Sesi04 Internal IS and IT Strategic Analysis

IS/IT Strategic Analysis: Assessing and 
Understanding the Current Situa8on 
(Internal Business Analysis) 
By: Zainal A. Hasibuan 
Faculty of Computer Science 
University of Indonesia, Oct. 2009 

Review From Previous Session 
•  The development of IS/IT Strategies should be aligned with 
business strategies 
•  The processes of developing IS/IT Strategic Plan consist of: 
–  Current situa8on analysis 
•  Internal business analysis 
•  Current IS/IT analysis 

–  Future situa8on analysis 
•  External business analysis 
•  IS/IT trend analysis 

–  Gap analysis 


•  The output of IS/IT Strategic Plan: (1) IS/IT management strategy, 
(2) Business IS/IT strategy, (3)  IT strategy 

We are here
Context of This Session 
External Business Environment
Internal Business Environment
Internal IS/IT environment
Current Applications Portfolio
External IS/IT Environment

Strategic IS/IT
Planning Process

Planning Approaches, Tools and Techniques

IS/IT Management Strategy

Business IS Strategies


Applications Portfolio

IT Strategy

Model & Matrices

Session Objec8ves 
•  To understand the current situa8on in the 
business as the baseline of the SPIS analysis 
•  To iden8fy business ac8vi8es and business 
processes (exis8ng condi8on) 
•  To obtain Informa8on System logical 
requirements based on fact finding, analysis and 
interpreta8on 
•  To understand the use of various modeling and 
analysis tools (techniques). 
•  To develop IS/IT Strategy based on the analysis 

I. Analysis of Internal Business 
Environment 

Business Process Re‐engineering and IS Strategy 
•  Most business strategy development needs re‐
engineering  to improve performance 
•  Developing IS strategy needs understanding of 
business strategy 
•  The success of BPR usually supported by IS 
strategy. 
Which one comes first: Business drives IS/IT or IS/IT
support Business?

The Role Of IS/IT in BPR: Ques8ons to 
be asked 
•  How can business processes be transformed using IT? 
–  Based on IT capabili8es 

–  IT as enabler 
•  How can IT support business processes? 
–  Provide value added 

•  Ul8mately, how can IT deliver op8mal benefits to 

organiza8on? 
–  Interface to IT Governance 

–  Improve performance 

Role of IS/IT in BPR
Organizational Approach

All levels
should be
well defined
and value-added
can be measured

Source Ward and Peppard

Impact & Alignment of BPR and IS/IT 
Strategy 
Drive


Techniques and Analysis to Determine The IS 
Demand 
SWOT, CSFs,
Value Chain
Business Model

Current & Expected
Business & Technical
Environment
Current Status of IS/IT

Business
Strategy
Opportunities
For IS/IT
Innovation

Proposed
Business
Initiatives


Determine
The IS
Demand

Impact and Role of IS/IT

Potential Status of IS/IT

Proposed
IS/IT
Initiatives

Gathering the Relevant Data in Order to Determine the 
Demand of Informa8on Systems 
Task

Deliverable

Analysis of the business

strategy

Identified its components and its information
needs

Analysis of current and
future portfolio of the
business

Determine how IS/IT can strengthening business
competitive position

Analysis of the internal
business environment

Understand the relevant organizational
characteristics, SWOT, SLOT, and other factors

Identification of CSF of
the business


Crystallize the meaning of success in meeting
the objectives stated in the strategy

Information Analysis

Model the logical activities and inherent
information elements in the business

Evaluation of the
Effectiveness

Identify where changes need to occur, how IS/IT
can improve performance

Task

Deliverable

Identification and analysis of

internal and external value chain

Identify information flow through
business and across its value chain

Creation of a conceptual
architecture

Modeling future processes

Compilation of a catalogue of all
the HW, SW being used and their
functions

Input to migration plan

Evaluation of the current
application portfolio

List of information systems in use

and assess their contribution

Evaluation of IS/IT policies,
organization, processes, services,
capabilities, etc

Assess their applicability to meet
current and future business needs

  Where can you find all these data/
informa8on?  
 How do you collect the data/
informa8on? 
 Use scien8fic method to collect 
data/informa8on 

Where to Find Data and Informa8on? 
•  All strategic business units (SBU) in the 
organiza8onal hierarchical structure 
•  Documenta8ons related to business plan, 

business report, decree (surat keputusan) 
policy and regula8on, etc. 
•  Observa8on: work flows, informa8on flow, 
chain of command, etc. 
•  Survey and Interview 

Scien8fic Method to Collect Data 
and Informa8on 
•  Develop ques8oner for survey 
•  Develop list of ques8ons for interview 
–  Record the interview 

•  Develop check list for observa8on 
–  Business process 
–  Human resources 
–  ICT facili8es 

•  Note taking for reading the documents of 
business report, strategic plan, etc.  

Points to Analyzed in the Internal 
Business Environment 
•  The business strategy as the means to achieve 
business objec8ves 
–  Business strategy 8es to business objec8ve? 

•  The current business process, ac8vi8es, and the 
main informa8on en88es 
–  Is there any business process value chain? 

•  The organiza8onal environment: structure, asset 
and skills, competency, culture, etc. 
–  How does chain of command? 
–  How do resources being allocated?  

Internal Business Environment (Interpre8ng The 
Business Strategy) 
•  Business strategy 
–  Purpose: to ensure that IS strategy supports rather contradicts business 
strategy 
–  Iden8fy and analyze the current strategy 
–  Compile and confirm the IS requirements, and document in the IS 
demand 
–  Tools: cri8cal success factors analysis and business drivers analysis 

•  Business processes, ac8vi8es, and key en88es 
–  Purpose: to understand important business tasks and processes, and the 
flow of informa8on. Make up the business model with suppor8ng IS 
model 
–  Tools: processes effec8veness analysis, process flow diagrams, DFD, ER, 
and ac8vity en8ty matrices (tabular representa8on of the business…) 

•  Organiza8onal environment 
–  Purpose: to understand organiza8onal arrangements, value system, and 
key people and their rela8onships. Understand the environment, its skills, 
resources, values, culture, social interac8ons, its management style… 
–  Tool: organiza8onal modeling 

Cons8tuents of a Business Strategy 
(Usually included in “Renstra”) 
•  Mission: Statement of overall purpose for the organiza8on 
•  Vision: Brief descrip8on of the future that is consistent with the 
mission 
•  Business drivers: A set of cri8cal forces for change that the 
business must respond to 
•  Goals: Major achievements necessary to accomplish the vision 
•  Objec8ves:Measurable targets that take the organiza8on towards 
the goals 
•  Strategies: Concrete ways to achieve the objec8ves (inputs from IS 
planning process) 
•  Cri8cal success factors: Areas where things must go right for the 
organiza8on to flourish 
•  Business area plans: the plans of various areas of the business 

Business Processes, Ac8vi8es, and Key 
En88es 
•  Business model depict the processes, ac8vi8es and 
main informa8on elements and how they relate to 
one another 
•  IS model consists of  
–  Process flow, func8onal decomposi8on, ERD, DFD, Ac8vity/
en8ty matrices 
–  Use case diagram, Class Diagram, Ac8vity Diagram, etc 

•  IS architecture for the business: Rela8onship of 
business model to IS model 

Source Ward and Peppard

Business Model 
•  Business processes: the sets of interlinked ac8vi8es or 
roles that deliver specific outputs to iden8fied customers 
inside or outside the organiza8on 
•  Ac8vi8es: the elements of the business processes that 
organiza8on undertakes to produce, promote and 
distribute its products or services, to develop, support 
and administer its infrastructure and to measure 
performance against objec8ves. 
•  Key en88es: within an ac8vity that are of fundamental 
importance to business processes. 

IS Model 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Process flow models 
Func8onal decomposi8on model 
ERD 
DFD 
Ac8vity/En8ty Matrices 
Other Diagramming Techniques using UML ‐ 
OO 

IIA. Analysis of Internal IS/IT Environment 
•  Current IS management strategy (applica8ons 
porholio) 
–  Content and coverage of applica8ons 
–  Contribu8on of applica8ons 

•  Current IS/IT regula8on and policies 
•  Value of IS organiza8on 
–  IS profile in organiza8on: structure, func8on, etc. 
–  IS percep8on in organiza8on 

•  Current IT management strategy (IT infrastructure) 
–  IS/IT organiza8on and processes 
–  IS/IT assets, resources, and skills 
–  IS methodologies and training provisions 

IIB. Analysis of External IS/IT Environment 
•  To gain perspec8ve on IT trend and 
opportuni8es 
•  Looking at what compe8tors are doing with 
IS/IT 
•  Iden8fy elements of IS/IT that need further 
inves8ga8on 

III. Measurements, Techniques, Methods, etc to
Determine IS Needs

Cri8cal Success Factors Analysis 
•  “The limited number of areas, in which 
results, if they are sa8sfactory, will ensure 
compe88ve performance of the 
organiza8on 
•  Hierarchy of CSF (industry, organiza8onal, 
business unit, and manager) 
•  Iden8fied from objec8ves and strategies 
•  For priori8zing and determining IS 
applica8ons 

Objectives and CSFs Relationship:
CSF occurs at each Level

CSF Levels 
Industry
CSFs
Organizati
Onal CSFs
BusinessUnit
or Function CSFs
“CSF: things must go right”

Manager’s
CSFs

Example: Objective is To achieve 1 % growth in market share.
In order to achieve that objective, Strategy, CSF
and Measurement needed are as follow:

Strategy

CSF

Measure to be
developed

Improve sales in
all sites at rates
higher than
industry average

 Competitive pricing

 Company price versus

 Salary of site

industry average
 Manager salary versus
industry average
 Proportion of high
turnover sites

Improve sales of
underperfoming
sites

Level of advertising

manager
 Distribution of sites

Amount spent versus
industry average

Other examples of CSFs: access to raw material, timely delivery, etc

Objec8ve must be well defined and 
measureble 

CSF HELPS DEFINE AND SET 
OBJECTIVES 

Rela8onship BSC and CSF 

Example of Rela8onship BSC and CSF 
•  The objec8ve is to reduce stockholding 
costs 
–  The CSFs for this objec8ve are: 
•  Earlier iden8fica8on of obsolete items 
•  Improve forecas8ng to reduce safety stock 

–  Informa8on requirements: 
•  Analysis of stock turn 
•  Stock forecas8ng 
•  Stock replacement 

Information System
Needed?

CSF Analysis 
Executive IS

IS applications

Define
Critical Success
Factors

Prioritize

Define

Identify
Objectives and
Strategies

Business tasks
and processes

CSFs help manager to control the business performance
CSFs help define and prioritize the IS needs

Technique to analyze business processes: 
Process Effec8veness Analysis 
•  To measure the ability of business processes to contribute 
to mee8ng business needs 
•  Assess the effec8veness of each business process against 
each cri8cal business driver 
•  A business process is a logical collec8on of related 
business tasks 
•  Examples of cri8cal business drivers 
–  Produc8on efficiency: removal of duplica8on, removal of unnecessary 
checking, reduced transfers of responsibility, simplified procedures, and 
streamlined informa8on flows 
–  Customer sa8sfac8on: reduced 8me to process orders, reduced 8me to 
answer queries, and improved quality of products delivered, and 
improved quality of services rendered  

Technique to analyze degree of Information
System: IS Profile in Organizations
High

Support routine,
Distributed
Computing

Strategic to entire
organization

Support routine,
Centralized
computing

Crucial to some
business areas

Low
Diffusion
(deployment
in business)

High
Infusion (impact on business)

Technique to analyze the rela8onship of 
business and IS: Organiza8onal Modeling 
•  Structured technique to ensure 
comprehensive examina8on of business and IS 
environments 
•  Documents environmental factors underlying 
each key business process 
•  Assesses the implica8ons of changing each key 
business process 
•  Aid to decision making and communica8on 
•  Especially useful during business re‐
engineering exercises 

Organizational Modeling Technique to Identify
Key Business Processes
Organization arrangements
• Hierarchy charts
• Job description
• Budgets

Employees and other assets
• Skills and training
• Fixed assets
• Financial assets

Social systems
• Relationships
• Working attitudes
• Cultural values

Technology
• Hardware
• Software
• Methodologies

Key business
processes
• Acquisition
• Production
• Decision making

External environment
• Competition
• Legislation
• Fiscal policies

Dominant coalition
• Key players
• Power distribution
• Personal goals

Evalua8ng the Gap Between Current 
and Required IS/IT 
•  Iden8fy business processes in need of 
recogni8on, simplifica8on, streamlining, or 
redesign 
•  Iden8fy new or upgraded informa8on provisions 
–  New uses of exis8ng sources of informa8on 
–  New sources of informa8on 

•  Iden8fy changes in the IT management strategy 
(supply provisions) to support the new role of IS 
in the organiza8on 

Tips and Bits for this Session 
•  Fact finding processes to obtained relevant 
informa8on to develop IS/IT strategy 
•  There are techniques to analyze and interpret 
the development of IS/IT Strategy 
•  No trivial ajempt to develop IS/IT strategy 
•  More techniques to come….