Extending the enterprise: An evaluation of ERP and EAI technologies within a Case Study organisation

It is widely understood that both Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS), provide great benefits in improving the visibility of supply and value chains within and across organisational boundaries. Those enterprises which can realise the benefits of extending their core business processes outwards to clients and trading partners, will be able to create unique supply chain-dependent products and solutions. Thus, such business infrastructures have enabled organisations to expand and improve the effectiveness of their enterprise. One method to achieve this, has been to integrate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems with web-based and other IS systems, using Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) technologies. This paper seeks to investigate those factors which contributed to a case organisation’s extended enterprise experiences, by using extant ERP and EAI implementation IS evaluation criteria; and by placing the research results within the context of applicable IS research techniques in the area

A Case Study of a Financial Services Provider: Progressing Towards Applying Advanced Enterprise Engineering

This paper reports the findings of an empirical investigation of an organization that is progressing towards applying advanced enterprise engineering. Advanced enterprise engineering focuses on important aspects for strategic planning of an enterprise. The investigation adopts an interpretive case study approach and explores qualitative data on aspects of enterprise engineering in practice. The paper identifies various practices, which are prevalent in progressing organizations. This study suggests characteristics that describe the readiness of an organization to apply advanced enterprise engineering approaches. The originality of this study is its description of the organizational and sub-cultural context, communication issues, change approaches and identified challenges of an organization progressing towards applying advanced enterprise engineering. This case study analysis focuses on social aspects in a progressing organization

CONSUMERIZATION OF IT – WHERE IS THE THEORY?

Consumerization of IT (CoIT) is a key trend affecting society at large, including organizations of all kinds. A consensus about the defining aspects of CoIT has not yet been reached. Some refer to CoIT as employees bringing their own devices and technologies to work, while others highlight different aspects. While the debate about the nature and consequences of CoIT is still ongoing, many definitions have already been proposed. In this paper, we review these definitions and what is known about CoIT thus far. To guide future empirical research in this emerging area, we also review several established theories that have not yet been applied to CoIT but in our opinion have the potential to shed a deeper understanding on CoIT and its consequences. We discuss which elements of the reviewed theories are particularly relevant for understanding CoIT and thereby provide targeted guidance for future empirical research employing these theories. Overall, our paper may provide a useful starting point for addressing the lack of theorization in the emerging CoIT literature stream and stimulate discussion about theorizing CoIT

Application of structuration theory and activity theory in enterprise resources planning systems implementation for Universities

Published in Computer Technology and Application 3 (2012) 385-394 by David PublishingAn integration of organization culture in the conceptualization and development of enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERPs) is critical for an organization to reap potential benefits of the system. In this paper, the authors present an analytical approach through the Structuration Theory: How a university can assess its culture for the purposes of design and development of the ERPs. The authors extend the Structuration Theory by integrating it with the Activity Theory to provide the means of evaluating the activities that the system is to perform. The modified Orlikowski model is applied to depict the relationship between institutional properties, human agents, and technology in the university setup and how this offers a more inclusive approach to ERP systems development and implementation.An integration of organization culture in the conceptualization and development of enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERPs) is critical for an organization to reap potential benefits of the system. In this paper, the authors present an analytical approach through the Structuration Theory: How a university can assess its culture for the purposes of design and development of the ERPs. The authors extend the Structuration Theory by integrating it with the Activity Theory to provide the means of evaluating the activities that the system is to perform. The modified Orlikowski model is applied to depict the relationship between institutional properties, human agents, and technology in the university setup and how this offers a more inclusive approach to ERP systems development and implementation

Research Perspective in Enterprise Architecture

The challenges of aligning IT with business triggered the attention towards Enterprise Architecture (EA). Despite the increase interest of academic scholars in EA, there is scarcity of studies that provide an up to date comprehensive research perspective view. The purpose of this study is to examine the research methodologies and theories utilized in EA studies from 2010 to 2016. The study employed Systematic Literature Review (SLR) as method to explore and analyze the literature of EA. The study revealed the research approaches and data collection methods utilized in EA. It shows that case study approach and interviews are the highly used compared to other research approaches and data collection instruments. Furthermore, it pointed out the low employment of theories in EA studies. The study is contributing to the body of knowledge by providing a foundation for novice researchers in the area of EA through detailed discussions of research methodologies and theories which are expected to support them in designing future studies

The complementary use of IS technologies to support flexibility and integration needs in budgeting

In business controllers’ work on budgeting, considered as a classic decision-making process in organisations, it is consistently indicated that enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, business intelligence (BI) and spreadsheets are commonly applied to assist the process. An academic research contribution on this topic is few. Most available research concentrates on ERP systems but it mentions neither BI nor spreadsheets. A further review of budgeting literature designates that budgeting characterises both flexibility and integration needs to accomplish decision-making. Given the limited understanding as to how IS technologies are used in budgeting, this dissertation aims to describe and explain how business controllers can complementarily use IS technologies to support the flexibility and integration needs in a budgeting process. Two research questions addressed are: RQ1- how do business controllers perceive IS technologies in relation to the need for both flexibility and integration in budgeting? And RQ2 - why do business controllers use IS technologies to support the need for both flexibility and integration in budgeting? The analysis employs conceptual ideas pertaining to structuration theory. Empirical data was collected through interviews, observations and documentations with twenty-six business controllers in sixteen companies in Thailand. It is concluded that business controllers perceive IS technologies to enable and constrain their flexibility and integration needs in budgeting. Spreadsheets are the main IS technology used in budgeting despite an existent of ERP systems and BI because of the flexibility that spreadsheets offer. Business controllers use spreadsheets to support both the flexibility and integration domains but they use ERP systems and BI to support the integration function alone. It is necessary for business controllers to rethink their IS technology use practice because spreadsheets cause errors and frauds. The insights generated create a framework to describe how the three IS technologies should be complementarily used to support specific budgeting activities in respect of the flexibility and integration needs

On the Design of IT Artifacts and the Emergence of Business Processes as Organizational Routines

Much of the BPM literature views business process design and implementation as a top-down process that is built on strategic alignment and managerial control. This view is inconsistent with the observation that information infrastructures, including a company’s business process infrastructure, are at drift, a term that refers to the lack of top-down management control. The paper contributes to resolving this inconsistency by developing a framework that conceptualizes business processes as emergent organizational routines that are represented, enabled, and constrained by IT artifacts. IT artifacts are developed in processes of functional-hierarchical decomposition and social design processes. Organizational routines have ostensive and performative aspects, forming a mutually constitutive duality. A literature review demonstrates that the propositions offered by the framework have been insufficiently considered in the BPM field. The paper concludes with an outlook to applying the framework to theorizing on the emergence of business processes on online social network sites

Research Agenda for Studying Open Source II: View Through the Lens of Referent Discipline Theories

In a companion paper [Niederman et al., 2006] we presented a multi-level research agenda for studying information systems using open source software. This paper examines open source in terms of MIS and referent discipline theories that are the base needed for rigorous study of the research agenda

Enabling Distributed Knowledge Management: Managerial and Technological Implications

In this paper we show that the typical architecture of current KM systems re.ects an objectivistic epistemology and a traditional managerial control paradigm. We argue that such an objectivistic epistemology is inconsistent with many theories on the nature of knowledge, in which subjectivity and sociality are taken as essential features of knowledge creation and sharing. We show that adopting such a new epistemological view has dramatic consequences at an architectural, managerial and technological level