2. Thinking in terms of business processes and not in terms of systems
Lately the management of the information provisioning in organizations has also shifted up a level.
There are three levels at which one can manage the information provisioning:
• the level of the information system or the infrastructure – one manages it while checking matters
at the level of the information system. Frequently, a breakdown is possible whose nature is
technical and focussed on solutions. Management at this level is the most common in practice.
This is naturally also due to the fact that an IT supplier is managed at this level;
• the level of business processes – in this respect one considers the information provisioning for the
purpose of supporting a business process. Often a number of information systems (including ones
that have not been automated) are used to support a business process. In practice management
rarely occurs at this level;
• the level of the corporate information provisioning – this refers to an organization’s entire
information provisioning. Although a great deal of talk and thought occurs at this level, it rarely has
any effective impact on lower levels. This is largely due to the fact that operational management is
not located at the corporate level but at that of the business units.