The Winchester Services Group

Consultants to Management for Information Technology

Winning IS Management Techniques

No functional area in organizations changes faster or more often than Information Systems (IS).  Not only is IS responsible for exploring and exploiting the latest emerging technologies available to the organization, as the newest functional area in business, it continues to discover, evolve and improve upon its management practices at a rapid rate.  Managers of IS, those to whom IS reports, and those organizational areas that depend on IS for services are constantly challenged to stay abreast of the latest techniques in order to ensure quality, realize benefits and gain advantages.  To be distracted in this pursuit risks obsolescence, financial loss, competitive disadvantage and customer dissatisfaction.

“Winning IS Management Practices” investigates advanced approaches being used or considered by leading-edge IS organizations in search of excellence.  Four such practices are presented in half-day sessions over the course of the two-day seminar.  They are:

The establishment of an IS Marketing function:  If IS is a business within the business as many have claimed, where is the marketing function in IS?  The processes of selling, pricing, customer care, promotions and PR are seldom found on the IS organization chart, but offer tremendous potential to improve the performance and image of IS in the organization.  The module explores the advantages of recognizing a Marketing function in IS, and how it can be implemented in organizations of varying size and mission.

The role of IS in Mergers and Acquisitions:  Mergers and Acquisitions are frequent occurrences in both the public and private sectors.  When IS’s parent organization decides to acquire, combine, consolidate or merge, the announcement can be a surprise and challenge to IS.  Yet other IS departments have prepared and are ready, still others accept acquisitions as a routine occurrence and have established processes and procedures for absorbing the new organization’s IS department.  Keys to success are IS’s early involvement in due diligence studies and processes.  Developing IS strategies and techniques that support the acquisition strategy of the parent are explored in the module.

The use of Activity-Based Costing in IS:  Activity-based Costing (ABC) has been shown to be a useful cost accounting method when applied to many areas of the organization.  Yet to date, little effort has been made to extend the use of ABC as an analytic technique to the IS function.  The module explores the benefits of using ABC at the strategic and tactical level in IS.  Conventional IS financial analytic techniques are also discussed.  Use of ABC as a budgeting and forecasting tool in IS are presented, and an exercise is performed by attendees to ensure understanding.

Techniques for managing IS during periods of rapid organizational growth:  The schism in time perspectives between IS and its parent organization that is exacerbated in rapidly growing concerns can create business risks ranging from misstatement of financial results to limitations of continued growth to insolvency of the firm.  Initiatives exist which can alleviate these risks and their cause and extend the life expectancy of the CIO.  The module explores techniques that can minimize risks and allow IS to enable, rather than hinder growth of the organization. 

Attendees learn what these advanced techniques are, when and why they should consider employing them, what risks and benefits are involved in their pursuit, and what options and alternatives to full implementation exist for organizations of various sizes and circumstances.  Methods and approaches used in pursuing the techniques are presented, discussed and practiced in practical exercises.  Where immediate application of a technique is considered premature by an organization, attendees learn how to prepare for the day when a conditions might require the urgent implementation of the technique.

In addition to lectures and discussions, the seminar features hands-on exercises and case studies where attendee can practice what has been presented to ensure their understanding and discuss results achieved by early adopters.  In this way, attendees struggle with the issues that confronted real-life organizations, learn how challenges were met and resolved, and practice implementation techniques that may be applied in their organizations.

IS Managers, Directors and CIOs, their direct reports, and IS staff members currently challenged by the strategic issues of how to effectively market IS, absorb an acquisition, analyze IS expenditures, or deal with the challenges of organizational growth.

Attendees should be comfortable working and participating in small groups on tasks and in subsequently preparing and presenting the results of small group or individual analysis to larger audiences.

Attendees with experience in implementing one or more of the techniques being presented in their organization are particularly welcome and strongly encouraged to attend in order to share their experience with others and learn what others have done to fully exploit the potentials available from the techniques.

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