On confronting some of the common myths of Information Systems strategy discourse: towards a revised framework 1 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Information Systems Strategy: Principles and Practice
2020
Business-IT Strategy alignment has been a very important issue over the past decade. This paper takes a look at Business-IT strategy alignment and provides a reflective cognitive guidance on this subject in terms of both principles and practice. Conceptual insights have been provided for both the formulation and implementation of IS strategies that are aligned to business strategy. The paper proposes an Alignment Model, as a strategic framework, that could help facilitate the processes of investigation and debate about the desirability and durability of alternative interventions in the formulation and implementation of IS strategy.
Challenging Assumptions for Strategic Information Systems Planning: Theoretical Perspectives
Communications of the Association for Information Systems
A number of well-documented, fundamental assumptions are associated with strategic information systems planning (SISP). A core activity for this domain is the alignment of an organisations systems and technology strategy with its business objectives. The difficulty is the complex and diverse nature of the strategy process itself that renders such a match increasingly problematic. The evidence within the literature relating to SISP suggests that it does not fully mirror contemporary business strategy and contains some fundamentally incorrect assumptions. This paper identifies eight such assumptions that propose a number of challenges for future research directions. Case examples are also presented which reflect the issues posed for exploiting the value of Information Technology (IT) as a strategic opportunity given the approaches adopted for SISP. Finally, a number of challenges to SISP are noted which relate to identified categories, through an 'IS complexity framework', of reviewing benefits, managing business change, and assessing organisational competencies for sustainable competitive advantage.
Strategy: an information systems research perspective
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 1992
The past decade has witnessed the development of a new stream of research, one focused on information systems (IS) and their relation to company strategy and the attainment of competitive advantage. A growing number of IS researchers are turning their attention to investigating questions in the IS/business strategy area. This article is intended to provide an overview of business strategy research findings and recommendations that are especially relevant to IS researchers, focusing on key conceptual and measurement issues in three areas: competitive strategy; strategic fit; and business performance. It may be used as a 'primer' for IS researchers considering conducting research with business strategy as a reference discipline. It also should be of interest to IS academics generally, inasmuch as the relationship between IS and business strategy has become a key issue in this field.
Information Systems Strategy and Information Systems Development: A Case Study
1999
The purpose of this paper is to discuss both the findings of a case study into IS Strategy conducted in a medium sized financial institution, and the interpretive process used. The research methodology was based on the FMA framework and consisted of two iterationsthe first using a Business Alignment Model for inquiring into the practices within the organisation. The second to provide insights into, and make sense of the actions of the stakeholders.
Information systems strategy is of central importance to IS practice and research. Our extensive review of the literature suggests that the concept of IS strategy is a term that is used readily; however, it is also a term that is not fully understood. In this study, we follow a perspective paradigm based on the strategic management literature to define IS strategy as an organizational perspective on the investment in, deployment, use, and management of IS. Through a systematic literature search, we identify the following three conceptions of IS strategy employed implicitly in 48 articles published in leading IS journals that focus on the construct of IS strategy: (1) IS strategy as the use of IS to support business strategy; (2) IS strategy as the master plan of the IS function; and (3) IS strategy as the shared view of the IS role within the organization. We find the third conception best fits our definition of IS strategy. As such, we consequently propose to operationalize IS strategy as the degree to which the organization has a shared perspective to seek innovation through IS. Specifically, our proposed IS strategic typology suggests an organization's IS strategy falls into one of the two defined categories (i.e., IS innovator or IS conservative) or is simply undefined. We also develop measures for this new typology. We argue that the proposed instrument, which was cross-validated across both chief information officers and senior business executives, has the potential to serve as a diagnostic Chen et al./Information Systems Strategy tool through which the organization can directly assess its IS strategy. We contend that our reconceptualization and opera-tionalization of IS strategy provides theoretical and practical implications that advance the current level of understanding of IS strategy from extant studies within three predominant literature streams: strategic IS planning, IS/business strategic alignment, and competitive use of IS.
Business-information Systems Strategies: A Focus on Misalignment
Procedia Technology, 2014
Due to business dynamics and complexities, aligning information systems to the organizational strategy goals has appeared to be a concern for researchers and practitioners over the last decade. The challenge of achieving this alignment becomes even more severe and demanding day after day. Many published research is rich with regards to alignment models and frameworks. However, there is little in the literature that explains what managers should do with these frameworks, other than understand them conceptually. Although these models address how organizations can achieve alignment, they provide very little contribution on how to identify misalignment. Therefore, this paper focuses on this research gap in an attempt to develop a conceptual model that detects business-IS strategies misalignment. Accordingly, a three-phased research process (Model Development, Multiple Case Studies, and Model Refinement) is conducted to propose a well-defined conceptual model of five constructs (Business-IT relationship, IT Projects, Business-IT Communication, Business-IT Engagement, and Business-IT Strategic Misalignment). The model is an attempt to allow managers better understand business-IS strategic misalignment, and easily detect the areas of improvements to enhance the alignment level existing among the business and the technological assets of an enterprise. This research resulted in a business-IS strategic misalignment model refined by business and IT experts.
Alignment of information technology strategising practices and organisational goals
2015
As the information age progresses, people and businesses alike have become accustomed to the convenience that technology brings into our lives. However, in the business world, high failure rates of projects to produce such technological systems have led to depleted profits and are an embarrassment to managers. These pressures have created a cultural gap between business and IT managers. It would benefit both business and IT managers to align the outputs of the IT function with the goals of the organisation and reduce this gap. However, the literature shows that, in the three to four decades that IT has been used in business, managers have been having difficulty in implementing the alignment of business and IT in practice. Therefore, the study began with the general purpose of determining why implementation of alignment is so difficult, and to develop a framework to guide practitioners towards successful implementation of alignment within their organisations. A review of the field of business and IT alignment was done which revealed a rich theory base and that the solution must lie in applying theory to the firm. The review also revealed a very wellestablished model in business-IT alignment theory; the Strategic Alignment Model (SAM). These findings shifted the main purpose of the study to focus the quest for a business and IT alignment solution to the context of the organisation. In particular, to determine the organisational attributes that could be used to provide a guiding framework for business and IT managers that could lead them to one of the four perspectives of the SAM most suited to their specific organisation. The academic importance of this study is the introduction of the three antecedents of alignment, namely, the role of the IT function, the mode of operation of the IT function and the sourcing option of the IT function. The methodology entails a webbased survey of a case organisation to establish the preconditions or antecedents of alignment. The study further shows how to extract viable focus areas to determine the goals of alignment and how to establish matters of timing between business and the IT function. It is hoped the framework developed, based on contextual information of the organisation, may fill the gap of applying alignment theory to practice.
Aligning Information System Design and Business Strategy – A Starting Internet Company
Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 2008
In this paper we aim to align an organization's information system with its strategic environment. We propose an alignment framework which takes four perspectives into account: Strategy, Value, Processes, IT/IS. This alignment framework is 1) intended for the exploration phase of information system design, 2) considers the complex environment in which an organization -and its IS -operates, and 3) uses conceptual modeling techniques (IS architectures and e 3 forces) and provides clear steps to analyzes and align the perspectives. We have tested our approach in a real life case setting, where we assisted in aligning an enterprise's IS and business strategy.
INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGY-AS-PRACTICE
itmanagementgroup.se
In this paper we explore the socio-technical barriers blocking the establishment of new integrative IT capabilities in a firm context. We do this by exploring how a pulp and paper plant experienced barriers in their effort to establish a new information delivery architecture set to improve crosspractice data sharing and foster cross-unit integration. We shed light on the ways in which for new capabilities to matter they must first become embedded in practice, and propose a model for how the relationship between embedding-in-practice and strategy can be understood. In so doing, we show how strategy is a complex emergent phenomena constituted through practice. The paper contributes to our understanding of the critical role of balancing complex relationships between boundaries of coexisting use IT contexts while forging an IS strategy.