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increasingly confronted with suggestions to use information

technology (IT) strategically. Many articles proposing

strategic information systems (SISs) have

appeared in journals such as the Harvard Business

Review, Sloan Management Review, and MIS Quarterly.

This stream of articles has had two salutary effects. The

first is that it has increased many firms' awareness of the

strategic potential of ISs. This movement from narrowly

viewing IT as only appropriate for automating backoffice

functions to a broader conception of IT's applicability

has been of benefit. Second, it has relieved the

necessity for cost-benefit style justification of many

investments in IT where such justification may have been

inappropriate ~ .

For all these positive effects, however, there is growing

recognition that the current writings on SISs have been

extremely one-sided. The articles that encourage firms to

'get on board the SIS movement' have rightly pointed to

a trinity of legitimate successes: Merrill Lynch's Cash

Management Account (CMA), American Hospital Supply's

(AHS) ASAP order entry system, and the American

Airlines Sabre reservation system. However, these articles

have generally not addressed the significant barriers

to conceiving, developing, and implementing SISs and

the inherent risk of failure. (One exception to this is

McFarlan's foreshadowing of a 'flip side' to the promises

of SISs 2 (p 99).)

Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute

increasingly confronted with suggestions to use information

technology (IT) strategically. Many articles proposing

strategic information systems (SISs) have

appeared in journals such as the Harvard Business

Review,