Strategic Issues in Information Technology

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Excerpt from Strategic Issues in Information Technology: Sourcing: Patterns, Perspectives, and Prescriptions The conventional wisdom in the information systems (IS) profession and the general business community appears to view information technology (IT) as an important component of corporate strategies. Extensive writings in professional journals and trade periodicals have consistently suggested that aligning IT strategy with business strategy is an important lever for success in the competitive marketplace. To move beyond casual observations, we at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a research study to examine the state of corporate IT strategy, with a particular focus on It outsourcing that is a current topic of considerable importance. During Fall 1991, we wrote to the CEOs of the Fortune 500 industrial and service corporations with an invitation to participate in our Study on Information Technology Strategy. We requested each of them to provide us with names of the senior manager with the overall responsibility for IT (CIO) as well as those heading three specific IT domains: application development, data center, and telecommunications/network. Subsequently, 209 corporations took part in our study (see Appendix for a complete list). The surveys were administered to the appropriate executives during Spring-Summer 1992. On November 19, 1992, we invited the CIO or a senior representative from each of the participating corporations to a symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This forum was co-organized by the Center for Information Systems Research, MIT and the Systems Research Center, Boston University. The responses of the participants during this meeting were generally enthusiastic. In fact, our understanding of the research issues was enriched through the various face-to-face conversations with the participants at the symposium. This report is a summary of the research conducted on It sourcing strategy at Sloan over the last year. It integrates the results drawn from our surveys of Fortune 500 corporations with other studies we conducted using secondary data sources. Further, it incorporates some of the insightful observations provided by speakers and audience during the symposium. The report is divided into three major sections - patterns, perspectives, and prescriptions. In the first section, we highlight the key patterns of changes relevant to IT strategy that we observed during the study. Using these patterns as a backdrop, in section two, we delineate several central perspectives on IT outsourcing. These perspectives highlight the major considerations that should guide outsourcing decisions and actions. The third section develops a set of prescriptions for viewing IT outsourcing as an important component of IT strategy. We conclude with our view of IT governance as a broader way of considering IT outsourcing decisions. This, we believe, would constitute the logic for managing the IT function in the 1990s and beyond. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.