Managing Change: Business/ IT Alignment and Adaptability of Information Systems

The ability to adapt to frequent changes has emerged as a new paradigm for successful business operations. The paper outlines an approach for business/ IT alignment taking organizational transformation into account. A framework for enterprise architecture is introduced which links business - , application -, and infrastructure architecture. Key element of architecture design is to account for interdependencies among the building blocks of architecture. Blueprints give a comprehensive view on the building blocks and how the interact. The criteria and process how to analyse the adaptability of information systems are described. Based on the assessment principal strategies for information system deployment are pointed out. Finally the architecture development process and the main stakeholders and their respective usage of the design techniques are sketched. Keywords: business/ IT alignment, organizational change, adaptability of information systems, enterprise architecture, architecture management, blue prints, architecture development process, stakeholder

Operational Alignment in Hospitals - The Role of Social Capital between IT and Medical Departments

This research examines how business-IT alignment at the operational level in hospitals is constituted and how operational business-IT alignment facilitates value creation. A conceptual model of operational alignment is developed and empirically tested in German hospitals. Conceptualized as cross-functional interconnectedness enabling purposeful collaborative processes between business and IT, it is shown that operational alignment is particularly constituted by strong relations between business and IT, mutual trust and cognitive linkages. Results show a strong impact of cross-functional cooperation on IT business value. Cross-functional cooperation is found to influence value both directly and mediated through the degree to which information systems fit with requirements, working processes, and existing practices of medical de-partments. Overall, it is demonstrated that social capital between business and IT unfolding in effective collaboration at the operational level facilitate the creation of IT business value. The results may motivate practitioners to take measures in order to strengthen social capital and, hence, blur boundaries between business and IT, particularly in hospitals

Betriebliche Anwendungssysteme : Tagungsband zur AKWI-Fachtagung vom 11. bis 14.09.2011 an der Fachhochschule Worms

In heutigen Unternehmen werden im Kern alle Aufgaben durch Anwendungssysteme direkt oder durch diese unterstützt erledigt. Folglich beschreiben betriebliche Anwendungssysteme heute im Grunde, welche Aufgaben in Unternehmen überhaupt zu lösen sind und welche davon automatisiert und somit durch Software erledigt bzw. unterstützt werden können. Die Arbeit an und mit Betrieblichen Anwendungssystemen ist gekennzeichnet durch eine große thematische Breite und demonstriert die für die Wirtschaftsinformatik charakteristische Nutzung von Ansätzen der Betriebswirtschaftslehre sowie der Informatik. Deswegen erwarteten die Herausgeber sehr heterogene Themenvorschläge und sie wurden nicht enttäuscht. Die letztlich ausgewählten Themen stellen aktuelle Entwicklungs- und anwendungsorientierte Forschungsprojekte zu Geschäftsprozessen, Standardsoftware, Softwareentwicklung und Betrieb von Anwendungssystemen vor. Dadurch beschreiben sie das heute existierende Berufsbild von Wirtschaftsinformatikern und -innen in der industriellen Praxis

Strukturprobleme erzeugen Spannungen

Wenn IT und Fachabteilung mal wieder über Kreuz liegen, liegt das selten an schlechter Qualität und mangelndem Willen. Die Ursache sind vielmehr strukturelle Probleme

A Survey on Economic-driven Evaluations of Information Technology

The economic-driven evaluation of information technology (IT) has become an important instrument in the management of IT projects. Numerous approaches have been developed to quantify the costs of an IT investment and its assumed profit, to evaluate its impact on business process performance, and to analyze the role of IT regarding the achievement of enterprise objectives. This paper discusses approaches for evaluating IT from an economic-driven perspective. Our comparison is based on a framework distinguishing between classification criteria and evaluation criteria. The former allow for the categorization of evaluation approaches based on their similarities and differences. The latter, by contrast, represent attributes that allow to evaluate the discussed approaches. Finally, we give an example of a typical economic-driven IT evaluation

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF FOOD NETWORKS: ARE NETWORK GOALS NECESSARY AND ACHIEVABLE?

Nowadays food products are increasingly produced in vertically cooperating supply chain networks. The questions of how such networks have to be designed and governed have been addressed in several well known articles. However, questions dealing with chain strategy and management are not discussed satisfyingly. In particular, the importance of network goals for the network’s strategy and management is undisclosed. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to provide the theoretical elaboration on the possible role of network goals in strategic chain management. Specifically, the following questions are inquired. First, what are the network goals? Second, how can these goals affect chain management?Supply Chain Networks, Network Goals, Chain Management, Agri-Food Business, Agribusiness,

Towards Model Driven Architecture in Health Care Information System Development

Failed software projects are often the result of an unsystematic transfer of business requirements to the implementation. This deficit led to the specification of the Model Driven Architecture (MDA). It claims a consistent use of conceptual models for the software development process from requirement analysis to technical specification of software. The MDA reduces the gap between the business level and the information technology (IT) level by defining a methodological framework to link these levels (Business-IT alignment). We will present the use of an MDA in health care domain. For this purpose, we show how the paradigm of MDA can be configured to implement medical application software based on a telemedical IT platform (telehealth platform). Additionally to the conceptual structure of the developed approach and the domain-specific alignment, lessons learned from the experiences gathered during design process will be formulated as assistance for similar projects and substantiated with an exemplary application

SOA-Migration und - Integration auf Basis von Service-Repositories

Zusammenfassungen: Serviceorientierte Architekturen (SOA) spielen eine wichtige Rolle in der Gestaltung von Unternehmensarchitekturen. Dieser Beitrag zeigt, wie mithilfe von Indikatoren der Migrations- und Integrationsbedarf klassischer Applikationslandschaften in serviceorientierte Architekturen bewertet werden kann. Anhand der Indikatoren lassen sich Normstrategien für die Priorisierung der Migration und Integration ableiten. Dadurch können fallspezifisch Fragestellungen, wie z. B., wie viel Serviceorientierung notwendig ist, unter wirtschaftlichen Gesichtspunkten beantwortet werden. Am Beispiel eines Service-Repositories bei der Sparkassen Informatik GmbH & Co. KG wird gezeigt, wie dieses systematisch für die Bewertung von Services genutzt werden kan

On exposing strategic and structural mismatches between business and information systems: misalignment symptom detection based on enterprise architecture model analysis = Stratégiai és strukturális összehangolási zavarok feltárása az üzleti és informatikai területek között: összehangolási zavarok tüneteinek azonosítása vállalati architektúra modellek elemzésével

One of the most important issues on information systems (IS) research is the need to align business with information systems and information technology (IT). Since information systems facilitate the success of business strategies, the importance of business-IT (or strategic) alignment is unquestionable. While organisations address alignment achievement, they are continually suffering from misalignments. These difficulties (the misalignments) encumber the achievement of alignment, and lead us to the phenomenon of misalignment. This Ph.D. dissertation deals with the concept of misalignment, with special attention on enterprise architecture (EA)-based analytical potential. The main purpose of the proposed research is to analyse strategic misalignment between the business dimension and the information systems dimension. The problem of business-IT alignment is translated into the aspects of enterprise architecture. The study aims to accomplish an EA-based, systematic analysis of mismatches between business and information systems