What is the field of study called “Strategic Information Systems” about? Is it about information systems that are strategic? Is it about information systems that support strategy? Is it about how strategy and information systems should be aligned? The answer to these three questions is “yes”. This chapter accepts the above myriad of interpretations of strategic information systems and presents a review of the many varied concepts and issues. A perspective on the interpretation of these terms is that information technology may be used to represent the components of infrastructure, such as hardware and telecommunications. Then, the term information system (which would encompass these infrastructure components) also includes the processes, both manual and automated, which support business operations and eventually, in relation to the organization’s strategic direction, contributes to competitive advantage. However, in this chapter information systems and information technology will be used interchangeably, mainly because their use throughout the literature reviewed here is not entirely consistent. That is, in this discussion they will mean the same thing. In general, information systems (and in this chapter information technology) exist to gather data and transform that data into information to support decision making within an organization. These decisions may be made at various levels within the organization. However, the eventual consequence of management decisions will relate to the overall business strategy. Thus, the information systems must provide support for the strategic direction of the organization. So, whether the information system is strategic or that it supports strategic initiatives it is an important consequence that information systems be aligned with the adopted strategy of the organization.Book: Strategic Information System (Download)
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