Strategic planning for municipal information systems - Some lessons from alarge US city

In 1995, the City of St. Louis undertook a major strategic planning effort for its municipal information systems. The project was initiated in the mid st of acrimonious debate regarding mainframe bottlenecks, the proliferation of independent computing systems, organizational problems in the delivery of management information systems (MIS) services, and rapidly changing tech nology. A strategic planning process tailored to this complex environment w as developed and executed, engaging individuals at all levels to articulate needs for information, identify problems with existing systems, suggest or ganizational changes, and define potential MIS projects. As in most governm ents, organizational issues and managerial processes proved more daunting t han technical issues. The implementation of technical recommendations prove d much easier than changing the organizational culture to take full advanta ge of new technologies. To realize fully the benefits of new information te chnology, more effective ways must be found to facilitate the spanning of f ormal organizational boundaries.