Research Paper Analysis

MIS 630- Team Assignment 1

Group 4
1.Apoorv Akhouri
2.Kalanidhi Kabilan
3.Linkesh Kumar
4.Ramya Ramachandran
5.Shruti Shete
6.Shubham Warghade
What Is Strategic Information Systems Planning ?

Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) Is An Important Activity For Helping Organization To
Identify Strategic Applications And To Align An Organization’s Strategy With Effective Information
Systems To Achieve Organization’s Objectives.
Introduction to SISP
SISP Involves :

● Aligning Investment In Is With Business Goals

● Exploiting It For Competitive Advantage
● Directing Efficient & Effective Management Of Is Resources
● Developing Technology Policies And Architectures
Methodology
Two-Phased survey was conducted to determine the objectives, outcomes and experiences of SISP

1. The author first studied the history of the six companies based on the case studies which included
IS director and/or IS strategic planner and on international documentation of the company.
2. In the later phase, 21 different set of UK companies(annual income averaging 4.5 Billion) were
investigated using field studies.
Methodology(cont.)
Research paper majorly focuses over the second
phase wherein:
● Interviewing 63 executives of these
companies inclusive of IS director or IS
strategic planner, CEO or a General
Manager and Senior line or User Manager.
● This interview was conducted on different
CEO or GM
tiers to triangulate over the following:
○ Combination of line manager
contributing application ideas or
making system requests
○ General managers settling direction
and priorities.
Senior Line ○ IS professionals suggesting what can
or
IS
Professionals User be achieved technically.
Manager
Objectives & Benefits of SISP

● Respondents were asked to state their firm’s

current objectives
➔ The table suggest that the companies have
more than one objective
➔ Aligning IS with business needs was found
to be the #1 objective
Objectives & Benefits of SISP (Cont.)

● Respondents were asked to state the benefits

of SISP
➔ Even here it shows a multi dimensional
picture
➔ Even here aligning IS with Business needs
was found to be #1 benefit
Unsuccessful Features of SISP
Even after implementation of SISP some concerns
were faced, the one’s stated in the table were the
prominent ones.

65 different concerned were examined. These

concerns could be grouped together into 3
distinct categories:

1. Method
2. Process
3. Implementation
Method Concerns
Method concerns mainly occurs around SISP technique, Procedures or Method used.

Companies mostly used available methods or proprietary methods. Others made their own methods,
often went customizing the well-known available techniques.

General managers stated some concerns like lack of strategic thinking, excessive internal focus,
improper attention over architecture, inefficient handling of time, resources and requirements as they
had high expectations but found IS strategies making it more difficult.
Implementation Concerns
Implementation was always a concern, even where SISP looked successful, due to incomplete
implementation faced trouble.

Findings suggests that insufficient resources, dubious management, organizational resistance causing
dissatisfaction are main causes of concern.

Implementation concerns were mostly faced by IS directors, as they handled delivery and thought SISP
would give their process direction.
Process Concerns
Process concerns mainly comprises of managerial difficulties. Concerns like lack of line management
participation, poor IS-User relations, inadequate user awareness and education and other low
management scenarios.

Line Managers were doubtful about management & implementation of SISP methods, it may fit the
organisational context
Conditions Necessary For Successful Implementation
of SISP
Analysis Of Reported Concerns Suggest That Method, Process And Implementation Are All Required
For Successful Implementation Of SISP

PROCESS

SISP
IMPLEME
METHOD
-NTATION
Conditions Necessary For Successful
Implementation of SISP
Based On The Organization’s Experience The
Respondents Were Asked To Name The Success Factors.

SISP Is More Probable When Organizations Realize That

Method, Process, And Implementation Are All Necessary
Issue Sets To Be Managed.

➔ Top Management Involvement And Top

Management Support Are Process Factor
➔ Business Strategy Available And Study Business
Before Technology Are Method Factor
➔ Good Is Management Comes Under
Implementation Factor
Types of SISP Approaches

● Business Led Approach

● Method Driven Approach
● Administrative Approach
● Technological Approach
● Organizational Approach
 SISP APPROACHES
Business-Led Method-Driven Administrative Technological Organizational

Underpinning Business plans and IS strategies will be SISP is an exercise in SISP is an exercise in SISP is a continuous
Assumptions needs should drive IS enhanced by use of a business and business and decision-making
plans formal SISP method information modeling information modeling activity shared by the
business and IS

Emphasis of Business leads IS and Selection of the best Identification and Production of models Organizational
Approach not vice versa method allocation of IS and blueprints learning about
resources to meet business
agreed needs problems/opportunitie
s & IT contribution

Major Influence of IS planners Practitioners of the Resources planning Modeling method Permanent and ad
Outcome method and steering employed hoc teams of key
committees managers, including
IS

Slogan Business driven IS Strategy needs Follow the rules IS needs blueprint Themes with teams
method
Strengths of SISP Approaches
Weaknesses of SISP Approaches
 The Best Approach
Business-Led Method-Driven Administrative Technological Organizational

Success Score 5 3 4 1 2
Ranking

Least Concern 2 3 4 5 1
Ranking

Competitive 2 5 3 4 1
Advantage
Potential
Ranking

Sum Ranking 9 11 11 10 4

Overall 2 4 4 3 1
Ranking

Organizational Approach is substantially superior, hence the best SISP approach

● Based on quantitative and qualitative evidence
● Least formal and least structured
Implications for Research
● Unlike prior studies, this study also examines the attitudes & experiences of general managers &
users.
● The research indicated that approach is not only a multi-dimensional construct but also captures a
multi-stakeholder perspective.
● The study suggests that besides studying formal methods, researchers should continue to
investigate matters of process while also paying attention to implementation.
● Nevertheless, Organizational Approach to SISP suggested by this study should be investigated
further to understand it in more detail, to assess its effectiveness & discover how to make it work.
Implications for Practice
● SISP requires a holistic or interdependent view. Methods may be necessary, but they could fail if
the process factors receive no attention.
● Successful SISP seems to require users & line managers working in partnership with the IS
function. This may not only generate relevant application ideas, but it will tend to create
ownership of both process & outcomes.
● The taxonomy of SISP:
○ Can be used as diagnostic tool to position a firm’s current SISP efforts.
○ Can be used to design a situation-specific approach an a “mix-&-match” basis.
○ Interprets that Organizational Approach is more effective than others.
○ Interprets, despite IS managers or management at large being more formal, that
Organizational Approach describes how most IS strategies actually are developed.
The Paper Concluded:
The study evolved into a broad behavioral exploration of experiences in large organizations. The breadth
of perspective led to the proposition that SISP is more than a method or technique alone.

● The taxonomy of SISP approaches provides a diagnostic tool to use in evaluating the
effectiveness of their SISP efforts & in learning from their own experiences.
● Weather rethinking SISP or introducing it for the first time, firms may want to consider adopting
Organizational Approach.

The “approach” construct, the taxonomy of SISP approaches & the indication that the least formal &
analytical approach soared ultimately, all offer new directions for SISP research & theory development.
Critique
After analysing this famously classic research paper by Micheal J. Earl, who,

Was an Andersen Consulting Professor of Information Management at the prestigious London

Business School and founder & Director of Oxford Institute of Information Management at
Templeton College, Oxford

& thus, very much deserves the respect & high regard the world, including us as a team, has bestowed
upon him over the years, we as a team would like to ask permission to critique this paper.
Critique
● The author has used models like Analysis
of Variance to quantitatively determine
the possibility of clearly differentiating
between approaches.
● Thereby suggesting that approach is a
distinct & meaningful way of analyzing
SISP in action.
● The Analysis of Approaches gives new or
existing organizations, a base to develop
IS strategies.
Critique
The problems with the manner SISP was implemented are:

1. Lack of sufficient financial, material and human resources support

2. No training plan for IT development
3. Difficulty in securing top management commitment
4. No analysis of IT department strengths/weaknesses
5. No analysis of technology environment

*Resolution and participation from top management are crucial for the successful
implementation of SISP
Critique
● As far as the approaches are concerned, the author has very clearly stated the pros & cons of
each as per his observations, while even explaining why a certain approach worked or did not
work at each of the companies discussed.
● Nevertheless, the author’s bias towards Organisational Approach could be witnessed, where
strong contenders like the Administrative Approach or a blend of Organizational & Technological
Approach were not discussed in detail.
Critique
● Five different SISP approaches were identified, and Organizational Approach is the best and
superior of the lot
● The two recommendation: First, for companies, organizational approach is the most effective
approach. Second, the approach construct presented in the article is the least analytical approach
is the most effective approach
● Organizational approach is successful for considering & introducing SISP for first time in an
organization as it is least formal and structured.
● IS strategies from ongoing organizational activities such as trial and error method, to the business
practices for example a company experimenting a combination of the organizational and
technological approach: Organizational approach could be used to derive IS strategy and
technological approach could be used to shadow blueprint for IT architecture.
● Organizational approach to SISP suggested this study might be an ALTERNATIVE hence should be
investigated further to understand it more detail, to assess its effectiveness more rigorously and
discover how to make it work.
Critique
There are three qualitative measures that can be combined to produce a multidimensional score.

Intensive approach: Technological approach is considered to be ranking highest because of the

intensive methodology and Business-Led approach lack formal methodology.

Frequency of Concern: Organizational Approach has least concern attributes in total and Business-Led
was characterized high dissatisfaction.

Competitive Advantage: Administrative approach is considered to be 42% competitive , Organizational

approach were perceived to have produced a competitive advantage. Method-Driven and Technological
approach do not appear to be competitive.

Organizational approach appears to be substantially superior . Thus, both quantitative & qualitative
evidence suggest that Organizational approach is the best SISP approach to use.
Critique
● Every Organization is unique and has its own principles and characteristics. The author could have
mentioned the scope, domain, size and age of the Organizations before describing the
approaches.
● The author has assumed that an organization will follow 1 approach out of 5 SISP approaches. But
it's possible that organization implements combination of these 5 approaches or may even form
new approach as per business/market requirement.
● This study has been carried out only on 27 companies in UK. There is a room for more research
on other companies strategies.
● The observations and suggestions are studies 2 decades ago. As IT industry has changed a lot
over time, this study might not be suitable for current startups or Product and service based
companies.
Conclusion
● From a reviewer point of view, it is still unclear to determine one definite answer to SISP.
● Subjectivity is very much justified, but leaves too much space for own interpretation, which
doesn’t necessarily lead to success.
● Organizational Approach is presented as the answer to the best SISP Approach overall, basing this
on mere 6 Companies & 1 Case Study firm who had opted it back then.
● Also, quantitative observations of change in productivity, revenue, etc. could have been
presented for each approach taken to further validate the interpretations.
● That said, it does give us a perspective to how an SISP issue could be tackled, & provides a base
to further work on, at an individual or own organizational level.
THANK YOU