As an individual with goals, I always remind myself to have a plan for the attainment of those goals. List the information, knowledge, skills, arts, crafts and sciences I need to master to achieve my goals in life. I already have my list since we were given a task on how we see ourselves ten years from now and the strategies to get there. I am thankful because I made my goals more specific, it helped me clarify my thinking, and did put a meaning to my existence. I am no longer the product of certain inescapable conditions and circumstances. Thanks to our instructor. Same as I did, organizations do also have their plans. Why do we need a plan and why do we have to plan? We need a plan and we need to plan because it will provide us with a success consciousness so that we would know where we are going and how to prepare ourselves for the journey.
For now, my purpose is to answer the question, “What should be the nature of the relationship between the business plan and the information systems plan?” The starting point is to define each term and finding out their functions and significance before identifying the nature of the two plans.
After reading quite a few articles, I have now my response. So first, what is a business plan? A business plan contains statements of goals of the organization and means for the attainment of those goals and the reasons why they are believed attainable. It may also contain background information about the organization. However, as what has been stated in Wikipedia – there is no fixed content for a business plan. The content and format of a business plan would depend on the created goals and the audience to whom the plan will be presented and the context of presentation. A business plan should contain whatever information is needed to decide whether or not to pursue a goal. When do we say that our goals are attainable? When we define our goals, it should be within our reach, we should be realistic. As these words are coming out of my mind, I realized that the goals I have stated in our previous assignment were somewhat unattainable but I am not saying that I should eat my words.
Second, we need to define information systems plan. But before that, what is an information system? It is a system of persons, records of data and activities that process the data and information in an organization. It includes organization’s manual and automated processes. An information systems plan contains the goals and the means of improving the organization’s information system. What are the expected changes three or five years from now? What are the developments that the organization should have? People and information are the assets of business. How could information be processed without the people who are working on it? In addition, how could people work if there is no information to be processed? In creating an IS plan, every aspect of the organization should be well examined and thought-out. We should always look out for the desirable characteristics of an IS plan in order to have quality in our product. We may also include the shortcomings of the organization as well as the solutions to those problems and the proposals. These solutions should be for a long-term.
To share with you my gratitude, we were so lucky because we were given a task to make an IS plan for our chosen company in the previous semester. It was an achievement for me because we were able to finish it before the deadline. It might be a little bit stressful but it was informative and I had fun. That was a great experience. A sample of a proposal that was made by the group was the encouragement to have databases for the organization’s transactions. In the paper, we stated the reasons why the organization needs to have those databases and the advantages. How the organization would be benefited and other recommendations were also stated.
Going back to the real subject matter, after defining the two plans and identifying their functions, I should now state my idea on the nature of the relationship between the two. Business plan and information systems plan work together as a team. Without each, one could not work well. Knowing that business plan can be stated as the overall purpose of the organization while an IS plan works on the information system’s development of the organization, we can now say that business strategies are supported and stimulated by information strategies. Business goals and activities should be in accordance with the information systems that support them. Any improvement in the information systems, would it be hardware, software or peopleware is expected that it would cater the needs in achieving the organization’s goals.
In today’s competitive world, there is a need to attain a higher level of competence in order to be more marketable. The presence of machines in business can at times have a dehumanizing effect on people, but we have to face the reality. This is the reason why business firms keep on developing plans, innovating and make large investments in information technology and in information systems in order not to be left behind and to cater the best service to their customers. The level of intensity gave business firms a motivation to work a lot harder and have a healthy competition among the firms.
Business and IS plan should be well planned. Each of which should never be taken for granted because they both have a significant impact and both working for the success of the organization. If I were to use an idiomatic expression to describe the relationship of the two plans, I would say that they do have this “mutual understanding”. How could I say that? Of course, as what I have stated, they work in accordance with one another. If I were to pinpoint the general purpose of the two plans, that would be the success of the organization. I am not saying as an expert because I am not. My words are based on my perspective.
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