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14.1 – Policy and Strategy Issues
What is the difference between a ‘policy’ and a ‘strategy’?
POLICY
A policy is a document written to structure and outline the strategy to those that it affects and to those who must implement it.
STRATEGY
A strategy is devised at the relevant level of management and is a long-term plan of change and improvement for an organisation.
What is the purpose of policies and strategies?
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/sdtoolkit/Reference/documentation/p23_policies.html
“Policies and standards ensure that processes, procedures and deliverables are consistent and meet the needs of the business, while complying with current legislation. Policies should be clearly communicated through all levels of an organisation detailing who is responsible for each policy and what onus that places on individuals employed by the organisation.”
What is the purpose of policies and strategies?
Heathcote – ‘A Level ICT’ – Chapter 52 – page 288
“’Information’ is a resource, but one that has completely different properties from other resources such as raw materials or stock. For one thing, it is not depleted when it used. For another, it is difficult and usually undesirable to keep exclusive ownership of information. It is usually regarded as a shared resource within a company.
The challenge for management is to formulate an information management policy that will help them manage computing resources in an effective and profitable way, and maximise the benefits of information.”
What strategic elements should a policy contain?
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
Consistency with business
priorities
Centralisation or decentralisation
?
Different user needs
Hardware and software choices
Consistency with business
priorities
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
A company’s information system strategy should be linked to its business plan. This does not always happen.
One way to ensure that is is linked it to use the critical success factors (CSF) approach. This means that senior managers have to identify the company’s primary goals and what things must go right for the company to succeed.
They then have to identify measures of performance for each of the CSFs to make sure the information systems are in place to collect and use this information.
Consistency with business
priorities
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
Example of CSF from the Learning
and Skills Development
Agency
From their report on Key Skills
Support
Consistency with business
priorities
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
A part of the ‘measures of performance’
section for CSF 1
Each section is further broken
down into review questions for checking the
implementation of the policy
Centralisation or decentralisation
?
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
Centralised Information
Systems Department Other
Department
Other Departme
nt
Other Departme
nt
In a centralised system, the ISD has responsibility for planning and control of processing, maintenance of hardware and software and development of new computerised information systems.
Centralisation or decentralisation
?
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
Centralised Information
Systems Department Other
Department
Other Departme
nt
Other Departme
nt
This has the advantage of providing a central pool of expertise and better control over what hardware and software is purchased.
Centralisation or decentralisation
?
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
Centralised Information
Systems Department Other
Department
Other Departme
nt
Other Departme
nt
Arrows away from the ISD show the flow of information and equipment towards all other departments from the central point.
Centralisation or decentralisation
?
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
Centralised Information
Systems Department Other
Department
Other Departme
nt
Other Departme
nt
Arrows towards the ISD show the flow of requests for information and equipment from all other departments to the central point.
Centralisation or decentralisation
?
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
In a decentralised system, there is no ISD, so responsibility for planning and control of processing, maintenance of hardware and software and development of new computerised information systems falls to each individual department.
Other Departme
ntOther
Department
Other Departme
nt
Centralisation or decentralisation
?
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
Arrows between each department show possible requests for information and equipment sharing / advice. The trend in large organisations is towards this type of model.
Other Departme
ntOther
Department
Other Departme
nt
Centralisation or decentralisation
?
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
The advantages of this system are that it allows users in the individual departments to develop their own applications and it lessens the dependence on a central ISD. It may also be faster to sort out problems.
Other Departme
ntOther
Department
Other Departme
nt
Centralisation or decentralisation
?
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
Management could monitor the information systems situation centrally, agreeing to requests for hardware / software purchases, etc.
Other Departme
ntOther
Department
Other Departme
ntMANAGEMENT
Different user needs
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
A medium to large business using computers will have a huge range of different types of users, each with their own requirements.
For instance, those circled in red will interact directly with the computer system itself. Others are called ‘end-users’.
Different user needs
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
M anagers
Inform ation w orkers
Productionw orkers
M anagem entInform ation
System s
Know ledge W orkSystem s
D ata P rocessing/Transaction P rocessing
System s
Users at all levels of the organisations information system (transaction, knowledge work and management support) will have different needs.
Different user needs
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
However, all users require that software is easy to use and has enough features to help them get their jobs done as efficiently as possible.
They would also like hardware that is sufficiently powerful to run the software without frustrating delays.
Hardware and software choices
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
Advantages of centralised control include:
•All hardware within company will be compatible and can be linked in company-wide network;
•Purchasing power increased if high volume;
•Better deals on maintenance contracts;
•Employees will not have to learn new systems if they move to another department;
Hardware and software choices
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
•Training simplified for people using the same software from many departments;
•Site licences can be purchased for software;
•Better control over unlicensed software;
•Data can be exchanged more easily between similar types of computer.
Using different types of computer (PC, Mac) creates problems since most software is not cross-platform.
Hardware and software choices
STRATEGIC PLANNING
ISSUES
What are the issues with choice of hardware and software?
•Upgrading issues – should the whole organisation be upgraded or one department at a time? Will this cause compatibility problems?
•Legacy systems – old but still working reliably. Should they be replaced with new systems?
•Future proofing hardware and software purchases may be impossible
•Emulation software could work with a new system but it may not run 100% of the software.
