Strategic information technology management: the city of Anaheim technological initiatives

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study investigating the role of IT in a municipal-owned and operated public utility. Through the use of case study methodology, the paper finds a confluence of contextual factors fostering changes in an IT management strategy aimed at increasing efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery and improving customer/citizen satisfaction. These factors include changes in the regulatory policy environment, advances in technology, increasing citizen and customer knowledge and sophistication about IT, and managerial and elected official commitment to an IT strategy. The paper begins by proposing a model of the IT strategic planning process that occurs in municipal environments and then details several IT initiatives of the municipality in relation to the proposed model. The study finds that the complex nature of technology and its financial risk due to quick obsolescence poses political risks for the organization attempting to manage the IT infrastructure, which changes at a far faster pace than the organization´s other types of infrastructure. The strategic management of IT must take into account the differing value sets among its organizational and political members and how these differing motivations impact the management of the IT infrastructure.