Analysis of Strategic Information Systems - Research Paper Example

Strategic Information Systems 2a. Discuss the purpose of having Information Management, Knowledge Management and Information Systems strategies and show the relationship between them. Also consider the development and enforcement of these strategies Introduction In this essay we will discuss about the strategies adopted for information management, knowledge management and information system management. On closer analysis, we find that they are all inter related and have noticeable dependencies between them. All these factors are analyzed and presented in the following essay. Information Management Strategy Information Management Strategy is the plan to organize and maintain information of the company for the benefit of the users. Data is collected at all points which act as sources of data which is then converted into needed information during the data processing phase and this in turn is made available at appropriate time when people managing the company needs it. Essentially, information management is all about providing right information to the right person at the right time. However, due to various reasons that occupy and clutter happenings in the company, we find that the information gets lost in them. Information Management also looses sight of why, when and how the information is needed in order to get targeted output. This would mean that the information management strategy should be clearly in line with the management strategy of the company. Secondly, the information management strategy is needed to ensure that the entire department works in sync. This will become more pronounced when the strength of people in the department grows. The staff in the department needs to get tuned to the management requirements and the strategy that the management of the company has adopted in order to ensure that all the targets of the information needs are met by the department. In order to make sure that this happens, the information department needs to form a strategy which would repeatedly cross check whether the company's goals and targets are aligned to the targets and goals of the department. Thirdly, information management strategy ensures that there is a clear plan and purpose in the operation of the information department. This will also make sure that every one in the department knows their own roles and responsibilities. Moreover, when an issue props up, then every one knows who has to take care of what and there by ensures smooth incident management as well. Knowledge Management Strategy Every company and organization has its own specific knowledge that is created over a period of time. This happens to ensure the very survival of the company. Knowledge comes about in different ways and means. It resides in drawings, designs that the company makes and in their intelligence properties. All these add up to knowledge and this knowledge needs to be managed properly to ensure that it is available to people who are working in the company when they need it. Knowledge Management is defined as making available in the right knowledge or information or company proprietary data to the right person when he needs it. It is about not enabling knowledge to people who are not supposed to receive it. Much the same way, it is also about people receiving only what they are supposed to receive. Any thing above this or below this is not knowledge management. Moreover, who is to receive what kind of knowledge is the strategy that the company would adopt. The company needs to decide how secure its knowledge packets should be. In most cases, major quantum of knowledge resides in very minor information. McDowell's is a well known liquor brand in the world market. The process of preparing, culturing, fermenting alcohol is the same that every body in the alcohol business follows. However, in case of McDowell, they prepare the entire drum of alcohol and depending what is the brand that they are planning to sell, one specialty bottle comprising of a highly guarded secretive fluid is poured into that drum of fermented alcohol. This makes the drum contents to match with the material it was intended to. This bottle of fluid that they add at the end of the process is known only to a few and is a closely guarded secret. This is a knowledge that will be certainly maintained by McDowell. Knowledge is in everything. Chemical compositions held by companies like McDowell's or Pepsi, are all highly guarded secrets. There are a number of patents that need to be protected to safe guard the interest of very many corporate bodies. Knowledge Management is required by every one of these people. The knowledge management strategy is required to clearly specify how people have to handle every piece of knowledge and information that they obtain. KM Strategy defines this handling methodology. And it needs to be in line with the strategy that the company has adopted to promote and protect its knowledge. This will also be decided by the marketing and sales departments. KM Strategy is needed, secondly, for the purpose of making it available to the right people at the right time across the company. Many times the knowledge in the company is not reachable by people who are in the same fix. Problems that people face and the solutions that they reach are maintained within the same department and does not permeate to the entire company. This will pave way for reinventing every solution every time a problem is faced. The learning exercise should be done only once in the entire company and then the learnt knowledge needs to be transferred to the rest of the people in an ideological way. Information Systems Strategy Information systems need to be planned in line with the strategies that are evolved for the knowledge and information management. Assuming that these two strategies are in line with the company objectives then the information systems strategy also needs to get aligned with the same and work in sync with it. To give an example, in a company that produces electronic gadgets for testing purposes, the knowledge including all the Intellectual properties are maintained in a database that is separately held so that it normally stands dissociated from the servers which house all the software. Normally, this stays dismounted and gets mounted into the network only when the required person from the IT department mounts the device. And the respective user who requested for the information needs to enter his/her password and then access the data or store data in it. This works more or less like the bank vaults that we access for our personal belongings. You need two keys to open your vault. The first key is for the room that contains all the vaults and the other is for the individual locker. The first key normally stays with the bank while the other key is the locker key which you possess. Only if both the parties work together, the locker cannot be opened. This structure of safeguarding the lockers is in line with the specific policy of the company and the information systems strategy will have such plans clearly defined and laid out. Secondly, the information systems strategy includes apart from aligning with the company strategy needs to also specify how and what equipments should be bought and positioned so that the right gain is created for the company. Relationship between the three While information is derived out of data, knowledge is processed information. The information on a subject of interest becomes knowledge. Applied knowledge becomes wisdom. Therefore, information management strategy will be in line with the knowledge management strategies which, in turn, will be in line with the corporate management strategies. Based on these two, the information system strategy is worked out. All the three are closely inter-related and work in sync. Unless this interrelationship between these strategies are clearly maintained, the needs of the company will not be met and the entire exercise could result in a farce. Development and Enforcement Therefore, the strategies are all evolved out of the corporate objectives and strategies. Based on the corporate objectives, a knowledge management strategy has to be worked out and in line with the knowledge management strategy and the corporate objectives, the information management strategy is planned and put in place. Based on these two, further development of the information system strategy is worked out. Implementing all these strategies are always enforcements, meaning, needs to be implemented in strict compliance to the letter and spirit of these policies and strategies that was decided and accepted by the management. As in the case of all changes that plague the industries, one would have to make sure that the management needs to be behind the strategies so evolved and the respective ICT department should ensure whether this strategy is adopted or not. Summary A company need to frame its Information Management strategy based on the company's broad vision and goals. This will also be ruling with reference to the Knowledge Management strategy. Based on these two strategies, the Information System Strategy is to be adopted and planned. It would be detrimental to a company not to have all its strategies aligned in unison. Equally important will be to ensure that these strategies are consistently enforced and developed upon. References: 1. KM Forum, "What is Knowledge Management" available at : http://www.km-forum.org/what_is.htm 2. Gene Bellinger, "Knowledge management - Emerging perspectives", Systems Thinking available at : http://www.systems-thinking.org/kmgmt/kmgmt.htm 3. BMC Software, "Aligning Dynamic Processes with Business Goals", available at: http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/html/itp/BMC_Ptak_Noel.pdf 2b) Describe an IS planning framework of your choice and show the usefulness of different IS planning tools within it. Introduction Information Systems have become an integral part of a business today. With the growth in the volume of data and information that is handled it becomes more imperative that a clear strategy for information systems is worked out and adopted for the company. This will also ensure that the IT strategy is aligned to the company's strategy and IT works in sync with the targets of the company. This essay explains in detail one of the common Information System Planning Frameworks normally adopted for its ease as well as usefulness. There are also specific tools that are used to aid us in developing the framework. Cassidy's Planning Framework A Strategic Planning Framework was proposed by Cassidy in her book on IS planning. This primarily is a four step planning framework comprising of: Visioning, Analysis, Direction and Recommendation. These steps are adopted to clarify on a clear strategy and to adopt it in line with the corporate strategy. This tool can also be adopted for framing the corporate strategy itself. Visioning: The company's vision is to be clearly identified and defined. Once this is done, then the IS strategy needs to be finalized in line with the vision of the company. Vision is not just a target but much more. It is a visualization of the way the things are done. For example, there could be a case of visualization for a paperless office. This is a vision and this is also the target. A vision is more than a target. It has all the ingredients of making up the scene of work visualized and presented. Analysis The vision needs to be analyzed and a clear plan to reach the vision needs to be drawn out. In order to do this, all the aspects of the vision need to be analyzed. Many times a tool like the SWOT analysis tool is used. Typically, the strengths that we have, the strengths that the vision has need to be listed and the gap analyzed. Similarly, we also list the weaknesses, the opportunities and the threats that are faced now and will be faced once the vision is reached. These two are then compared and an appropriate gap study is done to mitigate the gaps and form a clear plan to reach the targets. Direction During the direction, the actions are clearly identified and the initiatives in the IS needs to be organized in such a way that these are worked out as if they are worked upon in a market scene of products. This stems from the fact that the company's IT department needs to treat the company as a client and accordingly directions need to be taken. In order to do a comprehensive study of the directions, BCG matrixes may be built and analyzed. This will help in identifying all those initiatives that are offering high growth-high return, low growth but high returns, low growth and low returns and certain others that are offering high growth but low returns. Based on the BCG principle, the last lot needs to be divested or removed from the initiatives list and concentrate more on the first two options. Recommendations Based on all these analysis and the directions, that has been reached using the various tools that we employed, we make recommendations to the Information System Strategy formations. The strategy thus formed will help in directing the various recommendations to reach the vision that was originally envisaged and ensure that the corporate objectives are met. Summary It is not just nice to a good strategy in place for the IT department, it is also imperative that it is done so that one can be clearly directed in their approach and the corporate objectives are never lost sight of. References: 1. Anita Cassidy, 1998, "A practical Guide to Information Systems Strategic Planning", St Lucie Press. Read More