How a systems analyst or project manager helps the corporation achieve its strategic mission.
Until the early eighties, when the focus of information systems was mostly the processing of arithmetic data, the role of a systems analyst was clearly technical(Kiountouzis, 1997). Nowadays, with the evolution of the information systems, the modern corporate environment is changing drastically. Modern businesses are closely dependent on the information and the information workflow and are heavily relied on the accuracy and the solidity of it. As a result, the role of a system analyst and a system manager becomes of major importance. The role of a system analyst now is to study business problems and opportunities and transform business and information requirements into specifications for information systems that will be implemented. System analysts are the people who initiate change within an organization (Whitten and Benltey, 2007).
The strategic mission of the company is usually set by the decision makers and the managers after a careful examination and evaluation of the current business situation and the internal and external environment. The most vital part of this process is the information on which the decision making is based on. The role of the system analyst here is to provide to the management the correct tools to facilitate the decision making. Systems analysts help organizations to use technology effectively and to incorporate rapidly changing technologies into their existing systems. The work of computer systems
analysts evolves rapidly, reflecting new areas of specialization and changes in technology(BLS). The development of an information system which will accomplish the above requirements is the main mission of a system analyst. An effective information system is the one that will provide accurate real-time information, increase productivity, reduce business running costs and overcome organizational problems. Corporations can benefit from a skilled system analyst if they use him or her for the analysis of the current corporate system, the detection of potential problems and bottlenecks in the information workflow and the proposal of solutions.
Another major contribution of a system analyst to the business success is the ability to evaluate existing and evolving technologies and utilize them for the benefit of the company. Innovation and new technologies rise has been drastically increased the last years and as a result a plethora of technology trends has flooded the markets thus making the decision a very complicated process.There are many traps in the technology selection that can lead to serious damages for the company. For example, it is claimed that FoxMeyer has been led to bankruptcy due to wrong decisions in the choice of an ERP system (Scott, 1999). So an effective System Analyst can help the business to avoid pitfalls like wrong software selection or wrong technology. The system analyst needs to have the knowledge and the vision to distinguish the appropriate technologies that will benefit the effort of the company to achieve its strategic mission. He must act effectively to prevent risky investments and at the same time to create competitive advantage for the corporation thought the use of technology.
Business Intelligence(BI) is also another modern tool from which the corporations can benefit and gain competitive advantage over competition. Business Intelligence term refers to skills, technologies, applications and practices used to help a business acquire a better understanding of its current situation. BI systems are utilized to provide accurate and current information based on historical data to the decision makers, in order to promote correct decision making. BI becomes very important and helpfull for the modern corporation as "in an indepth study of 45 organizations across North America and Europe, IDC found the average return of an investment of business analytics was 431 percent" (MacInnis, 2004, p. 20). System analysts can be utilized to envision, develop and support the decision support system that will produce and provide useful information from the raw data of the company. Business Intelligence can help the corporation management to avoid the use of inaccurate data in the situation evaluation and the decision for action.
In my opinion, a corporation cannot formulate an excellent strategic vision in the modern corporate environment without having the input of the information systems manager. As the technology evolves and the business field changes rapidly, information becomes the most important component of an organization. Those who have the most significant and accurate information, they instantly gain the competitive advantage over their competitors. We live in an era where information is the most valuable product . Many businesses, like the software industry or the mass media, are based solely on the creation, processing and distribution of information. As a result, the absence of a system analyst from any corporation would be a significant disadvantage. The corporation loses immediately the ability of recognizing problems in the information workflow and also the potential benefits of solving them and maximizing the efficiently of the company as a whole.
System analysts are becoming more and more vital for modern corporations. The evolution of information technology has brought humanity in the information era where information is in the center of almost anything. As a result, system analysts, as the information specialists could not be absent from any well organized group.
References
Kiountouzis, E. A. (1997). Information System Analysis And Design Methods. Athens:
Benou Publications.
Patricia MacInnis. (2004, June). Bullish on business intelligence. Computing Canada, 30
(9), 20. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database.
(Document ID: 657135221).
Whitten, J. L., & Bentley, L. D. (2007). System Analysis and Design Methods. McGraw-Hill.