Development of a Managerial Approach for a New IT Organisation Design Framework (ITODF) Based on Digitisation Trends.

Abstract Business organisations are currently at a tipping point. Disruptive technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and others transforms many industries in the ways they work. Lines between business and technology blur. Researchers have acknowledged that this is the time in which the IT organisation needs to re-strategize itself. In this dissertation, the author provides a structured derivation of an IT organisation design framework. He illustrates how the IT organisation needs to be designed in the digital age to be successful. The research results are derived through a qualitative exploratory study and a quantitative confirmatory study. The findings show that the detailed design of six dimensions is critical for the successful IT organisation design: Strategy, Structure, Information, Governance, Processes and Sourcing. Additionally, the dissertation outlines important implications for practitioners along five guiding principles. These guiding principles explain how to best implement the design framework in practice. Resumen Las organizaciones empresariales se encuentran actualmente en un punto de inflexión en el que tecnologías disruptivas como la Inteligencia Artificial, Blockchain y otras pueden transformar el funcionamiento de muchas industrias, pues la línea divisoria entre el negocio y la tecnología se hace cada vez más difusa. Los investigadores coinciden en que, en este momento, es necesario redefinir las organizaciones relacionadas con las Tecnologías de la Información (TI) en la empresa. En este trabajo, el autor ofrece un marco de diseño estructurado las empresas del sector TI. Se expone cómo debe definirse el diseño organizativo de TI en la era digital, realizando para ello un estudio exploratorio cualitativo y un estudio confirmatorio cuantitativo. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que, para garantizar el éxito de la organización TI, es fundamental el diseño detallado de seis dimensiones: Estrategia, Estructura, Información, Gobierno, Procesos y Abastecimiento. Además, el presente trabajo ofrece a los profesionales implicaciones importantes referidas a cada uno de los cinco principios rectores citados, con el fin de implementar adecuadamente en la práctica el diseño de la organización.Administración y Dirección de Empresa

Selecting cloud computing service provider with fuzzy ahp

With the growing demand for outsourcing the ICT section of enterprises, Cloud Computing service providers increased their popularity. Selecting the most appropriate provider for a demanding enterprise depends on many criteria that are based on the strategies, requirements, and resources of the enterprise. Since this problem is a kind of decision problem and depends on criteria of decision-maker, it can be modeled as Multi-criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem. In this research, a pilot case study is conducted in which the Cloud Computing service provider selection problem is modeled as a MCDM problem. For selecting the most appropriate provider, Fuzzy Extend Analysis is implemented in the case study

Attributes in Cloud Service Descriptions : A comprehensive Content Analysis

The exponential growth of cloud services can make it challenging for customers to find the best available service. This problem is further aggregated by not comprehensive and non-standardized service descriptions on cloud providers’ websites. This issue has not yet been adequately researched. In response to this gap and following the call (Lehner & Floerecke, 2023) to analyse IT service catalogues directed toward external customers, the purpose of this work is to examine the attribute usage in customer-facing service descriptions available on providers’ websites. A literature review thereby identified 76 different attributes used for cloud service description. Although there are a vast number of attributes used for cloud service descriptions, a core of attributes that were named in most papers, could be detected. In a following step, a content analysis of 100 service descriptions available on cloud providers’ websites was performed to understand, how frequently each attribute was used in the cloud service description from Cloud providers in general and also differentiated by size, cloud service model (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), and geographical location of the provider. The majority of attributes of the literature review could thereby be found in the content analysis as well. 15 more attributes have been added to the initial list as they could not be matched to any of the attributes from the literature. In addition, it could be verified that criteria such as size, service model, and geographical location have a significant impact on the attribute usage for service descriptions. Finally, expert interviews were conducted to get additional insights. The consent of the expert is that the main purpose of cloud service descriptions available on cloud providers’ websites is not necessarily to inform customers, but to attract and convince them. The insights of this work can provide valuable information to customers as well as cloud providers to understand, which attributes are currently used or not used for cloud service descriptions on provider’s websites. This research provides valuable information for both customers and cloud providers by identifying which attributes are currently used or not used for cloud service descriptions and can serve as a foundation for further research

Avaliação de ferramentas de computação em nuvem para empresas virtuais

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Automação e Sistemas, Florianópolis, 2016.A globalização da economia mundial vem impondo novos patamares de competitividade às Pequenas e Médias Empresas (PMEs). Mais vulneráveis, têm buscado nas alianças estratégicas um modelo de sustentabilidade que as permita ser mais eficazes e ágeis no atendimento das demandas do mercado. Um tipo proeminente de alianças são as Empresas Virtuais (EV). EV é uma rede de PMEs autônomas e distribuídas geograficamente que se unem temporariamente para a realização de um trabalho que requeira a junção de diferentes competências e/ou capacidades produtivas. Um dos principais aspectos que diferenciam redes tipo EV é o intenso e rotineiro uso da Internet e ferramentas de TI no suporte às transações técnico-financeiras realizadas entre empresas no transcorrer da execução do trabalho contratado. Porém, esse suporte informático exige investimento em TI pelas PMEs. Isto acaba por ser um grande problema dado às suas usuais grandes limitações de aquisição e manutenção em software, hardware e recursos humanos de TI. As alianças tipo EV se baseiam na ideia de compartilhamento de custos, recursos e riscos. Entretanto, pouco se observa um compartilhamento das infraestruturas de TI, o que pouparia investimentos e ao mesmo tempo se faria um uso mais racional delas. Esta dissertação explora a tecnologia de computação em nuvem (cloud computing) como uma abordagem de colaboração entre os membros de uma EV. Por um lado, um cenário de EVs traz um conjunto de requisitos que precisa ser considerado; por outro, há inúmeras ferramentas de nuvem no mercado, basicamente dos tipos SaaS, PaaS e IaaS. O trabalho desta dissertação explora o recorte analítico oriundo da intersecção desses dois pontos: quais seriam as mais adequadas ferramentas de nuvem para EV? Um trabalho bibliográfico foi realizado para melhor identificar os requisitos gerais de EVs assim como para selecionar adequadas ferramentas de nuvem. Posteriormente foi realizado um trabalho experimental com as ferramentas escolhidas (duas de SaaS, duas de PaaS e duas de IaaS), o que proporcionou não apenas um comparativo, mas também uma melhor compreensão das suas possibilidades e deficiências. Ao final, é feita uma análise quantitativa e qualitativa com um maior foco do ponto de vista do usuário final das empresas, sobre a adequabilidade de ferramentas de nuvem para EVs.Abstract : The globalization of the world economy has been imposing higher and higher levels of competitiveness to Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). More vulnerable, they have sought for establishing strategic alliances as a means to reach more sustainable business models that leverage them to work more efficiently and agilely so as to cope with market demands. A prominent type of alliance is the Virtual Enterprise (VE). A VE is a temporary network of autonomous and geographically distributed set of SMEs that decide to work together to handle the execution of given projects requiring the union of different competences and production capacities. One of the main aspects that differentiate VEs is the intense and uneventful use of the Internet and IT tools to support the execution of all sort of financial and technical transactions among the enterprises. However, this need requires high investments in IT by SMEs. This ends up creating a relevant problem regarding the usual limitations of SMEs for buying and maintaining software, hardware and IT-related human resources. VEs are strongly based on the idea of sharing costs, resources and risks. Nevertheless, it is far from being usual the sharing of IT infrastructures, which might save investments and provide a more rational use of such resources at the same time. This thesis exploits the cloud computing technology as a IT approach to support the collaboration among VE members. If on the one hand VEs have some requirements to be supported, on the other hand there are several cloud computing tools already available in the market, basically under the form of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS. This thesis focuses on the analytical research space from the intersection between these two points, so about which cloud computing tools fit VE requirements best ? A literature review was carried out to more properly identify the VE requirements for such tools as well as to select them. An experimental work was performed after that using the selected tools (being two of SaaS, two of PaaS and two of IaaS). This provided not only a comparison among tools, but also a better understanding upon the strengths and weaknesses of their features. A more qualitative and quantitative analysis from the end-user perspective about the suitability of cloud computing tools for VEs is presented at the end

Governança das tecnologias de informação: um modelo de gestão do valor das TI para as universidades públicas em Portugal

A Governança Corporativa das Tecnologias de Informação é uma temática primordial reconhecida pela comunidade académica e profissional. A necessidade de obter valor, seja financeiro ou estratégico para a organização, resultante dos investimentos realizados em TI implica uma gestão do valor das TI adequada. No contexto das universidades públicas nacionais esta problemática é acentuada pelas suas especificidades organizacionais que dificultam a implementação dos modelos e práticas mais relevantes e reconhecidas como o COBIT ou o Val IT. Este trabalho de investigação tem como objetivo identificar um conjunto de estruturas organizacionais, processos e mecanismos relacionais e simultaneamente desenvolver um modelo de gestão do valor das TI no âmbito da governança corporativa das TI para as universidades públicas em Portugal, que atenda a tais especificidades. O estudo segue uma abordagem exploratória com recurso a um método de investigação misto baseado na recolha e triangulação de dados qualitativos e quantitativos, obtidos por meio de inquéritos e entrevistas semiestruturadas a múltiplas partes interessadas, nomeadamente órgãos diretivos e de gestão com um papel de governo e de coordenação das TI em universidades nacionais, profissionais da indústria e fornecedores de produtos e serviços de TI com o intuito de incluir uma visão externa desta problemática. Os resultados confirmam a importância e pertinência dos investimentos em TI, para as instituições em estudo, concretamente pelo impacto na sustentabilidade e desenvolvimento dos seus eixos estratégicos de atuação (ensino, investigação e cooperação com a sociedade). Apesar desta influência, os resultados demonstram, uma ausência muito significativa de mecanismos de gestão de valor das TI por parte das instituições inquiridas, o que reforça o potencial interesse das universidades nacionais no modelo proposto neste trabalho, devidamente validado pelo painel de peritos que participou no estudo Delphi.Enterprise Governance of Information Technologies is a fundamental theme recognized by academic and professional community. The need to obtain value, whether financial or strategic to the organization, resulting from the investments made in IT implies adequate IT Value Management. In context of Portuguese public universities, this problem highlighted by organizational specificities that make difficult to implement relevant models and practices such as COBIT 5 or Val IT. This research aims to identify a set of organizational structures, processes and relational mechanisms and simultaneously develop a model of IT Value Management within the scope of Enterprise Governance of IT for public universities in Portugal. The study follows an exploratory approach using a mixed research method based on collection and triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data obtained through multi-stakeholder inquires. Namely over surveys and semi-structured interviews to management and governing bodies with role of government and IT coordination in portuguese universities, industry and IT suppliers in order to include an external view. Results obtained confirm the importance and relevance of investments made in IT for institutions under study, specifically the impact on sustainability and development of strategic axes of action (teaching, research and cooperation with society). In spite of this influence, results demonstrate a significant absence of IT Value Management mechanisms in Portuguese universities, which highlight potential interest in artifacts proposed and duly validated by expert panel.Programa Doutoral em Engenharia e Gestão Industria