A manager’s guide to the strategic potential of information systems

Much has been publicized about the strategic possibilities of information systems (e.g. Foremost McKesson’s Economost, American Hospital Supply Corporation’s ASAP and American Airlines’ SABRE). CEOs now demand that their IS executives achieve similar successes. However, many executives have neither the opportunity nor the time to evaluate and to understand the many different proposed methodologies or frameworks that have been constructed to help identify strategic opportunities for information systems. This paper seeks to select the major frameworks available for determining the strategic opportunities of information systems, and then to evaluate them. Finally, the authors offer their perspective on these different models as representative of current management thought on the strategic nature of information systems.