Top Information Systems Jobs

The Top IS Job

• A web content specialist researches and gathers information
• Also works with graphic designers and marketing to write, edit, and publish website content.
• Web content specialists manage editorial calendars and coordinate with writers
• They also create content strategies and gather user feedback for website improvements
• Web developers plan and deliver websites or software platforms.
• Web developers program web applications in languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• They also manage security and develop e-commerce applications and websites
• IT analysts design IT systems, coordinate with developers, and gather feedback from end-users
• IT analysts analyze system performance, oversee projects, implement technical training, and manage technology developments
• Systems administrators set up accounts
• They also monitor performance, maintain systems, and manage network servers
• Systems administrators install and configure software and hardware
• They also troubleshoot issues and upgrade systems
• Additionally they build technical documents, manuals, and information technology policies
• Data managers supervise a company's networks and data systems
• Data Manager duties include creating and revising policies and establishing protocols.
• Data Managers also assist management by providing procedures, reports, troubleshooting and securing data
• Information Systems Managers manage IT employees, coordinate and enforce policies, and support/audit info systems
• IS Managers identify opportunities, develop information system strategies, prepare budgets, and contribute to IS tasks/projects
• Database administrators perform tasks such as evaluating and managing databases as well as modifying database software
• Database administrators maintain/increase the performance of company databases and securely store data
• The Director of Information Technology oversees IT and information security departments
• Duties of a Director of Information Technology include managing security programs, tracking/analyzing vulnerabilities, and developing strategies
• They also prepare security operations forecasts & budgets, deploy security technology, and ensure execution of protocols/procedures
• The Director of Information Technology is also in charge of hiring/training employees as well as creating security compliance education

Strategic Uses of IT/IS

• Strategic use of IT refers to how companies integrate and use technology to meet business goals
• IT strategies support the use of tech by outlining various factors influencing the company's tech use and investment
• The focus of using IT strategically within an enterprise is improving business processes
• An Intranet is a private company network utilizing Internet technologies and protocols
• The Intranet is for employees only to get information and policies and do online transactions

Working Inward: Business-to-employee

• Quality Web portals provide information products and services to users
• A company’s Web portal can store content (online news, policies, etc.), tools/utilities (application software), and online services
• IT managers should identify what to offer through the portal
• Intranets embody the company's culture and can be accessed anywhere with a web connection

Working Outward: Business-to-customer

• Getting closer to customers with Global accessibility, reduced order processing, greater availability and closer customer relationships
• Also increase customer loyalty, launch new products and services, and perform direct marketing
• Technical problems happen because information systems are not always reliable or may be poorly designed
• Logistics involves getting physical products to customers around the world in a timely manner, which brings physical barriers to virtual business
• Personnel: Few people have expertise in dealing with the new environment, both in technical and business arenas
• Legal: Doing business across geographic boundaries means dealing with multiple legal systems
• Competitive response: The ease of creating a Web presence brings low barriers to entry for competitors
• Transparent prices: Customers can compare prices across Web sites, reducing profit margins
• Greater competition: The elimination of geographic boundaries means a firm must compete with competitors from around the world
• Instant gratification: Customers demand immediate satisfaction
• The goal is staying closer to customers, understanding customer needs, and delivering personalized goods/services

Working Across: Business-to-business

• Working across businesses comes in three forms:
  • Working with co-suppliers
  • Working with customers in a close, mutually dependent relationship
  • Building a virtual enterprise
• Coordination with co-suppliers has been deterred due to the lack of convenient ways to share information, which the Internet has changed
• Integration comes in loose, close, or tight forms
• Loose integration is when one party provides another with ad hoc access to its internal information
• Close integration, involves two parties exchanging information in a formal manner
• Tight integration consists of two parties that share at least one business process

How to use IT Strategically

• Pair value from IT with concurrent innovations in business practices
• Focus on incremental improvements, not a "big bang" IT project
• The ability to continually innovate around IT's evolving capabilities leads to strategic differentiation over time
• IT strategies help companies support innovative processes to create new products and services
• IT integrations, like cloud computing, help companies acquire alternative IT resources and tools
• Information technology strategies can help companies improve internal lines of communication
• An effective IT strategy can make tools and resources more accessible to other department teams
• IT can also enhance team collaboration and new business models by lowering distribution costs and providing customized solutions

IS Planning

• Planning is developing a view of the future that guides decision making today.
• Executives emphasize strategy over planning
• Strategy states the direction and intent to get there which then creates a plan
• This consists of traditional planning, strategic information systems planning, and planning approaches:
• Strategic planning has a significant long-term impact on the growth, rate, industry, and revenue of an organization
• Strategic Planning deals with planning for the use of IT for strategic purposes:
• Attempting to to form a future view helps to determine what should be done now

Traditional View of IS Planning

• Business executives created a strategy, then IS executives created a plan to support, then creating an implementation plan
• Companies were comfortable spending time creating a single strategic plan for the next five years
• The plan was made by top management, and if the CIO was part of it, the IS division was involved
• IT staff were developed from the corporate plan - a system strategy dictating what was needed to support the business plan.

The assumptions behind the traditional planning stance were

• The future is predictable, time is available to progress and IS supports the business
• Top management has the best because they have the broadest view
• The company can be viewed as an army Leaders

Current version of strategic Information Systems planning

• Companies should focus on letting strategies unfold rather than plan them
• It means sensing a new opportunity or possibility and quickly responding by testing it via an experiment.
• The major change introduced by the Internet is communication with others, like customers, partners, and suppliers
• Aligning strategy requires contact with the marketplace, and employees closest to the future should assist

Eight planning techniques

• Stages of growth: The growth stages go through four phases of early successes, contagion, control, & integration
• Critical Success Factors (CSF): the few key areas that must go right to flourish
• Competitive forces model: Includes the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of buyers and the bargaining power of suppliers
• Three emerging forces are digitalization, globalization, and deregulation.
• Value chain analysis forms a sequence based on activities like inbound logistics, operations, and service

Internet value matrix

• Consist of criticality to business and newness of Ideas
• E-business fundamentals include new fundamentals, operational excellence and rational experimentation
• The four steps to breakthrough strategy include brainstorming, creating a list of inventive marketing ideas, and taking a risk
• The creation of a strategy to utilize electronic channels takes place with Linkage Analysis Planning (LAP)
• This planning can be performed with the ability to define power relationships among participants and define extended enterprises
• Scenario Planning includes creating theatrical situations that help people adapt to changing realities

Four steps in scenario planning

• Define decision problem and time frame
• Identify major knew trends
• Identify a few driving uncertainties
• Construct scenarios

Conclusion

• Good strategic planning should focus on the future and be intrinsic to business planning
• A combo of tools can help with planning, and melding speed with flexibility is key
• By creating a strategic view and by conducting many short experiments within that view.