It is likely that the difficulties associated with information management partly explain the failure of many organisations to adequately plan for their information needs. In order to learn which staff have roles in strategic planning for information systems, respondents were also asked to indicate the level of contribution to information systems planning by various categories of persons within their organisations. While senior managers generally have a high involvement, accountants, have a much lower level of involvement. About two-thirds of boards of directors have some involvement, presumably in a monitoring capacity, with the remaining third having no involvement at all. With the high levels of expenditure and increasing reliance on information technology in business, all boards of directors should appraise what monitoring activity is prudent.
Large organisations appear to make only slight use of external consultants.
The patterns of involvement are similar in the other two groups, with a few notable differences. Senior executives appear to play a greater role in systems planning in small organisations. This is, perhaps, to be expected as there would tend to be less specialisation in smaller organisations. Medium and small organisations make greater use of external consultants. There are a considerable number of organisations in all groups in which senior management have no involvement.