Research on Public Procurement of Information Systems: The Need for a Process Approach

n this paper, I take stock of the current state of research on public procurement of information systems (IS). Based on a review of the extant literature, I identify several research gaps. A key finding is that little attention has been paid to the process of public procurement, and most of the papers focusing on the process are limited to one specific task, such as tendering and vendor selection. A substantial proportion of these studies are variance or snapshot types. I emphasize the need for more longitudinal research that covers the whole process, and suggest a research approach that focuses on issues such as stakeholder involvement and management, and the application of dialectics

Electronic information sharing in local government authorities: Factors influencing the decision-making process

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in International Journal of Information Management. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.Local Government Authorities (LGAs) are mainly characterised as information-intensive organisations. To satisfy their information requirements, effective information sharing within and among LGAs is necessary. Nevertheless, the dilemma of Inter-Organisational Information Sharing (IOIS) has been regarded as an inevitable issue for the public sector. Despite a decade of active research and practice, the field lacks a comprehensive framework to examine the factors influencing Electronic Information Sharing (EIS) among LGAs. The research presented in this paper contributes towards resolving this problem by developing a conceptual framework of factors influencing EIS in Government-to-Government (G2G) collaboration. By presenting this model, we attempt to clarify that EIS in LGAs is affected by a combination of environmental, organisational, business process, and technological factors and that it should not be scrutinised merely from a technical perspective. To validate the conceptual rationale, multiple case study based research strategy was selected. From an analysis of the empirical data from two case organisations, this paper exemplifies the importance (i.e. prioritisation) of these factors in influencing EIS by utilising the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. The intent herein is to offer LGA decision-makers with a systematic decision-making process in realising the importance (i.e. from most important to least important) of EIS influential factors. This systematic process will also assist LGA decision-makers in better interpreting EIS and its underlying problems. The research reported herein should be of interest to both academics and practitioners who are involved in IOIS, in general, and collaborative e-Government, in particular

SMEs e-business behaviour: a demographics and strategic analysis

The aim of this research was to understand the strategic uses of e-business systems and technologies by classifying companies and particularly small and medium businesses according to demographics as well as e-business behavior variables.The study was based on data from a large quantitative survey of European E-business W@tch for the period 2007 using questionnaire interviews (N=409). We employed two-step cluster analysis, multinomial logistic regression and stepwise descriminant analysis as the most appropriate methods for our analysis. The findings revealed six clusters associated to e-business adoption. The six groups differ in terms of demographic characteristics as well as e-business applications they use. We found that the following clusters exist: (a) Leaders: large companies that extensively use ebusiness in a strategic manner (b) innovators: use e-business in an way that allows them to innovate and differentiate from other companies (c Beginners: small and medium companies across all sectors that only recently start to use e-business (d) Unready Adopters: micro and small companies that lag behind (e) Late Adopters: small-size companies but larger that the Unready Adopters, that appear not to be interest in the advances of ICTs and (f) Laggards: micro companies with little use of e-business.The results of our survey can positively contribute to managers aiming to take advantage of technological advances in electronic business as well as to any researcher who study e-business management and applications

A modular product structure based methodology for seamless information flow in PLM system implementation

Product development process deals with large amount of information generated from market survey, concept design, manufacture, test, limited production, production, service, and obsoleting. The information should be stored systematically so that it is easily traceable and reusable for future product development. This paper presents a methodology for seamless product information flow between the three main enterprise information systems such as Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM), Product Data/Lifecycle Management (PDM/PLM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) used in the process of innovative product development while implementing PLM. PLM implementation deals with various existing product data and information generated over years both from CAD and ERP systems. Data integration is very challenging in multi-national engineering companies and has important impact on future decisions while creating new processes. The aim is to define a modular product structure that can be used to connect the product information throughout the life cycle that can be reused effectively and efficiently for future similar products

Crossing the chasm between industrial and software companies

Very few of the enterprise resource programme implementations put into action manage to meet their requirements satisfyingly yet the critical failure factors as well as critical success factors have been studied very narrowly. The role and the point of view of the employees who use the software has not been studied extensively throughout this operation and possibly holds some answers. To discover whether there is a gap in understanding from the software developers to the final users of the programme, a thorough inspection into the past research was required to gather a holistic picture. The objective was to define this gap in understanding and define what it would mean if it was there. The numbers of the failed and struggling implementations of different ERPs are too high to be accountable by the previously claimed issues such as cultural differences, top management support and ERP vendor support. These factors play a big role between complete failures and successful implementations by the vendors’ standards but are still far from the desired benefits desired within the procuring companies. A possible solution to the issue of implementing and operating an ERP better might lie on the software side of things instead of on the procuring companies. Gamification is a rising topic in many software fields and has already begun to show in the ERPs as well. Future studies are needed to test the real potential this newish field of software promises

E-Procurement as an Alternate Paradigm to the Challenges of Procuring Goods and Services in the Public Sector - A Case Study of Ghana Cocoa Board

The main purpose of the research was to identify challenges that procurement officers encounter in their day to day activities of procuring goods and services for their organization. Ghana Cocoa Board was used as a case study and an extensive study conducted on e-procurement to assess if it would serve as a better alternative to the manual way of procuring items and services in public institutions. Scholarly articles were reviewed to provide an empirical insight into the impact of using e-procurement in institutions. Questionnaires and interviews were used to assess the views of the respondents. Upon collecting the data and analyzing the results, the findings of the study revealed that procurement officers were faced with challenges such as long lead-times in the procurement of goods and services, delay in the execution of task and lack of transparency in the procurement process. Also the procurement officers and the staff members interviewed were of the view that e-procurement would be better alternative to the manual procedure used for procuring goods and services. The researchers recommended that the Ghana Public Procurement Authority (PPA) should adopt pragmatic steps towards educating procurement officers on the value of e-procurement and subsequently (the PPA) should consider encouraging all procurement entities to adopt e-procurement for the purchasing of goods rather than the manual method of procurement. Keywords: e-Procurement, Transparency, Public Procurement Authority (PPA)