PLANNING FOR INFORMATION-SYSTEMS INTEGRATION - SOME KEY CHALLENGES

Over the last few decades, technological advances in computer and tele communications technologies have promised much to organisations. Yet i t is clear that, in practice, the reality generally seems to have fall en well short of the ideal. Organisations seeking strategic advantage from their information systems frequently undertake a Strategic Inform ation Systems Planning (SISP) exercise as an initial step. However, de spite the substantial increase in SISP activity over the last decade, it would appear that most strategies have not been successfully implem ented. In this paper, some important recent research in support of thi s contention is summarised, and key problems in SISP implementation ar e identified. It is argued that: (i) the objective of data and systems integration is a distinguishing characteristic of SISP work; (ii) suc h integration may cause major changes to the balance of organisational power; (iii) SISP implementation is unlikely to be successful unless political turbulence caused by potential power losses is adequately ad dressed; and (iv) political turbulence may well be the single most imp ortant issue facing SISP implementors. Strategy implementation problem s are illustrated through reference to a recent, major (three-year) ca se study of a SISP implementation in one of Australia's largest organi sations. We conclude by presenting some suggestions aimed at offering a way forward out of the current malaise.