Factors Affecting The Organizational Adoption Of Service-Oriented Architecture (Soa)

Service-oriented computing is an emerging IT innovation. Among its manifestations is service-oriented architecture (SOA), an architectural approach to designing and implementing IT solutions. Academic empirical research on SOA adoption is scarce, with many studies focussing on qualitative analysis. The purpose of this study is to explore SOA adoption using a quantitative approach. This study investigates organizational SOA adoption in South Africa from DOI theory and TOE framework perspectives. A comprehensive model of SOA adoption is presented along with an associated research instrument. In order to validate the instrument and to gauge the state of SOA adoption, an online survey was conducted among South African organizations. The results of the survey highlight a number of factors influencing SOA adoption. Use of multiple standards and platforms, complexity, compatibility, cost, top management support, good governance and strategy, adequate human and financial resources, vendor support for integration and development tools are all significant factors for a fruitful SOA implementation. The findings of this study can contribute to the body of knowledge on organizational SOA adoption and create opportunities for future related research in this field

SME and NPO readiness for adopting software-as-a-service in developing countries

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.This research aims to study [Software-as-a-Service] SaaS readiness and adoption in South Africa. South Africa is an emerging economy, but it has the qualities of both an emerging and a developing country. The telecommunications infrastructure in particular has the qualities of a developing country. This study focuses on small to medium sized organisations, comprising both enterprises and non-profit organisations. Molla and Licker's (2005a) Perceived E-Readiness Model (PERM) is adapted and used to study SaaS readiness and adoption. Important SaaS multi-theoretical factors were added to the PERM to increase the rigorousness of the model

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Strategies Information and Communication Technology Managers Use to Build Employee Competencies

The World Economic Forum (WEF) found that Botswana\u27s information and communication technology (ICT) networked readiness index (NRI) had declined from position 89 in 2012 to 104 in 2015. A decline in Botswana\u27s ICT NRI resulted in a modest gross domestic product (GDP) growth increasing from 4.2% in 2012 to 5.0% in 2015. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies ICT service provider managers use to build employee competencies to address ICT infrastructure performance deficiencies. The target population for this study consisted of over 120 managers from 2 ICT service providers located in Gaborone and Francistown in Botswana. The conceptual framework for this study was information technology (IT) competency model. Face-to-face interviews with 15 managers and a review of 12 company documents were gathered and all interpretations from the data were subjected to member checking to ensure the trustworthiness of the study findings. The thematic analyses of participants\u27 interviews and company documents resulted in the emergence of 3 common themes: developing professional employee competencies through training, promoting knowledge acquisition and skills transfer, and developing budgets for funding the development of employee competencies. Participants cited training and professional development as a reason for ICT infrastructure performance deficiencies. Social implications from this study include developing strategies business managers can use to build employee competencies to improve ICT infrastructure performance, which could result in improved services to citizens and enhanced national development, social transformation, and economic diversification

Editorial

It is tradition that the Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation (EJISE) publish a special issue containing the full versions of the best papers that were presented in a preliminary version during the 8th European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation (ECIME 2014). The faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the Ghent University was host for this successful conference on 11-12th of September 2014. ECIME 2014 received a submission of 86 abstracts and after the double-blind peer review process, thirty one academic research papers, nine PhD research papers, one master research paper and four work-in-progress papers were accepted and selected for presentation. ECIME 2014 hosted academics from twenty-two nationalities, amongst them: Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia (FYROM), Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Turkey and the UK. From the thirty-one academic papers presented during the conference nine papers were selected for inclusion in this special issue of EJISE. The selected papers represent empirical work as well as theoretical research on the broad topic of management and evaluation of information systems. The papers show a wide variety of perspectives to deal with the problem

Private Enterprise for Public Health: Opportunities for Business to Improve Women's and Children's Health

This guide, developed by FSG and published by the Innovation Working Group in support of the global Every Woman, Every Child effort, explores how companies can create shared value in women's and children's health. The document sets out opportunities for multiple different industries to develop new product and services, improve delivery systems and strengthen health systems that can support global efforts to save 16 million women's and children's lives between now and 2015. It particularly notes that companies need not wait for health services to "catch up" with their economic model, but rather they can work proactively to help accelerate change, by partnering with other industries, civil society and the public sector to create collective impact in a specific location. The aim of the guide is to catalyze these transformative partnerships

Development that works, March 31, 2011

This repository item contains a single issue of the Pardee Conference Series, On March 31, 2011, more than 100 people participated in a conference titled “Development That Works,” sponsored by Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future in collaboration with the BU Global Development program. In the pages that follow, four essays written by Boston University graduate students capture the salient points and overarching themes from the four sessions, each of which featured presentations by outstanding scholars and practitioners working in the field of development. The conference agenda and speakers’ biographies are included following the essays.The theme and the title of the conference—”Development That Works”—stemmed from the conference organizers’ desire to explore, from a groundlevel perspective, what programs, policies, and practices have been shown—or appear to have the potential—to achieve sustained, long-term advances in development in various parts of the world. The intent was not to simply showcase “success stories,” but rather to explore the larger concepts and opportunities that have resulted in development that is meaningful and sustainable over time. The presentations and discussions focused on critical assessments of why and how some programs take hold, and what can be learned from them. From the influence of global economic structures to innovative private sector programs and the need to evaluate development programs at the “granular” level, the expert panelists provided well-informed and often provocative perspectives on what is and isn’t working in development programs today, and what could work better in the future

Factors affecting adoption of service -oriented architecture (SOA) at an enterprise level

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-112).Service-oriented computing is an emerging IT innovation. Among its manifestations is service-oriented architecture (SOA), an approach to designing and implementing IT solutions. Organizations adopting SOA are facing implementation challenges. Examining factors affecting SOA adoption at an organizational level can reduce uncertainty about SOA, its advantages and disadvantages, and implementation issues. This study uses quantitative analysis to investigate organizational SOA adoption in South Africa from DOI theory and TOE framework perspectives. Results highlight a number of factors influencing SOA adoption: use of multiple standards and platforms, complexity, compatibility, cost, top management support, good governance and strategy, adequate human and financial resources, vendor support for integration and development tools

Financing Africa: Through the crisis and beyond.

[Dataset available: http://hdl.handle.net/10411/17679]