IS for Managers (INFO 640)

1. IS for Managers (INFO 640) L1(b): Challenges in introducing and managing IS/IT in modern day organizations GP Dhillon, PhD Associate Professor of IS School of Business, VCU

2. Assessing your IT department IT does not support customer relations. It’s generally viewed as an overhead. And is often the first target for reduced spending when profit margins get tight. The IT manager generally reports to the CFO Co. commits significant capital to IT but follow, not lead, the industry in automation efforts Characterized by a CIOs who reports to the CEO. Absolute need to execute strategic plans The CEO delegates technology responsibility to a CIO who is more concerned with standards than changing customer relationships. IT is still very much an overhead item

3. Automate basic processes (productivity / efficiency) Inter organizational cooperation & analysis Information enquiry & analysis Transaction & exception processing Justification / purpose DATA PROCESSING Era 1 MGT INFORMATION SYSTEMS Satisfy individual/gp information needs (effectiveness) Era 2 Affect business strategy (competitiveness) Era 3 STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS Organizational effectiveness Era 4 IOS; INTERNET; ELECTRONIC COMMERCE The eras

4. Current trends and challenges • The challenge of IS planning • The challenge of time required for successful organizational learning about IT limits the practical speed of change • The challenge of managing disruptive technologies (e.g. the Internet) • The challenge of developing competencies for harnessing IT • The challenge of remaining ethical • The challenge of information security

5. The challenge of IS planning • Achieve two way strategic alignment • Develop effective relationships with the line management • Deliver and implement new systems • Build and manage infrastructure • Reskill the IT organization • Manage vendor partnership • Redesign and manage the federal IT organization

6. The challenge of time required for successful organizational learning about IT limits the practical speed of change Innovate A Realize B Deliver Loop A dominant: Innovate/Change: Increasing returns Loop B dominant: Supply/Stability: Decreasing returns

7. The challenge of managing disruptive technologies • Companies that utilize disruptive technologies or have a product or a service that is disruptive, should remember that their success depends on both the customers and investors for resources. • Since small markets don't solve the growth needs of large companies, the launch and sustainability of a disruptive product or service needs to be positioned accordingly. • Since disruptive technology products and services are novel, it is hard to analyze their respective markets, which do not exist. • Ability to create a business model, product or a service does not necessarily mean that there is a demand for such a product or service, i.e. technology supply may not equal market demand.

8. Strategy Culture Supply Exploitation The challenge of developing competencies for harnessing IT

9. The challenge of remaining ethical • Issues of privacy and confidentiality • Accessibility to technology issues • Property rights and ownership issues • Freedom of speech issues • Issues of quality and reliability of information and the related systems

10. Technical Formal Informal Security policies (s/w; h/w, network) Evaluation methods (TCSEC, ITSEC etc) Information modeling Responsibility modeling Secure ISD Checklists Risk Management Malicious code Formal models (CIA) Practically none (except perhaps work by Baskerville and Dhillon) Internal IS Security Formal models (CIA) Intrusion detection Firewalls Encryption PKI Legal, regulatory and Public policy None within security except some work in information privacy and internet privacy. External The challenge of information security