XSoftware Professional Strategic
Planning
Many organizations
today are experiencing continually increasing information systems costs.
In addition to increasing costs, organizations are finding their
information systems to be a bottleneck to business improvements and
growth. These organizations are taking a close look at their information
systems and asking basic yet tough questions, such as:
- Are we obtaining
true value from the investments made in information systems?
- How well are our
current information systems applications meeting the business needs
today?
- Are we working on
the right information systems projects to provide the most value to
the business?
- Will our current
information systems applications meet business requirements in the
future?
- What information
systems mission, objectives, strategies and computing architectures
are necessary to meet the business challenges of the future?
With major
improvements in technology over the past several years, many
organizations are finding their old business application software unable
to easily take advantage of the new technology. Many organizations are
ready to invest in new technology to gain a competitive edge in the
marketplace, or may even find it necessary just to stay in business.
Industry statistics show more organizations will invest in new
information systems hardware and software in the next three years than
ever in the past. There are also more options, packages, and directions
available to choose from than in the past. Many industry examples show
organizations investing and executing information systems projects
properly gaining a competitive edge. However, there are also many
examples of organizations investing poorly, losing a significant amount
of money and in some cases jeopardizing the existence of their entire
organization. The information systems planning process is a crucial step
for any organization and when properly done, will improve your odds of
success.
By following the
information systems planning process described, the process will
facilitate communication between business management and the Information
Systems function. Often, business management does not have a good
understanding of the Information Systems function and might have
questions such as:
- What is our
current information systems environment? What computers and software
do we use to manage the business? What is the condition of our
information systems environment? What are the strengths, weaknesses,
and areas of vulnerability of our information systems environment? Are
our information systems and associated processes structured to help us
facilitate the delivery of services and product to our customers in
the most cost efficient and effective manner?
- How can we make
the best decisions about our information systems investments? What
should be our investment priorities for information systems?
- What are our
information systems resources working on currently? How do the
Information Systems resources spend their time? How does the size of
our Information Systems organization compare with the industry?
- How much money is
the company spending on information systems? How does our IS spending
compare to the industry? How much has the spending grown over the past
few years? We've been doing well without substantially increasing
spending, why do we need to spend more now?
- What are the
industry technology trends, and how do the industry trends impact us?
- What is the
status of our competitors' information systems? Is our company behind
or ahead of our competitors?
- Do we have the
internal skills necessary to take the environment where it needs to
be? How much can we do, and how much should we utilize external
resources?
At the same time,
Information Systems management may not have a thorough understanding of
the business direction, and have questions such as:
- What are the
business mission, objectives, and strategies?
- What type of
business will the company be in during the next few years?
- How does the
business want to function in the future?
- What are the true
business requirements?
- What are the key
information needs?
- What are our
customers and suppliers demanding of us?
The information
systems strategic planning process can answer all these questions and
provide a communication vehicle between the Information Systems function
and business management.
The foundation of
the process is that the business direction and requirements must drive
the information systems direction and computing architecture. Although
this sounds like a basic concept, many organizations will actually
reverse the concept and let the attractive new technology drive their
direction. In actuality, these organizations end up looking for a
business problem to solve with the technology they want to utilize.
While information
systems planning is critical, many organizations either spend too much
time and money in the planning process, complete the plan in isolation,
or skip the planning process altogether. This can result in over
analysis, inability to obtain approval of the plan, or spending millions
of dollars solving the wrong problem. Many companies mistake a proper
information systems strategic planning process as something that must
take many months (or even years) and thousands (or even millions) of
dollars. However, with a solid process in place, you can complete the
planning process with your own internal resources in a matter of weeks
or a few months.
We will also provide
a set of concepts, techniques, and templates for analyzing, organizing,
and communicating the information in the Information Systems Strategic
Plan. The process described will assist the organization in coming to a
solid decision that has the support of the entire organization. Through
the process, you will have a plan that will sell itself to management
and others who need to approve the necessary investment.
If your Information
Systems function is an integral part of the business and well connected
with the business plans and direction, portions of this planning process
will go quickly. However, it has been my experience that many
organizations may not have a solid business plan, or Information Systems
may not be tightly integrated with the business direction. For these
organizations, our process will outline a step-by-step approach to
determine and document that business direction as it will be the
foundation for the information systems direction.