Information Systems Management: an Australasian view of key issues - 1996

Abstract

As part of a longitudinal study of key information systems management issues, a survey of Australasia's largest 500 organisations was conducted to identify which issues were perceived by the IS executives as being important, problematic and critical over the next three to five years. The most critical issues were revealed to be a mix of technology management issues (IT infrastructure, communications, disaster recovery), strategic management issues (competitive advantage, IS planning, aligning the IS organisation), people management issues (organisational learning, educating senior management in IT), systems development and data management issues (effective use of the data resource), and end-user computing. This reflects the need for a balance of business, technical, and people skills in an IS executive. Non-critical issues were mostly related to systems development and the individual technologies which must be integrated and managed to ensure a responsive IT infrastructure. The study also reveals that some issues are much more important than problematic (disaster recovery, competitive advantage, information architecture, and IS alignment) while others are much more problematic than important (end-user computing, IS role and contribution, and BPR). The former reflects a growing level of knowledge in handling these issues, while the latter reflects a continuing problem with them. The differences between this study and similar studies conducted in 1988 and 1992 show that there is a growing confidence in the IS executive's ability to manage the strategic issues, a continuing concern about providing a responsive IT infrastructure (especially communications), and a continuing concern with educating all 'customers' in the organisation in the effective use of IT, including senior management.