The impact of information technology on the management of system design

Information technologies, including telecommunications, have profoundly influenced business management practices generally, and specifically the management of the design of complex systems. However, despite enormous advances in the state-of-the-art in information technology just in the past 20 years, these technologies, also referred to as Management Information Systems or MIS, consume ever increasing amounts of corporate budgets. Moreover, while they are less mysterious in many respects than 20 years ago, they are still very complex and difficult to install, operate and maintain. Accordingly organizations, including business, government and educational institutions, regularly confront the following management issues regarding use of information technology to support system design: (1) how to change the existing management procedures in order to make use of the information technology; (2) how to control the cost of information technology; and (3) how to manage the use of information technology to limit the vulnerability of the organization using it? This article addresses three aspects of the management of information technology, and management with information technology. First, how the introduction and use of advanced MIS forces management to adapt to the demands of the MIS. Second, why the costs of information technology, are so large and how management can respond to them. Third, how the use of information technology makes a company vulnerable to internal and external threats and how management can anticipate and mitigate those security risks. In the final section, this article speculates briefly on future trends in information technology and how those trends could affect the first three issues. This article contends that the current state of the art in information technology is insufficient to allow MIS to fit seamlessly into any existing management structure or process. Rather, the challenge for management is to adapt their procedures to the existing MIS and learn to use information technology cost effectively. The best managers will be those willing to understand and use the powers, and work around the limitations, of information technology and develop business practices to use it effectively. This is the essence of system design management and with some careful planning, information technology can make a tremendous, positive impact. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.