Strategic Information Systems: Appunti di Sistemi

STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS,

To identify the right SIS (Strategic Information System) is necessary to perform a whose

goal is to identify how the organization will use and manage their resources for strategic purposes. The process is iterative

because the later steps require managers revisiting the first ones. The steps are:

STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLANNING

1 – ( ) = before deciding the IT initiative, an organization has to identify

Know Who You Are

what is its mission and how it is going to achieve it. This analysis has to be performed on a regular basis and the outcomes

of it are the identification of the mission and vision of the organization, its goals and strategies it wants to use.

Nevertheless this step is not focused on information systems, it is fundamental because it will perform an higher level of

alignment between the business side of the organization and its systems.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS ASSESSMENT

2 – ( ) = the outcome is the identification of the current state

Know Where You Start

of information systems resources in the organization. This step is important because knowing the resources allow meeting

the strategic objectives or constraining the organization regarding what it can do (if workers are specialized in one system

TECHNICAL RESOURCES

is inconvenient to change it). The resources taken in exam by this step are: ( hardware, software and

DATA INFORMATION RESOURCES HUMAN RESOURCES

), and ( ) and ( ).

networks databases employees, users, management

INFORMATION SYSTEMS VISION

3 – ( ) = develop a vision specifically for information systems,

Know Where They Want To Go

so understand how the organization should use and manage its information systems for strategic purposes. IT employees

and functional managers have to be gathered in order to understand the needs of each function in the organization. The

information systems vision has to be aligned with the organization’s mission otherwise the strategy has to be revisited.

The final outcome should also say what role IS should play.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE

4 – ( ) = how information systems resources

Know How You Are Going To Get There

should be used and how they should work together. The selected IS architecture will provide some guidelines for the

future uses, acquisitions and the management of information resources and also for technical, data and human resources.

STRATEGIC INITIATIVES IDENTIFICATION

5 – = identification of strategic information systems initiatives that will provide

competitive advantage to the organization. Most of the initiatives are longer term but they exist also short term ones.

These strategies have to be aligned to the IS vision and the strategic goals of the organization.

COMMUNICATION

This kind of process helps improving (stakeholders have to provide their input into initiatives),

COORDINATION (stakeholders have to work together to the process so they develop a shared mental image of the

DECISION MAKING.

initiatives) and SWOT analyses

The last phase is helped by the use of the following tools: (It is important to consider factors beyond

PORTER’s FIVE COMPETITIVE FORCES MODEL

technology in the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats),

(analyze how competitive an industry is and therefore determine if a particular market could be attractive // reevaluate a

PORTER’S VALUE CHAIN

company’s competitive position if one of the forces changes // determine new initiatives),

ANALYSIS (through the analysis of Primary and Support activities, it determines how competitive advantage can be

created and usually it can be in two ways: lower costs of performing an activity or add more value to the final product and

VIRTUAL VALUE CHAIN

services) and (value chain for activities that turn raw data into useful information // managers can

ask themselves how can information system make gathering, organizing, selecting, synthesizing and distributing

information less expensive, adding value to the firm).

Once you have identified different initiatives, it is possible to use two tools in order to decide which initiatives can be

pursued and they are:

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS (CSF)

- = identification of CFSs is a process similar to a brainstorming session to

develop a short list of main factors necessary for the company’s success. Top priorities have to be decided.