Assignment 8 (Due: February 5, 2010, before 01:00pm)

Strategic information systems planning is a disciplined, systematic approach to determining the most effective and efficient means of satisfying organizational information needs. It is a top-down, structured approach which, to be successful, must employ technical and managerial processes in a systems engineering context. Under this approach, the characteristics of the system’s hardware, software, facilities, data, and personnel are identified and defined through detailed design and analysis to achieve the most cost-effective system for satisfying the organization’s needs. The process must consider system life cycle management and the organization’s policy and budget as important integral factors, and include all organizational participants (e.g., managers, users, maintainers, operators, and designers) throughout the process. It is an iterative process in that changes identified during the process must be evaluated to determine their effect on completed analyses. Strategic information systems planning is not a one-time event-it should be revisited periodically to ensure a system’s continued viability in meeting information needs and achieving long-term missions.
Information systems are important tools for effectively meeting organizational objectives. Readily available, complete, and accurate information is essential for making informed and timely decisions. Being unable to obtain needed data, wading through unneeded data, or inefficiently processing needed data wastes resources. The organization must identify its information needs on the basis of a systematic identification and analysis of its mission and functions to be performed, who is to perform them, the information and supporting data needed to perform the functions, and the processes needed to most usefully structure the information. Successful information system development and acquisition must include a rigorous and disciplined process of data gathering, evaluation, and analysis prior to committing significant financial and human resources to any information system development. While implementing such an approach may not preclude all information system acquisition problems, it should produce detailed knowledge of organizational missions and operations, user information needs and alternatives to address those needs, and an open and flexible architecture that is expandable or that can be upgraded to meet future needs.
The purpose and use of information system in the beginning was targeted towards reducing manual labor and increasing efficiency and thus reducing cost of doing business. Cost has thus been the ‘primal instinct’ justification for the usage of Information system in companies. Management seems to still use this justification even in today’s day and age because the IT salesman still thinks it’s the best and only way to get management buy-in. Moreover, as most other rationales used for IS have proved hard to sell, both the IT sales teams and their customers find a comfort zone in cost savings. This could also be because both sides (from all their previous experiences) are convinced of their failure before they even start out on a different track. The past experiences, in most cases were times they tried, half heartedly probably, without enough experience and failed. These failures have resulted in the baby being thrown out along with the dirty water.
Systems are usually laid out at different levels. The lowest rung in the ladder is taken by the TRANSACTIONAL information system. These are ones like ‘Pont Of Sales’ systems used in the store counters, or book keeping systems mentioned earlier. These are systems targeting cost reduction, capturing repetitive activities and assisting the human using it to become more efficient in handling larger volumes of transactions.
The OPERATIONAL or operation support systems are usually build combining several Transactional systems in a logical sequence so as to make the operation of any particular division/functional group more efficient. Classic example is the integration of Accounting, Payroll, HR, and Inventory, Production etc. to form a MRP or ERP system. Or POS, Customer Account Info, Accounting, etc. linked together to form a CRM system. A very critical component for operational systems is their reporting systems. They provide the reports that combine and merge the reports/information from several transactional systems to provide reports to help executives manage operations in a synchronized and optimized manner. Thus, they act as enablers and help managers to keep track of various parameters so as to keep the whole operation smooth and efficient.
STRATEGIC systems are little more complicated. They cross the regular operational boundaries and become tools that form the basis for senior management to plan, execute and monitor the organization. They help in keeping track of the Key Performance Indicators by combining and logically sorting information from various Operational and Transactional systems all across the company and at times combining it with external information from sources like the stock market, industry sources, partners and even competitors. Designing STRATEGIC information system requires a thought process of a ‘good’ CEO with an understanding of the business from the top, various information sources present in the company and outside in platforms that need to be collated, combined and extracted into a tool to help run the company in a more informed and responsive manner.

These are the list of questions before developing a Strategic Informations System Plan:

Why do you want to develop a strategic information systems plan?
These could be one of my main questions to them. Why do they want to develop an information systems plan?
• Why plan?
– To obtain resources
• Financial
• Facilities – “Capacity planning”
• Staff
– To align I/S with the business
– To identify needed applications
– To establish goals, schedules, and milestones in order to track progress
– To provide an opportunity for communication with top management and user management


Is the company ready for the IS Plan?

The company must assess the its environment
1. The capabilities of the IT department
2. The readiness of the company to use IT
3. The status of our customers, our industry
4. The status of the economy, government regulations, environment, society, etc.
5. Technology

These are my questions when developing Informations System Plan:

What is the vision and mission of the company?
The vision and mission of the company is very important in developing Informations System Plan.

Mission: Defines the fundamental purpose of an organization or an enterprise, succinctly describing why it exists and what it does to achieve its Vision. The mission could be either for the long term or the short term. A corporate mission can last for many years, or for the life of the organization or may change as the organization develops. It is not an objective with a timeline, but rather the overall goal that is accomplished as organizational goals and objectives are achieved.
Vision: Defines the desired or intended future state of an organization or enterprise in terms of its fundamental objective and/or strategic direction. Vision is a long term view, sometimes describing how the organization would like the world in which it operates to be. For example a charity working with the poor might have a vision statement which read "A world without poverty"
It is sometimes used to set out a 'picture' of the organization in the future. A vision statement provides inspiration, the basis for all the organization's planning. It could answer the question: "Where do we want to go?"
Mission and Vision Statement:
 A Mission statement tells you the fundamental purpose of the organization. It defines the customer and the critical processes. It informs you of the desired level of performance.
 A Vision statement outlines what the organization wants to be, or how it wants the world in which it operates to be. It concentrates on the future. It is a source of inspiration. It provides clear decision-making criteria.
An advantage of having a statement is that it creates value for those who get exposed to the statement, and those prospects are managers, employees and sometimes even customers. Statements create a sense of direction and opportunity. They both are an essential part of the strategy-making process.
Many people mistake vision statement for mission statement, and sometimes one is simply used as a longer term version of the other. The Vision should describe why it is important to achieve the Mission. A Vision statement defines the purpose or broader goal for being in existence or in the business and can remain the same for decades if crafted well. A Mission statement is more specific to what the enterprise can achieve itself. Vision should describe what will be achieved in the wider sphere if the organization and others are successful in achieving their individual missions.
A mission statement can resemble a vision statement in a few companies, but that can be a grave mistake. It can confuse people. The mission statement can galvanize the people to achieve defined objectives, even if they are stretch objectives, provided it can be elucidated in SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) terms. A mission statement provides a path to realize the vision in line with its values. These statements have a direct bearing on the bottom line and success of the organization.
Which comes first? The mission statement or the vision statement? That depends. If you have a new start up business, new program or plan to re engineer your current services, then the vision will guide the mission statement and the rest of the strategic plan. If you have an established business where the mission is established, then many times, the mission guides the vision statement and the rest of the strategic plan. Either way, you need to know your fundamental purpose - the mission, your current situation in terms of internal resources and capabilities (strengths and/or weaknesses) and external conditions (opportunities and/or threats), and where you want to go - the vision for the future. It's important that you keep the end or desired result in sight from the start. Features of an effective vision statement include:
 Clarity and lack of ambiguity
 Vivid and clear picture
 Description of a bright future
 Memorable and engaging wording
 Realistic aspirations
 Alignment with organizational values and culture
To become really effective, an organizational vision statement must (the theory states) become assimilated into the organization's culture. Leaders have the responsibility of communicating the vision regularly, creating narratives that illustrate the vision, acting as role-models by embodying the vision, creating short-term objectives compatible with the vision, and encouraging others to craft their own personal vision compatible with the organization's overall vision. In addition, mission statements need to be subjected to an internal assessment and an external assessment. The internal assessment should focus on how members inside the organization interpret their mission statement. The external assessment — which includes all of the businesses stakeholders — is valuable since it offers a different perspective. These discrepancies between these two assessments can give insight on the organization's mission statement effectiveness.
Another approach to defining Vision and Mission is to pose two questions. Firstly, "What aspirations does the organization have for the world in which it operates and has some influence over?", and following on from this, "What can (and /or does) the organization do or contribute to fulfill those aspirations?". The succinct answer to the first question provides the basis of the Vision Statement. The answer to the second question determines the Mission Statement.

What are the goals, objectives and targets of the company?

• Set goals – what do you want to achieve?
• Set objectives – what are your specific, measurable targets?

One model of organizing objectives uses hierarchies. The items listed above may be organized in a hierarchy of means and ends and numbered as follows: Top Rank Objective (TRO), Second Rank Objective, Third Rank Objective, etc. From any rank, the objective in a lower rank answers to the question "How?" and the objective in a higher rank answers to the question "Why?" The exception is the Top Rank Objective (TRO): there is no answer to the "Why?" question. That is how the TRO is defined.
People typically have several goals at the same time. "Goal congruency" refers to how well the goals combine with each other. Does goal A appear compatible with goal B? Do they fit together to form a unified strategy? "Goal hierarchy" consists of the nesting of one or more goals within other goal(s).
One approach recommends having short-term goals, medium-term goals, and long-term goals. In this model, one can expect to attain short-term goals fairly easily: they stand just slightly above one's reach. At the other extreme, long-term goals appear very difficult, almost impossible to attain. Strategic management jargon sometimes refers to "Big Hairy Audacious Goals" (BHAGs) in this context. Using one goal as a stepping-stone to the next involves goal sequencing. A person or group starts by attaining the easy short-term goals, then steps up to the medium-term, then to the long-term goals. Goal sequencing can create a "goal stairway". In an organizational setting, the organization may co-ordinate goals so that they do not conflict with each other. The goals of one part of the organization should mesh compatibly with those of other parts of the organization.


http://www.blastasia.com/PDF_files_for_web/Formulating%20an%20ISSP.pdf
http://viu.eng.rpi.edu/publications/strpaper.pdf
http://archive.gao.gov/d32t10/146630.pdf

fast forward ..., you were hired and have been tasked to develop a strategic information systems plan for a company. The company officers have extended an invitation for you to meet with them to discuss the direction of the company. Before this meeting, they have asked that you provide a list of questions with some explanation about the "why" of the question so they can be prepared, thus maximizing the output from this meeting.

Develop a list of questions you would ask the officers of the company and give an explanation and justification for each question. (1000 words)

What are the mission, vision, goals, and objectives of your company? why did the company obtain these ambitions?

First and foremost, before I discuss on the thing such as plans, I have to acquire the knowledge of the company. It is because planning serves as a guide in achieving the company’s purpose. It also evaluates if the company is doing the right thing to the attainment of its goals.

What are the information plan of the company?
The company can explain well the reason why the they create an information plan.

did you anticipate the changes that may happen during the implementation?
as we implemented the said strategic information system plan, does the employees of the company that is involved in the implementation willing to adapt the changes that they might encounter? does the company willing to conduct orientation before the implementation of the strategic information system plan.

What are the benefits of the said plan?

An information system is there to empower its users. A database simply provides data, but an information system is all about providing the best information the user needs to do their task more effectively. It also takes into account that different users doing their own specific tasks may need to see their information presented in differing ways. The benefits of an information system follow when the user can quickly access, understand and respond correctly to that information.

Fast forward, you were hired and have been tasked to develop a strategic information systems plan for a company. The company officers have extended an invitation for you to meet with them to discuss the direction of the company. Before this meeting, they have asked that you provide a list of questions with some explanation about the "why" of the question so they can be prepared, thus maximizing the output from this meeting.

Develop a list of questions you would ask the officers of the company and give an explanation and justification for each question.


In a company, we really need to plan for whatever actions we are taking and are about to take in order to fulfill the purpose of the establishment and to satisfy the need of the client and/or customers. Planning, plays a vital role and gives essential part before taking the first step of entering into the business world. It will also help improve the company in fixing the lapses, strengthen the weak points as the business goes by. Planning will keep the whole process and the whole people especially the key people in focusing on the things being planned. It keeps the company on the track in the whole process.

On the other hand, Change is all needed to take something or someone from average to excellence. It will take you or company to the top as long as you are willing to leave unnecessary things and start to build up for the best. Changing and innovating the current status of the information system of the company will lead them to an organized and systematic process of gathering, preserving and securing the data of the entire business and people.

What do we mean when we say strategize? We need to strategize to know our strategies. To know where to start. We need to strategize, because we need to organize our ideas.

Here are some key points to remember according to akshaya Bhatia:
1) Decision support systems that enable to develop a strategic approach to align Information Systems (IS) or Information Technologies (IT) with an organization's business strategies
2) Primarily Enterprise resource planning solutions that integrate/link the business processes to meet the enterprise objectives for the optimization of the enterprise resources
3) Database systems with the "data mining" capabilities to make the best use of available corporate information for marketing, production, promotion and innovation. The SIS systems also facilitate identification of the data collection strategies to help optimize database marketing opportunities.
4) The real-time information Systems that intend to maintain a rapid-response and the quality indicators.


Likewise, the list of questions that I could maybe ask to the officers of the company is the following:
1.)What business is the company in?

The first and most important question is, "What business are we in?" What business are we really in? I want to fully know what type of business am I going to develop a strategic plan. To define the business in terms of what they do for their customer or to the company. Keep expanding the definition of the business so that it is as broad as possible. Never be satisfied with the first answer.

For example, railroads defined themselves as being in the business of moving people and freight by rail. In reality, they were in the transportation business. By ignoring the other avenues of transportation that were developing, such as trucks, buses, ships, and airplanes, many railroads went out of business.

2.)What are the business mission, objectives, and goals of the company?

It analyses the processes for all the data needed. It will identify the data currently required to perform the processes. It describes the overall information system architecture comprised of databases and applications as well as the installation schedule of individual systems.

3.)What are the strengths and weaknesses of the company?

With the strengths given by the company it would determine the strong point of the company also it would help determine what things should be given much attention and what things should be given less attention. Same as to the weaknesses of the company, it would also help to know what were the customer needs and the workers need. It would determine the weak point of the company also it would help determine what things should be given less attention and what things should be given much attention.

4.)What are the opportunities and threats of the company?

Knowing the opportunities of company will determine the competitive environment and the competitive information opportunities. It also defines strategic information needs. It would also help identify the opportunities for improvement. Whereas, by knowing also the threats of the company will determine what to improve and how to compete with other competitors.

5.)What would you want the company to achieve?

This means the goals of the company. Goals can be summarized in the phrase "dream with a deadline," a goal is an observable and measurable end result having one or more objectives to be achieved within a more or less fixed timeframe. In comparison, a 'purpose' is an intention (internal motivational state) or mission. The question, "Has the goal been achieved?" can always be answered with either a "Yes" or "No." A purpose, however, is not 'achieved' but instead is pursued everyday.

6.)Who are the persons involved in this project?

The PEOPLE Issue represents the readiness of the organization to absorb technology and awareness factors. This if overlooked can be a major cause of failure for any plan during the implementation phase. By this, everyone will know all the persons they will be working with or dealing with so that in times of there will be something wrong happen, they used to know who to ask or to talk to fix such problem.

7.)What are the needs of the company?

In order to make a strategic plan which is efficient I would ask them what are the needs of their company. So after discussing what are the needs then you can evaluate ‘why they need those specific needs’ for the company and what will the things you would do to make the SISP.

8.)What problems are the company is addressing?

With the problem that will be stated by the company, this would determine the problems of the company that leads them why they need to change and will gonna have an improvement with the business flow of the company by a Strategic Information System Planning.

9.)How company deal with the changes?

Changes here mean that everyone should study also of the existing TECHNOLOGY platform within the company, the infrastructure, the state and format of the data and information present. Along with all this, the governance of technology is also something to watch out for. It becomes important to manage the chaos that would naturally result from too many ‘technology’ cooks in a company. The standards, responsibility and approval structure in selecting and implementing technology choices have to be clear and specific in order to avoid pain of integration and obsolescence.

10.)Does your company willing to provide sufficient budget either it will be big or small project?

Factors that become critical at the stage of doing projects are the availability of budget. All plans should be supported through a justification on the basis of cost savings, (but, of course) opportunity cost and strategic rationale like competitive advantage, perception etc. amongst other factors. Asking this is a big help because budget is the mainly needed for it is in here in which the project will be going through whatever it takes. It is the one in which why certain project will be establish or is established.

11.)What are the strategies and priorities of the company?

This question would be useful for identifying how the company deal with handling priorities and what should be prioritized.

12.)What are the critical success factors and core competencies of the company?

Critical success factors (CSF’s) are the critical factors or activities required for ensuring the success of your business. These have been used significantly to present or identify a few key factors that organizations should focus on to be successful. If the officers could point out what the critical success factors of their company are, then it would be easier to formulate a strategic information systems plan that could maximize the output of the company by means of information technology.

Meanwhile, Core competencies as defined from Encarta are areas of expertise that are fundamental to a particular job or function. It’s the same with the CSF’s. If they could pinpoint the core competencies earlier then that could help in the formulation of the SISP.

13.)What is the company’s current strategy and plan?

By this question, the answer would be concerned with the company’s Strategic Plan. But I won’t need the whole answer from them; I’d just like to hear from them the summary of what their plan is and what their strategy is when we are going to meet face-to-face for the meeting. After the meeting, that’s when I’m going to look more closely and deeply in their company’s strategic plan, and then formulate a plan according to the information that I have gathered from it.

14.)Are they ready to reengineer?

It provides techniques or building enterprise models, data models, and process models. These form a comprehensive knowledge base which then creates and maintains information systems.

15.)How much is the allotted time for the project?

Persons involved should have to discuss about how much time will be consume to take for this project. By knowing this, each can have a managed time and how they will use it to finish certain project.

16.)What are the things that need to be assessed?

The capabilities of every employee especially on the IT department and even the employer must be assessed to know if the available information technology is ready to use and know the needs of the costumer and the status of the industry.

17.)Does your company use Modeling techniques to facilitate IT planning?

In a Strategic planning, it is important to create a reference model and methodologies because it captures and characterize the enterprise which shortens the response cycle form Information Systems employment and deployment. This is in order to achieve competitiveness among other companies. It also establishes the relationship between the overall organizational
plan and the IT plan.

18.)Why do you think that strategic planning for information systems is essential to your organization?

Strategic planning is essential because it process your organization to establish priorities that a company would use in its future endeavor. For organizational success, strategic planning is moreover very important especially in times of increasingly rapid change in technology. Also the organization must also consider that Strategic Plans cannot succeed without people, time, money, and other key resources.

19.)Does your company identify tools and methodology for your Information Technology planning? Why?

During strategic planning, several tools and methodologies have been used to ease the development of Information Technology planning within the organization. Thus, methods existed to help the organizations to align their business strategies with the organizational strategies. It is an aid to identify the opportunities for the company to utilize Information Technology for competitive advantage. And in analyzing the internal processes of an organization, these methodologies start with the evaluation of the strategies that check the industry, competition and competitiveness. Other methodologies have been used to help create and rationalize the new uses of Information Technology to the company.

20.)How should this SISP be done?

Knowing the organization's current scenario, the company background, identifying the critical success factors, dealing the issue with “is there a need for a change”, and to what extent the SISP would be, after all those questions and to complete my inputs about the organization, knowing how the SISP be done is a big yes for me and the client meet our different ideas on how it should be done and what processes it would take. Budget, time and effort allocation can also be discussed with this.

References:
http://viu.eng.rpi.edu/publications/strpaper.pdf
http://www.jmis-web.org/articles/v13_n1_p35/index.html
http://www.coda.ac.nz/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=unitec_scit_di
IT5681_52Z7UKFKda.pdf
http://www.ebrc.fi/kuvat/Makipaa_paper.pdf

fast forward ..., you were hired and have been tasked to develop a strategic information systems plan for a company. The company officers have extended an invitation for you to meet with them to discuss the direction of the company. Before this meeting, they have asked that you provide a list of questions with some explanation about the "why" of the question so they can be prepared, thus maximizing the output from this meeting. Develop a list of questions you would ask the officers of the company and give an explanation and justification for each question.

Little by little most of the organizations already have a grasp on technology for the development and to be competitive among others with the aid of information system technology. With the wide acceptance of information system as a valuable organizational resource that can potentially give back a huge amount of return of investment, strategic planning of information system has been considered to be a crucial part of the business plan of most companies nowadays. By definition, strategic information systems planning, also known as simply SISP, is the process whereby an organization establishes a long-range plan of computer-based applications in order to achieve its goals. With the huge potential benefits of an effective information system, it is very important for an IS consultant to know the right questions to ask to the company officers not only to fully assess the information system needs of the company but also develop an effective strategic information system plan.
Strategic Information Technology
Strategic Information System Planning as for any other system do begin with the identification of the needs- whether needs of the organization or need of the system itself. To be more efficient and effective, development of any type of computer-based system should be a response to need--whether at the transaction processing level or at the more complex information and support systems levels. The mentioned planning for information systems is much akin to strategic planning in management. Note that objectives, priorities, and authorization for information systems projects need to be formalized. The systems development plan should identify specific projects slated for the future, priorities for each project and for resources, general procedures, and constraints for each application area. Furthermore, the strategic plan must be precise enough to make possible the understanding of each application and to know where it stands in the order of development. Also, it should be flexible so that priorities can be adjusted if necessary in some cases. I am also referring to the need for continuously updating and improving IS architecture. I have read that “SISP is the analysis of a corporation’s information and processes using business information models together with the evaluation of risk, current needs and requirements.” (Pant, Hsu, 1995). The result is an action plan showing the desired course of events necessary to align information use and needs with the strategic direction of the company. In developing a strategic information system plan, lots of questions are possible to be asked to the company officers as part of the process. As long as it will be beneficial to the development and would give a result that can help to the success of it, it has no doubt accepted. Here are some of the questions that can be asked to the company officers that based on the three phase methodology of strategic information system planning.
Strategic information systems planning is a disciplined, systematic approach to determining the most effective and efficient means of satisfying organizational information needs. It is a top-down, structured approach which, to be successful, must employ technical and managerial processes in a systems engineering context. Under this approach, the characteristics of the system’s hardware, software, facilities, data, and personnel are identified and defined through detailed design and analysis to achieve the most cost-effective system for satisfying the organization’s needs. The process must consider system life cycle management and the organization’s policy and budget as important integral factors, and include all organizational participants (e.g., managers, users, maintainers, operators, and designers) throughout the process. It is an iterative process in that changes identified during the process must be evaluated to determine their effect on completed analyses. Strategic information systems planning is not a one-time event-it should be revisited periodically to ensure a system’s continued viability in meeting information needs and achieving long-term missions. Information systems are important tools for effectively meeting organizational objectives. Readily available, complete, and accurate information is essential for making informed and timely decisions. Being unable to obtain needed data, wading through unneeded data, or inefficiently processing needed data wastes resources. The organization must identify its information needs on the basis of a systematic identification and analysis of its mission and functions to be performed, who is to perform them, the information and supporting data needed to perform the functions, and the processes needed to most usefully structure the information. Successful information system development and acquisition must include a rigorous and disciplined process of data gathering, evaluation, and analysis prior to committing significant financial and human resources to any information system development. While implementing such an approach may not preclude all information system acquisition problems, it should produce detailed knowledge of organizational missions and operations, user information needs and alternatives to address those needs, and an open and flexible architecture that is expandable or that can be upgraded to meet future needs. The purpose and use of information system in the beginning was targeted towards reducing manual labor and increasing efficiency and thus reducing cost of doing business. Cost has thus been the ‘primal instinct’ justification for the usage of Information system in companies. Management seems to still use this justification even in today’s day and age because the IT salesman still thinks it’s the best and only way to get management buy-in. Moreover, as most other rationales used for IS have proved hard to sell, both the IT sales teams and their customers find a comfort zone in cost savings. This could also be because both sides (from all their previous experiences) are convinced of their failure before they even start out on a different track. The past experiences, in most cases were times they tried, half heartedly probably, without enough experience and failed. These failures have resulted in the baby being thrown out along with the dirty water. Systems are usually laid out at different levels. The lowest rung in the ladder is taken by the TRANSACTIONAL information system. These are ones like ‘Pont Of Sales’ systems used in the store counters, or book keeping systems mentioned earlier. These are systems targeting cost reduction, capturing repetitive activities and assisting the human using it to become more efficient in handling larger volumes of transactions.
The OPERATIONAL or operation support systems are usually build combining several Transactional systems in a logical sequence so as to make the operation of any particular division/functional group more efficient. Classic example is the integration of Accounting, Payroll, HR, and Inventory, Production etc. to form a MRP or ERP system. Or POS, Customer Account Info, Accounting, etc. linked together to form a CRM system. A very critical component for operational systems is their reporting systems. They provide the reports that combine and merge the reports/information from several transactional systems to provide reports to help executives manage operations in a synchronized and optimized manner. Thus, they act as enablers and help managers to keep track of various parameters so as to keep the whole operation smooth and efficient.
STRATEGIC systems are little more complicated. They cross the regular operational boundaries and become tools that form the basis for senior management to plan, execute and monitor the organization. They help in keeping track of the Key Performance Indicators by combining and logically sorting information from various Operational and Transactional systems all across the company and at times combining it with external information from sources like the stock market, industry sources, partners and even competitors. Designing STRATEGIC information system requires a thought process of a ‘good’ CEO with an understanding of the business from the top, various information sources present in the company and outside in platforms that need to be collated, combined and extracted into a tool to help run the company in a more informed and responsive manner.

Phase 1 Preliminary Assessment
1. What are the present capabilities of the IS department of your company (if there is one)?
2. Describe the readiness of the company to use IS.
3. What is the status of the customers and the industry with respect to your company?
Phase 2 Business Strategy Analysis
1. What are the current management strategies of your company with respect to IS?
( ex. Bleeding edge, leading edge, lagging edge, single vendor strategy, outsourcing)
2. How effective are your current IS strategies?
3. What are the problems that your company encountered with your current IS strategy?
Phase 3 Strategic IS planning
1. What do you want to achieve in the future? ( Setting Goals)
The answer to this question will help me assess the goals of the company of acquiring an information system strategy. This would enable me to generally set the goals of the SISP that I will develop for the company.
2. What are your measurable targets? ( Setting Objectives )
The answer to this question will help me assess the effectiveness of the steps and strategies that I have chosen as the SISP of the company. The answer to this question generally sets the objectives of the company’s SISP. The objectives of the SISP should be measurable in order to measure the effectiveness of the strategy and An example of a measurable target would be the return of investment over a specific period time.
3. What are your company policies when it comes to acquisition of an information system?

In an organization, strategic information systems plan (SISP) is really important because it is a tool in which the organization can attain their successful development and improvement of the system. By doing that, of course all the people involved should gather to discuss what to do. And one way to understand what will be doing is the guidelines which are the questions that everyone should talk about and discuss. Below are questions than can also be considered to asked to the company officers:
1.) What are the business mission, objectives, and goals?
Here, it analyses the processes for all the data needed. It will identify the data currently required to perform the processes. It describes the overall information system architecture comprised of databases and applications as well as the installation schedule of individual systems.
2.) What will be the expected output of this project you want to have?
After knowing their business mission, objectives and goals, it should be given an emphasis of what the company wants to have in a certain project and to know exactly the expected output or finish product so that it will be concentrated to what is its goal to achieve.
3.) Who are the persons involved in this project?
The PEOPLE Issue represents the readiness of the organization to absorb technology and awareness factors. This if overlooked can be a major cause of failure for any plan during the implementation phase. By this, everyone will know all the persons they will be working with or dealing with so that in times of there will be something wrong happen, they used to know who to ask or to talk to fix such problem.
4.) Does your company willing to provide sufficient budget either it will be big or small project?
Factors that become critical at the stage of doing projects are the availability of budget. All plans should be supported through a justification on the basis of cost savings, (but, of course) opportunity cost and strategic rationale like competitive advantage, perception etc. amongst other factors. Asking this is a big help because budget is the mainly needed for it is in here in which the project will be going through whatever it takes. It is the one in which why certain project will be establish or is established.
5.) Ready to reengineer?
It provides techniques or building enterprise models, data models, and process models. These form a comprehensive knowledge base which then creates and maintains information systems.
6.) How much is the allotted time for the project?
Persons involved should have to discuss about how much time will be consume to take for this project. By knowing this, each can have a managed time and how they will use it to finish certain project.
7.) How company deal with the changes?
Changes here means that everyone should study also of the existing TECHNOLOGY platform within the company, the infrastructure, the state and format of the data and information present. Along with all this, the governance of technology is also something to watch out for. It becomes important to manage the chaos that would naturally result from too many ‘technology’ cooks in a company. The standards, responsibility and approval structure in selecting and implementing technology choices have to be clear and specific in order to avoid pain of integration and obsolescence.

In the end, choosing questions that are necessary to be answered by the company officers as part of the planning will play a big role in the success of it. In choosing questions,one should be careful and think-through on the importance of it and the output it will give because by these questions, necessary information that is very essential in the overall process are at risk. On top of it, giving attention to the questions to give away only shows one point, which is to acquire the vital information that can be gathered by appropriate questions to be asked.