An organization that I believe does not conduct adequate strategic IS planning would be my
current employer. I work at a sizeable soft-drink production plant on the production side, but
from what I can see there is a lack of strategic IS planning. They lack in this area mainly
because the plant is in a smaller town. Because of this, there is a lack of understanding of the
importance of strategic IS planning and possibly a lack of resources to invest in it. The
implications of inadequate strategic IS planning are significant. Without proper planning,
organizations may miss opportunities to implement new technologies, optimize their
processes, and improve their overall performance. Also, organizations might waste resources
on projects that do not align with their goals or fail to deliver expected benefits. As an IT
professional, I would explain that strategic IS planning is crucial for organizations to
identify and select IS projects that align with their business objectives. Without strategic IS
planning they risk investing in IS projects that do not deliver expected benefits, wasting
resources, and missing out on opportunities to improve their organization's operations and
competitiveness.
While working in the healthcare profession, One of the most crucial changes in the
healthcare industry was the HITECH Act (The Health Information Technology for
Economic and Clinical Health) of 2009. That mandated all healthcare facilities convert from
paper documentation to EMR (Electronic Medical Records) by January 1, 2014. Since these
regulations involved facilities incurring additional operational costs, management started
cutting corners by using cheap vendors, failing to understand the industry's needs, and
ignoring the industry's reality and facts. Some of the reasons why a strategic plan did not
reach its full potential are as follows.
Partial commitment from ownership or leadership leads to cost-cutting investment in
refurbished, outdated hardware and software, compatibility issues that would crash or freeze,
resulting in staff productivity issues, overtime, and causing backup documentation crises in
patient health recordings.
Compliance is vital in strategic planning in any industry; they are the framework that gives
groundwork to ethical practices in the business world; for example, if boundaries are not set
in using and releasing medical records results in a violation of the law. HIPPA laws and
security mandate medical providers to monitor and control PHI (Patient's Health
information). Patient EMRs should be confidential, protected, and require prior authorization
before discussing or sharing with other medical professionals, families, and third-party
vendors. Implication-related poorly implied strategic planning leads to significant
compliance issues related to industry standards and can face legal and financial
consequences. Furthermore, failure to abide by strategic planning leads to
miscommunication, lack of organizational cohesion, lost information, plans falling through
the cracks, essential issues like compliance, and resources skyrocketing costs.
The importance of strategic planning is relevant to business today; understanding how
outdated management is to the current market standard is an essential factor that can give the
planner insight into the organization and defines the best route in achieving the short and
long-term goals. The primary step in strategic business planning is outlining the business
purpose, budget, and goals aligning with current and feature needs, identifying strengths and
weaknesses, and what hinders growth. Furthermore, a well-designed plan is a well-informed
client, which can put resources at your disposal and add value to the business and customer
convenience. One organization that comes to mind as not conducting adequate strategic
information system (IS) planning is a small local retailer that has been operating for decades
with a traditional brick-and-mortar approach, and has only recently begun to embrace e-
commerce as a secondary channel for sales. Two reasons why this organization might not be
conducting strategic IS planning appropriately or at all are:
1. Lack of Awareness: The organization's leadership may lack awareness of the
importance of strategic IS planning or may not fully understand the potential benefits
it can bring. They may view IS as a secondary function and not prioritize strategic
planning for IS projects, resulting in a lack of dedicated resources, budget, and
attention.
2. Short-term Focus: The organization may have a short-term focus and prioritize
immediate operational needs over long-term strategic planning. They may be more
concerned with day-to-day operations and short-term revenue generation rather than
investing in strategic IS planning that requires time, effort, and resources with long-
term benefits.
The implications of inadequate strategic IS planning can be detrimental to the organization's
competitiveness and growth. Without proper planning, the organization may miss out on
opportunities to leverage technology for optimizing operations, enhancing customer
experience, and gaining a competitive edge. It may also face challenges in adapting to
changing market dynamics, technological advancements, and customer preferences, leading
to a loss of market share and revenue.As an IT professional, I would emphasize the
importance of strategic IS planning in identifying and selecting IS projects by highlighting
the following points: Alignment with Business Goals, Resource Allocation, Risk
Management, and Innovation and Agility. Working as a government contractor in the
information technology/cybersecurity field, our organization at times does not conduct
adequate strategic information planning for the following reasons:
• Compliance: Government systems need approval to operate (ATO) to run. This ATO
is driven by the Federal Information System Management Act (FISMA) law. There
are times when controls or technologies are mandated to be put into place without
any consideration to end user experiences or sufficient testing to determine the
impact to the system.
• Lack of understanding: As with the compliance example, there are times when the
information assurance (IA) team lacks the understanding of the control or the
technology and therefore doesn’t strategically plan its implementation.
The implications of inadequate strategic planning in our organization has lead to negative
impact causing lost of productivity and poor moral. As an example we had a situation where
host based firewalls needed to be installed on each workstation. The sponsor was the chief
information security officer (CISO) the implementation was being done by system
administrators and stakeholders were end users/developers. The system administrator lacks
the planning, rolled it out without understanding what port needed to be opened for the
developers to continue working on software that was being developed, as well as letting
them know when it was going to be done. The software team spent a day troubleshooting
their system because they thought it failed, just to find out that it was the firewall port that
caused the issue. The importance of strategic planning is to align the information system
with business mission. It was once explained to me that you wouldn’t put a hundred-dollar
lock on a ten-dollar bike. As an IT Professional I would explain the importance and process
of planning, analysis, design, and implantation. This would then allow stakeholders to
understand risk and if there is value to the business with the project. Strategic planning is
used for long-term goals and operations within the organization. Here, you'll look at the
mission statement and the vision statement to help define the goals of the organization.
Mission and vision statements align the organization's goals and objectives with its purpose
and values. The mission statement provides the organization's purpose, and the vision
statement provides an understanding of its future aspirations. The strategic planning process
helps ensure the organization is moving in the right direction by aligning the goals and
objectives with its mission and vision statements. In short, we use strategic planning to move
towards a common goal. There are several reasons why an organization might not conduct
adequate strategic information system (IS) planning. Here are two possible reasons:
Lack of awareness or understanding: a The organization's leadership may not fully understand
the importance of strategic IS planning or may not have the necessary expertise to carry out
the planning process effectively. In such cases, they may not allocate sufficient resources,
time or effort to the planning process or may prioritize other initiatives over strategic IS
planning.
Resistance to change:
• The organization may have a culture that resists change, and this may make it difficult to
introduce new ideas or systems. This resistance can also occur if there is a perceived threat
to existing power structures or if there is a lack of trust in the IT department's ability to
deliver new systems or change existing ones.
The implications of inadequate strategic IS planning can be significant. For example:
• Wasted resources: The organization may end up investing in IT systems that do not align
with its overall strategy or that do not provide the expected benefits. This can result in
wasted resources, including time and money.
• Lost opportunities: Without a strategic IS plan, the organization may miss out on
opportunities to leverage technology to gain a competitive advantage or improve its
operations. This can put the organization at a disadvantage compared to its competitors.
Long before I became an IAAM, and telecommunications engineer I worked for ADT
Security Services as a Technical Support phone agent. When I say that they did not have an
adequate and strategic viewpoint on their it infrastructure, it deployments, it rolls backs and
anything else that factored into their Salesforce cloud-based environment I am not kidding.
There were so many times that I would be in a phone que with 3000+ customers just waiting
on the other end of that que waiting for an agent. Ate that same time their information
technology department would send those automated alerts via Teams talking about it being
mandatory patching time, or rollbacks. So those same 3000+ clients in that Genysis phone
que would just be dropped with no regard for how long they were in that que, or the needs
that brought them to it. When they came back into said que and finally reached an agent the
response, we were told by management to say was "We are sorry however we had critical
updates to do but we are here now so how can we assist you"? This was also not a freak
occurrence and happened at least twice a week. Combine this with an improperly configured
Active Directory user configuration file and an exposed and confirmed compromised Active
Directory Contact list, you can just image the chaotic nonsense that occurred on a daily
basis. If it was not apparent from my explanation above, I will highlight it a bit more. When
these sorts of strategic failures occur it not only effects the clientele of that organizations but
also its employees. As when those customers do catch up with you, they are not trying to
hear that you had critical updates to do. They will openly tell you that is not their problem,
and they are paying you to service their systems and not to provide them excuses. Given that
was the home security industry this also caused many issues with the acquisition of
monitoring information for clientele about their systems, also information regarding their
billing proponents of their account and even if they needed technical support on their
system, this even effect that. As all of the tools that you would be using to assist those
clients with their technical support needs where run through that same infrastructure that was
just taken down during live production time. Strategic its planning is essential because as I
highlighted above you can see what occurs when you do not have such a strategic and sound
plan in place. It also does interfere with the business continuity plan and can interrupt
practically every sector of the business and practically bring said business to a stop. Stops in
business mean lost revenue, lost reputation, possible sanctions or criminal charges
(Depending on the regulations of what compliance that downtime has just violated). In short
not having a sound and strategic is plan that runs in line with your business continuity plan
is just a disaster for any business waiting to happen. Strategic planning is vital; it lays the
framework for identifying business needs, continuity, and customer confidence. However,
this planning is not simple; they attach different feasibility. For example, in my previous
healthcare job, my team of therapists and vendors got an opportunity to plan and design a
three thousand-square-foot rehabilitation center. We went to the drawing board every time a
specification needed changes or updates, such as what type of flooring was better non-skid
so patients don’t slip on fall. Setting workstations for privacy, what types of IT resources
and access points, and what type of therapeutic equipment and technologies were to be
purchased so patients can achieve maximum potential results. The best part was every team
member had roles and responsibilities that the team bought to the planning board before the
ownership approval. It was a great learning experience and a challenge in which we all got
great satisfaction and had to create a waiting list demand for therapeutic services at the
center. Planning is the cornerstone of everything in business and just life in general. If you
where to look at all of the successful business in any of the industries around the world, you
will see the same pattern replicated. The finite planning and continued communication
between all departments of that organization in all the stages of everything. So, to say that
planning is important is such an understatement as your statement highlighted. I used to
have a supervisor back when I worked with the Air Force. He would always tell me that
without proper planning, the only thing you're going to find is the unemployment line or a
court room filing for bankruptcy. This statement, even though it is a bit up front is so
phenomenal and true. It cuts right to the raw of it all, which is the exact same thing your
post did for me. Hence why I had to respond to it.
