You will develop a strategic plan for an organisation you choose that is delivered in 3 parts. To complete Part 1 of the Module Project:
Describe the organisation (For privacy/security purposes you may assign an alias for the company name.) What business or industry does the company operate in? What is the size and location of the company? What products, if any, does the company develop? What services, if any, does the company provide? b. For the company you selected, analyse how IT impacts the company’s performance: Analyse IT’s role in decision-making, new product development, communication, collaboration and other aspects of organisational operations. Analyse the extent to which IT systems provide specific benefits to the company. Identify new strategic value, capabilities and possibilities of IT.
For the organisation you have selected, consider how well IT is aligned with the business. Does the organisation view IT as a strategic resource or as a utility? Technology in isolation is unlikely to be effective in achieving strategic goals. An e-commerce initiative will not succeed if there is no corresponding customer relationship process in place. The technology must be both implementable and integrated into the rest of the organisation. Apply one of the strategic alignment models (found in this week’s materials or another model of your choice) and position the company based on its business and IT alignment. Using the model, Identify the alignment model you are using. Describe the organisation’s position regarding its alignment using a strategic model. Explain the implications of the organisation’s position based on the model. Explain the relationship between IT and strategy in the organisation. Describe any gaps between technology and performance.
There is no single SISP (Strategic Information Systems Planning) approach that is appropriate in all settings. The SISP methodology is informed by the company’s IT/IS maturity and strategic alignment. This means that to select an SISP approach requires first determining the company’s maturity and alignment. In this Assignment, you will select an appropriate SISP approach and methodology for your chosen organisation – the one from the previous Assignment. The components of the approach and the functioning of the methodology should be detailed sufficiently to allow the targeted organisation to understand and adopt it. Recap your chosen organisation’s strategic IT/IS alignment from the previous Assignment. Based on this information, select and describe an appropriate SISP model and methodology for the organisation. This is a description of the process/steps involved in the model you have selected. Make sure to identify a specific model (Balanced Scorecard, SWOT, Strategy Mapping, Strategic Systems Planning (SSP), Business System Processing or another model of your choice). Explain the rationale for your choice based on the IT/IS alignment. Even a great plan is only a plan. The next critical step is to implement the plan. Once you select an SISP, the next requirement is to implement the process. Companies often face issues related to cost, resources and other constraining factors in deploying the SISP. Describe how to deploy the SISP process – how will the organisation actually deploy the selected SISP process? Make sure this is specific to your organisation and not just a generic description. Describe how the organisation’s culture and governance could present obstacles to implementing the SISP process. Again, specific to your organisation, not just general obstacles. Describe strategies for overcoming any obstacles. Explain how to measure the success of the implementation. Explain how this plan makes strategic use of IS.
