Driving Value from Business Information Systems - Assignment Example

This week’s lessons have however shown that this is not the case. For my final project, therefore, I am going to look at best practices that ought to be in place for my selected organization to gain value from its information systems. It will be very important that the organization will seek changes in results rather than looking for changes in the way things are done. It is from this perspective that the final project will be focusing on.

Ahead of the final project, a preliminary literature search has aided in outlining some important things that my organization, which is Walmart can do to drive value. In the first place, the organization needs to have the realization that real value is not in the information systems but in the people that power the systems (Khani and Bahrami, 2011). What this means is that the value of the information system is largely dependent on the value of the human resource that works with the systems. As a result of this, human resources must constantly be equipped through various means of competency-based training that are directed related to the technical demands of the information system. The second recommendation for creating value has to do with the need to expertly align the processing output of the information system with the strategic goals of the organization. This is because where the system is made to function in a way that is not related to the organizational goal the consequence will be that value-driven will not be of influential benefit to the organization (Tallon and Pinsonneault, 2011).

With the above note, another major issue that has to be considered has to be the source of perpetual funding for the information system. This is because there are accounts of organizations that have been stuck with their information systems that never grew from the levels from which they were implemented due to a lack of funds (Khani and Bahrami, 2011). Meanwhile, the constant advancement of systems through system improvements is very relevant in ensuring that systems become effective in yielding the level of values they are targeted to yield. With this understanding in mind, it will be very important that the organization will have a technology fund that is specifically dedicated to the development and advancement of the information system that will be put in place. Most preferably, it is suggested that the technology fund will be an internally generated fund that can constantly be monitored for its inflows and outflows. It is hoped that once this is done, the information system can constantly be advanced to create levels of values that are competitive with the changing global business environment (Porter, 2008).