Lecture 19

Chapter 10Leading the IT Function

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Project

Turn in1. Hard copy (in class Thursday)2. Soft copy (by email to kross@soe.ucsc.edu)

Leadership of the IT Function

Key Learning Objectives for Chapter 10:1. Understand the different roles that IT can play in organizations

and recognize that this role can change over time 2. Understand why IT role transitions may create organizational

tensions and conflict.3. Understand why it is valuable to match the leadership

approach to the role that IT is expected to fill in the business

Analyzing the Role of IT in an Organization

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The four quadrants

1.Support2.Factory3.Turnaround4.Strategic

Each requires different leadership approach

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Transitions

• Turnaround• Factory• Strategic

All of these require different management skills and approaches.All lead to different tensions

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Managing Tensions

1.Execution-innovation2.IT-business relationship

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Organizing and Leading IT• Introducing new technologies• Maintaining old technologies• Balancing maintenance with innovation• Defining roles

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Organizational Issues• Tension between innovation and control

– Depends on firm willingness to take risks• Is IT supposed to create or reduce risks?• Tension between IT staff and business users

– Users want short term fulfillment– IT want standardization, mastery of technology

• Balance is easy to get wrong• See table

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IT vs. user dominance

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Drivers toward user Dominance• Pent-up user demand• Need for staff flexibility• Growth in IT services industry• Users’ desire to control own destiny• Fit with organization

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Drivers toward centralized IT structure

• Staff professionalism• Standard setting and ensuring system

maintainability• Envisioning possibilities and determining

feasibility• Corporate Data Management• Cost estimation and analysis

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Coordination and Location of IT policy: IT Responsibilities

1. Develop and manage long-term architectural plan2. Develop process to establish, maintain and evolve company

standards in– Telecommunication protocols and platforms– Client devices and client software configurations– Server devices, middleware and database management systems– Programming and configuration languages– Documentation procedures and formats– Data definitions, especially for widely used data elements– Storage redundancy, backup and disaster recovery procedures– Information security policy and incident response procedures

3. Establish procedures that consider outsourcing options when new IT projects are proposed

– Ensure outsourced projects meet company standards

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Coordination and Location of IT policy: IT Responsibilities

4. Maintain inventory of installed and planned systems and services

– Evaluate value of these ongoing5. Identify career paths for IT staff

– Horizontal/vertical6. Establish internal marketing efforts

– Users understand challenges and costs, updates7. Incorporate RFP process for new hardware/software8. Identify and maintain relationships with preferred

vendors9. Establish education programs for business users10. Set up process for ongoing review of legacy systems

to determine upgrades, redesigns

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Coordination and Location of IT Policy:User Responsibilities

1. Seek to understand scope of all “IT activities supporting business users• Charge-back system, IT pressures, activity based overhead allocation

2. Develop realistic estimates of the amount of user personnel investment required for new projects both during development/deployment and in ongoing operation and use

3. Ensure comprehensive user input for all IT projects that support vital aspects of the unit’s operations.

4. Ensure nature of staffing interfaces is consistent with a new technology’s strategic relevance to a business unit.

• How strategic project is should correspond to staffing5. Periodically audit system reliability standards, communications services

performance and security procedures6. Participate in developing and maintaining IT plans that set new

technology priorities, schedule the transfer of IT among groups, and evaluate projects in light of overall company strategy

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Coordination and Location of IT Policy:Management/Policy Responsibilities

1. Ensure an appropriate balance between It and business users

2. Maintain comprehensive corporate IT strategy3. Manage inventory of hardware and software systems and

services• Corporate relationships with vendors

4. Establish standards for acquisition, development and IT systems operation.

5. Facilitate transfer of technology from one unit to another• Look for synergies and overlaps

6. Actively encourage technical experimentation.7. Develop appropriate planning and control system to link IT to

company goals• Monitor planning, system appraisal, charge-back, project management

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IT Leadership and Management of Budgets

• Budgets are extremely important control mechanism!

• Budget to IT team directly or through business units?

• Often a mix of both• Example: phase-out of technology

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Stages Theory of IT Adoption and Organizational Learning

• Framework for understanding IT assimilation in business organizations

• Proposed in 1973 by Richard Nolan, professor at Harvard

• Modified over time• Based on idea of an S-shaped learning curve

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Four stages of organizational learning

• Initiation• Contagion• Control• Integration

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Multiple growth processes• Applications Portfolio• Resources• Management• User Awareness

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Three eras in Organizational Learning

• New technologies have led to different eras in technology adoption

• Data processing era• Micro era (from late 1970s)• Network era (from early 1990s)

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Different key players and leaders in each era

• IBM leader in data processing era• Stayed leader into micro era by introducing IBM

personal computer• Apple Macintosh computer had more

sophisticated operating system, making user interface easier

• Competition drove innovation

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Discontinuous technology advances• Other industries

– Turbojet in airplanes– Radial tires adopted by Michelin

• Technology– Shift from mainframe to microcomputers– Shift to networked infrastructure

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Four areas of impact• Automating Transaction Processing• Informating Middle of Organization• Imbedding IT in products and services• Internal and external networking

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Exam Revision• Today we’ll go back over the main topics from

this class• Thursday will be an open question time

ISM 158: Overview

This class considers the role of information in business strategy. In particular, we focus on decisions regarding information technology and information systems to give a business competitive advantage over other companies. We will focus on case studies to see why some businesses are more successful than others in building information systems that lead to organizational and individual efficiencies.

We look at how information impacts industries, markets and countries, and leads to technology development. We develop an understanding of design and maintenance of networked organizations, including issues of leadership and management.

ISM 158 Perspective: CIO

We will generally look at decisions from the perspective of the chief information officer.

Wikipedia:The chief information officer (CIO), or information technology

(IT) director, is a job title commonly given to the most senior executive in an enterprise responsible for the information technology and computer systems that support enterprise goals. The title of Chief Information Officer in Higher Education may be the highest ranking technology executive although depending on the institution, alternative titles are used to represent this position. Generally, the CIO typically reports to the chief executive officer, chief operations officer or chief financial officer.

ScheduleDate Topic

(Reading = corresponding chapter from text)

Case(Reading = corresponding case from text)

Assessment

1 Tue, March 28

Introduction

2 Thu, March 30

Business Models IBM

3 Tue, April 4 IT and Business Models

4 Thu, April 6 Amazon.com5 Tue, April 11 IT and Organization

6 Thu, April 13 Boeing Optional: Business Proposal Draft

ScheduleDate Topic

(Reading = corresponding chapter from text)

Case(Reading = corresponding case from text)

Assessment

7 Tue, April 18 Making the case for IT

8 Thu, April 20 CareGroup Project Team and Topic Due

9 Tue, April 25 IT Infrastructure10 Thu, April 27 iPremier Business

Proposal Due

11 Tue, May 2 Reliability and Security

12 Thu, May 4 Ford Project Proposal Due

13 Tue, May 9 IT Service Delivery14 Thu, May 11 Dell

ScheduleDate Topic

(Reading = corresponding chapter from text)

Case(Reading = corresponding case from text)

Assessment

15 Tue, May 16 IT Project Delivery16 Thu, May 18 Cisco Optional:

Preliminary draft due

17 Tue, May 23 Governance of IT18 Thu, May 25 Vokswagen19 Tue, May 31 Leadership of IT20 Thu, June 2 Conclusion AtekPC Project Due

Thu, June 6, 12:00 – 3:00pm

Final Exam Final Exam

Overview of Module 1• Chapter 1

– Introduces the organizing framework for the module– Defines a business model– Explores evaluation of business models

• Chapters 2– Examines the impact of IT on business models

• Chapter 3– Examines the impact of IT on organizational capabilities

• Chapter 4– Examines the impact of IT on business value

Overview of Module 2• Chapter 5

– Introduces elements of modern IT infrastructure and core IT management issues

• Chapter 6– Addresses the robustness of IT capabilities; system availability and

security• Chapter 7

– Explores contemporary IT service models and their management requirements

• Chapter 8– Examines IT project management

Overview of Module 3• Chapter 9

– Discusses themes and issues in IT governance• Chapters 10

– Explores a way of defining and evaluating IT leadership