Environmental Scanning and Higher Education

By Pat Artz

Prepared for Professor Sue Sampson

CIS 620 Management Information Systems

Fall Term 2002

October 10, 2002

Table of Contents

Environmental scanning is a tool used by strategic planners in the business and academic worlds. However, these terms often meet with a blank stare when presented to people outside of senior management. What is strategic planning? What is environmental scanning? How do businesses and universities use these tools? Is environmental scanning a tool that can be used more effectively at universities? These questions will be investigated, with specific attention on the role of environmental scanning at the Center for Information Technology at Bellevue University.

First, this paper will provide background information about strategic planning and the role of environmental scanning. Second, this paper will examine environmental scanning as business executives use it. Third, this paper will highlight the potential for environmental scanning in the academic world and investigate several examples of environmental scanning efforts at universities. Fourth, this paper will examine environmental scanning efforts and successes at the Center for Information Technology. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations will be offered to make even better use of environmental scanning at this center.

This paper will be submitted to Professor Sue Sampson to fulfill a research requirement for the CIS 620 course. Additionally, the paper will be submitted to Dan Creagan, the Director of the Center for Information Technology as part of the process of continuous improvement at the center.

Strategic planning is focused on the future. Strategic planners examine the objectives of an organization, examine the resources available, and then make fundamental decisions about those objectives and resources in response to a dynamic environment. Strategic planners are disciplined in their approach as they gather information, test assumptions, and anticipate the future. A typical thought for a strategic thinker would be, “Are we doing the right thing?”

The resulting strategic plan is a set of decisions about what to do, the reasons for doing it, and the way that the organization will do it. The plan may have to adapt to changes along the way, and probably will. The strategic decisions are revisited as the environment changes and the organization responds to those changes (What is strategic planning?).