IS for Managers (INFO 640) L1(b): Challenges in introducing and managing IS/IT in modern day organizations GP Dhillon, PhD Associate Professor of IS School of Business, VCU

Assessing your IT department IT does not support customer relations. It’s generally viewed as an overhead. And is often the first target for reduced spending when profit margins get tight. The IT manager generally reports to the CFO The CEO delegates technology responsibility to a CIO who is more concerned with standards than changing customer relationships. IT is still very much an overhead item Co. commits significant capital to IT but follow, not lead, the industry in automation efforts Characterized by a CIOs who reports to the CEO. Absolute need to execute strategic plans

The eras Automate basic processes (productivity / efficiency) Affect business strategy (competitiveness) Satisfy individual/gp information needs (effectiveness) Transaction & exception processing Information enquiry & analysis Organizational effectiveness Era 1 Era 2 Era 3 Era 4 DATA PROCESSING MGT INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS Inter organizational cooperation & analysis IOS; INTERNET; ELECTRONIC COMMERCE Justification / purpose

Current trends and challenges The challenge of IS planning The challenge of time required for successful organizational learning about IT limits the practical speed of change The challenge of managing disruptive technologies (e.g. the Internet) The challenge of developing competencies for harnessing IT The challenge of remaining ethical The challenge of information security

The challenge of IS planning Achieve two way strategic alignment Develop effective relationships with the line management Deliver and implement new systems Build and manage infrastructure Reskill the IT organization Manage vendor partnership Redesign and manage the federal IT organization

The challenge of time required for successful organizational learning about IT limits the practical speed of change Innovate Realize Deliver A B Loop A dominant: Innovate/Change: Increasing returns Loop B dominant: Supply/Stability: Decreasing returns

The challenge of managing disruptive technologies Companies that utilize disruptive technologies or have a product or a service that is disruptive, should remember that their success depends on both the customers and investors for resources. Since small markets don't solve the growth needs of large companies, the launch and sustainability of a disruptive product or service needs to be positioned accordingly. Since disruptive technology products and services are novel, it is hard to analyze their respective markets, which do not exist. Ability to create a business model, product or a service does not necessarily mean that there is a demand for such a product or service, i.e. technology supply may not equal market demand.

The challenge of developing competencies for harnessing IT Culture Strategy Supply Exploitation

The challenge of remaining ethical Issues of privacy and confidentiality Accessibility to technology issues Property rights and ownership issues Freedom of speech issues Issues of quality and reliability of information and the related systems

The challenge of information security IS Security Internal External Technical Formal Informal Checklists Risk Management Malicious code Formal models (CIA) Security policies (s/w; h/w, network) Evaluation methods (TCSEC, ITSEC etc) Information modeling Responsibility modeling Secure ISD Practically none (except perhaps work by Baskerville and Dhillon) Formal models (CIA) Intrusion detection Firewalls Encryption PKI Legal, regulatory and Public policy None within security except some work in information privacy and internet privacy.