522 Part IV • The Information Management System
- A standard IT platform to integrate our information systems does not exist in our company.A variety of disconnected
information systems exists throughout our organization. Some systems are run on isolated mainframes, others on PCs, at
multiple locations. These types of IT “silos” hinder integration and cause needless efforts on the part of IT staff to build
interfaces between disparate systems to support decision making by senior managers. - Significant gaps exist in automating “valueadded” processes in our company.Many of the steps involved in value-
added processes are conducted manually, or using systems that do not talk to each other. There are work steps that are not
supported by the software, and the staff either overrides the software or manually supports these tasks. This results in “lost”
opportunities for strategic advantage from our IT investments. - There is a consistent perception among business users that the IS department is not responsive to their support
needs.There seems to be a general lack of trust between the user community and the IS organization. Requests for new
application systems are not approved and the recent turnover in desktop support personnel has resulted in IT staff not
understanding the support needs of their internal business customers. - The level of user training is substantially below needs and expectations.Training on new software is inconsistent.
There is a strong feeling among business users that only “tunnel training” exists—they are taught enough to perform a
current specific task rather than use software applications in more innovative ways.
FIGURE 12.2 Sample Items from Information Resources Assessment
Figure 12.2 contains a portion of an information
resources assessment conducted for a food products
company. As should be clear from the example, the assess-
ment led to substantial changes in the overall information
resources direction at this organization.
Reviewing the IS Organizational Mission
Another important part of the assessment step is a review
of the IS department’s mission. The IS mission(or IS
role) statement should set forth the fundamental rationale
(or reason to exist) for the activities of the IS department.
As introduced in Chapter 1, the IS organization’s mission
can vary substantially from one organization to another.
Some IS departments may focus primarily on operational
support or cost reduction, while others take a more
“offensive” role, focusing on how to use new technolo-
gies to achieve “first-mover” advantage in the market-
place. Still others are truly in a strategic role, focusing on
excellent, efficient IS operations as well as delivering
strategic advantage from newer technologies (Nolan and
McFarlan, 2005).
Business manager participation in the assessment
exercise is one way to ensure that the IS mission statement
defines the most appropriate role for the IS department. This
involvement also allows business managers throughout the
organization to understand better why the IS department
needs a mission statement. Some examples of questions that
require key business management involvement are provided
in the box entitled “Assessing the IS Mission.”
Figure 12.3 provides an example of a major mis-
match between what IS leaders and business managers in
the same manufacturing organization understood the IS de-
partment’s mission to be. The top of the figure is the mis-
sion statement developed by the organization’s IS staff,
which emphasized technical capabilities and a highly tech-
nical support posture—including an emphasis on secure
data storage, maintaining processing capacity, managing
the data network, providing access to external information
resources, and integrated systems development services.Assessing the IS Mission- How can IT impact the company’s competitive position?
- Have the opportunities for current and forthcoming technologies been fully considered?
- Will changing IT capabilities and economies of scale change the way the business is operated and managed in the
future? - Has the right balance between IT innovation and managing IT costs been achieved?