Policy and strategy issues

There is a danger in a large organisation that the use of IT may become fragmented with each section 'doing its own thing'. This will lead to problems with incompatibility in hardware resulting in an inefficient movement of data and information within the organisation.

Different users within the organisation have different needs. These differing needs may be apparent:

• At the hardware level - where one user needs a more powerful processor or a higher resolution screen than another.
• At the software level where different degrees of functionality are required by different users
• At the interface level where the user's experience or method of interaction with the system require a particular type of interface which would be inappropriate for other users.

Although the needs of the individual are important, so too are the overall needs of the organisation. If each individual or department is allowed to make their own decisions regarding hardware and software purchases, then the result will be a series of independent systems that will not be integrated and that will be unable to provide the organisation-wide management information required from a MIS. In addition communication between the different systems will be error prone or impossible. It is even possible that different sections of the organisation will see particular data as belonging to them and be reluctant to share it with other sections.

The solution is for the organisation to have an IT policy. This will deal with such issues as:

• Who shares what information. What information or data should be available to each section of the organisation.
• How information is to be communicated through the organisation - who is responsible for this, its timing and format.
• How data is to be collected. Who is responsible for acquiring the data, for maintaining and updating it. What format it is to be in.

The organisation's information policy will deal with procedures for collecting and disseminating data and information. It will identify who is responsible for each type of data or information that the organisation needs and who should or should not have access to it.

The purpose of such a policy is to ensure that the different elements of the MIS are co-ordinated and work together as an integrated system serving the whole organisation.

The information policy will need to recognise the differing needs of the various users involved with the system and it must be flexible to allow for changes arising

• New technology. Allowing data to be collected in a better way or permitting the collection of data previously unavailable.
• New functions. Allowing the system to accommodate to new tasks within the organisation.
• New structure. Accommodating changes in the way that the organisation is organised which may change access requirements and routes for data and information.

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