It typicaly uses a strategic information system to manage information and assist in strategic decision making. A strategic information system has been defined as, "The information system to support or change enterprise's strategy." by Charles Wiseman (Strategy and Computers 1985). Sprague has defined three classifications of strategic information systems:

1. Competitive system
2. Cooperative system
3. The system changes operations of organization

• Setting specific strategic goals which will improve the position of the company, rather than more general goals such as increased profit or reduced costs.
• Measuring performance in terms of defined goals, and making the information available to those making strategic decisions.
• Measuring and managing "intellectual capital", the skill and knowledge base of the companies workforce.
• Activity based management (ABM), which seeks to evaluate customers and projects in terms of their total cost and benefit to the organisation, rather than assuming that the most important projects are those bringing the highest revenue.