CMIS%20520%20Managing%20Technology

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CMIS 520Managing Technology

• Jo Ellen Moore, Ph.D.

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IS/IT in Process View

• Business Process
• Any sequence of activities that consumes
  resources and adds value to a product or service
• Supports the customer or supports someone who
  supports the customer
• Business functions contribute to multiple
  business processes

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IS/IT in Process View
Business Functions
Process
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IS/IT in Process View

• Role of IEMgrs in Process View
• Tp -- serves at enterprise level responsible for
  IT infrastructure
• tP -- responsible for process and its success
• TP -- bridge between Tp and tP bridge between
  enterprise and process in regard to technology
• tp -- provides info about process problems and
  opportunities for improving process

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IS/IT in Process View
tP (Process)
TP
Tp (IT Infra-structure)
tp
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IS/IT in Process View

• Role of IEMgr(TP)
• The key player in a reengineering effort
• Bridging role is crucial
• TP individuals are rare
• When TP individual does not exist
• Need effective partnering between Tps and tPs
• This partnering should also help to develop TP
  individuals

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Partnering of IS Business Managers

• Sources of this material
• Lind Zmud (1991, Organization Science)
• Sambamurthy, Zmud, Boynton (1992, ACM SIGCPR)
• Zmud (1984, MISQ)
• Brown (1997, MISQ)

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Partnering of IS Business Managers

• What org structures tend to promote innovative
  IT-based business initiatives?
• Research shows that greater IT innovation occurs
  when IS staff and users agree on importance of IT
  and importance of business unit activities (LZ)

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Partnering of IS Business Managers

• SZB recommend
• Centralized IS for IT infrastructure decisions
• Business units lead decision-making on IT
  applications and project management
• Use coordination mechanisms to involve IS in
  application and project management decisions
• In other words, they are recommending a hybrid
  form

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Partnering of IS Business Managers

• Coordination Mechanisms
• channels for information exchange
• intended to break down barriers to cross-unit
  communications
• Examples
• Steering committees
• Liaison positions
• Physical co-location
• Inter-departmental job rotations

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Partnering of IS Business Managers

• Formal vs. Informal CMs (Zmud)
• Formal CMs
• Static, Uni-directional
• To promote consistency, predictability
• Best for routine or well-understood activities
• Examples
• Steering Committees
• IS Committees
• Liaison Positions

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Partnering of IS Business Managers

• Informal CMs
• Dynamic, Multi-directional
• To promote flexibility, interaction
• Best for non-routine or poorly understood
  activities
• Examples
• Physical co-location
• IT networks (email, intranets, groupware)
• Interdepartmental events
• Interdepartmental job rotations
• Cross-unit reward measurement practices

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Partnering of IS Business Managers

• CMs and IS Org. Structures (Brown)
• Centralized IS orgs use CMs to
• Improve communications between IS and business
  units
• Hybrid IS orgs use CMs to
• Improve communications between corporate IS and
  dispersed IS units
• Decentralized IS orgs tend to have less need for
  CMs in regard to IT/IS. Why?. . .

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Partnering of IS Business Managers

• Job Rotation article
• Specifically considers rotation between EUC
  support (IS) and business units
• Focus is on worker-level rotation, with managers
  involved in defining and managing the rotations

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Partnering of IS Business Managers

• The rotations are proposed to
• Increase transfer of knowledge between users and
  IS
• Reduce conflict between IS and users
• Improve organizational integration of EUC
• Create climate conducive to innovation
  applications of EUC
• Provide challenging and maturing opportunities
  for business unit and IS employees

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Partnering of IS Business Managers

• In CMIS 520 terms, the rotations should
• Increase T of end users
• Increase P of IS folks
• Help to directly integrate an organizations T
  and P expertise and increase the likelihood of
  strategic applications of IT

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Partnering of IS Business Managers

• Potential problems in rotating workers between IS
  and business units
• learning curve for rotated employee
• increased workloads for rotated employee and for
  coworkers
• decreased satisfaction and motivation of
  coworkers
• issues in compensating, evaluating, and
  supervising the rotated employee
• IS/IT professionals fear of losing technical
  skills

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Partnering of IS Business Managers

• What CMs (formal or informal) have you seen
  implemented in organizations youre familiar
  with?
• Do they seem to help? Not help?
• What CMs would like to see implemented?