Management of IS
• How do business organize themselves to
manage IS and IT activities?
– Depends upon the type of technology
– Depends upon the size of the business
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What Needs to be Managed?
• Procurement activities
– Of hardware, software and services
• Deployment or implementation activities
– How do we get this stuff working within the business?
• Maintenance
– Keeping everything running as the business evolves
– Hardware, software, databases, web presence
• Protection
– Backup and continuity planning
– Security and audits
– Disaster response
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Organizational Objectives
• Cost effectiveness
– Firms that spend too much on IT become
uncompetitive
• Responsiveness
– Is IT organization able to respond quickly and
appropriately to business needs?
• Quality and Effectiveness
– Is the IT organization competent? Do they get the job
done?
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Organizational Models
• Informal
– Very small organizations don’t have any formal IT
function – “a guy”
• Formal
– Organizations have from 1 to thousand’s of
employees dedicated to IT
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Formal Organization Models
• Decentralized
– IT employees report to business unit or department,
not to a central, corporate organization
• Centralized
– Employees report to a central organization
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Pros and Cons of Decentralization
• Advantages
– Responsiveness to local business unit
• Close proximity = easy communication
• Little bureaucracy
• Familiarity with business
• Feeling of ownership and belonging
• Disadvantages
– Will tend to be reactive rather than strategic
– Small size will make skill development and training more difficult
– Lack of management expertise and professionalism
– Will result in less efficiency for entire enterprise
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Pros and Cons of Centralization
• Advantages
– Cost savings through standardization
– Procurement cost savings due to volume
– Training efficiencies
– Greater career opportunities with enhance attractiveness as a
place to work
• Disadvantages
– Slow and bureaucratic (perceived to be)
– Out of touch with real business
– Cost accounting and charge back requirements
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Current Large Business Trends
• Centralize and standardize procurement
– All hardware
– Most software
• Centralize web management and standards
– But perhaps not development
• Centralize management of support of office systems
• Dual reporting for business application development
– Corporate and business unit
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Careers In Information Systems
• Software Development
– Business or C.S. background
• Database Administration
• Systems Analysis
– Design business solutions
• Project and program managers
– Understand technology
– Manage people, decisions, contracts,
schedules
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