Using one of the modes of enquiry, undertake an investigation of one organization’s IS strategy. In order to complete this task you need examine the socio-political, technological, economic and geographical factors that have an impact on the IS strategy, planning and design. 2. 0 Importance of IS in strategic planning. For many years corporate managements thought of Information Systems to be synonymous with data processing and a simple tool for increasing company efficiency.
It is only since the late eighties that corporate managements have thought of IS to be integral to corporate strategy, planning and design. There is a growing realization that the delineation of a clear IS strategy and the application of IT to a firms strategic activity has been one of the most effective ways to win business. IS strategic planning, like other variants of strategic planning starts with a quantification of the needs of the corporation and moves on to objectives, priorities and optimal utilization of resources.
Responsible and cutting edge organizations think of the formalization of IS strategy as extremely important to the total strategic management process of the company. The IS strategy of the search engine company Google has been chosen for investigation. 2. 1 Introduction to Organization Google, a modern day corporate wonder, has been chosen for investigation of IS strategy. Google is no ordinary Company. It sees its mission to be the organization of the enormous amount of information available on the net.
Google, since Larry Page and Sergei Brin founded it in 1998 has grown to be the world’s largest search engine. The philosophy of its promoters has revolved around one theme, the convenient retrieval of relevant information from enormous amounts of data posted on the net. Within two years of start, i. e by 2000, Google was handling a hundred million search queries every day, a number that now runs into many billions. Today the life cycle of a Google product is less than half a second, yet involves many steps before information is delivered to the seeker.