The Information Systems Strategy Triangle

1.The information system strategy triangle is a simple framework for understanding the impact of IS on organizations.. A busniess strategy is a well-articulated vision of where the business seeeks to go and how it expects to go there, it is the form by which a business communicates its goals. Successful firm's business strategy drives both their organizational and IS strategies, all decisions are driven by the firm's business objectives, they must seek to balance business, organizational and IS strategies.

Business strategy involves the goals, objecttives, strategies and tactics of an organization, which is the fundamental strategy that makes the organization to operate, all the decision are made followed by the business strategy. There are two business strategy framework, Porter's Generic Strategies Framework and Hyper-competition and New 7-S's framework.Porter's competive advantage strategies: Cost leadership;Differentiation;Focus cost leadshiper and Focus differentiation. Remember that a companies overall business strategy will drive all other strategies. Porter defined these competitive advantages to represent various business strategies found in the marketplace. The 7 Ss are useful for determining different aspects of a business strategy and aligning them to make the organization competitive in the hypercompetitive arena. General Managers cannot afford to rely solely on IS personnel to make IS decisions.Business strategy drives IS decision making.Changes in IS potential should trigger business reassessments (i.e. the Internet)[1].

The organizational strategy(structure, hiring, operation,process) and information strategy(hardware, software, dabatase,network,tec) are all based on how the business strategy decide. The business strategy drive the overall operation of the organization, any changes in organizational and IS strategy should look back on the business strategy, and the changes should not avoid the process of business startegy. The strategy triangle helps to balance business, organizational, and information strategy.

If the business strategy doesnt drive the other strategies, the balance among the three would be broken, and it may go the wrong way of strategy and lead to the failure of an organization. If business strategy lose the driver role, the organizational and IS would out of the control, and the decision made may not based on the business strategy. In that situation, the organization is in a lose environment which easily fail the business. So the tight and correct relationship among the three strategies is an important role in successful business.

2.When the company wants to shift its business from traditional to online, the objectives of the organization should be changed. Doing business using internet need the technology that allow the business operate. And the strategies also should be changed, some old ones that related to traditional sales should shift to how to slaes through the internet, in this process, some online business tactics would be useful in processing and online sales. In this stiuation, e-commerce should be a reasonable strategy for the organization, make use of the internet and change some fundamental business strategies to operate online. And it will bring lots sompetitive advantages by operating business through the internet.

As the business shift to the internet, the structure of the organization should have changes, some of the staff should help to maintain the online process. In this case, the organization may should hire some technique people who are good at this aspect. The business model has changed, so the operation of the organization also would be changed. The process of the new business would be faster than before.

The information strategy also would has a big change. Online implementation need the hardware to support and proper software to make the online process work. It also need a wide network so others can view the information abt this organization. The database would be some different than before, because it is through internet, the record was automatically done by the proper procedure.

When a company wants to change its business model from traditional to online, the overall strategy should be changed. But the most important is that the triangle must be balabce, make the business strategy drives the organizational and information strategy.

3.The chief information officer (CIO) is a job title for the board level head of information technology within an organization. The prominence of the CIO position has risen greatly as information technology has become a more important part of business.More recently CIOs' leadership capabilities, business acumen and strategic perspectives have taken precedence over technical skills. It is now quite common for CIOs to be appointed from the business side of the organization, especially if they have project management skills.

As information technology and systems have become more important, the CIO has come to be viewed in many organizations as a key contributor in formulating strategic goals. Usually, a CIO proposes the information technology an enterprise will need to achieve its goals and then works within a budget to implement the plan. Typically, a CIO is involved with analyzing and reworking existing business processes, with identifying and developing the capability to use new tools, with reshaping the enterprise's physical infrastructure and network access, and with identifying and exploiting the enterprise's knowledge resources.

Referece

[1] Keri Pearlson & Carol Saunders, Managing and Using Information Systems: A Strategic Approach, The Information Systems Strategy Triangle