Manager's Guide to Making Decisions about Information Systems

The sign of a smart IS decision...

The sign of a smart decision about information systems isn't based on technical details alone; it's based on how well that decision contributes to the overall success of the business. If you want to make your firm's investment in IS really pay off, you need to approach IS from a truly managerial perspective.

Now with Paul Gray's Manager's Guide to Making Decisions About IS, you'll learn how IS can help the organization as a whole, and how to make key decisions on whether to undertake, upgrade, or decommission large software systems. You'll also learn about the capabilities of IS, such as the many uses of a data warehouse and using IS to gain competitive intelligence.

See the big picture.

The Manager's Guide to Making Decisions About IS first focuses on big picture issues, such as hardware, software, and the Internet; strategic uses of IS; aligning IS with the business; types of applications; and inter-organizational systems.

Make decisions on big-ticket applications.

Gray then provides you with essential knowledge that will help you make informed decisions on big-ticket applications, including electronic commerce, enterprise requirements planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), data warehousing, knowledge management, and business intelligence.

Explore current IS issues.

Finally, the Manager's Guide to Making Decisions About IS examines the IS issues that managers are currently facing in today's business, including outsourcing, systems integration, supply chain, people issues, mergers and acquisitions, infrastructure, and privacy, security, and ethics.

Armed with this knowledge, you'll have the confidence and understanding you need to sign-off on IS decisions that will have a valuable impact on your organization.

Paul Gray is Professor Emeritus of Information Science at Claremont Graduate University and is a distinguished scholar in the discipline, with research focusing on decision support systems and data warehousing.  He received his PhD from Stanford University.  Gray worked for 18 years in research and development organizations, including 9 years at Stanford Research Institute.  He is a past president of The Institute of Management Sciences, a predecessor of INFORMS.  Gray is currently editor of the Communications of AIS as well as on the editorial boards of seven other professional journals.  He has written 13 books and 85 scientific articles.