ABSTRACT
Establishing a business strategy (BS) is a vital prerequisite to a successful information systems (IS) and information technology strategies (ITS). Organisations should aim to build inventories of competence to meet business requirements, as these can be used to create product advantage, especially when aligned to the BS. Information systems started to make their impact in the 1950s with the arrival of the business mainframe computers. The main issue however is for organisations to consider the precise impact of the IS strategies/ITS on their business objectives and/or their internal operations; particularly, how they can shape their business processes and how they are understood, accepted and used by the organization. Among others, the most important factors are effective alignment of IT infrastructure and BPR, building an effective IT infrastructure, adequate IT infrastructure investment decision, adequate measurement of IT infrastructure effectiveness, increasing IT function competency, and effective use of software tools.
