E-Business: Factors of EAI Adoption in an Australian Electricity Company

The awareness of the scarcity of literature in EAI adoption in the public sector led to the current study of an investigation into the factors that influenced the adoption of EAI in an Australian electricity company. Using a case study approach and qualitative methods, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with five informants from different aspects of the EAI project. Data analysis was conducted using the grounded theory, resulting in 24 themes, which were then categorized into three broad themes of environmental influence, current problems and perceived benefits. These themes were taken as factors that contributed to the decision making of the EAI project of the case company. The informants considered environmental change as the trigger for the adjustment of the case organization’s strategy. However, they all shared the view that the adoption of EAI was the consequence of a clear identification of the strategic positioning of the organization, the understanding of existing inhibitors and the awareness of the benefits of a chosen technology

Development of the Risk Management Mechanism of an Enterprise Resource Planning System based on Work System Method

This study collects 24 risk-management-relevant research papers published between 2000 and 2010 to elicit significant risk factors and thus develop the risk management mechanism of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The study adopts the grounded theory and conducts an expert questionnaire in order to report its findings on 49 risk factors. Based on the work system method, the identified factors are classified into nine categories and a risk management mechanism is developed thereafter. Finally, to examine the feasibility of the mechanism, two case studies are further investigated. The developed mechanism is found to be a convenient, quick, and proper ERP system risk management tool that can assist enterprises in identifying, analyzing, assessing, and responding to potential risks

UNDERSTANDING THE EMERGENCE OF REQUIREMENT RISKS IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS PROJECTS

Information Systems (IS) requirement risks are one of the most important sources that contribute to project problems, such as escalation of project cost and schedule. Early identifying and managing requirement risks is therefore an important task to avoid project complexity and increase chance of project success. Earlier research has identified various requirement risks in IS project. However, there has been little research on explaining the emergence of requirement risks. This paper proposes some initial insights into the origins of requirement risks based on a case study of an IS project having requirement risks. The results of this study suggest that the emergence of requirement risks can be identified and explained from various IS development (ISD) practices and some organisational behaviours perspectives. Moreover, requirements risk can occur not only in the requirement collection and analysis phase, but also in the later phases of the ISD. Conclusion and implications for future research are also provided

Early Warning Signs Of Communication Failure In Is Projects: A Case Study

This paper seeks to apply a previously published framework of commonly identified Early Warning Signs (EWS) of project failure through an empirical study of an active IS project. The case study is observed from the stakeholders’ perspective; focussing on their interaction with the project and the development team. The occurrence of any EWS is catalogued with an explanation of the causes, effects and a description of any action taken. The observations are also taken pre-procurement to identify any EWS which occur before the development team commence work. The EWS, derived from a survey of the literature, are evaluated in a real-world setting leading to an extension of the EWS framework. This paper focuses on those EWS which have been categorised as Communication EWS. Through the analysis and extension of the framework we provide a greater understanding of the “communication” concept in IS projects

One organisation, three outcomes: Exploring the influence of power relations and IT context on multi-site ERP implementation in China

Since 2000, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have been widely adopted by large, state-owned companies in China. While there is a rich body of literature on ERP implementation in western companies, studies of Chinese companies are scarce. A recent exception is a study of seventy seven mostly manufacturing companies in China by Liang et al. (2007). They found that high coercive institutional pressures positively affect top management participation, which, in turn, positively affect ERP diffusion and the degree of its usage across the organisation. However, how the institutional pressures are exercised and what are the roles of top management in ERP implementation in complex Chinese companies remained open questions, worthy of further examination. The lack of understanding of specific conditions and especially dynamics of power relations in ERP implementation motivated our in-depth case study of a multi-site ERP system implementation in a large Chinese manufacturing company. The data collected from three divisions/subsidiaries shows that their implementation of ERP system turned out to have different outcomes. The key issues that emerged from the data indicate that the dynamics of power relations between the parent company and divisions/subsidiaries, and IT context have had a significant influence on the ERP implementation and different outcomes in divisions/subsidiaries

Understanding Components of IT Risks and Enterprise Risk Management

This study aims to synthesise the risk factors associated with IT/IS and categorise or classify them into a few main major themes to guide the IT management in their risk management exercises. This chapter is organised into five main sections. First, the chapter begins with introduction to IT and risk in general. Second is the description of methodological approach, review of literature on and description of IT risk, factors and enterprise risk management. Third is the result and discussion of IT risk classification identified from the reviewed articles. Finally, the chapter ends with a brief description of future work

Project orientation: a proposal to develop a service-oriented architecture

A service-oriented architecture (SOA) is occasionally seen as a complex and undefeatable challenge (Serman, 2007). This feeling is motivated by the lack of attention from practitioners and from the academy on the means for its construction. The work aims to bring the portfolio management of IT projects as an option to guide the SOA development. A review of the literature on SOA was carried out, including case studies on the SOA adoption. A case study was also done, which analyzed some projects of a particular organization, focusing on the evolution of its services architecture. The results show a gradual development of SOA in the case studied based on projects execution and sequencing. It concludes with a proposal of a process for building SOA as well as suggestions and limitations for future research.A arquitetura orientada a serviços (SOA) é ocasionalmente encarada como um desafio complexo e intransponível (Serman, 2007), sentimento motivado pela falta de atenção de praticantes e da academia sobre os meios para sua construção. O trabalho visa trazer a gestão da carteira de projetos de TI como opção para orientar o desenvolvimento de SOA. Para isso, realizou-se uma revisão da literatura sobre SOA, incluindo estudos de caso sobre sua adoção. Também foi executado um estudo de caso, no qual foram analisados os projetos de uma determinada organização, focando-se na evolução de sua arquitetura de serviços. Os resultados mostram a construção gradual de SOA no caso a partir da conclusão e sucessão dos projetos. Conclui-se com uma proposta de processo de construção de SOA e as limitações e sugestões de pesquisas futuras

Making the Case for a Business Intelligence Framework

This research is intended to develop evidence for whether or not large organizations should spend a large amount of time and resources on building Business Intelligence Frameworks by examining Project Manager’s perceptions of complex information systems. Project Managers in a large organization provide a cross functional reporting role that requires them to delve into information technology systems in complex ways when querying for simple metrics related to projects they manage. Using an online survey, this study found that project manager’s perceptions changed more positively towards IT systems performing automatic queries, web based queries, IT systems, and business intelligence system dashboards if they did not already have a business intelligence framework in place, and if they were less experienced. More experienced project managers had lower perceptions of current IT systems, automatic queries, web-based queries, and dashboards. There is evidence to suggest that business intelligence frameworks will be positively perceived for project managers with lower experience, and where these systems have not already been introduced