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Information system strategy for the Small/Medium
Enterprise (SME)
Key Points
- Step 1 - Set up effective
processes
Your company should already have a set of corporate
objectives. The IS strategy should be set to be closely aligned to those
objectives. The strategies are usually to invest in areas which
contribute most to the business, gain competitive advantage, create a flexible
and efficient IT infrastructure.
There are many methodologies to facilitate strategy planning and advice is
needed to select one or another but the most important thing is that senior
management is involved in the process as this increases the likelihood of
implementation and therefore the likelihood of losses being minimised.
- Step 2 - Analyse and
understand you current position
Sometimes a company needs a major rethink of its technological direction and
has to go through a process of Business Process Re-engineering to stimulate
the company's market position and profits.
It is important to understand the main business strategy as this is often the
spring board for new IS/IT developments. For this we require fact
finding, analysis of the results and its interpretation in terms of IT.
- Step 3 - Work out your future
potential
Following on from uncovering the company's current position, we need to
consolidate by working out how far the business can project. We also need to
make sure that the IS/IT systems are not hindering company progress.
Traditionally IT has been implemented to support certain activities, but is
now more apparent the IT needs to be used for the complete industry chain and
the flow of information within it. Again, there are many methods for
analysing the potential business benefits of IT expansion.
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