FAQ1

If senior managers wish to avoid the risk of IT deployment then one obvious strategy that can be discerned from this picture is simply not to undertake strategic projects and to adopt, where possible, industry-standard packages for ‘key operational’ and ‘support’ applications. It has been argued that in the face of continued ‘failure’ to control the risk of IT deployment, senior managers in many organisations have adopted such risk containment strategies through ERP and/or outsourcing. It has been further argued that such risk containment strategies will lead to a ‘levelling’ of competitiveness in many industries leading ultimately to the need to compete only on price and operational efficiency.

Note 1: For those not familiar with the concept of the Application Portfolio, it is fully described in Ward, J. M. and Peppard, J. (2002), "Strategic Planning for Information Systems", John Wiley and Sons

optimise the opportunities for benefits realisation from the proposed business changes
reduce as far as possible the risk of negative outcomes from the changes being made.

Of course, not all projects involve the same degree of business change and consequential levels of uncertainty. If we consider this in terms of the Applications Portfolio (note 1), we have the picture shown in the figure below.