1. CISB444 - Strategic Information Systems Planning
Chapter 4 :
IS/IT Strategic Analysis:
Assessing and Understanding the
Current Situation

2. Chapter 4 : Main Topics Techniques for Interpretation and Analysis
Information Requirements in meeting the Current Business Objectives - using Critical Success Factors and Balanced Scorecards techniques
Business Process Analysis
Evaluating the Gap between Current and Required IS/IT Environments
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

3. Business Process Re-engineering
Business process re-engineering (BPR) is about taking a fundamental look at how the company operates.
The focus of BPR is not on efficiency
Taking what is already being done and doing it better
BPR focus on effectiveness and innovation
Are we doing what we should be doing in the first place?
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

4. Business Process Re-engineering
BPR identifies key business processes and ensures that these processes are designed to be as effective and efficient as possible
The role of BPR increases as IT/IS are increasingly embedded in organisational operations or in the product/service being produced
Business processes are being transformed using IT
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

5. The integration of IS/IT and BPR
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

6. Assessing and Understanding the Current Situation
Involves obtaining an in-depth understanding of the :
business strategy,
business and technology environments, and
current status of IS/IT in the business
This is vital, because the current situation represents the starting point for any changes
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

7. Fact Finding and Analysis Tasks and Deliverables
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

8. Fact Finding and Analysis Tasks and Deliverables
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

9. Fact Finding and Analysis Tasks and Deliverables
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

10. Interpreting the Business Strategy
Internal Business Environment
The current business processes, activities and the main information entities (e.g. customer, stock item, account) and how they relate to other entities
The organisational environment, covering its structure, assets and skills, and the less tangible factors such as knowledge, competencies, values, style, culture and relationship
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

11. Interpreting the Business Strategy
External Business Environment
It is essential to understand and analyse the environment, so that opportunities for IS/IT to impact the business and contributing to the shaping of the business strategy can be identified and explored.
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

12. Examining the Current IS/IT Environment (Internal)
In order to assess and prioritise IS actions, it is also necessary to examine the current IS/IT environment
Questions need answers:
To determine whether the infrastructure can sustain the changes required or itself needs changing.
An evaluation of the current IT services and resources
To establish the gaps which relate to the targeted portfolio, either by enhancement of existing applications or by developing new ones.
To establish a business manager’s perception of the role and current effectiveness of IS/IT
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

13. Examining the Current IS/IT Environment (Internal)
The assessment of IS/IT is conducted in the context of what the business wants to achieve.
The current application portfolio
Represents the starting point from which future development will begin
A key determinant of how the business community in the organisation perceives the value and contribution of IS/IT
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

14. Examining the Current IS/IT Environment (external)
Examination of the external IT environment enables the strategist to take account of trends and opportunities from emerging technologies and to investigate how competitive or complementary organisations are applying IT.
This will lead to a more objective appraisal of current effectiveness, as well as to new ideas for potential application of IT.
This outer view is also useful to obtain measure of the relative maturity of the business’s own IS/IT contribution.
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

15. Techniques for Interpretation and Analysis
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

16. Techniques for Interpretation and Analysis
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

17. Techniques for Interpretation and Analysis
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

18. Information Requirements to Meet the Current Business Objectives: The Use of Critical Success Factors and Balanced Scorecards
The Balanced Scorecard identifies the information required to measure performance against the business objectives.
CSF analysis identifies what has to be done, or changed, in order to achieve the objectives, including new information and/or systems needed.
In combination, they provide a way of obtaining agreement as to the priority of IS investments relevant to achieving the business objectives for the next 6-12 months.
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

19. Balanced Scorecard Developed by Kaplan and Norton (1996, 2001)
Based on the premise that financial measures only report the results of past decisions and that, if performance measurement is to have any real meaningful impact, a more balanced set of objectives and measures is required.
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

20. Balanced Scorecard
Promotes the examination of performance from 4 interrelated perspectives:
Financial: How do we look to our shareholders and those with a financial interest in the organisation? (shareholder value, revenue per employee etc)
Internal business perspective: What do we have to excel at if we are to meet the expectations of our employees and trading partners? (productivity, quality, cost effectiveness and cycle time)
Customer perspective: How do our customers perceive us in term of products, services, relationships, and value-added? (How do customers perceive us. 4 categories - time; quality; performance and service; and cost)
Innovation and learning perspective: To achieve our future vision, how will we continue to improve and create future value for our stakeholders? (how well does an organisation learn from the past)
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

21. Critical Success Factor Analysis
CSF analysis is used for the purpose of interpreting the business objectives in terms of:
actions required to achieve them
the key information and application needs of the organisation and its managers
for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of existing systems
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

22. Critical Success Factor Analysis
Definition:
– The limited number of areas in which positive results will ensure successful competitive performance for the organisation (Rockart,1979).
- They are the few key areas where ‘things must go right’ for the business to flourish.
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

23. Critical Success Factor Analysis
The determination of CSFs should only be started when objectives have already been identified.
First stage: to identify CSFs against each objective
Second stage: to consolidate them across objectives, since many CSFs will recur
Third stage: the importance of information or systems in achieving those CSFs should be considered.
Important questions to consider:
How can IS/IT help achieve the CSFs?
How do existing systems restrain achievement of CSFs?
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

24. The Use of Critical Success Factors and Balanced Scorecards
The outputs from the construction of the Balanced Scorecard and the CSF analysis can be combined to provide a more comprehensive set of IS requirements.
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

25. Business Process Analysis
Business process analysis is a technique for assessing the effectiveness of core business processes in support of business objectives
The assessment of business processes is aimed at defining the areas where the greatest opportunities exist to improve performance.
Ultimately, as a result of process analysis, a decision may be made to embark upon major redesign of one or a number of business processes.
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

26. Evaluating the Gap Between Current and Required IS/IT Environments
The IS/IT requirements that results from this process form the basis of a framework within which we can critically assess the IS strategy itself.
It consists of candidate developments to build or enhance applications and schemes to upgrade the provision of IT resources.
The IS demand is the main deliverable to come out of the analysis of the current situation and the business needs, stemming from its strategy and the collection of demands from the current business operations.
The assessment of the current IS/IT environment indicates the capabilities of existing IS/IT resources in relation to the known business strategy.
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

27. Evaluating the Gap Between Current and Required IS/IT Environments
The gap between the current resources and competencies and those needed to satisfy the future IS demand identifies the requirement for change:
– Processes in need of recognition, simplification, streamlining or redesign – all with significant IS/IT requirements
– New or upgraded information resources
– Changes in IT supply resources and competencies to support the role IS/IT needs to play.
By analysing the coverage of systems across the core business processes, it is possible to consider and compare a disparate set of information systems requirements across the whole organisation and put them into proper context related to the benefit to the business.
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning

28. Summary
To establish a strategic information systems planning, it is important that some analysis is conducted on the current business and technology situation
Facts finding should cover understanding of
business strategy,
business and IT/IS environment (external and internal)
There are different techniques to interpret and analyze businesses – we are looking at Balanced Scorecard analysis and Critical Success Factor Analysis, what are they and how do we use them?
CISB414 - Strategic Information Systems Planning