the business heavily
regulated? 11. Can the product be surrounded by
value-added information to the customer? 12. Is
the real customer two or more levels removed from
the manufacturer?
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1. Competitive Posture
Six major themes
Assessment Instrument Manufacturing
Yes/No
1. Is there large geographic dispersion in
sourcing? 2. Is high technology embedded in the
product? 3. Does the product require a long,
complex design process? 4. Is the process of
administering quality control standards
complex? 5. Is the design integration between
customer and supplier across company boundaries
complex? 6. Are there large buffer inventories
in the manufacturing process? 7. Does the
product require complex manufacturing schedule
integration? 8. Are time and cost savings
possible? 9. Is there potential for major
inventories reductions? 10. Are direct and
indirect labor levels high?
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Six major themes
1. Competitive Posture
Where industries fall
High
Electronics
Airlines
Defense
Banks
Mfg/Prod
Paper
Retailing
High Fashion
Lumber
Low
Low
High
Marketing
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Six major themes
1. Competitive Posture
Industry Leader
High
Your Position
Marketing gap high
Mfg/Prod
Manufacturing gap high
Low
Low
High
Marketing
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Six major themes
1. Competitive Posture
Coordination between CEO and IT management
Gap Analysis
High
Increase integrative capacity
Strong IT and senior management linkage
Catch-up
Mfg/Prod
Increase marketing/ adaptability capacity
Current management approaches are adequate
Maintain advantage
Low
Low
High
Marketing
IT RD, marketing analysis infrastructures
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Six major themes
1. Competitive Posture
Application Portfolio
Planned Applications
Existing Applications
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Six major themes
1. Competitive Posture
IT Planning, relationship between IT management
and senior management

• Application Portfolio

High
High attention to existing applications, controlle
d operations
Factory
Strategic
Existing
Low level in organization, little commitment to
linking IT with business strategy
Support
Turnaround
Low
High
Low
Planned
Enhanced IT leadership, new organizational
placement, commitment to planning
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Six Major Themes
2. Changing technologies

• Increasing storage capacities
• New types of software
• Increasing chip density

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Six Major Themes
2. Changing technologies

• Office Systems
• Telecommunications
• Technologies of Computing

Policy and control implications1. Physical
interconnections2. Projects pose similar
problems3. Integration of solution set
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Six Major Themes
3. Organizational learning

• Technology diffusion1. Identification and
  investment (pilot project)
• 2. Learning and adoption (user oriented
  insights through pilot projects)
• 3. Rationalization / management control (formal
  standards, CBA, charge-out)
• 4. Maturity / widespread technology transfer

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Six Major Themes
3. Organizational learning
1. Identification and investment (pilot project)
RD (experiment) Someones I always wanted to
try
System chosen from the strategic plan
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Six Major Themes
3. Organizational learning
2. Learning and adoption (user oriented insights
through pilot projects)
Pilot
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Six Major Themes
3. Organizational learning
2. Learning and adoption (user oriented insights
through pilot projects)
Pilot
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Six Major Themes
3. Organizational learning
3. Rationalization / management control (formal
standards, CBA, charge-out)
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Six Major Themes
3. Organizational learning
4. Maturity / widespread technology transfer

• Support Structure
• Transfer Expertise
• Make use of general awareness channels

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Six Major Themes
4. Sourcing Policies

• Environmental forces on make / buy solutions
• Make 1. Responsive to specific needs 2.
  Confidentiality 3. Business vendor stability 4.
  Ease of development with 4GLs (Expanded dev
  base) 5. Ease of adapting to changing business
  needs

Buy 1. Hard to find and keep people 2. Leverage
cost 3. Staff resources to other things 4.
Short-term commitment 5. Internal
stds/control/security of software (industrial
strength) 6. Proliferation of software firms
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Six major Themes
5. Application Development

• Systems life cycle has changed (functions are
  same but approaches for executing them are
  different)

Traditional SDLC Structured / Incremental Evolutio
nary DSS - middle-out Rapid Application
Development (RAD) Prototyping Time-boxing Informat
ion Engineering Object Oriented
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Six Major Themes
6. Power balancing

• Move IT to user (source of information)
• Provide assurances of control to executive
  management
• Infrastructure (Integration across user
  communities)
• Risk reduction

Overall balance and control
Exec Mgmt
Service within constraints
Need now
User Mgmt
IT Mgmt
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THEMES
1. Competitive Posture (Strategic Impact)
2. Changing technologies
3. Organizational learning (Assimilating tech)
4. Sourcing Policies
5. Application Development
6. Power balancing (Partnership)
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The End