Strategic information system planning is the first of four fundamental
stages in the system development life cycle. This is where an analyst
identifies an opportunity, establishes why this system should be built,
and develops how to structure the project. An organization may not
appropriately conduct proper planning if they fail to understand the
technical or business implications of the new system integrating into the
organization. Organizations may also inadequately plan because they focus
too much on short-term goals or results, rather than long term.
Inadequate strategic IS planning may lead to an organization to be ill-
equipped to keep up with a quickly changing market. It can also
lead to an organization suddenly having an inadequate, competent staff
to keep up with, or to implement a new system. There are many
reasons an organization may not implement proper strategic information
planning. One reason, for a small business, would be the lack of
funding. Adequate IS planning requires a team and that means a budget
as well, so a small owned business most likely won't have the same
funding as a big business and IS would be put on the back burner.
A reason that a business might not be done adequately is the lack
of accountability. Again, going to a small business level, maybe the
IS planning is pushed on a supervisor or manager that already has a
lot on their plate and naturally IS planning suffers. The benefits it
IS planning can be described as a long term framework for a
company. While it may seem as it is a "waste" I would show how
it helps projects flow smoothly and with minimal issues, it helps a
company run smoothly, meet deadlines and troubleshoot quickly. Without
adequate IS planning things mentioned before would hinder a business.
Clients do notice when a business is always delayed or experiencing
issues, which in the long run only hurts a business. Strategic information
system planning is important for every organization. However, some of
the organizations prefer not to perform the planning. There are various
reasons for which organizations avoid planning of the information systems.
One of the main reasons why organizations avoid strategic information
system planning is the lack of financial or monetary benefits. Since
the organizations do not get any sort of definitive financial benefits
from the strategic planning, therefore they prefer not to perform strategic
information system planning. Another reason why they avoid strategic
information planning is the lack of proper rule or principle that enforces
the strategic information planning within the organization.
Despite of all the reasons why organizations avoid adoption of the
strategic information system planning, it must be understood that the
planning helps organization in the long run. With the help of the
planning it is possible to make sure that the infrastructure or the
framework is robust and strong so that the organization can achieve
its goals and objectives. The planning ensures that the company can
achieve the goals within the given time and deadline. It also helps
to avoid any sort of misuse of resources. Therefore strategic information
system planning helps to manage the resources of an organization
properly. I believe budget and cost would be the most influential
reason for a business to not conduct strategic IS planning. I assume
many small and newly formed businesses do not have the budget to
immediately form a solid team for IS planning. Another instance where
a company may not conduct strategic IS planning is they no longer
see the need for it. A business that has seen great results from IS
planning and believe they have reached a standstill to the benefits
reaped from IS planning would likely cut spending to the group and
resources. No matter the situation a business that lacks strategic IS
planning have a disadvantage to companies that maintain regular IS
planning. Without detailed IS planning businesses could be hurting their
security and future profits. If I were to join a business that did not
conduct adequate IS planning, the first thing I would notice is how
much extra work effort would be needed to meet business goals that
IS planning would have resolved.Strategic IS planning is important for
business success because it unveils areas of the business that need
improvement in order to strive or meet industry standards. Thorough IS
planning and investigation will determine what IS projects hold the
highest importance. It seems to me that some organizations do not
implement Information Systems (IS) planning due to many factors. This
whole process requires a lot of resources that a company might not
have. To invest in a solid plan it would take time, money and the
right people to do it correctly. Another reason might be that they
lack the information to understand what is being offered. Information
systems planning may be viewed as a long-term investment that may
not provide immediate returns. The organization that does prioritize this
long term investment will benefit the most with a solid working
infrastructure. Organizations that use technology for data, communication,
and daily business needs should invest in a strategic IS planning
solution. IT investments make it clear that every change will benefit
a company's resources. It helps maximize all projects that a company
may work on and increase the success of that project going well.
Companies should embrace change that will keep them updated to the
latest protections. Technology advances every day and so do cyber
threats, having a good infrastructure can prevent a complete loss of
company resources. As we get more advance with technology and use
of applications, software, databases, and the internet we try to keep
up with the next solution with implementations of the current technology.
There are several reasons why some organizations don't utilized the
strategic IS(Information System) planning but I feel like the main two
reasons are lack of knowledge of technology and lack of system to
adapt to current market. With the lack of knowledge in the current
technology is a major setback to any organization because the current
market demands more online applications for its users and their
operations. With these demands the organizations needs to be
knowledgeable about the current technologies to meet those demands and
find a solution. Also the employees plays a huge part in any
organizations, having employees that understands the current technology is
huge advantage for the organization.Many times when organization try to
adapt to the current market demands their operations is not design to
adapt. which leads them to more time and cost to change their entire
system. This means that organizations goes through huge change but the
time they change to new system, they already behind the competitions
and the market. But once they have a operational system that can
handle changes and employees that are educated with the current market
demands will have the upper hand.As a IT professional I will emphasize
that keeping with the market has a huge advantage for any organization
by IS planning they can have the upper hand. Also being educated
on IS planning makes the organizations to take in new projects and
can limited the lost of potential revenue.
Strategic planning is a long-term process, but the proper procedure needs
to be known, which can lead to problems, and we need to identify
the issues and causes of failure in strategic planning.
Strategic planning influences the ability of the organization to survive
in the long term. The viability and survival of the business organization
in the long term depend on its capacity to change according to the
changes in its market. The business organization must change for you
to address the needs or demands of the target market effectively. For
example, a business organization needs to change its products and
services over time to ensure that they continue to match the expectations
and needs of the customers. Such changes could occur in the form
of variations in the features of products and services. These changes
could also appear in the form of the development of entirely new
products and services to maximize the organization's capability to get
potential consumers' attention. However, the strategic planning process in
the organization determines the ability of the organization to become
flexible enough to change according to the changes in the market. The
specific characteristics of the strategic planning process determine the
organization's ability to change and effectively address the changes in
the market demand, trends, expectations, and so on. Sometimes, the
reason why adequate strategtic information system planning may not be
conducted by an organization but simply be because of ignorance. You
would be surprised as to how many organizations don't truly understand
the value of IS system planning or how their business is jeapardized
without it.
Another reason could be arrogance. Not doing your due dilligence on
the matter or verifying that your team has the skills, or credentials
upon the on boarding phase can really hurt you down the stretch.
When I think of implications of an inadequate strategic IS plan, I
think of an instance where the head of the IT team decides to no
longer work for a company, but when he leaves? Everyone is now
scrambling because they didn't take the time to plan everything out.
Which means they don't know how anything works or what to do
when a certificate may expire or when someone's workstation caught a
virus. I would explain that it's important for the entire company to
sit and learn not just how to use the tech but how each department
plays a role in the system, what tod o and not to do, and who
to communicate to and not communicate to. One reason, I believe,
why an organization does not plan well is because some organizations
go through the plans just because they believe that because they are
a big organization they have to have some kind of plan. So instead
of having and making sure the plan is good they have one adopted
from another organization that wont necessarily work as well for them.
The second reason is that they don't pay attention to changes in the
business environment and don't understand the need to pursue results.
The implication of strategic planning involves the needs of the business
organization, including the need for the organization to ensure that its
operations properly match the conditions of the market. As an IT
professional I would explain that a project should be assessed for
realism, capability and cost and how about thirty percent of all projects
end midstream over half of the completed projects end with an average
of 200% over schedule and over budget, according to a 2001 study
by the Centre for Innovative Management. A few reasons why Strategic
Information Planning may not be done appropriately could be because
the business objectives may not be totally understood. One of the first
step in strategic IS planning is to understand the organization's overall
business goals and objectives. Also assessing the organizations In It’s
IT infrastructure is a key to determine its ability to support those
processes. Implementing and ongoing monitoring are two of the final
tips in strategic IS Planning . Some of the implications of inadequate
strategic planning could be that they reduce the efficiency and
productivity, increase cost, decrease competitiveness, Cybersecurity risk etc.
Strategic planning is important because its planning helps to optimize
the utilization of IT resources by identifying overlaps and redundancies
in systems and applications. Strategic planning helps to identify potential
risks and threats to the organization's IT systems, enabling proactive risk
management and mitigation. This helps to prevent IT-related incidents that
could have a significant impact on the organization. Lastly Strategic IS
planning involves stakeholders from across the organization, ensuring that
the needs and requirements of all relevant parties are considered. This
helps to build buy-in and support for IT initiatives and promotes
collaboration across departments. This weeks lesson discusses the planning
phase of systems development. In one of my previous positions, when
I worked in sales, my sales manager would always say, if you fail
to plan, you plan to fail. This statement rings true in everything.
Proper planning is integral in achieving success in any project. An
organization that I am very familiar with, to me, did not seem to
conduct adequate strategic planning, when it related to migrating their
antiquated billing system, with a new billing system that was able to
support multiple services. They provide various telecom services to
residential and business customers, but the business services billing was
limited to coaxial internet, analog voice, and video in one system,
while some of the advanced services, like VOIP, SIP trunks, and Fiber
internet had to be billed separately in a different system. I think that
with this particular billing system migration project, the initial analysis
was done correctly, but the project management failed, in addition to
the flawed processes of how the company operates differently from
region to region, instead of standardizing processes across the company.
I also believe that poor budgeting delayed the project, and then the
CoVID-19 pandemic further complicated the already complicated and
mismanaged project. The result is a company that now has some
customers' accounts migrated to the new system while others are still
in the old billing system, with no estimated time table for when the
migration will begin again in order to finish. The implications of
inadequate planning is failure of the projection completely, or an
inefficient system that ultimately fails. Time is money, and completing
projects correctly the first time will be much more lucrative for the
company.
The importance of strategic planning can be highlighted in various ways.
Feasibility analysis will determine if the project how the company will
benefit financially and what the ROI will be. Technically, can we build
this system and how well it integrates with our current technology.
The company I am going to choose that does not conduct adequate
strategic information system planning is my former employer the United
States Post Office. I'm sure many companies are guilty of the newer
is better policy. So is the post office. It is even worse when it
comes to information systems. Not only do they fully embrace new
"exciting" ideas, but they lease many programs instead of building them
themselves. They utilize many different systems that can all be combined
into one simple system. The systems often crash and have bugs. I
am not privy to how they chose what programs they use or how
they decide who gets the contract. It is apparent these programs are
not economically feasible or business savvy. As an IT professional I
would explain the importance of having inhouse programmers to build
the systems or at least have IT professionals that can test these
systems to see how often they crash. I would also recommend that
they get an economic feasibility analyst. One that can look at all the
programs and decide if it is financially sound to purchase multiple
programs or one or two that can do all the functions of the many
different programs. There are several small or medium sized organizations
are there that does not possess a proper information System Planning
method. One such organization is Health maintenance organizations (HMOs)
which fail to conduct an adequate strategic planning. They want short
term results. They fear to adapt a new technology.
Reasons why some organization avoid IS Planning Process are as follows:
• Information system planning is a challenging and difficult process.
• Is planning a long-term process. I.e., it takes more time and people
want short term process.
• People are habituated with the current System and don’t want to
add a new System
• The IS Planning Process is costly and requires more money.
• It needs talented developers for developing a new system. People
scare to adapt a new technology.
• It needs more resources and people.
These reasons are not admissible because the people in the organization
are not bearing in mind the development of the organization. The
people do not understand that they must adapt a new technology to
survive in a competitive world.
They are hesitating to invest money. User must not think that by
investing small amount of money will result in a big benefit. By
investing a small amount of money, company greatest welfares are not
done.
Problem if IS planning is not done properly:
Several problems occur if IS planning is not done properly or not
done at all which are as follows:
• The people will not know about the user’s requirement properly.
• The users do not get the actual data they need.
• The organization will not survive in a competitive world.
• The organization will not know the flaws in the existing system
and cannot achieve its goal.
• It cannot provide the product and service according to the market
demand. So, the organization will not go in a way of success.
If there was an organization that I believe does not conduct adequate
strategic information system (IS) planning, I think the two reasons why
this type of planning might not be done appropriately (or at all) is
because of the following reasons: 1) its not their primary focus. Some
organizations go through the motions of developing a plan just because
every organization must have a plan. They just go through the planning
with no meaning or purpose behind it. This is the wrong mentality
to have. It's just like that saying "if you fail to plan, you plan to
fail". 2) Not understanding the environment or focusing on results.
Planning teams must pay attention to changes in the business environment,
set meaningful priorities, and understand the need to pursue results.
There's always constant changes in the world and these planning teams
need to learn how to pivot and adapt.
Here are some of the implications of this inadequate strategic IS
planning. 1) Strategic Planning Context - The context of strategic
planning involves the needs of the business organization, including the
need for the organization to ensure that its operations properly match
the conditions of the market. 2) Strategic Planning and Organizational
Performance - Strategic planning directly impacts the organizational
performance. The level of organizational performance directly depends on
the level of performance of the managers. As an IT professional, I
would you explain the importance of strategic IS planning by evaluating
individual projects or groups of projects for the purpose of choosing
which to implement might include a number of factors. When selecting
among competing project alternatives, additional project factors that might
be reviewed and compared include costs, benefits and risks. While the
exact parameters of these factors might not be known with certainty,
estimates can be compared to evaluate differences. One organization that
I believe does not conduct adequate strategic IS planning is a small
retail store in my hometown. The reasons why this type of planning
might not be done appropriately or at all could be because of a
lack of resources or knowledge. Small businesses often have limited
resources and may prioritize other operational expenses over investing in
strategic IS planning. Additionally, the management team may not have
the knowledge or expertise to understand the importance and benefits of
strategic IS planning.
The implications of this inadequate strategic IS planning could be severe.
Without properly planning for IS projects, the organization may waste
time and money on initiatives that do not align with their overall
business strategy. They may also miss opportunities to improve their
operations or gain a competitive advantage in their industry. Moreover,
without appropriate strategic IS planning, the organization may not be
prepared to address potential security threats or adapt to changing
technology trends.
As an IT professional, I would explain the importance of strategic IS
planning as a critical factor for business success. Strategic IS planning
enables an organization to assess their current capabilities, identify areas
for improvement, and determine the most impactful IS projects to pursue.
By aligning IS projects with overall business objectives, an organization
can maximize their return on investment and achieve long-term success.
Additionally, strategic IS planning helps to ensure that an organization
is prepared to address potential risks and adapt to changing technology
trends. Investing in strategic IS planning is not only essential for the
success of individual projects but also for the overall success of the
organization. There are several reasons why an organization might not
conduct adequate strategic information system (IS) planning. Two possible
reasons are a lack of awareness or understanding and resistance to
change. 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. The organization
may have a culture that resists change, and this may make it difficult
to introduce new ideas or systems.
The implications of inadequate strategic IS planning can be significant.
Such as wasted resources and lost opportunities. An organization may
end up investing in IT systems that do not align with its overall
strategy or that do not provide the expected benefits. Without a strategic
IS plan, the organization may miss out on opportunities to leverage
technology to gain a competitive advantage or improve its operations.As
an IT professional, I would explain the importance of strategic IS
planning by highlighting some of the benefits: alignment with business
objectives, prioritization of projects, identification of opportunities, and risk
management. I would have to say that after reading this week's lesson
and finding out that 70% of the time people have failed trying to
create an information system that works properly and does what was
forecasted. That the best advice is to trust the process and to go
over it with a fine-toothed comb. We are learning this and it has
been taught to try to make this a success. I know that it was
said that we are now here to make pros in these next five weeks
but also we have the blueprints and it sounds like if you follow
the tracks you may just fall into that 30% that have a successful
plan that goes to the end and helps the business. One problem with
having an inadequate IS plan is failure of course. It cost money to
even try to create and if you fail to make a successful IS then
that money is lost and going back to the drawing board could cause
reluctance. With that, it could end up keeping that business in the
Stone Age so to speak. At the pace that tech is moving forward
being left behind is a real thing and it could happen fast. The
world of healthcare is a prime example of the type of organization
that does not adequately conduct strategic information system (IS) planning,
more specifically HMOs like what I have, Kaiser. In the last few
years Kaiser has made leaps forward in sections of their technology
use, like creating an app and allowing for access to medical records
and appointments online. However, huge portions of your health data
are still not accessible via their new technology and many of their
doctors and staff still struggle to use the system, creating many
unnecessary points of contact for the members. Some reasons why this
type of planning might not be done appropriately or at all are that
IS planning is long term and many people want immediate results,
implementing a new system is time consuming and costly and it is
difficult for people to adapt.
If IS planning is not done properly the final desired result cannot be
accomplished. If the human resources aspect is not properly accounted
for then the project implementation will be a disaster. Effective
Information System Planning requires an in-depth selection criterion, a
clear set of objectives, and to be assessed for real-world application
and cost effectiveness. As an IT professional, I would tell an
organization that a strategic plan is a framework that guides an
organization in making decisions and implementing solutions that create
meaningful value, support the business strategy, and meet organizational
goals. It focuses on the IT vision, processes, organization, and
infrastructure, the what's and when's of aligning IT with its business
goals and increasing IT capability. An IT strategy is a process not a
one-time event. Your strategy shouldn’t be saved on write-once storage;
It must be revised on a regular basis. A strategic plan should allow
for updates, and it must adapt to changes in the market. A strategic
plan considers what the future may hold and aligns IT and business
resources today to support that vision. By regularly reconsidering what
the future should look like, you can make small manageable course
corrections rather than having to “right the ship” when unexpected
change occurs. I used to work for a window and glass sales and
installation business in Bremerton. There is an interesting thing happening
there; the older generation of mom and pop window shops have retired
all over the peninsula. Most all the glaziers have had to take jobs
with manufacturers or construction firms instead. That shop, the one I
worked for, is left. It's left because it isn't a mom and pop, it's
an sCorp and it's parent-store is in Lakewood a few miles away. The
problem though is that now all that business on the peninsula has
one place to turn to if they want to stick with local business, and
that one little shop has not gotten with the program. I left because
I can see where it is going.
The amount of business they're about to absorb means they cannot
possibly think that scheduling done on a white-board is going to keep
working. The glaziers leaving in the morning with a couple jobs and
a hand written note where to go is not going to keep working. The
rows of hardcopy archives of window orders are not going to keep
working. I can tell you more than two reasons why it isn't done;
but we'll go with that. The age and knowledge of the staff come
into consideration; there are some much older simpler tradesmen who
are in their trades because they're not tech-savvy and it's hard for
management to force them to utilize new tech. The other reason is
the cost [and effort] it is going to take to convert the entire
business.
The implications I predict will be they will be overwhelmed and have
an incredible turnover of stressed out and confused employees trying to
keep organized in the chaos of archaic business modeling. At some
point I imagine the larger office in Lakewood will *have* to bring
in a new store manager willing to go through the conversion process
or risk shuttering that branch due to employment issues and lack of
ability to complete contracts. If I were their IS professional, I'd be
starting NOW to lean into the manager there to upgrade to digital
systems before it gets too complicated. They need a scheduling system,
they need a filing system, they need order tracking so customers know
along the way how things are going and don't need to call into the
office everyday, they need portable work tablets for the glaziers to
keep track of what order goes to which house, and it'd probably be
fantastic if all of that tied in together and cross-referenced itself. An
organization that I know needs to conduct adequate strategic information
systems IS planning is the company I used to work for. They are
a minimal company servicing the Upstate of SC for heating, air,
electrical, and plumbing needs for over 50 years. But, they still do
things the old way, and when mentioning trying to improve the
business, thinking for the better and updating is like chiseling a square
stone into a ball shape. One reason would be the need for more
understanding of the benefits of planning; some feel like planning is
extra and go with the flow. It must have worked back in the 80s,
but we are in the 21st century; time to make a change for the
better. The implication of the planning is missing out on all the
opportunities for employees that came in—the proper placement for
everyone and what they bring to the table. Also, the outside chances
for the company to help grow are like the way technology is now
increasing. They have lost money and customers due to not up-to-date
technology and not having a backup plan. As an IT professional, I
would explain that having strategic IS planning is crucial. They would
keep the company up to date in technology that would benefit the
company and the customers. Money and precious time are not wasted
on stuff that we think will benefit, but the IT professional does the
planning and research for them. I work for an insurance company and
it seems as though their information systems are a bit outdated. It
seems as though all of the software is always running too slow or
doesn’t seem able to handle the traffic for all of the individual
brokers. You would think that with all the money, the insurance
companies have that they would be able to have a really good IT
department that will keep nice smooth running insurance applications, and
insurance policies but that’s not the case. I think if they focused on
creating a good interface for people to successfully submit business that
it would make the process a lot easier. I believe that the employer
I work for currently does a lot of planning, but not really well,
they try to have a plan set based on prior peoples abilities, where
as they bring a whole new crew into the mix, and think logically
while this should work because there are this many people. It does
not work like plug in play in this industry, especially when it comes
to having to train and get everyone caught up to speed. Planning
this out and training them in would make more sense to keep the
current schedule. They also do not take into consideration the other
planning such as breaks and weekends, people do have a life outside
of work and they plan what suits them not the employee, this to
me is something I frown upon as I worry about my schedule first,
then work comes second. So They have to take in consideration, If
I have a second job, or I have something else that prioritizes my
time of signifigance, then that takes first priority, which in that case
makes me not available on your schedule. Implications on this idea
are that the employers first thought is their schedules and timelines,
not the employees, take all employees and hash it out to fit everyone,
do not plan to fit the job, I as a person do not work on the
I have to ask to make time work, I will make time work for me,
and if it is without that employer, so be it. Strategic IS planning
as an IT professional, that is something that I would say if it is
maintenance, it is simple, keep a schedule for everything to work on
a daily basis, now as for unplanned work, keep time set aside to
deal with those circumstances, they will always be present, but time
must be allowed for this. Contingency planning is something to always
have available, because then you are always ready for almost every
situation taken something does not go to plan, which almost always
happens. Borders, the former bookstore chain, struggled to compete with
online retailers like Amazon. Borders did not invest in the development
of an online platform and instead focused on expanding its physical
stores. This strategy proved ineffective as the rise of e-commerce led
to a decline in physical book sales and eventually led to Borders
filing bankruptcy. Any remaining Borders were purchased by other
companies and slightly revamped (which are mostly overseas). Borders
failed in a lack of diversification because they had no other revenue
other than physical books and periodicals. Consider Amazon, they sell
physical books and Kindle books. There are several reasons an
organization may not be conducting adequate strategic planning:
• An organization that lacks a clear vision and mission statement
for its IT department may lack adequate planning. The organization
should have a clear role in what technology plays in achieving
its overall objectives.
• An organization that does not regularly assess the effectiveness of
its IT systems and processes may be inadequate. An organization
may miss opportunities to improve efficiency and productivity.
A few implications of inadequate strategic planning are missed
opportunities, inefficient use of resources, inability to adapt to change,
and lack of accountability.
As an IT professional, I would explain the importance of strategic IS
planning for identifying and selecting IS projects in the following ways:
• Aligning IT with business objectives. This ensures IT projects are
focused on achieving specific business goals.
• Managing risks. This helps by identifying potential risks and
developing a plan to mitigate them.
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: 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.
