Need to Incorporate Information Systems at Strategic and Tactical Level - Research Proposal Example

Number and email address: Dissertation DST ID of the (Requested or Assigned) DA The Specification: The research shall be aimed at analyzing the benefits of the incorporation of strategic management systems in the decision making of the organization so that their need can be highlighted and made apparent. It is a difficult job for any organization to evaluate the productivity of their MIS, therefore a guideline shall be devised to assist the organization in assessing if the system is working towards the betterment of the organization or just being an overhead. Few techniques and methods shall be discussed that help in evaluating strategic management systems’ performance. The research will prove to be useful for all business organizations that are eligible to implement strategic management systems in their infrastructure. It can be suitable for any organization that offers a product and service and possesses a set of competitors in the market. To analyze the performance of a strategic management system, an actual implemented system will be evaluated for its productivity and benefits to the organization. The organization that has been chosen is a regional office of a global shipping company. One of the problems that might be apparent here is that the strategic management system of the chosen company is not as productive as predicted or as communicated by them. This will mean a waste of our resources and time. Therefore another organization shall also be chosen as a backup plan in case the first organization does not provide sufficient results. One of the success factors of any MIS or strategic management system is that the top management executives of that company are fully supportive of the transition to this technological infrastructure. Therefore the sponsors in a real-life scenario would be the top management. The main contribution of this research will be to devise an effective guideline for the organizations to ensure that their strategic management system are providing benefits to them rather than just increasing their expenses and overheads. Few evaluation techniques shall be discussed that have used by organizations over the past years to evaluate their systems and then alter their way of doing business based on those results. It is also very commonly witnessed that strategic plans fail even though they have been formulated with the support of the top management and are directed towards the vision of the company. Such causes of failure will be discussed in detail. Literature Survey: Lederer et al (1996) explained that information systems can be considered as a set of modules or applications that provide aid to an organization in the execution of their operational plans and thus achieve business objectives. Pant et al (1995) pointed out that the company’s direction, objectives and priorities should be clearly understood so that an effective system can be developed for the organization. Information systems provide a platform which enables the companies to analyze useful data and thus make effective decisions. Mayor (2002) stated that there seems to be an increasing need in the utilization of technology in the business sector. Some of the reasons are continuing innovation of hardware, software and the uncertainty in the economics of the business sector; these insecurities lead to the desire of a more structured and formalized structure which is only possible with the amalgamation of technology with business organizations. The goal of this dissertation is to understand the fact that organizations tend to be involved in a constant process of innovation and improvement so that they can maintain their competitive edge in the market. Vector Research Incorporated (1997) struck a commendable balance and stated that if too much attention is given to innovation then it will not address the on-going problems of the company and if too much attention is given to the element of improvement then it may not result in a better tomorrow. The perfect balance between innovations that would bring about improvement in the organization can be the introduction of strategic management systems. Wen (1999) described the strategic management systems as the provider of alternative strategies which are to be adopted and implemented under various conditions; all of these accumulate to providing guidance for decision makers. Strategic management systems employ a systems dynamics approach to understand and explicate the process. The model and accompanying simulation can serve as a practical decision support system for the strategic decisions. Ranti (2006) addressed the notion of measuring the productivity of the information systems in organizations. He accepts the fact that the general perception of the information systems’ productivity has not been very commendable since a number of years. The major reason of this is that they are evaluated correctly. There has been an ongoing debate about how the information systems can be evaluated effectively so that their productivity can be made apparent. George (1999) defined some of the common causes that make it difficult to evaluate the IT investments on information systems: Indefinable nature of their advantages Even if competitive edge is gained by the company, it will be difficult to measure its degree. Most of the advantages of IT are indirect due to which the true value cannot be estimated correctly. There are several methods by the help of which companies can evaluate their systems for its effectiveness. A guideline will be devised with the help of these methodologies to assist companies in estimating the usefulness of their systems. One of the most known methods of evaluation is Information Economics. This method has been advocated by a number of researchers (Mayor 2002), (Vector Research Incorporated 1997), (Wen et al. 1999). It is a variation of cost-benefit analysis that deals with the indefinable and uncertain factors that are found in IT systems and processes. It is based on the return of investment (ROI) for those advantages and expenses which can be directly found through a standard cost-benefit analysis. The decision making aspect is done on the basis of ranks and scoring technique of risks that are related to the information systems. This method finds out the performance measures and utilizes them to rank the effect of all of these changes on the performance of the organization after the advent of IT. Remenyi (1995) devised an approach in which many point of views and more than one set of values are identified in the process of making a decision to invest in IT. MOMC establishes preferences, wants and a set of stakeholders are identified. The IT system is evaluated for the aggregated utility that it is able to provide to the organization and if it is able to have a high level of satisfied preferences. Some of the researchers addressed the question of why some strategic management systems fail even though they have been carefully implemented with clear objectives from the management. Mintzberg (1994) claims to provide a comprehensive list of evidences and circumstances that lead to the failure of strategies; the executives who were responsible for strategic planning cut out the top management from the planning process (Ketokivi et al 2003), organizational and cultural needs were not considered in the strategic planning etc. Another problem has become apparent since the management executives have realized the importance of deploying strategic management systems in their organizations. It is very common for organizations to make use of systems that are not aligned with the direction of their business and thus do not agree with the business objectives (Comptroller’s Handbook 1995). It is very necessary to identify if the strategic management system is working in accordance with the aims and direction of the businesses. In case of failure in this regard, the system will become a burden for the organization instead of benefitting from it (eHow n.d.). Conduct of the Project A deductive approach will be adapted in the research survey. An extensive literature survey will be carried out to gain comprehensive knowledge on the subject. Several case studies shall be included in the research survey that highlight the amalgamation of IT infrastructure in business organizations. Case studies and different causes of failures of strategic management systems shall also be investigated in the secondary sources of data. After a thorough study on strategic management systems, an organization shall be visited personally to analyse the effectiveness of their information systems and the incorporation of strategic management systems in their decision making processes. The analysis shall be done by conducting face-to-face interviews with the concerned executives at the organization. Meetings shall be set up with them before hand so that we have sufficient time to get our required information. Our request to view their MIS shall be communicated to them before the meetings so that necessary actions and permissions have been taken by their side. The company that has been chosen for the analysis is a regional office of a global shipping company. This data will be very fruitful in deducing real life experiences and benefits of the strategic management systems. We will also be discussing with them some of the instance that didn’t result according to their expectations so that such experiences can be stated as risks or failures in our guideline. Design of the Project It shall be ensured that sufficient study has been done on the chosen organization so that their objectives and direction are well understood. This will assist us in understanding the vision of their systems. It shall also be analyzed if the chosen company will prove to be a good candidate for analysis of their MIS. Since otherwise, it will prove to be a tedious and wasteful exercise of both time and resources. The literature survey and the hypothesis of the research will be supported by a cross-sectional survey in this organization with the help of a series of interviews with different executives. Face-to-face personal interviews’ approach is chosen for this research since the sample size is very small. A list of questions will be prepared before the meetings so that the interviews are conducted in a timely and consistent manner. The questions shall be focused to evaluate the impact of the introduction of MIS in the organization and the changes that have been noticed in the market share or satisfaction of their customers etc. Some of the questions from the survey are: Which users have access to the system? This will highlight the number of users that are automating their work with the help of this system. If there are many users then the cost per user will be reduced. Are there any different levels of access and reporting in the system? This question will be important to understand the different uses of the system for different users. For example, if this system is used by the sales executives then the system is being used on a frequent basis to manage their customers effectively and target areas by devising a strategy with the help of strategic management system. Has there been a market share analysis after the implementation of the strategic management system? If yes, then has it increased? This will indicate the incorporation of the strategic management systems in the decision making processes of the organization. If their market share is not increased then their system is not able to work in accordance with their vision and some factors might be causing it to be directed towards failure. Are the reports from the strategic management systems helpful and comprehensive enough to be the basis of a decision? This question will highlight the level of reporting that the system is offering and if it is being helpful to the company. Have the employees accepted the transition to the IT infrastructure? This will indicate the level of acceptance towards the system which will indicate its level of usage by the employees. The data from these questions will be structured in a formal manner such that the results can be beneficial for other organizations as well. The guideline for the organization will basically have the following sections: Methods to Evaluate Information System Ways to Ensure Strategic Management System’s Productivity Causes of Failure of Strategic Planning Statement of Deliverables An extensive literature review will be produced regarding the effectiveness of strategic management system in the modern organizations. It shall also constitute different experiences of companies all around the world which have successfully made this necessary transition. It is a common concern that these systems do not provide as much benefits as they claim. Therefore the misconceptions regarding these notions shall be addressed and clarified that these systems prove to be very beneficial for any organization in the modern world. The data from the organization will be presented in a structured manner and descriptive statistics will be applied to get meaning from the data. A comprehensive guideline will be devised that will serve as an important document for organization to evaluate the performance of their information systems. Organizations will be able to evaluate their systems with the help of the methods stated here and ensure that their systems are productive rather than being an overhead. Plan Activities Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Outcome Identification of the topic * * Research Topic Research Proposal * Research Proposal Literature Review * * * * * * Secondary data relevant to the background of the topic. Study of Evaluation Methods * * * * Set of reliable methods Study of case studies * * * * Knowledge of real-life experiences Generate Questionnaire * Questions for the employees of the chosen organization Arrange meetings * Meetings with the consent of both the parties List down requirements from chosen organization * Sample reports, permission to view the system Face-to-face interviews * Primary data relevant to the strategic management systems Analyze data * Data formulated in a structured format Devise guideline * * * * A comprehensive guideline for organizations to evaluate their systems. Draft report * * * * * Complete report Meetings with the supervisor * * * * * * * * * Guidance and advice on the progress of the report Time management * * * * * * * * * Completion of activities on a scheduled time-frame Scope Management * * * * * * * * * Focused Research Time and scope management will be considered on-going activities in the entire process of research so that the activities are completed in a timely manner and research findings are focused and relevant to the project title. The chosen company will be approached ahead in time so that all the data can be analyzed. The chosen company should be contacted early so that if the chosen organization does not cooperate to the extent that we want them to or do not have much application of strategic management systems in their infrastructure, then we can choose another company. If this activity is left to be done in the end then there is a chance that we might not get another company to analyze. References Comptroller’s Handbook 1995, ‘Management Information Systems’, www.occ.treas.gov/handbook/CoverLetter/MIStrans.pdf eHow, n.d. ‘How to Define Strategic Management’, eHow.com, viewed 24 April 2010, George, M G 1999, ‘The I.S.S.U.E Methodology for Quantifying Benefits from Information Systems’, Department of Information Systems and Computing Brunel University, United Kingdom Ketokivi, M., Heikkil J 2003, ‘A strategic management system for manufacturing: linking action to performance’, Production Planning & Control, Volume 14, Issue 6, pages 487 - 486  Lederer, A. L., Sethi, V 1996, ‘Key prescriptions for strategic information systems planning’, Journal of Management Information Systems: JMIS v13n1, p.35-62 Mintzberg, H 1994, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, Prentice Hall, New York. Mayor, T 2002, ‘A Buyer’s Guide to IT Value Methodologies’, CIO Magazine, July 15th 2002. Pant, S., Hsu, C., (1995), Strategic Information Systems Planning: A Review, Information Resources Management Association International Conference, May 21-24, Atlanta, Remenyi, D 1995, Effective Measurement and Management of IT Costs and Benefits, Butterworth-Heinemann. Ranti, B 2006, ‘A Review of Information Technology Investment Evaluation Methodologies: The need for appropriate evaluation methods’ Vector Research Incorporated 1997, ‘Guide for Managing Information Technology (IT) as an Investment Measuring Performance’, Prepared for Department of Defense the United States of America. Wen, J., Sylla, C., Adam, M., Szewczak EJ 1999, ‘Measuring Information Technology Investment Payoff: Contemporary Approaches’, Idea Group Publishing. Read More