Organizational Success Making Information Systems

¶ … Organizational Success

Making Information Systems a Central Part of Strategic Planning

The research that forms the foundation of the article Strategic Information Systems Planning in the Public Sector (Bajjaly, 1998) illustrates how critical it is for all organizations, both public and private, to integrate strategic Information Technologies (IT) planning into their broader strategic planning activities. Strategic IT planning needs to include integration of key stakeholder requirements and needs, and an architecture that provides for agility and modularity in system design to manage rapid change. Many organizations face the challenge of keeping their IT systems updated to stakeholder and served constituents while also embracing new technologies that will ensure greater efficiency (Bajjaly, 1998).

Strategic IT Planning in Public Organizations

The common misconception is that IT is integrated into organizations to reduce costs, yet that in reality is only part of its value (Bajjaly, 1998). The far greater value of strategic IT planning for public and private organizations alike is the ability to free up an organization to concentrate on its business model or mission and vision that it is trying to achieve. IT technologies then become an enabler of an organization's ability to continually change and stay in alignment with its stakeholders' requirements and needs (Bajjaly, 1998). The continual evolution of IT system design and process improvements are oriented towards giving organizations greater levels of responsiveness and focus on stakeholders' constituents, suppliers, and administrators' needs. Each of these relationships is essential for any business to be successful over time, and the continual fueling of trust with them must be supported by a reliable, secure and well-structured IT system that can keep pace with their needs (Bajjaly, 1998).

The last two generations of enterprise system architectures have increasingly relied on role-based data representation and advanced analytics. This is a direct result of how often public and private organizations rely on these systems for more than just activity-based reporting; there is instead a need for predictive analytics and the ability to define potential strategic scenarios for growth, which has long been a concern of private and public organizations (Bajjaly, 1998). The role-based approach IT systems development aligns with these increasingly demanding aspects of how information is used throughout a business.