13.3 Corporate Information Systems Strategy Chapter 20 Pg 229

Objectives … Describe the factors influencing an information system within an organisation management and functions planning and decision making methods legal and audit requirements general organisation structure responsibility for the information system within an organisation information flow hardware and software Standards behavioural factors eg personalities, motivation, ability to adapt to change.

Objectives Cont … Information Flow  Describe the methods and mechanisms of information flow within an organisation both formal and informal and the constraints imposed upon this by organisational structures. Personnel  Understand the levels of task/personnel within an organisation: Strategic Tactical Operational  And relate the needs of these three levels to the information system

What is a Corporate Information Systems Strategy?

Factors Influencing Organisational Information Systems The success or failure of in IS within an organisation is influenced by:  Management organisation and functions Management organisation and functions  Planning and decision-making methods Planning and decision-making methods  General organisational structure General organisational structure  Responsibility for information systems within an organisation Responsibility for information systems within an organisation  Hardware and software Hardware and software  Standards  Behavioural factors Behavioural factors  Efficiency of information flows Efficiency of information flows

Management Organisation and Functions Managers do the following as part of their jobs: 

General Organisational Structure Information must be communicated up and down the various levels of a hierarchical structure to allow managers to make timely and effective decisions. Back

Responsibility for an IS within an organisation Data processing responsibility usually falls to IT dept Responsibility of MIS usually less formal and can lead to problems:  IT dept not aware of existence of systems set up by individual depts.  Can compromise data security (dept head not aware of DPA etc)  Most of such data can be duplicated for different depts (waste of time and resources).

Responsibility cont… Best Information Systems are those that are developed formally.  All data is kept together (data warehousing)  All managers have software capable of extracting info in a formal way they can use.  Data is not duplicated therefore consistent. back

Hardware and Software Many organisations have limited budget and have to make do with existing H/W and S/W  This means that often the optimum system cannot be developed. back

Behavioural Factors Attitude of staff to change is a very important factor. New systems need full co- operation of staff (especially senior managers) If staff members are poorly motivated changes will be resisted. Job security may become an issue with some staff. back

Information Flows Formal vs Informal  Many reports generated automatically and distributed as a matter of routine. Daily stock lists Monthly sales figures Lists of overdue accounts  Other reports are asked for informally Request after sales meeting for last five years sales figures to make future predictions.

Formal vs Informal cont.. Formal information requests eg form filling, authorisation by senior managers etc (SLOW!) Informal requests generally much faster.

Efficiency of Information Flows Without adequate flows of data and info to the various functions within the organisation, no MIS will be able to supply appropriate info at the right time and this will lead to bad decisions being made. Factors that can affect those flows include…..

Factors Affecting Information Flows

What Can be Done to Review Current Information Flows?