Strategic Management of Information Systems

Course Description

Over the last decade we have seen technological innovations fundamentally redefine industries such as gambling, music, media, retail, travel and insurance. ‘Digital management’ is now an issue on the agendas of most Boards of Directors, chief executive officers (CEOs) and their leadership teams, although they differ in how they deal with it. Without doubt, information technology (IT) is one of the greatest disruptive forces confronting organizations today. It is against this background that we consider how digital or IS/IT strategic management development can be brought about and then sustained. The intention is to provide a structured framework and practical approach, expressed primarily in the language of business and management. This can be used jointly by students to combine their knowledge and skills to identify what needs to be done and how best to do it. Since new technologies continually come and go, the pursuit of opportunities through IT must be driven not only by what is technologically feasible but by what is strategically desirable. A key objective of this course is to provide this strategic focus for IS/IT. Clearly, an IS/IT strategy is an increasingly important component of the business strategy, which implies that IS/IT strategy development must become an integral part of the business strategy process and it must be understood by business management if it is to be implemented successfully.