How the organization sees itself as one or more strategic units is important to our MIS planning. Some Strategic Business Unit (SBU) differences seem more natural than others. Remember that our MIS focus is on planning and control. Whether or not two SBUs (Strategic Business Unit) want to use the same information system for a common function is an IS strategy issue.

Take some examples from the healthcare sector: A hospital system that purchases a nursing home chain might easily manage it as a separate SBU. A hospital system that merges with another hospital system might want to keep the two systems organized as different SBUs. Neither of these examples necessarily would need to be managed as different units. Whether a hospital's strong push into telemedicine should be managed as a separate SBU is a management choice, not a logical necessity. The choice is usually arbitrary, but it carries significance for thinking about innovation. The authors point out that this choice includes consideration of whether something acquired might someday be divested.

Question:

Discuss the role that systems engineers can play in the dynamics of these choices. Given that management is making these decisions, often without regard to the IS/IT implications, how can we improve the resulting MIS functions in the organization that result from the choices being made?