Information Systems Planning

1. Information Systems Planning Presented by: Heidi Heppner Jon Marvin

2. What Is Planning? Developing a view of the future that guides decision making today… • Impossible to tell the future… Therefore a more strategic focus is taken – Where do we want to end up? 3 Types of Planning: • Strategic • Tactical • Operational

3. Planning Difficulties • Business goals and systems plans need to align • Rapidly changing technology • Technological advances, obsolete technology • Continuous planning/monitor and follow change • Companies need portfolios rather than projects • Infrastructure development is difficult to fund • Responsibility needs to be joint • CIO, CEO, CFO, COO input is needed • Systems planning in becoming business planning.

4. The Changing World of Planning • The future can be predicted • The Internet changes strategies. New unexpected competitors. • Time is available • IS supports and follows the business • IS & IT are the business. E-business solutions. • Top management knows best • To far removed from customers, suppliers, partners. • Strategy must be formed on the “front lines”. • The company can be viewed as an army • Employee empowerment • Better ideas, increased efficiency and higher employee satisfaction.

5. Today’s Sense-and-Respond Approach • Formulate Strategy Closest to the Action • Planning occurs at edge of company. Up to date. • Test the Future • IS department tests future technologies. • Provide funding, work with research organizations. • Put the Infrastructure in Place • Most critical IT decisions are about infrastructure. • Creating and maintaining common, consistent data definitions, create and install mobile commerce standards among handheld devices, implement e-commerce security and privacy measures, determine operational platforms, such as ERP and supply chain management.

6. Sense-and-Respond Cont. • Don’t plan the whole strategy, let it unfold • A step-by-step strategy is more adaptable • Guide Strategy – A Strategic Envelope • can keep your flexible planning within limits • Be at the table - IS execs must be involved. • A good CIO should attain department credibility and free up staff for planning.

7. Six Planning Approaches and Techniques • Stages of Growth • Critical Success Factors • Competitive Forces Model • Value Chain Analysis • Internet Value Matrix • Linkage Analysis Planning

8. CLJ: Infrastructure-related problems • Limited funding • Time- 7 years from scratch • High level of IT control • Decision-making authority departing from IS dept. • What level to build at. Size of company. • Consensus between IT and general management. CTQ: Should today's companies follow the established and proven infrastructures of similar companies or should they experiment with creating their own personalized infrastructure?

9. CLJ – Risky Business • Assessing Projects goes beyond TCO and ROI. Risk Assessment is crucial - see Internet Value Matrix • Improve project flexibility by building in ‘options’ • Which is better? Options or breaking it into smaller pieces? Any more methods for assessing a project? • CTQ - Our text suggests using a strategic envelope to keep potential strategies on track. But might this envelope be too confining? And who should define the envelope? Should it just be upper management?