When information is scarce or limited then the role or development of Information System is basically one of making the best possible use of resources. Free market develops the IS as an competitive business unit, monopoly develops IS as an reaction only satisfying minimum requirements.
Strategically it is important to find out whether a particular information system is build around the various factors –organizational capability, new capabilities,infrastructure,communication and distribution channel for a given IS development. These are then the strategic questions one needs to ask to find out whether an information system is adding value to the company strategically. Also the issue of value addition by the information system can be strategically enhanced by reducing costs and differentiating through quality and niche markets .Then the manner in which the information system develops strategically can be formulated and segregated through both the Nolan’s model and the Pearson generic IS strategies. In developing the strategic base of the IS, Pearson generic strategies develop the value addition by dividing the strategic consideration into six segments – centrally planned where IS is developed as an service provider, leading edge where IS is an experimenter and promoter, free market develops the IS as an competitive business unit, monopoly develops IS as an reaction only satisfying minimum requirements, if the information is scarce or limited then the role or development of IS is basically one of making the best possible use of resources, necessary evil indicates that the development of a particular information system is providing only a minimum resource to the company.
The organizational aspects that lead to development of an IS are the technical and behavioral views on organizational structures .The technical structure of organization provides a stable and formal structure that takes resources from environment and develops output whereas the behavioral structure is a composite structure or set of rights ,obligations and responsibilities for conflict resolution. The organizational structure develops the information and processing from following types of knowledge management platforms-office automation systems, knowledge work systems, group collaboration systems and artificial intelligence applications. Here the artificial intelligence systems have received special attention as developers of computer systems behaving like individuals. The information flows are determined and developed through the various sub systems and systems of servers and architecture of computers. Here the structural aspects that develop and evolve the organizational capabilities towards fulfillment of an information system are Metcalfe’s law –power of network increases exponentially by number of computers connected to it, Coase’s law – firm’s grow and manage internally unless it becomes cheaper to outsource, Moore’s law- the power of central processing units doubles every 18 months and cost of CPUs will half every 18 months. Thus along with the knowledge platform suited to the organization these laws also indicate the network of computer or computer system capabilities in the organization which develop the IS.
The culturalconsiderations for a particular IS development are following –functional, sharing, inquiring and discovery. In functional culture the management utilizes information as means of exercising power over others, in sharing culture the managers and employees trust each other so as to cooperate and improve productivity, in inquiring culture both the management and employees come together to develop ways of searching for information so as to be able to foresee the future and ways of changing what they do to align themselves with future directions, and in discovery culture the management and employees are always open to change and new ways of crises and discontinuity management. Initially the culture of the organization is such that it lends itself to anticipation and seeking out or creation of business opportunities and ventures through information management (uncertainty is higher and complexity is lower) and after a while the total effort in collaborating for adaptation to new surroundings and challenges with the increase in information system control
becomes more important (uncertainty is low and complexity is higher).The culture of an organization needs to address following for development of an integrated IS :flexibility, sensitivity to bureaucratic and political requirements, awareness of limitations and understanding of organizational processes.