Lecture 1: Introduction to Strategic

Management of Information Systems

Overview
This course is about how to manage

information systems (IS) effectively: that IS

are deployed, used and managed in an
organizationally beneficial way.
Effective IS management must determine
what support can be drawn from
contemporary organizational thinking and an
understanding of technologically complexity.
This course is therefore concerned with the
intersection of strategic management and IS,
and how the tools and techniques can support
a particular IS management situation.

Expectations
Students can appreciate the context of a

management situation.
Gain a feel for what it is about that situation that
it is important to be clear about.
Appreciate how that situation influences, and is
influenced by, other situations.
Judge when IS management decisions and actions
are appropriate to the situation.
Understand when there are links to other sources
of guidance.
Assumed prior knowledge is of general awareness
of information needs of an organization and some
degree of IT literacy.

IS and human resources

Organizational forms, competitive pressures and

relationships, employment structures, social concerns

and cultural norms are all continually shifting in focus.
Technological capabilities create increased complexity
and opportunities for increased diversity of responses.
IS management is about managing this technological
risk.
Those who form part of IS management need to be
equipped to understand the risks, balances and tradeoffs to be made in deploying IS for organizational gain.
Understanding of this course will be helpful to develop
strategic management awareness in IS and will create
the capacity to manage IS in a systematic way.

Part 1: Introduction to strategic

management
This part provides a brief summary of what is

meant by strategy, strategic management

and strategic planning.
It moves into explaining a number of the
models, tools and techniques used to support
the process of strategy formulation and
implementation.
This introduction to the general principles
and tools of strategic management forms an
essential platform from which to consider
their implications in the management arena.

Part 2: IS Strategy
Formulation
The process of formulating and implementing a

business strategy is the fundamental foundation upon

which rests all functional strategies, IS included.
In this section some aspects of formulating an IS
strategy that is consistent with the business strategy
are discussed.
Be aligning with the goals of the business the IS goals
may impact upon the business goals by competitively
enhancing them, or they may redesign the business
processes used to achieve theses goals.
This section considers Strategic Management with
Management Information Systems and explores the
way in which Information Strategies and their
formulation have evolved over time; how these
strategies should be, but often are not, linked to the
business strategies and the benefits available when
they are.

Part 3:IS Strategy

Choices
The IS strategy forms a benchmark against

which policy choices and decisions can be

judged.
This part is going to discuss four major areas
of strategy choice. Each of these is going to
involve a range of potentially suitable actions.
This part also discusses some of the policy
decisions that emerge as an organization
formulates an IS strategy.
This part focus upon the managerial, rather
than the technical, aspects of managing
information systems.

Information Systems (IS) &

Information
Technology
(IT)

It is important that there is a clear

understanding between the terms
information systems (IS) and information
technology (IT).
IS existed in organizations long before the
advent of IT and, even today, there are still
many IS present in organizations with
technology no where in sight.

Information Technology
IT refers specifically to technology, essentially

hardware, software and telecommunications network. It

is both tangible(eg servers, PCs, routers and network
cables) and intangible (eg software of all types).
IT facilitates the acquisition, processing, storing,
delivery and sharing of information and digital content.
The term Information and Communication Technologies
or ICT is generally used instead of IT to recognize the
convergence of traditional IT and telecommunications,
which were once seen as distinct areas.

Information Systems
The UK Academy of Information systems (UKAIS) defines IS as

the means by which people and organizations, utilizing

technology, gather, process, store, use and disseminate
information.It is concerned with the purposeful utilization of IT.
The domain of study of IS, as defined by the UKAIS, involves
the study of theories and practices related to the social and
technological phenomena, which determine the development,
use and effects of IS in organizations and society.
IS exist to serve, help or support people taking action in the
real world. In order to create a system that effectively
supports users, it is first necessary to conceptualize that which
is to be supported (the IS), since the way it is described will
dictate what would be necessary to serve or support it (the IT).
Some IS are totally automated by IT and links to multiple IS eg.
Air Asia

References
Robson, Wendy. 1997. Strategic management

and information systems. 2nd ed. Harlow:

Prentice-Hall.
Ward, John & Peppard, Joe. 2002. Strategic
planning for information systems. 3rd ed.
Chichester: John Wiley.