Challenges Facing Operations Managers - Information Systems

While information systems should be seen as tools that enable better performance their implementation also brings associated operational challenges at an organisational level such as:

• How to select, gather and manage the information that we need to gain maximum benefit from it.
• How to keep up with the pace of innovation that is driving Information Systems.
• How to best design and integrate an information system with the existing business processes.
• How to manage our human resources to make best use of the systems they use.

Some techniques for addressing these challenges will be presented as this chapter progresses. Firstly however, before thinking about the operations internal to the organisation, Slack (2007) proposes a more general set of activities to be undertaken in the wider context to enable the organisation to implement the correct IS. The operations manager must: 

• Monitor the wider environment for emerging technologies.
• Analyse the nature of these technologies.
• Understand the possible relationship that these new technologies may have with the business now and in future.
• Learn to move quickly to make use of these technological changes.