ABSTRACT
Strategic information planning is a top-priority issue in practice, as is obvious from the attention it receives at practitioner conferences and in practitioner publications. As a result, some research efforts have been devoted to related topics. So far, the focus has been on strategic information planning processes as well as on information systems/information technology (IS/IT) and competitive advantage, while its result, the strategic information plan or information strategy has been neglected. Consequently, basic questions regarding the content of information strategy have not been investigated or have only been answered in a normative way until now, leaving the domain of information strategy in obscurity and subject to arbitrariness.
In this chapter, we present diverse interpretations of information strategy that can be derived from academic discussion. These range from information strategy as a departmental plan, to information strategy as an application portfolio, to information strategy as enumerated lists, to information strategy as a system of plans. We then discuss the results of fourteen qualitative interviews that we conducted with information strategy professionals in practice.
In our interviews, we identify twelve decision areas of practical information strategies and six major rationales behind them. We find that organizational constraints, especially the distinction between corporate- and business-level cases, are major contingencies of the observed differences. Our corporate-level cases homogeneously address issues such as (worldwide) standardization of architectures or applications, and the setting of rights and accountability guidelines that coordinate IS/IT activities across the enterprise. In contrast, business-level cases are widely heterogeneous and idiosyncratic in their information strategic contents. Business information strategies were also much broader in content, including decisions on the application landscape, plans for organizing information functions, and decisions on IS/IT investments.
We compare the decision areas identified in our research with those discussed in the academic literature. The academic discussion revolves around topics such as IT and competitive advantage, the IT/IS portfolio and investment decisions. In contrast, practitioners strongly emphasize decisions such as standards, which are almost ignored in the academic discussion on information strategy. This suggests the conclusion that there is a gap between academia and practice with respect to information strategy. This conclusion is also supported by the observation that practitioners almost ignore academic literature, while, on the other hand, practical concerns play no role in the academic discourse. Practitioners regard academic literature as too abstract, time consuming, and irrelevant to their practical needs. Academia will have to focus more on practical needs in order to be better accepted and perceived388 .
