Managing Information Technology

Chapter 12 • Planning Information Systems Resources 523

Mission Statement Prepared by IS Managers

Information Services is responsible for designing, acquiring (including custom developing), and maintaining a wide variety of

computing systems and services for the people of our corporation.

In this role, the department:

• Provides a secure location for housing and accessing the official electronic data records of the company.


• Maintains computer processing capacity and support for file maintenance and information reporting.


• Provides access to approved external data sources on the Internet.


• Manages a corporate data network that delivers services to departmental and individual workstations linked to its
  data center.


• Provides integrated IS development for departments in order to advance organizational strategies (systems develop-
  ment services are available for central systems, local area network, workstations, and supply chain applications).
  Mission Statement Prepared by Business Managers
  In order to meet the challenges outlined within the company’s Vision Statement and support the strategic objectives and values of
  our company, the mission of Information Services is to provide reliable information, data, and computing services to all clients,
  both within and, where appropriate, outside of the company.
  To accomplish this role, the IS department will exercise leadership in identifying new management tools based on evolv-
  ing information technology that enables management to increase their effectiveness in operating and managing the business. The
  department’s ultimate objective is the development of an integrated information infrastructure and associated services required to
  facilitate the decision-making process.

FIGURE 12.3 Conflicting Mission Statements

In contrast, the mission statement developed by nine
senior managers in this organization makes it clear
that these business managers see the IS role as supporting
business strategy andoperations, including being the
provider of “new management tools” to improve decision
making in the business. Leading an IS department with this
more “offensive” mission statement would clearly require
a major transformation of the IS organization role. In this
situation, a mismatch in business and IS manager percep-

tions of the IS mission was found to be a root cause of in-

ternal customer dissatisfaction with the IS department’s

past performance.

Assessing Performance versus Goals

An annual IS assessment should also include actual

performance data. Figure 12.4 provides an example from

a regional bank in the Midwest where some of an IS

FIGURE 12.4 Assessing the Achievements of Prior Year IS Objectives

Achievement Area Prior Year Objectives Prior Year Performance*

Internal customer satisfaction with applications services 80% (71%)

Departmental computing equipment purchases that comply with the

supported standards

85% 88%

Scheduled network availability to internal customers 99% 99%

Percent of total organization computing resource capacity connected

to data network

80% 85%

Cost per transaction on common systems (lower means higher

performance)

$0.025 ($0.0285)

IS department personnel turnover (lower means higher performance) 12% (14%)

*Parentheses indicate performance did not meet the IS objective