Strategic Information System

The Assimilation of A Strategic Information System to Gain Competitiveness:

A Neutral Format Approach

            Strategic information system contributes to enhance managerial understanding in terms of organizational development and business success. In particular, they assist in making timely business decisions and formulating feasible strategic plans. In practice, a strategic information system consists of several modules performing different functions such as a strategic prerequisites, strategic directions and so forth.

            In today’s competitive industrial environment, success and prosperity rely heavily on the effectiveness of total strategic planning which is Strategic Information System Planning (SISP). Strategic Information System Planning (SISP) is a process of identifying a portfolio of computer-based applications that can provide assistant to organization in term of the execution of business plans and realization of business goals (Lederer and Gardiner, 1992; Lederer and Salmela, 1996; Rogerson and Fidler; 1994). 

SISP constitutes a powerful contribution to enhance managerial understanding and decision making concerning the organizational development and business success. It is a comprehensive process through which a company would formulate viable corporate strategies and develop plans for its future to retain and extend its competitiveness. The process involves the translation of corporate mission and objectives into strategies and action plans that will induce considerable impact on the future operations of an enterprise. Preparing the organization for making good use of SIS is both a complex and continuous process. 

SIS is complex because it is influenced by a host of socio‐technical parameters whose behavior and interactions are not well understood. Besides, SISP has to be a continuous process, because of continual changes in both internal environments that affect the information requirements, and the external environment that influences technological, competitive, and manpower availability parameters. A SIS model needs to build with inclusion of the necessary components to realize the benefits of SISP. A number of strategic issues need to be addressed to build an SIS model that will support the realization of businessgoals. 

An efficient and cost-effective information flow mechanism is the ‘backbone’ of the formation of a strategic information system. This information flow network requires the generic linking between various operating modules within the SIS model. The linking mechanism should be generic in the sense that information flow among modules can be accomplished efficiently without taking into consideration the types of standards and operating systems being used. An easy‐to‐follow guideline is proposed to help companies establish an SIS infrastructure for strategic planning, adopting the neutral format approach. 

This guideline has six steps as follows which is the firstly is formulate corporate strategies, the secondly is evaluate SIS opportunities and seek management approval. Identification of SIS needs and opportunities are mainly initiated by both the management and user, the thirdly is develop infrastructure of SIS model the fourth is develop prototypes of various modules, the fifth is develop the information flow interlinking mechanism and the lastly step is linking up various modules for communication tests.