Development of Long Range Plans

The processes required to carry out a company’s strategic strategy are long-range planning. It involves coordinating the company’s long-term objectives and creating action plans that support the strategic plan.

The duration of long-term plans might range from three years to one or two decades, depending on the kind of firm. This is especially true for businesses like utilities, massive high-tech manufacturers, chemical plants, and research institutes where the duration and expenses of the investments are such that plants take years to construct and profits are calculated over extended periods.

Planning for the short term is concerned with the present. Actions meant to address immediate problems permanently are covered under medium-term strategies. The goal of long-range planning is to steer the organization on a different path to achieve its long-term objectives and protect it from periodic fluctuations in the economy.

Development of Long-Range Plans of the MIS:

• A fundamental requirement for MIS is the formulation and implementation plan.
• Information is acknowledged as a significant resource in MIS, alongside capital, time, and capability.
• Planning and controlling information for the right uses inside the company is essential for effective resource management.
• With the development of IT, information may now be regarded as a valuable resource on par with capacity and cash.
• To achieve the goals of the business, its acquisition, storage, usage, and disposal must be coordinated with the demands of the enterprise.
• Therefore, MIS must be adaptable enough to handle the organization’s shifting information needs. It ought to be an open system. It takes skill to develop an open system like that.
• It is feasible if MIS is planned with the organization’s business management strategy in mind.

Characteristics of Long-Range Planning:

• A long-range plan should begin with a description of the organization’s mission and vision if it isn’t already included in the strategic plan.
• The mission statement outlines the goals of the company, such as rising to the top as a producer of premium consumer goods.
• In defining time frames, expected sales volumes, profitability, and other precise, quantifiable goals, the vision statement is more detailed.
• One of the main goals of the long-term plan is to steer the organization away from non-specific, haphazard growth and towards its strong points, such as producing superior consumer goods.
• This procedure frequently directs an organization to divest non-core operations that detract from the organization’s main objective.

Therefore, long-range planning will usually concentrate on determining the organization’s core competencies and areas of strength, along with detailed strategies to expand the company in those areas.

Contents of the MIS plan:

A long-term MIS plan establishes a foundation for accomplishing the specified goals or targets within a given time frame, as well as guidance for the systems’ evolution.

The business plan and the MIS plan are related:

The MIS goals and objectives:

• Typical goals are as follows:
  • Objectives are to take into account management philosophy, policy limits, business risks, and the organization’s and the firm’s internal and external environments.
  • Offer online data about stocks, markets, and account balances.
  • The system’s focus will be on end-user computing and access facilities;
  • The query processing time should not exceed 3 seconds.
  • The priority for information assistance will be in the strategic management domains of marketing, services, and technology.
• Methodology for Implementing the Plan:
  • Development Approach: Real-time, batch, and online platform for technology.
  • SSAD or OOT as the system development strategy. Database versus traditional, etc.
  • Resources for system development: using packages versus custom development done outside the company.
  • The skills and expertise of analysts and programmers make up the labor force.
• The MIS architecture:
  • It offers a system structure together with its input, output, and connections. Additionally, it offers handling of subsystems and systems through subsystem coupling and decoupling.
• The schedule for system development:
  • A timetable is created for the system’s development. Integration of the systems is not feasible unless they are completely developed.
• The hardware and software plan:
  • After taking into account the operational and technological viability, the investment’s economics are determined. Following the selection of the hardware and software, the procurement strategy is created.
  • The strategy for development, the hardware and software selection, and the architectural choice are all strategic choices that must be made with great care.
  • The following points to consider:
    1. Information technology selection is a strategic business decision, not a financial one.
    2. The organization’s strategic plan should serve as the foundation for the MIS strategic plan.
    3. The IS development timetable should coincide with the business plan’s implementation schedule.