Managing Flexibility in Distributed Information Systems Architectures

Competitive pressures are forcing organizations to be agile and flexible. Response to changing environmental conditions is an important factor in determining corporate performance. Organizational flexibility is in turn closely related to the management of information systems. Rexibility of information systems needs to be actively managed. Information systems in organizations have evolved from being a function of a centralized MIS department to a function dependent on a distributed collection of information systems resources (hardware, software, and people). This distributed collection of resources has been referred to as the Distributed Information Systems Architecture. Managing flexibility in distributed information systems architectures is an interesting and challenging problem. The inlportance offlexibilityboth at the organizational and information systems levels has been recognized by research in management (Bahrami 1992), operations management (Sethi 1990), and MIS (Lacity, Willcocks anditeny 1995). However, flexibility in distributed information system architectures has not been examined in detail. Flexibility in distributed information system architectures can be of several types. Each type of flexibility has distinct characteristics. Understanding different types of flexibility in the context of distributed information system architectures is therefore extremely important. 'Ihe operations management literature on flexibility is used as a starting point to categorize various types of flexibility. Analysis of secondarydata using grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin 1990) is employed to identifyseveral different types of flexibility. Secondary data used consists of articles on outsourcing and management of information systems from academic publications as well as from practitioner publications such as Datamation, /4/Onnation Week etc. A taxonomy for understanding flexibility in distributed information system architectures is developed. The relationship between various t>pes of flexibilityand different information s>Stems functions is explored. This taxonomy of flexibility,as well as the relationship between types of flexibility, information system functions, and resource requirements has importantimplications for evaluation of outsourcing decisions.REFERENCES Bahrami, H. 'The Emerging Flexible Organization: Perspectives from Silicon Valley." Cal{/brnia Management Review, Summer1992, pp. 34-51. Lacity, M. C.; Willcocks, L. P.; and Feeny, D. F. "IT Outsourcing: Maximize flexibility and Control." Harvard Business Review,May-June 1995, pp. 83-93. Sethi, S. K, and Sethi, S. P. "Flexibility in Manufacturing: A Survey." Inteniational Journal ofFlexibleManufacturing Systems,Volume 2,1990, pp. 289-328.Strauss, A, and Corbin, J. Basics ofQuaUtative Research: Grounded 77:eory, Procedures and Techniques. NewburyPark, California:Sage Publications, 1990.