Problem Addressed
The article addresses the problem of organizations launching Information Systems (IS) planning with greater expectations of attaining success in the overall performance of the organization, but in contrast, the organizations find themselves in difficulties. As such, the article focuses on illustrating how organizations may use IS planning in order to improve their performance level. The research questions in the article include what are the key IS planning, which organizations adopt, which are the technologies, which organizations adopt in the process of IS planning, how would organizations embrace IS planning effectively in order to improve on their performance level, and what are the limitations of organizations in adopting and implementing IS planning successfully.
Prior Research
Research on various companies revealed that the management team in these companies expressed dissatisfaction in the use of IS planning. One of this was the expression by the finance vice president of a major manufacturing company who argued that the company could not obtain benefits from investing in IS planning. This made the company to focus on investment in other systems. On the same note, a financial services organization IS planning ascertained that during the implementation of IS planning for the first years, the organization was able to attain success. However, currently the organization does not see any benefits of using the IS planning. Moreover, a large financial institution is focusing on implementing a business plan, which focuses on implementation of IS planning. These are the motivating factors for conducting this research.
The article identifies shortcomings of the literature based on the fact that this literature did not focus on identify the key problem why such organizations would not obtain benefits from using the IS planning. Further, this literature does not provide challenges and anticipated benefits of using IS planning in the organizations.
Methodology
The methodology used in this study is the secondary data collection. In this, the study explores the implementation phase of the IS planning by analyzing the environment of each phase. This includes identifying potential challenges, which are expected in each of the environments. This methodology is appropriate since it provides a rich source of knowledge, which experts may need to access, so that implementation of IS planning takes place effectively in organizations. However, this methodology has a limitation in that it is theoretically based, but not practically based. Consequently, readers of the article may not benefit from it when they want to use it as a source of information and guidance for implementing IS planning. The authors of the article used graphical and organization representation techniques, as well as technical models of phase implementation of IS planning.
Contributions
This study has contributed by identifying four factors, which companies need to take into consideration in the process of implementing IS planning in order to attain success. These include IS manager status, size and complexity of the organization, general management team and systems group proximity, and management style and corporate culture of an organization. With these conclusions, the authors of the article have contributed significantly to IS planning by encouraging organizations to focus on the implementation of IS planning and allocating adequate resources, as well as creating a conducive environment for the same. In addition, the article has contributed by encouraging organizations that IS planning leads to attainment of success, but they have to adopt a new form of planning, which will lead to achievement of desired success level.
