IS Strategic Perspective

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IS Strategic Perspective
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What is a Strategy?
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Purpose of Strategy?
Any strategy must identify, as far as possible,
where the organization wants to be in the future
assess accurately where it is now in order to
decide how best to get there, given the
alternative options resources available.
Ward, J. Peppard, J. (2002). Strategic Planning
for Information Systems (3rd Edition), John Wiley
Sons New York
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What is Strategic?
Orndorf, K. (July/August 2002). Developing
Strategic Competencies A Starting Point,, The
Information Management Journal
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Why an IS Strategy?
Consider the alternatives

• Business opportunities are missed
• Duplication of effort/inaccurate
  inadequate information for business management
• IS planning is incoherent incompatible
  with business planning
• Lack of understanding/no or miscommunications
• IS productivity is low/costs are high

Over the long term, any organization will get
the information systems it deserves, according to
the approach adopted to the use management of
IS/IT.
Ward, J. Peppard, J. (2002). Strategic Planning
for Information Systems (3rd Edition), John Wiley
Sons New York
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What is Strategizing?
Darnton Giacoletto (1992). Information in the
Enterprise,, Digital Press Burlington, MA
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Strategizing Elements

• Mission

• Strategy
• Objectives Goals
• Critical Success
• Critical Failure Factors
• Strengths Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats
• Business Processes

Darnton Giacoletto (1992). Information in the
Enterprise,, Digital Press Burlington, MA
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IT a Service Provider or Strategic Partner?
Service Provider
Strategic Partner

• 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

• IT is for business growth
• Budgets are driven by business strategy
• IT is inseparable from the business
• IT is seen as an investment to manage
• IT managers are business problem solvers

Venkatraman, N. (1999). Valuing the IS
Contribution to the Business, Computer Science
Corporation
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Strategic Actions
The enterprise can exploit information
appropriately only by managing business,
organizational, technical issues.
Darnton Giacoletto (1992). Information in the
Enterprise,, Digital Press Burlington, MA
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Strategic Actions
The enterprise can exploit information
appropriately only by managing business,
organizational, technical issues.
Darnton Giacoletto (1992). Information in the
Enterprise,, Digital Press Burlington, MA
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Strategic Actions
The enterprise can exploit information
appropriately only by managing business,
organizational, technical issues.
Darnton Giacoletto (1992). Information in the
Enterprise,, Digital Press Burlington, MA
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Strategic Actions
The enterprise can exploit information
appropriately only by managing business,
organizational, technical issues.
Darnton Giacoletto (1992). Information in the
Enterprise,, Digital Press Burlington, MA
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Strategic Actions
Bottom Line
Dont waste time trying to enforce a single
methodology.
Any approach is good if it fits the
organizational culture integrates business,
information, IT requirements solves
problems.
Many IS fail, not because of technical issues,
but because the target part of the enterprise is
unable or unwilling to make use of it.
Darnton Giacoletto (1992). Information in the
Enterprise,, Digital Press Burlington, MA
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Three-Era Model
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Three-Era Model
Just as good MIS rely on good operational DP
systems for accurate, timely information, SIS
rely on good DP or MIS systems for appropriate
information provisioning or dependent processing.
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Strategic IS Success Factors

• External, not internal focus
• Adding value, not cost reduction
• Sharing the benefits
• Understanding Customers
• Business-driven, not technology-driven
• Incremental development
• Using the information gained from the systems
  to develop the business

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Management Implications
IT Strategy
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IS Strategy Triangle
Business Strategy
Information Strategy
Organizational Strategy
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Strategic Alignment Model
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Its not the computerization thats important .
. . its the discipline you have to bring to your
processes. You have to do your thinking before
you computerize it or else the computer simply
goes on strike.
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Opportunity driver
If there is an overall lesson that can be
learned from experience it is that, since new
technologies continually come go, the pursuit
of opportunities through IT must be driven, not
by what is technologically feasible but by what
is strategically desirable.
Ward, J. Peppard, J. (2002). Strategic Planning
for Information Systems (3rd Edition), John Wiley
Sons New York
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IT Portfolio Investments

• Increased sales
• Competitive advantage
• Competitive necessity
• Market positioning
• Innovative services

• Increased control
• Better information
• Better integration
• Improved quality

• Cut costs
• Increased throughput

Weill Broadbent (1998). Leveraging the New
Infrastructure, Harvard Business School Press
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Unacknowledged Legislators
Management theory, more than any other branch of
academia, is propelled by two primal human
instincts fear greed John Micklethwait
Adrian Wooldridge The Witch Doctors
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Unacknowledged Legislators
A good deal of corporate planning . . . is like
a ritual rain dance it has no effect on the
weather that follows, but those who engage in it
think it does . . . instruction related to
corporate planning is directed at improving the
dancing, not the weather. Russell Ackoff Wharton
Business School
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Unacknowledged Legislators
People use the word guru only because they do
not want to say charlatan. Peter Drucker
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Strategic Visioning versus Planning
Strategic planning often gets in the way of
strategic thinking because executives engaged in
planning often focus on the manipulation of
numbers rather than creating a fresh vision.
Martin (1995). The Great Transition, American
Management Association (amacom) Washington, DC
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Often, the problem stems from a lack of
ITbusiness alignment Jerry Luftman Measure your
businessIT alignment (December 2003) Optimize
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Alignment addresses both how IT is aligned with
the business how the business should or could
be aligned with IT. . . .terms such as
harmony, linkage, fusion, fit, match,
integration are frequently used synonymously with
the term alignment Jerry Luftman
(2004) Competing in the Information Age Align in
the Sand
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Top-10 CEO/CIO Concerns

• IT Business Alignment
• IT Strategic Planning
• Security Privacy
• Attracting, Developing, Retaining IT
  Professionals
• Measuring the Value of IT Investments
• Measuring the Performance of the IT Organization
• Speed Agility
• Creating an Information Architecture
• Reducing Complexity
• Reengineering Business Processes

Society for Information Management (SIM)
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Much of the key information required is often in
the heads of employees at all levels of the
organization needs to be elicited through
discussion. However, discussion workshops will
be wasted effort frustrating for business
people if used to establish facts that can be
obtained from available documentation.
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SWOT
The SWOT analysis provides information that is
helpful in matching the firms IS/IT resources
capabilities to the competitive environment in
which it operates.
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IT-based Investment
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Strategic Grid
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Competitive Forces
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Generic Strategies
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Value Chain
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Organization and IT Design Challenge
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Partnership of the Three Constituencies
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Assessing Organizational Effectiveness
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Evolving Business Model
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Blueprint of BigSmall Business