Silos, Mousetraps, and Islands

1
Silos, Mousetraps, and Islands

• A chronicle of information systems in
  organizations

2
Objectives

• Develop sense of context for
• Organizations.
• Information technology.
• Information systems.
• Describe some of the advances and failures of the
  old context.

3
Why Organize?

• Division of labor.
• Manage complexity (divide a problem into its
  components).
• Achieve mastery (by specializing in a particular
  task area).
• Reduce switching costs between different job
  activities.
• Reduce training costs.
• Increase scalability (ability to
  increase/decrease units of workforce related to
  specific tasks).

4
Specialization Control
A single, unified task
naturally divides into subtasks
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Basis for Coordination and Control

• Rules.
• Job descriptions.
• Formal training.

Weber, 1958
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Coordinating Mechanisms

• Mutual adjustment.
• Direct supervision.
• Standardization of tasks.
• Standardization of outputs.
• Standardization of skills.

Mintzberg, 1979
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3 PEOPLE 3 CHANNELS
6 PEOPLE 6 CHANNELS???
6 PEOPLE 15 CHANNELS
12 PEOPLE ??? CHANNELS
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Functional Organization
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Functional Areas and Individual Positions

• Line or Staff
• Line a position directly related to the primary
  goals of the organization.
• Staff a position that serves a secondary or
  support role in the organization.

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The Extended Supply Chain and Electronic Business
(EB)
Ordering Supplies
Inbound Logistics
Operations (Production/Service activities)
Product/Service Marketing
Servicing Customer Orders
Outbound Logistics
Customer Relationship Management
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Line/Staff Positions and the Value Chain
The Value Chain --
CMC2   Support Activities
Corporate

Infrastructure
Human Resource
Management
______
Technology
Development


Procurement
Inbound Operations
Outbound Marketing Service
Logistic Logistic Sales

Primary

Activities

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Organizations in Many Regions

• Typically offer widely divergent products and/or
  services.
• Common grouping on product and location.

13
Divisionalized Organizational Form
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Anthonys Model
Strategic Planning
Management Control
Operational Control
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Mintzbergs Form
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Flow of Formal Authority
Strategic Apex
Techno-structure
Support Staff
Middle Line
Operating Core
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Flow of Regulated Activity
Strategic Apex
Support Staff
Middle Line
Techno-structure
Operating Core
18
Flow of Informal Communication
Strategic Apex
Middle Line
Techno-structure
Support Staff
Operating Core
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Set of Work Constellations (Groupings)
Strategic Apex
Techno-structure
Middle Line
Support Staff
Operating Core
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An Organizational Mess
Strategic Apex
Techno-structure
Support Staff
Middle Line
Operating Core
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Silos

• Organizations that organize around functions are
  known as silos because each functional area
  becomes distinct and isolated from other
  functional areas.
• Silos have limited built-in mechanisms to
  coordinate process flows that cross boundaries
  between functional areas.

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Failure to Integrate in Silos

• Focus on task and individual over process and
  team.
• Grouping by function discourages integration.
• Silos lack built-in mechanisms to coordinate
  process flows.
• Coordination problems rise to levels too far from
  origin.
• Loss of big picture (perspective) overall
  performance hard to track.

23
Advances in Computing
1995
1975
1985
1980
1990
500
Pentium4
10M
mips
transistors
1M
25
Pentium
80486
100K
1.0
80386
80286
10K
0.1
8086
8080
4004
Moores Law
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GenerationsBased on Hardware

• 1st Vacuum tubes.
• 2nd Transistors.
• 3rd Integrated circuits.
• 4th Large-scale integration.

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Generations Based on Software

• Low-Level Languages
• Machine
• Assembly
• High-Level Languages
• BASIC
• COBOL
• Pascal
• C and C
• FORTRAN
• Database Languages
• Others (ADA, Java, Html, XML, Smalltalk, etc.)
• Fifth-Generation Languages (5GLs)
• Report Generators
• Retrieval and Update Languages
• Decision Support System Tools

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Generations Based on Purpose and Personnel
Targeted

• _________________________________________________
  _____________________
  
• FOURTH GENERATION
  KBS/MIS
• ______________________________________________
  _____________________
• THIRD GENERATION SSS
  
• / \
  
• / MSS
  PLANNING CONTROL
• ___________________________/__________________
  _____________________
• SECOND GENERATION TSS
  
• / \
  
• / MSS PLANNING
  CONTROL
• ____________________/_________________________
  _____________________
• FIRST GENERATION OSS
  
• / \
  
• / MSS PLANNING CONTROL
  
• /
  
• TPS
  
• 
  
• 
  MIS

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Failure to Communicate

• Connectivity is more than technical issues.
• Organizational inertia and legacy systems.
• Standards cut both ways.
• Technology cannot move forward without standards.
• Standards freeze technology at a point in time.
• Responsiveness is remote.

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Connectivity / Responsiveness
responsiveness / usability
mainframe
PC / LAN
Internet
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IS Management Eras

• Era I the glass house regulated monopoly
  focus on efficiency productivity.
• Era II proliferation of PCs free market focus
  on individual group effectiveness.
• Era III network is computer ubiquity focus on
  integration value creation.

Applegate et al, 1999
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Classification of IS
Executive IS
Decision Support
Strategic Apex
Middle Line
Techno- structure
Support Staff
Geographic IS
Artificial Intelligence
Operating Core
Factory Automation (CIM)
Transaction Processing
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IS by Supported Functional Area
Functional IS
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Failure to Allocate

• Imbalance in distribution centralize/decentralize
  .
• Duplication of data in functional IS.
• Technical divide

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Summary

• Developed sense of context for
• Organizations.
• Information technology.
• Information systems.
• Integration.
• Described some of advances and failures of the
  old context.