Are Investments in Information Systems Worthwhile?

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roles. They went further to explain how each role plays an intergyral part in the strategic operation of the organization.

The article also suggest that most strategic alignment models comprised of two demission namely “fit” and “linkage”. Fit which address the external and internal environments of an organization while linkage address the business-IS alignment. References were made to the five dimension of the effectiveness of the Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) namely alignment, analysis, cooperation, improvement of capabilities, and contribution. In order to support it a three stage model was recommended to evaluate the dimension and their effectiveness. The stages of this model consist of stages: preliminary, evolving, and mature. With the implementation of the various models and roles they foster better understanding of the importance benefits of IS in IT strategic planning.

The document also used a benefit level matrix compiled by Silk (1991) to demonstrate the benefits of IS strategic planning. The article also indicated that it takes approximately four to five years to realize any benefits of the formalized planning process of IS plans. In categorizing the different strategies of IS the article suggest the main categories namely: strategic analysis, competitiveness and alignment.

In each of the category the following benefits were group accordingly:

Strategic Analysis

• Improve open culture of organisation

• Enable users

• Increase productivity of employees

• Support coordination of work

• Reduce costs

• Interface and support different organisational levels

• Improve growth and success

• Create new strategic opportunities

• Increase quality

• Offer new strategic options

• Support reactions to change

• Support organizational teamwork

• Increase organizational effectiveness

• Support collaboration and sharing of information

Competitiveness

• Develop/produce new market

• Develop/produce new product/services

• Obtain competitive advantage

• Increase organisational competitiveness

• Display market leadership

• Support innovation

• Increase customer service and satisfaction

• Become a leader in new technology

• Improve relationships with customers

• Enhance competitive advantage

• Improve market share

• Become responsible locally (markets, government)

Alignment / Integration

• Integrate IS strategic plan into business strategic plan

• Improve relationships with suppliers

• Improve resource control

• Integrate or become independent of IS function

• Improve global efficiency

• Support global organization

• Attain global alliance

• Improve resource creativity

• Improve resource flexibility

• Improve resource learning

• Create standards

• Improve knowledge

• Compose by integrating smaller systems

• Support learning transfer

The author showed evidence of the classification of IS strategic planning benefits reflected five case studies namely: Skandia Re-insurance, Insurance Company, Adidas, General Motors (GM), Piper Jaffray Companies and International Chemical.

The author then use the matrix to collect data on Bank Y in which he conducted six (6) interviews which involved Director of strategic planning (DSP), the director of IT (CIO), the advisor to the president (AP), internal consultancy (ICON), and the deputy director of strategic planning (DDP). The authors then used Miles and Huberman (1994) scales for its similarities as fully participant (), partly participant () and non participant ().

The results of the matrix

After identifying the IS strategic benefits, these benefits were connected to the investigation and evaluation of IS strategic benefits for Y bank. The main result of the case study was a clear indication of attention paid to IS and its benefits by strategic business units, which proved sufficient to justify supporting the decision-makers. These benefits have been identified as evaluation criteria in the IS strategic planning process to support the decision-makers throughout the planning process. In other words, implementing such taxonomy may help practical implementation succeed as well, as it takes many different aspects of the different stakeholders’ thoughts into consideration. Such stakeholders possess extensive knowledge and wide-ranging viewpoints regarding improvement of IS benefits.

Critique

The Title of the document “Examining The Strategic Benefits Of Information Systems: A Global Case Study” gave a clear understanding of the content of the article. The abstract was a well written as it gave a clear overview of the direction the authors were about to address as it relates to the Information System (IS) as a strategic enabler in an organization. This again was supported by a very clear and concise introduction that develop the background and premise of the case study.

The authors used clear and concise language to express the various benefit of IT Strategy with limited use of IT jargon allowing for an eclectic audience to appreciate its value .

The research methodology used by the authors were clearly define

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