Planning
...vision and goals
• Planning is a process that attempts to coordinate the deployment of resources over time
• Planning horizon is a key differentiation between strategic, tactical, and operational planning
Role of Network Services in Strategic Planning
• For some organizations, network technology will be central to the core mission
• Network equipment or services company
• Common carrier or ISP
• Organization focusing on network-based deliver of products and services
• For some organizations, network technology will be a utility service
• The number of organizations for which networking is strategic is increasing
Corporate strategic planning was popularized in the 1960s
• Outgrowth of Frederick Taylor's Scientific Management
• The goal is to find the one best strategy
• Profession of strategic planner assumes that planning can be coordinated independent of content
• Assumes that the thorough analysis of hard data leads to insights
• The planning process is highly structured
Classical strategic planning has not been as successful as originally envisioned
• It ignores the central role of vision
• It is too analytical and formalized
• The structured process often results in the exclusion of important players
• It is based on principles of statistical forecasting that are often unreliable
• It is based on "hard" data and ignores "soft" data that is difficult to quantify
• strategic planning, strategic thinking, and strategy making are not synonymous
Information Technology Planning: Is it strategic?
• IT is increasingly a key competitive differentiator
• IT touches everyone within an organization in some fashion (i.e., everyone is a...
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