Information Systems in the
Organization
Basic IT Organizational Structure
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
09/12/97
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It is Not All About
Technology
Traditional IT
 Centralized control
 Resource restrictions
 Formal methodologies
and discipline
 Careful planning
 Administrative support
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
New IT
 Distributed control
 Resource expansion
 Few methodologies
and unrestricted
access
 Rapid development
 Strategic impact
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Requirements for Successful
IT
Well understood vision
 Single team approach
 Business financial justifications
 Internal marketing
 Reengineering skills
 Political awareness and support

MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
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Organization
Centralized
Decentralized
Distributed
Consolidation of
functions
Career paths for IS
professionals
Information control
Economies of
scale
Closeness to local
problems
Responsiveness
to operational
requirements
User ownership of
costs and
problems
Separation of IS
and user
functions
Identification of
corporate data
and functions
User ownership of
user
applications
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
09/12/97
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People
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
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Roles
Steering Committee
 CIO
 Manager
 Project Manager
 Analyst
 Programmer
 Systems Programmer
 User

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Centralization, Decentralization
or Distribution

Centralization
•
•
•
•
Consolidation of functions
Career paths for IS professionals
Information control
Economies of scale
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
09/12/97
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Centralization, Decentralization
or Distribution

Decentralization
•
•
•
Closeness to local problems
Responsiveness to operational
requirements
User ownership of costs and problems
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
09/12/97
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Centralization, Decentralization
or Distribution

Distribution
•
•
•
Separation of IS and user functions
Identification of corporate data and
functions
User ownership of user applications
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
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IS Organization
CIO
Development
Network
Architecture
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
Operations
Data
Administration
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IS Relationship with Users
Laissez Faire - no IS involvement
 Formal - user agreements and
contracts
 Utility - IS supplies standard
information resources
 Vendor - IS promotes solutions in
competition with outside competitors
 Partner - IS and users share common
goals and rewards

MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
09/12/97
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Rational Management
Strategies
Train & Retain
 Train & Replace
 Layered Skills
 Restrict & Limit
 Outsource
 Entrepreneur

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Consultants
Access to new ideas and standards
 Access to additional resources
 Change agent who can own
responsibility

MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
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Global Business Drivers
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Joint resources
Flexible operations
Risk reduction
Global products
Quality
Suppliers
Corporate customers
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Incremental vs Radical Change:
TQM vs Reengineering
Incremental:
Focus on processes to eliminate, rather
than correct problems.
Radical:
Focus on inputs and outputs to
completely revise the methods
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
09/12/97
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TQM
Total Quality Management
• Goals
• Measures
• Root Causes
Total quality management is a cultural
change designed to take advantage of
the desire of individual workers to do a
better job.
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
09/12/97
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TQM
W. Edwards Deming & Joseph Juran
A philosophy, not a business practice
Incremental Process Change
 Control what you measure
 Empower employees
 Prevent rather than correct defects

MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
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Reengineering
The fundamental rethinking and radical
redesign of business processes to achieve
dramatic improvements in critical
contemporary measures of performance such
as cost, quality, service and speed.
• Customers: knowledgable and demanding
• Competition: continuously increasing
• Change: constant
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
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Reengineering

Redesign
Find new ways to accomplish business goals

Retool
Create the (IT) systems needed to support
the new design

Reorchestrate
Bring about the organizational changes
needed to support the new system.
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
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Principles of Business Process
Reengineering
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Combines jobs
Empowers employees
Natural and parallel pocess steps
Multiple versions of processes
Work done where most appropriate
Minimal controls, checks and non-value added
work
Reduce extermal contacts and increase alliances
Single point of customer contact
Hybrid centralized/decentralized organization
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Increment vs Radical
Radical
Incremental
Change
Abrupt, volatile
Gradual, constant
Effects
Immediate
Long term, subtle
Involvement
Few champions Culture
Investment
Orientation
High initial, less Low initial, high
ongoing
ongoing
Technology
People
Focus
Profits
MIS09/12/97Ch 18: Turban, McLean, Wetherbe
Processes
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Issues
•
•
•
•
Nurturing creativity and employee
participation
Planning strategic information systems
BPR is major surgery that fails up to 7580% of the time
IT changes the ethical environment
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Organization
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