Editor's Comments
Editor's Comments
Transformed Information Systems Management
Information systems management has been, or currently is, a career choice for many of our subscribers
and a subject of considerable interest to many of those that aren't. With so many experts in our au-
dience, I approach this essay with some trepidation, particularly given that my predecessor, Jim Emery,
editorialized on a similar topic just 18 months ago.^ Nevertheless, I have long been a curious observer
of the roles and responsibilities of the senior information systems executive, and addressed the topic
some years ago in the Ouarterly.^ Based on contacts with information systems managers over the years
it is apparent to me that we are now in a period of unparalleled transformation of information manage-
ment. To help us better understand this transformation, we present in this issue two articles that look
squarely at the role of the information systems executive. A third article provides a fascinating look at
the relationship between the senior information systems executive and the CEO. Still another article,
co-authored by a senior information systems executive, illustrates IT management's new role in helping
to transform Corning Glass' information systems division toward quality and team-based management.
Some contend that IT must be managed as a business within a business. But would anyone ever willful-
ly design a firm that is so complex? Services range from software selection, systems development, and
maintenance on one hand to online access, data storage, and communication networks on the other.
In between are information centers, group decision support facilities, emerging technology centers, and
consulting services. Some of these products must be accessible in a fraction of a second with near perfect
reliability, while others gestate over several years of evolutionary development, renegotiation, and missed
deadlines. The customer set is equally varied both in its understanding of technology and in its enthusiasm
for IT-based solutions. The single supposed area of commonality, the information technology itself, is
remarkable for its diversity, speed of obsolescence, rapidly changing economics, and the vendors' skill
in unrealistically elevating customer expectations.
This complexity fosters a variety of nightmares. Irwin Sitkin recently asked 20 information systems ex-
ecutives to identify their biggest problems.^ My reanalysis of these problems produced a list of over
60 "migraines." Among those identified were the familiar issues of managing the expectations of clients,
allocating IT resources, revitalizing legacy systems, and trying to open up the systems development
bottleneck. But there were also the newer challenges of living within flat or declining budgets, giving
up power to self-managing work teams, reskilling the IS work force, fighting off the advances of
outsourcers, or migrating toward client server technologies.
There is a tendency, I fear, to blame the lack of obvious solutions and the continued turmoii in informa-
tion management on failures in management, scholarship, or both. Although there is ample room for
improvement in either area, we can neither escape nor forget that the turmoil we are all embroiled in
is economically driven. Both the form and function of information systems within the organization has
been and will continue to be redrawn by dramatic changes in the economics of the underlying technology.
The economic advantage of software packages relative to made-to-order software and the migration
' Emery, J.C. "Editor's Comments: What Role for the CIO?" MIS Quarterly (15:2), June 1991, pp. vii-ix.
' Ives, B. and Olson, M.H. "Manager or Technician? The Nature of the Information Manager's Job," MIS Quanerly (5:4), December
1981, pp. 49-63.
' Sitkin, I. "IS Executive Interview Series," Institute for Information Studies, Northern Telecom, in Association with the Aspen Institute,
1992.
MIS Ouarterly/December 1992 llx

Editor's Comments
of economies of scale advantages from mainframes to microcomputers has fundamentally reshaped
the IT landscape over the last decade. That landscape will continue to change for the foreseeable future
as, for instance, multi-media, pen-based, and cellular technologies all piggyback on the economies of
scale that will be realized through mass market consumer applications.
As the minicomputer manufacturers found themselves squeezed between micro and supercomputer
manufacturers, so too will internal information systems suppliers continue to be squeezed between end
users and external IT providers. Client server technology, workstations, open system, local area net-
works, easy-to-use graphical user interfaces, and internal and external data warehouses will feast on
those situations requiring rapid development of flexible and effective solutions. Outsourcers, package
and turnkey providers, and consulting firms will meanwhile be biting away at those applications where
efficiency, adherence to standards, economies of scale, or special technical expertise take center stage.
The underlying economics inexorably and continually change the ground rules. Thus, the transforma-
tion will continue despite the best intentions, or the best interests, of information systems executives
and scholars.
In the 1970s and early 1980s the information systems manager was a big cowpoke perched on a small
horse. That information technology horse was controlled by the reins of standards, the fence posts of
a single hardware vendor policy, or the spurs of resource allocation committees. Today, there are dozens
of IT mustangs within most organizations, and they are often unbridled, untamed, rapidly gaining in
strength and stature, and roaming into the pastures of customers, suppliers, and other neighbors. The
IT managers' reins, spurs, and fences have been replaced by the sugar of vendor discounts, high-quality
information systems support, and the promise of the mutual benefits that will arise from integrated ar-
chitectures, organizational learning, or economies of scale. Table 1 captures just some elements of this
transformation. The monopolistic, support-oriented, production-focused IT function has, for the most part,
been driven out by the free-market, strategy-oriented, marketing-focused IT function we see around us
today. And, in the not too distant future, as one information systems executive predicts,^ there is the
possibility that "the IT function will be very much like an Alka-Seltzer tablet dropped in a glass. It will
have gone away and will exist throughout the entire organization."
Managing information technology in this increasingly uncertain world requires a good view over the horizon
and the flexibility to respond to new demands, new directions, and new opportunities. An excellent view
of a volatile business landscape is often best provided by a mutually beneficial relationship between
the information systems executive and his or her most senior customer—often the CEO or business
unit head. My reanalysis of the IS executive interviews mentioned previously identified four recurring
themes characterizing effective IT-related communications with the CEO. These themes include (1) linking
IT to the business, (2) communicating in the language of the business, (3) demonstrating the ability to
Table 1. The Transformation of IT Management
Past
Manage the Supply of IT
Computers
Monopolist
Support the Firm
Produce
Data & Information
Automation
Programs & Systems
Proprietary Systems
Today
Manage the Demand for IT
Networks
Free Market
Strategic Necessity
Acquire & Market
Skills & Knowledge
Re-engineering
Data Models & Architectures
Open Systems
Michael Simmons, quoted in Sitkin, I. "IS Executive Interview Series: Interview with Michael Simaions, Executive Vice-President
Technology & Operations Group, Bank of Boston," Institute for Information Studies, Northern Telecom, in Association with the Aspen
Institute, 1992, p. 24.
Ix MIS Ouarterly/December 1992