Study case (Information Resources Management) - Essay Example

Case 4 Enabling Business Results Introduction Technology in the modern era put firms at great advantages. Thesame technology can put a firm under numerous risks especially when IT is not managed properly or it is underutilized. There are several factors that can be considered for improving the IT implementation the firm. Per se, these factors facilitate growth and development in the firm. Case study analysisThe CIO requested for an outside expert in a bid to establish a business-focused, portfolio management approach.

The portfolio management approach is one of the ways the CIO will engage in sorting the IT priorities (Rabin 201). The two should start with a baseline understanding of all the items of IT that the company spends its money. After identification, they should focus on helping the company develop strategies that will help focus on the highest value spending from the standpoint of supporting the business units (Rabin 202). The process will involve an understanding of the IT’s contribution to the business units that posed as intermittent and contentious in the past.

They should aim at creating a process to start a dialogue between IT and the business units. The CIO should ask the consultant to help him in analysis of the portfolio and budgeting, provision of discipline and structure that enables him to sort through and get to the business cases for IT spending (Law 307). The CIO should develop insights that will enable the business leaders and the IT management to put up processes that will lead to IT priority agreements. It will also enable the process of creation of a detailed, pragmatic and dynamic view of key IT initiatives and objectives (Rabin 203).

The CIO should initiate strategies that will lead to development of clear, business-focused, and flexible action plans. The CIO and the IT experts should device ways that will educate the business-unit leaders as to how IT could be directly integrated into their business plans and become a key enabler to achieve results. Apart from reviewing the effectiveness of the company’s global IT budget, the CIO should also consider the elements of the strategic plan and device ways to effectively implement the resolutions (Rabin 204).

One of the executive level decisions that can be made in order to influence the directions of the company is developing a CIO authority and pulling the CEO to support the authority based on consultant documentation (Law 309). Decision-making is the core of all business activities. The executives should set strategies and weigh a variety of factors to arrive at the desired balance of risk and reward (Rabin 209). The executives are supposed to set strategic directions and vision for the company.

The CEO and the CIO must be responsible for setting the strategic directions and vision. The two executives are also responsible for determining the directions for new markets. Such directions will include growth strategies and merger decisions (Rabin 210). They should stir simplicity and clear accountability in order to develop quality decisions within the management levels of the company. The executives can also define the performance management process to measure and evaluate progress against the organization’s goals (Law 311).

The executives of the company are also required to set budget control for all IT in the organization (Law 311). The executives should work together to gather the relevant data and incorporate perspectives and opinions from multiple stakeholders as a way of preventing wrong decisions. The executive members who should be in the decision-making team should be identified and put top task (Rabin 211). They should challenge each other to ensure that objective data is used to evaluate choices in order to prevent biasness.

The executives can also invite all the C level functions such that they allow for proper alignment to business objectives (Law 315). Works CitedLaw, Wai K. Information Resources Management Global Challenges. Hershey: Idea Group Pub., 2007. Print.Rabin, Jack. Handbook of Information Resource Management. New York: M. Dekker, 1988. Print.