Notes
Slide Show
Outline
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Information Systems Planning
  • Chapter 4


  • Information Systems Management In Practice 5E
  • McNurlin & Sprague


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Introduction
  • What makes IS planning difficult (vs. construction planning):
  • Aligning business goals and systems plans
  • Materials (hard/software) continuously change
  • Shift from project selection to portfolio development (evaluation more on individual merit)
  • Joint responsibility/approach: top-down vs. bottom-up
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Approaches to Planning IS
  • Stages of growth
  • Critical success factors
  • Competitive forces model
  • Value chain analysis
  • E-business value matrix
  • Linkage analysis planning
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1.  Stages of Growth
  • Stage One: Early Successes: Increased interest and experimentation
  • Stage Two: Contagion: Interest grows rapidly; learning period for the field
  • Stage Three: Control: Efforts begun toward standardization
  • Stage Four: Integration: Pattern is repeated
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2.  Critical Success Factors
  • For each executive, CSF’s are the few                    key areas of the job where things must go right for the organization to flourish.
  • Fewer than 10 per executive
  • Time dependent (must be reexamined)
  • Four sources:  industry the business is in, company itself within industry, environment (consumer trends), and temporal organizational factors (inventory)
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2.  Critical Success Factors
  • Used to determine factors critical to accomplish corporate objectives and corresponding measures
  • Can be used to identify IS that need to be developed
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3.  Competitive Forces Model
  • Companies must contend with five competitive forces:
  • Threat of new entrants
  • Bargaining power of customers and buyers
  • Bargaining power of suppliers
  • Substitute products or services
  • The intensity of rivalry among competitors
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3.  Competitive Forces Model
  • Strategies for dealing with these competitive forces:
  • Differentiate product and services - make them “better” in the eyes of the consumer
  • Be the lowest-cost producer - not just a low-cost producer
  • Find a niche - e.g., geographical market
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4.  Value Chain Analysis
  • Five primary activities that form the sequence of the value chain:
  • Inbound logistics: receiving and handling inputs
  • Operations: converting inputs to the product/service
  • Outbound logistics: collect, store, and distribute the product/service to buyers
  • Marketing and sales: the means/incentives for buyers to buy the product/service
  • Service: enhancements/maintenance of the value of the product/service
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4.  Value Chain Analysis
  • Four supporting activities that underlie the entire value chain:
  • Organizational infrastructure
  • Human resources management
  • Technology development
  • Procurement
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5. E-Business Value Matrix
  • Matrix has 2 axes and 4 quadrants.  Horizontal axis is the newness of the idea in the IT project and the vertical axis is the criticality of the project to the business.
  • New fundamentals:  Low-Low=provide a fundamentally new way of working in overhead areas, not business critical areas
  • Operational excellence: High in criticality to business-Low in newness of idea=medium risk because they may involve reengineering work processes
  • Rational experimentation: Low in criticality to business-High in newness of idea=test new technologies and ideas
  • Breakthrough strategy: High-High=potentially have a huge impact on the company
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6.  Linkage Analysis Planning
  • Examines the links organizations have with one another with the goal of creating a strategy for utilizing electronic channels
  • Methodology includes the following steps:
    • Define power relationships among the various players and stakeholders:
      • Identify who has the power
      • Determine future treats and opportunities for the company
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6.  Linkage Analysis Planning
    • Map out your extended enterprise to include suppliers, buyers, and strategic partners.
      • The enterprise’s success depends on the relationships among everyone involved.
      • Some 70% of the final cost of goods and services is in their information content.
    • Plan your electronic channels to deliver the information component of products and services.
      • Create, distribute, and present information and knowledge as part of a product or service or as an ancillary good.
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6.  Linkage Analysis Planning
  • Case Example: Electric Power Research Institute
  • EPRI’s challenge - compress “information float” - elapsed time from availability research findings to the use of those results in industry
  • Answer: EPRINET - a natural language front end for accessing online information, expert system-based products, e-mail facilities, and video conferencing
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Conclusion
  • IS plans must look towards the future
  • IS planning must be intrinsic to business planning
  • IS plans typically use a combination  of planning techniques presented