Over the past few decades, much time and effort has been spent on the development of Information Management Systems. Ensuring that the company has full advantage over its likely competitors, large sums of amount is spent on planning, designing, collaborating, implementing and maintaining this system. Also over the years, the emerging demands of the professionals who maintain these systems have also grown at a rapid pace.
The bigger the entity, more complex its IT needs gets, and more and more planning goes With the rapid growth of Information Technology and more and more services and products emerging, with more and more consumers availing them, it is getting harder to maintain all this customer data at one place. Unless you are able to understand the growing needs, you would well be just dreaming to reach the Forbes lists.Just to give it a consideration, what happens if the company or entity is growing, and is not answering customer and market needs, if it keeps on using the old out dated information technology systems, it would definitely come to a standstill if it is no longer able to comprehend and assist its client server, what if it isn’t able to make relationships between the customers and taking tedious time to answer the long waiting customer queries, it is definitely going to loose to its competitors and the rest is known to all of us. Thus, the need for strategic information systems, come into play in these situations.Strategic Information System is a type of system,that is integrated into the overall business structure and is based on its business objectives. It gives the competitive advantage a company needs, with the flexibility to update and instantly respond to the growing market needs and client needs.
Thus, this integration and alignment helps to respond to the growing enviormental changes as well as understand the mechanics that affect the inside business strategy and its overall long term growth prospects. It is system that helps you manage and assist making strategic business decisions.Many attributes can be associated with these Strategic Information systems, as they innovative and aren’t easy to copy, they are safe for enterprise, they have an forward outlook focus on the business needs and growth prospects, they may help change the way a company works and are more associated with the project risk. Thus planning for a strategic information system needs a lot of expertise and in depth analysis, but would give the end result if done with sophistication and complete analysis.
An early example can be drawn through the advantage United Airlines had by this reservation systems.Sabre and Apollo. But still there is a going debate on what about the realism involved in them, is this sustainable, or are they a bad or not required use of money and business resources. Companies spend over their IT structures to keep them running and respond any possible change, whether it’s a bank’s Asset management system, or a real estate companies valuation and property enhancement systems, the customer entry systems in large retail stores or a major marketing campaign, things need to be streamlined and perfectly managed.
The closest example can be drawn through in by how using powerful modeling tools and a refined technique, Kwangju Bank accomplished in a month a task that usually takes at least 6 months: building a top-down strategic information plan that alleigns all its business centers and departments, in order to take care of its growing customer needs and managing its data warehouse and client server.Situated at the southwestern Korea, Kwangju Bank, updated its system in with the planning an collaboration of Visible Systems Corporation, and as a result of full documentation of strategic information plans developed by Visible Systems in 3 weeks, Kwangju Bank got fully operational and well integrated systems in its curtail and core business areas, namely financial management, customer handling and marketing.Basically before this strategic plan, Kwangju Bank had a bottom up information system that basically had a lot of redundant client data in their systems. The new strategic model made it easy to understand and synchronize this data, and by various techniques, that were used by Visible Systems, like cross-function business objective analysis and indentified key reusable resources, many of the bank customer systems were redesigned.Thus it can be said that Strategic Information System Planning (SISP), is like making a building, in collaboration and support of architects who firmly establishes the base on which the system would work and then planning the upper blocks and floors that would assist and accommodate the business resources and would make it reusable and redesign able as the time progresses.
But this process takes time. With cross border business transactions and global reach of companies expands, so would the cost aand the modeling of such a system will. There may be IT barriers such as the lack of communication and language, native labour and the rate of acceptance, these systems may take years to develop and update, and much time and effort would be required to keep them running.Why it can be realistic, may be derived by the advantages and attributes SISp has, but why cannot it be realistic may be taken as a response to the barriers mentions above.
Moreover, not just that these systems are to be implemented, the planning that goes into it, must be refined on regular basis with the booming economic and IT needs. Strategic Information system planning may reduce the cost of computer systems and resources usage, with less manpower and more transaction handling but may be complex if not handled properly.As a form of conclusion, traced by the example of United Airlines and Kwangju Bank, it may be said that SISP supports in redefining core business objectives with the passage of time, with more capacity of handling financial changes, business risk analysis, project handling and completion to reuse of old systems. Giving a leap forward in Business strategies and information analysis, things could well go in favor if a sustainable Strategic model is successfully made and put in order.
