An examination of information systems and technology maturity and it’s relationship to methods of contributing information to the information systems planning process in National Health Service acute trust hospitals

As a result of the use of Nolan's six Stage model of IS and IT maturity in a number of consultancy studies in the early 1980s, managers felt they could maximise the contribution of the IS and IT portfolios to the achievement of business strategy by becoming more IS and IT mature. Despite the development of a further eight models since 1979, empirical tests exist only of the Nolan model and one other, McFarlan, McKenney and Pyburn's model ofIT assimilation. This research has sought further empirical evidence of IS and IT maturity in National Health Service (NHS) acute Trust hospitals. Survey method was used to collect data from over seventy top and middle managers representing four Trust hospitals. Statistical analysis of these data provided evidence that six of twenty-three maturity characteristics identified in existing models can currently be used to differentiate the maturity of NHS acute Trust hospitals. These six characteristics had been identified both in models which considered a range of IS and IT issues and in models which had concentrated on a single aspect of IS and IT management. This indicated that further insight is gained by combining these approaches when modelling IS and IT maturity. Managers also placed different emphasis on the use of specific methods of contributing information to the IS planning process in hospitals which exhibited greater IS and IT maturity than in hospitals which exhibited lesser IS and IT maturity. This indicates the existence ,of a further IS maturity characteristic, further evidence of which can now be sought in other industry sectors

Alignment of IT and business strategies in small and medium-size enterprises in the Eastern Cape Province.

Master of Commerce in Information Ssytems and Technology. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2017.In today’s business environment, leveraging Information Technology (IT) is of key importance as it helps organisations improve their performance. However, to achieve this, companies must ensure that their IT and business strategies are aligned. The fundamental goal of aligning IT and business strategies is to ensure that IT capability supports, enables and leads business strategy where appropriate. Alignment explains the degree to which the business plans, goals, and mission support, or are supported by their IT complements (Reich & Benbasat, 1996; Walter, Kellermanns, Floyd, Veiga, & Matherne, 2013). In this, alignment develops into a relationship where business and IT functions adjust their strategies simultaneously. Such alignment can improve business performance. Importantly, large amounts of research conducted in this area focus on large organisations, particularly in developed countries. Yet little is known about the subject in SMEs especially in developing countries. This study investigates the alignment of IT and business strategies in SMEs in the Eastern Cape Province. A survey methodology was employed to collect data, with a questionnaire as a tool. Forty-two questions developed from four main questions: the state of communication, the state of IT metrics, the state of IT business planning, and the state of alignment practices. According to data obtained from the Border-Kei Chamber, at the time of data collection, there were one hundred and seventy-three SMEs registered with the organisation. However, from that population, one hundred and twenty-eight questionnaires were filled, returned and analysed. The results showed significant agreement that there is communication between IT and business strategies in SMEs, on Metrics and on IT Business planning. However, pertaining the use of alignment models and alignment practises, there was a significant disagreement. The study recommends that SMEs should create platforms to educate IT personnel about the business; more work on value metric is required. Participation of IT in business strategic planning should be encouraged. It is recommended that SMEs look into alignment model/s that can be used to support how IT planning/ investment, managing and governance of IT is done

Strategic planning for information systems: A sociotechnical view of boundary and stakeholder insufficiencies

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 12/11/2002.The thesis proposes that Strategic Planning for Information Systems (SPIS) has become ineffective through a tendency to focus on the information technologies involved. The thesis argues that the dominant rational, reductionist epistemology of SPIS methods, tools and techniques limits the effectiveness of SPIS through methodological impoverishment. The thesis proposes that a humanistic, sociotechnical perspective of SPIS accommodates the use of complementary tools and techniques that improve the process. This thesis advances a new Framework to improve the process of SPIS based on the propositions; first that the lack of sufficient knowledge of both the internal and external environment is a root cause of many of these insufficiencies, and second that this knowledge is held within the stakeholders of this process. An ernancipatory information systems research programme (Klein and Hirschheim, 1987) is used to advance a framework that overcomes the insufficiency and inadequacy of the process of strategic planning for information systems in organisations that permits information systems to fail. The framework is tested on two organisations and shows that the proposed Framework has significant potential to improve the SPIS process. The case research investigates the role of stakeholders, knowledge, and boundaries in the process of SPIS in order to develop more sufficient methods for the process of SPIS that address the perceived inadequacies in current processes, and thus provide an improved strategic planning process for information systems. Two novel tools are introduced: the Stakeholder Web and the Interaction Matrix. Their evolution is a major contribution of this research. The collection of tools presents a practical research contribution for the SPIS process and as generic (methodological) research tools. A new definition for the term 'stakeholder' is formulated and used to supply clarity in understanding for this study - and would prove useful for the field of IS

An investigation into the process, context and organisational factors that lead to IS driven sustained competitive advantages in financial services, retailing and manufacturing

The study undertook an examination of the process, context and organisational factors that lead to an IS-driven sustainable competitive advantage. The research contributes theory-based conceptual synthesis and empirical evidence to an area that has transformed radically over the last fifteen years. The methodology adopted a pluralistic approach drawing upon both positivism and interpretist evidence. Care was taken to ensure that the primary research undertaken in Financial Services, Retailing and Manufacturing was subject to a variety of validating procedures and controls. The study identifled a role for the IS derived sustainability model and found that technology alone did not sustain a performance edge but that it needs to be combined with complementary resources to create an isolating mechanism. The work demonstrated that trade secrets, communication links to external organisations, innovative developments and accessing unique resources were the source of sustained competitive advantages. The findings also provided evidence that open culture and communications, workgroup consensus, top management support and possessing a highly flexible organisation were also important attributes of non ephemeral IS based advantages. A practical framework was proposed which allows an organisation to assess the potential of deriving IS based sustainable competitive advantage from analysing its resources and capabilities and discusses ways in which those resources and capabilities can be augmented

The impact of potential flexibility gains and losses on the intention to outsource business processes

In an ever accelerating world demanding fast adjustment to changing business environments, organizational flexibility becomes increasingly important. By outsourcing business processes (BPO), there are both potential flexibility losses (e.g. loss of control) and potential flexibility gains (e.g. the transformation of fixed to variable costs). Firms have to balance this trade-off to retain sufficient flexibility or even enlarge their strategic and operational flexibility. Based on an empirical study with Germany’s Top 200 Banks it is shown that the perception of both flexibility gains and losses have a profound impact on the outsourcers’ attitude towards BPO. In particular, potential flexibility losses have a higher impact on outsourcers’ attitude than potential flexibility gains. Subsequently, in accordance with the theory of reasoned action it turns out that attitude is an antecedent of the intention towards outsourcing. Therefore we argue that flexibility-related issues should be explicitly considered in outsourcing evaluations and service providers should emphasize on contractual means to demonstrate that organizational flexibility will not be negatively affected

Transfers and path choice in urban public transport systems

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-294).Transfers are endemic in public transport systems. Empirical evidence shows that a large portion of public transport journeys involve at least one change of vehicles, and that the transfer experience significantly affects the travelers' satisfaction with the public transport service, and whether they view public transport as an effective option. Despite their importance, however, transfers have long been overlooked by decision-makers, transportation planners, and analysts. Transfer-related research, practice, and investments are rare compared with many other aspects of transportation planning, probably because (1) the underlying transfer behavior is too complex; (2) the analysis methods are too primitive; and (3) the applications are not straightforward. This dissertation focuses on these issues and contributes to current literature in three aspects: methodology development, behavior exploration, and applications in practice. In this research, I adopt a path-choice approach based on travelers' revealed preference to measure the disutility associated with transfer, or the so-called transfer penalty. I am able to quantify transfer experience in a variety of situations in great spatial detail, and reduce the external "noises" that might contaminate the model estimation. I then apply the method to two public transport networks: a relative small and simple rail network (subway and commuter rail) in Boston and a large and complex network (Underground) in London. Both networks offer a large variability of transfer environment and transfer activities. Estimation results show high system-wide transfer penalties in both studies, indicating that transfer experience can have a very negative impact on the performance and competitiveness of public transport. They also suggest that the system-average value has limited applications in planning and operation because the transfer penalty varies greatly across station and movement. Such variation is largely caused by different transfer environments, not by different personal characteristics, attitudes, preferences, or perceptions, at least in the two investigated networks.The two applications to the London Underground network illustrate that the lack of careful consideration of transfer effect can lead to inaccurate passenger flow estimation as well as less credible project evaluation and investment justification. The results further confirm the potential, as well as the importance, of transfer planning in major multimodal public transport networks.by Zhan Guo.Ph.D

A study of an integrated approach for strategy formulation and performance measurement in manufacturing enterprises.

Performance measurement quantifies the efficiency and effectiveness of action that helps organisations translate their strategies into results and fixes accountability to improve performance. This research identifies two problem statements: First, can integrating strategy formulation with measurement initiatives safeguard the performance goals in manufacturing enterprises? And second, how can manufacturing enterprises derive an integrated approach that meet their requirements and needs for strategy formulation (SF) and performance measurement (PM) system implementation? This work proposes an integrated paradigm that aligns the strategy-related performance measures to attain performance improvement in manufacturing enterprises. A two-stage empirical study was conducted, with 232 Hong Kong firms and 85 Shanghai firms participating in the study. The first stage surveys identified the common success factors, problem areas and strategy choices, and examined the relationship amongst corporate, marketing, technology and operational strengths and the `reactive/proactive' strategy choices. The subsequent personal interviews in Hong Kong complemented the survey findings by examining the impact of SF/PM efforts in manufacturing enterprises. There were two series of interviews. The first series acquired the managerial views on the decision criteria on the integration of strategy formulation and performance measures, with the aid of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology. The second interview series derived several design elements and process considerations for aligning strategy formulation with performance measures. The empirical study used in this research provided important inputs and served as a foundation for development of a SF/PM Integration (SPI) model. In an attempt to integrate strategy formulation and performance measurement, the SPI model adopts the guiding principles embodied with the Business Excellence Models and stresses the results-oriented assessments on five categories of SF/PM criteria, namely leadership and constancy of purpose, management by process, people development, continuous improvement, and results orientation. Unlike that of the MBNQA and EQA, the point values for criteria and sub-elements of SPI model were generated collectively from the perspectives of industry practitioners in the manufacturing sectors. These were determined using the normalised weights obtained from the AHP analysis of empirical interview findings. They are taken together to calculate the overall performance index for an organisation. The process framework comprises five stages starting from strategy formulation to implementation and evaluation of an integrated performance measurement system. It encapsulates the requirements, critical processes and activities of strategy formulation and performance measures into the way they are being managed in organisations. The SPI model helps manufacturing enterprises to build a self-assessment platform for amalgamating strategies, plans and actions which can enable performance improvement. It can supplement any Business Excellence Models, and serves three important purposes. Firstly, it is a working tool for integrating SF and PM initiatives and guiding the implementation of performance measurement system in manufacturing enterprises. Secondly, using the model can help improve the effectiveness of management practices in relation to performance measures and self-assessment; and thirdly, using the model can facilitate information sharing of best practices within an organisation and benchmark performance against competitors and other organisations. Results of a post-evaluation survey affirmed that the model and processes could encourage organisational learning and provide a practical means for manufacturing enterprises to devise effective self-assessment and performance improvement. The novel contributions of the research are to identify the key SF/PM attributes, develop the self-assessment scoring method and the process framework accompanying the SPI model. Manufacturing enterprises must evolve a holistic performance measurement system matching their corporate mission, objectives and strategies. The SPI model provides them with a systems approach for building and integrating the capabilities of SF and PM to attain performance improvement goals, irrespective of their business nature and sizes

Leveraging business Intelligence and analytics to improve decision-making and organisational success

In a complex and dynamic organisational environment, challenges and dilemmas exist on how to maximise the value of Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI&A). The expectation of BI&A is to improve decision-making for core business processes that drive business performance. A multi-disciplinary review of theories from the domains of strategic management, technology adoption and economics claims that tasks, technology, people and structures (TTPS) need to be aligned for BI&A to add value to decision-making. However, these imperatives interplay, making it difficult to determine how they are configured. Whilst the links between TTPS have been previously recognised in the Socio-Technical Systems theory, no studies have delved into the issue of their configuration. This configuration is addressed in this study by adopting the fit as Gestalts approach, which examines the relationships among these elements and also determines how best to align them. A Gestalt looks at configurations that arise based on the level of coherence and helps determine the level of alignment amongst complex relationships. This study builds on an online quantitative survey tool based on a conceptual model for aligning TTPS. The alignment model contributes to the conceptual development of alignment of TTPS. Data was collected from organisations in a South African context. Individuals who participated in the survey came from the retail, insurance, banking, telecommunications and manufacturing industry sectors. This study's results show that there is close alignment that emerges between TTPS in Cluster 6 which comprises of IT experts and financial planners. Adequate training, coupled with structures encouraging usage of Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI&A), result in higher organisational success. This is because BI&A technology is in sync with the tasks it is being used for and users have high self-efficacy. Further analysis shows that poor organisational performance can be linked to gaps in alignment and the lack of an organisational culture that motivates usage of BI&A tools. This is because there is misalignment; therefore respondents do not find any value in using BI&A, thus impacting organisational performance. Applying a configurational approach helps researchers and practitioners identify coherent patterns that work well cohesively and comprehensively. The tangible contribution of this study is the conceptual model presented to achieve alignment. In essence, organisations can use the model for aligning tasks, technology, people and structures to better identify ideal configurations of the factors which are working cohesively and consequently find ways of leveraging Business intelligence and Analytics

An integrated systems framework for analyzing family business planning

The purpose of this research study was to create an integrated systems framework to analyze the planning process in family businesses. The model was developed from a literature review of family study, organizational development, and family business research. Major components of the family business planning process were identified. A systems framework for examining family business planning was proposed. A fieldwork research plan was designed using a case study of a family business. The data collected in the case study analysis were used to explain the functioning of the model. The research data were organized within a proposed seven-stage model consisting of Facilitating Conditions, Assessment, Issue Identification, Reconciliation, Congruence, Specific Plan Development, and Plan Output. Individual congruence profiles were developed in relation to family member goal attainment and family business goal attainment. A summary congruence model was presented describing a composite congruence of all family members within the family business. The proposed planning structure provided an effective means of assessing a family business. The congruency structure was instrumental in determining whether the goals of the business and the individual family members were congruent. The model was refined through the use of the case study