In the book titled "Enterprise Architecture as Strategy" by Jean Ross, Peter Weill and Daid Robertson discuss business transition/ transformation in four stages of "enterprise architecture maturity". Role of IT, shift in investments, management thinking, organizational flexibility, benefits of solutions and their impact in each stage is detailed for the four stages.
I believe that the authors discuss the stages of maturity in depth that connects very well to the broad topic on "Strategic Information systems" or the "role of Information systems in businesses".
Popular Information systems fundamentals course text books attempt to present the subject matter in a routine fashion. There is much to be conveyed to the student of Information systems other than the emphasis that IT does matter for business transformation. The scenarios of success/ failure stories from CIO.com or computer/ Information world magazines where the emphasis is on importance of business/ IT people collaboration and the how business is done differently due to IT meeting the business needs is only part of the "Big Dig". The "challenges of building a foundation for execution" are discussed better in this book.
Management Information systems text books in this decade have emphasised on the business application of IT, provided case studies of how change happened with Information systems at complex, growing, global organizations. However, they need to evolve miles further from the standard template of taking a systems approach discussing data management and their role in decision making, complex information systems such as ERP and CRM and their business use, networks, internet, mobile and ecommerce and demonstrating that the components of information systems play a role in meeting the needs and changing the way business is done.
For the curious and inquiring minds, there is a void in the material presented on the context, perspectives on local to global settings, changes in senior level IT and business management roles, challenges involved at the organization level due to the changes, investment costs and benefits as well as how business is done differently at each of the stages. The above mentioned book fills this void.
In the chapter, "navigate the stages of enterprise architecture maturity", the authors emphasise that "learning takes time" at several levels and provide a detailed explanation for those involved about transitioning from/ to each of the stages.
