IT Systems Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

IT Systems dodge - Essay ExampleMany governments continue to invest heavily on information technologies with the aim of change magnitude the powerfulness of their operations and information systems. However, technology tools alone cannot be used to address discordant organizational information structures. According to Petrides (2004) such technology-focused problem solving strategies may in fact do the opposite, which is to embarrass organisations from successfully capitalizing on their use of technology because they tend to overlook organisation-wide symptoms. One major area that the in a higher place strategies fail to capture is the information tacitly held by employees that is critical yet rarely documented. Knowledge is universally recognized as the most important strategical asset that an organisation has. The challenge though is that cognition cannot be managed directly. According to Streatfield and Wilson in Henczel (2000) only the information about the knowledge poss essed by the great unwashed in organisations can be managed. This is why the need for information auditing becomes critical. Good information management an intrinsic prerequisite to knowledge management. Information audit will therefore be the first step in developing a knowledge management strategy or improving the strategy that Primark Stores Limited may already have to ensure that the organization is managing the knowledge it needs to manage to remain competitive and successful. there is no universally accepted definition of an information audit. According to the Association for Information Management in the UK, an information audit is the systematic evaluation of information use, resources and flows, with a verification by reference to twain people and existing documents in order to establish the extent to which they are contributing to an organisations objectives (Henczel, 2000, p.215). With regard to purpose, the information audit process will enable Primark Stores Limited to achieve the following quaternion key functions (1) to mark Primarks information needs and assign each of these needs their level of strategic importance (2) to discover and classify the resources and attends currently provided to meet Primarks information needs (3) to routine information flows within Primark and between Primark and its suppliers, buyers and rivals and (4) to analyse inefficiencies, duplications or gaps and areas of over-provision so as to detect where changes need to be made. By fulfilling these functions, an information audit will enable Primark track and identify each resource and service that supports organizational objectives. The audit will also allow Primark to rate each resource according to its strategic significance. In which case, the information audit could be structured to include an examination of IT tools that can aid effective information management. At the corporate or strategic level, the results of an information audit will provide a knowled ge base that can be used for making management decisions about information sources, identify strategic information needs via information needs assessment and can be used as the basis for formulating an organisational information policy. The Financial Director of Primark Stores Limited needs to understand that an information audit reflects the organisation in its entirety and how it works. The process is, preferably, conducted by an independent team so as to