Strategic Planning and Large Information Systems Installations

Prominent figures in the Information Systems (IS) industry have been propagating the need to integrate the information systems plan of a company with its strategic business plan. They have urged the executive level management to take an active part in charting the role of Information Technology (IT) in their organisation's present and future operations. The primary reason for this has been that the cost of data processing and communications has reached a critical level. A multi‐million pound operation cannot be run without executive systems direction and control. Without a common source, planning, implementation and measurement and control between various levels of management will be meaningless. Despite this, the management approach remains largely tactical, expense‐oriented and short‐sighted. Structures for strategic management of information systems and associated facilities have not yet clearly emerged. In an information systems environment, strategy implies plans, policies and commitment to use IT for exploiting business opportunities in order to achieve the corporate goals of an organisation. Because corporate objectives data, financial and budget data, resource usage, together with service and installations inventory data and personnel data already exist in computer‐readable form for large installations, this makes it easier to implement a computer‐based strategic installation management system.