Strategic planning is vital to the success of a business. The plan helps the business achieve its long-term goals and objectives. The strategic planning for information system (IS) on the other hand looks at the IS from a strategic point of view and how well they’re being used, what the organization wants to achieve with it and how they can improvise to get to the point (Greenley, 1986). It follows the similar route with first taking a step back and analyzing the current state of IS followed by defining the future state while also developing a mission statement and organizational vision as part of it (McFarlan, 1984). The third step in the flow is to determine the strategies against the identified objectives. Finally, it’s time to implement the ideas while also evaluating the change it got.
Let’s look at an example of a traditional magazine printing press to understand the importance of strategic planning for IS. The company is failing down rapidly from its best years since a couple of years. If the fortune doesn’t change within a year or two, the business is in a state to close all its operation and declare itself bankrupt. The board met for strategic planning for IS. As part of that, it was discovered that the equipment used and other IS management system were all outdated lagging years behind from advanced technologies as used by the market rivals. The press now tried following the latest trend by going digital with its data server, firewall, and other updated equipment. With an online subscription system and some free content to drag people to the website, the company got an opportunity to go above and beyond its geographic restrictions. Short, medium and long-term objectives are set as per the business management belief would lead to the success. The implementation task is then divided among several units as per their competencies. The press then went with implementing the process while continuously monitoring the progress and result.
The business can thus gain competitive advantage, improve the performance and productivity of business functionality, enable new ways of organizing the business process and managing them along with providing an opportunity to develop a new business process like in the example above (Brumec & Vrcek, 2002).
If ever presented with a choice between disaster recovery and business continuity, or looking forward to new technology and business trends that is a very difficult choice to make for any business. Often they must focus on both of those. However, if I’ve to choose one among the two, I would certainly go with disaster recovery and business continuity. That is because if the business faces a disaster and have no way to recover the system or continue the business what’s the point of thinking about the future technologies of the business. Consider that a bank with transaction system that is digital, imagine what would happen if the system is down for an hour, what if for a day, what if a month? It’s a catastrophe for sure and the business may even die for that. In such situation, if the bank has a backup system, let’s say a mirror system which will automatically replace the system which is down then the system can still function as it should and fixes can be done in the original one. Mission critical system can thus have multiple of such disaster identified and plans formulated for it. In such an event, thinking about new technology and business trend provide no assistance. The business data is also crucial for analysis and future references, losing them would be a big loss for any business so with proper disaster recovery system and business continuity they can first bring the system back online and then ensure that all the functions are working fully as necessary.
References
Brumec, J., & Vrcek, N. (2002). Strategic Planning of Information Systems (SPIS) - A Survey of Methodology. Journal Of Computing And Information Technology , 10 (3), 225.
Greenley, G. (1986). Does strategic planning improve company performance?. Long Range Planning , 19 (2), 101-109.
Strategic planning is vital to the success of a business. The plan helps the business achieve its long-term goals and objectives. The strategic planning for information system (IS) on the other hand looks at the IS from a strategic point of view and how well they’re being used, what the organization wants to achieve with it and how they can improvise to get to the point (Greenley, 1986). It follows the similar route with first taking a step back and analyzing the current state of IS followed by defining the future state while also developing a mission statement and organizational vision as part of it (McFarlan, 1984). The third step in the flow is to determine the strategies against the identified objectives. Finally, it’s time to implement the ideas while also evaluating the change it got.
Let’s look at an example of a traditional magazine printing press to understand the importance of strategic planning for IS. The company is failing down rapidly from its best years since a couple of years. If the fortune doesn’t change within a year or two, the business is in a state to close all its operation and declare itself bankrupt. The board met for strategic planning for IS. As part of that, it was discovered that the equipment used and other IS management system were all outdated lagging years behind from advanced technologies as used by the market rivals. The press now tried following the latest trend by going digital with its data server, firewall, and other updated equipment. With an online subscription system and some free content to drag people to the website, the company got an opportunity to go above and beyond its geographic restrictions. Short, medium and long-term objectives are set as per the business management belief would lead to the success. The implementation task is then divided among several units as per their competencies. The press then went with implementing the process while continuously monitoring the progress and result.
The business can thus gain competitive advantage, improve the performance and productivity of business functionality, enable new ways of organizing the business process and managing them along with providing an opportunity to develop a new business process like in the example above (Brumec & Vrcek, 2002).
If ever presented with a choice between disaster recovery and business continuity, or looking forward to new technology and business trends that is a very difficult choice to make for any business. Often they must focus on both of those. However, if I’ve to choose one among the two, I would certainly go with disaster recovery and business continuity. That is because if the business faces a disaster and have no way to recover the system or continue the business what’s the point of thinking about the future technologies of the business. Consider that a bank with transaction system that is digital, imagine what would happen if the system is down for an hour, what if for a day, what if a month? It’s a catastrophe for sure and the business may even die for that. In such situation, if the bank has a backup system, let’s say a mirror system which will automatically replace the system which is down then the system can still function as it should and fixes can be done in the original one. Mission critical system can thus have multiple of such disaster identified and plans formulated for it. In such an event, thinking about new technology and business trend provide no assistance. The business data is also crucial for analysis and future references, losing them would be a big loss for any business so with proper disaster recovery system and business continuity they can first bring the system back online and then ensure that all the functions are working fully as necessary.
References
Brumec, J., & Vrcek, N. (2002). Strategic Planning of Information Systems (SPIS) - A Survey of Methodology. Journal Of Computing And Information Technology , 10 (3), 225.
Greenley, G. (1986). Does strategic planning improve company performance?. Long Range Planning , 19 (2), 101-109.
McFarlan, F. (1984). Information Technology Changes the Way You Compete. Retrieved from hbr.org/1984/05/information-techno...