Enterprise architecture development and implementation in public sector: The Malaysian perspective

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is gaining the attention from the public sector as a solution to improve the function of e-Government. However, public sector agencies are having difficulties with its development and implementation due to inflexibility and complexity of the agencies’ business function and information technology structures. The objective of this paper is to identify the challenges faced by the Malaysian public sector agencies that are in development and implementation phase of EA. In order to get the holistic perspective of EA development and implementation scenario in each organisation, a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach is applied. A multiple case study research approach is utilized to achieve this study objective. Data were collected through interviews with the agencies EA team, general observation during the EA workshops as well as review of EA related documents. The result shows there are twenty challenges identified which is consistent with other challenges stated in literature except for talent management issue. Thus, this provides a new insight on how the public sector should implement their EA as compared to any other organisation

Assessing the Capability and Priority of Enterprise Architecture Implementation in Malaysian Public Sector

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an integrated approach of information systems, processes, organisation and people in aligning business and information technology together. However, there is a discrepancy in public sector EA implementation whereby the developing countries are still grappling with issues in the implementation while those developed countries are already harvesting the EA benefits and value. Hence, this study aims to investigate the capability and priority of public sector of the developing countries in implementing the EA by proposing an assessment model. The assessment model is based on Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach. There are 27 EAI capability and priority criteria identified and grouped into six categories according to BSC perspectives namely Internal Process, Learning and Growth, Authority Support, Cost, Technology and Talent Management. Followed by AHP pairwise comparison in calculating the rank of each criterion which is presented via three case studies from Malaysian Public Sector agencies

Robust, Recognizable and Legitimate: Strengthening India's Appliance Efficiency Standards and Labels Through Greater Civil Society Involvement

Residential use accounts for 14 percent of global energy consumption. Appliance standards alone could achieve 17 percent energy reductions in the residential sector. Although appliance efficiency standards and labeling programs (AES&L) aim to influence consumer behavior, consumers and civil society often play a limited role in the design, implementation, and monitoring of these programs. This report considers the contribution that civil society organizations can make at each stage of an appliance efficiency standards and labeling program (AES&L), based on experiences in 10 developed and developing countries

Transmission losses cost allocation in restructed electricity market environment

During these recent decades, the restructuring system of electricity market has been taken places around the whole world. Due to the restructuring (deregulation), the electrical power system has been divided into three separates categories according to the function. First stage of power system is the generation companies (GENCOs), followed by transmission companies (TRANSCOs) and distribution companies (DISCOs). The competitive environment will be handling by a non-profit entity, independent system operator (ISO) that functioning as the system securities that have to make sure that the power system continues to operate in a stable and economical manner. However, restructuring system can give effect during the energy transmission. One of the transmission issues is regarding the power losses. To overcome the losses, generators must generate more power. The issue regarding the transmission losses in deregulated system is how to allocate it to the user and charge them in fair ways as in for instance the pool trading model, it is hard to trace the power contribution and losses of each user in transmission line. In addition, the users didn’t want to pay the losses, it means that the ISO have to responsible for the losses and it will be unfair to put the responsible to ISO alone. Therefore, in this project, the allocation of transmission losses and loss cost methods which are the pro-rata and proportional sharing method will be investigated. Comparison between those methods will be done in order to identify which types of method that reflect an efficient and fair way to distribute the cost of the transmission losses to the user. These chosen methods will be tested on IEEE bus system

Development and Validation of Enterprise Architecture (EA) Readiness Assessment Model

Enterprise architecture (EA) proves to be a holistic strategy in aligning business and information technology. An increasing number of organizations, especially in the public sector, have adopted EA in order to take advantage of the opportunities that it offers. Through EA, the efficiency of the organization is improved, with the optimization of resources and the elimination of duplication and redundancy. However, the successful establishment of EA relies on the organization’s readiness and ability to adopt EA practices because without proper readiness, the practices will probably fail. EA readiness refers to the assessment of how ready an organization is to adopt and to establish EA practices. EA readiness helps the organization to measure their stage of readiness, to identify any gaps, and then to redesign its strategy in order to adopt EA practices. EA is a merger between business and IT. Thus, the important elements of EA readiness should comprise of people, process, technology, and catalyst enabler. There is a lack of readiness for an assessment model that shapes these four elements towards EA; hence, a clear gap has been identified. Therefore, the objective of this study is to validate the EA Readiness Assessment Model (EARAM) by performing the Delphi technique. The study adopts a three-round Delphi Technique to verify the identified elements and factors and this is followed by developing and validating the proposed model. Results from the Delphi analysis have validated four (4) major elements of EARAM, namely people, process, technology, and catalyst enabler. The number of factors that contributes towards the readiness of the EA establishment is fourteen (14).   It is anticipated that this model (EARAM) can help the Malaysian Public Sector (MPS) organization to identify and understand the elements and factors that must be considered when assessing the readiness to practice EA

Preliminary Study of Malaysian Public Sector (MPS) Transformation Readiness through Enterprise Architecture (EA) Establishment

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a holistic approach that not only limited to Information Technology (IT) but also align with the business. EA is not just a tool to be used in a financially competitive world; it is a tool that can help to improve the efficiency of organisation and serves as an instrument for exposing the need for transformation. Consequently, interest in EA in the public sector is increasing in receiving attention. However, to success in EA practices in an organisation yet a concern. The primary aim of this research is to explore the readiness factors that influence the successful EA establishment in Malaysian Public Sector (MPS). Using qualitative approach, the exploration has been made through systematic review and semi-structured interview in with EA experts and practitioners. The data from purposeful and emergent sampling strategies have been analysed using Deductive Qualitative Analysis (DQA). The findings highlighted 17 readiness factors that can be categorised into four main s elements which are Enterprise Environment, Process, People and Technology. In the future, these readiness factors will be analysed on its suitability to be set of readiness assessment criteria towards successful EA establishment in MPS

IMPLEMENTATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY GOVERNANCE IN THE MALAYSIAN PUBLIC SECTOR PRACTICE

The increased dependence on IT and rise of security threats in organisations has led to the awareness of the need for adopting formal IT governance practices. However, how far have organisation came to realise the implementation of these practices is yet unknown at least in the Malaysian context. The article discusses information technology governance practices in public sector agencies from the perspective of an emerging country like Malaysia. The study sets forth to explore how the Malaysian public sector agencies implement IT governance through structure, process and relational mechanisms. This research uses qualitative approach in selected public sector agencies in EPU, ICU, MoF and CGICT. The result shows that each public sector agency define IT governance structure, process and relational mechanisms to align IT and business, thus enabling collaboration between business units and IT. Each public sector agencies in this case study practices IT governance structure, process and relational mechanism to align IT and business using different approaches based on organisational context

Malaysia IT outsourcing industry: practices, models, trends and challenges from a case of an offshore global service provider

Malaysia IT outsourcing (ITO) practices have been around after the Kodak effect but was not widely publicized until massive public sector computerization projects and automation of financial systems after Asian financial crisis in 1997. Thus, many service providers, including world-class firms, providing ITO business models can be found in operating in Malaysia. ITO models evolve from traditional to innovation phase in 2010 onwards. One of the innovative models in Malaysia is the global offshore service delivery model which is based on four pillars, namely: Experienced Leadership; Global Best Practice; Human Capital; Domain Knowledge. To be able to compete globally, Malaysia has equipped its companies with higher capabilities and competencies via international certifications and continuous skills developments. Several advantages proposed by Malaysia include: economic stability, political stability, multi-lingual, world-class infrastructure, affordable lifestyle, value propositions and many others. In this paper, we present the detailed views of a senior executive management on two open-ended in-depth interviews and one CEO roundtable discussion

IT governance for public universities: developing a model

Information technology (IT) has become essential in supporting the growth and sustainability of all types of organizations. Universities are one of those types that are more and more dependent on IT having a technological infrastructure made of heterogeneous technologies that turns IT Governance into a real challenge. The teaching-learning and research processes, nuclear for universities, require effective and efficient IT governance so universities remain competitive. IT governance calls for the definition and implementation of formal practices at the highest level in the organization involving structures, processes and relational mechanisms for the creation of business value from IT investments. However, it is quite notorious the difficulty in defining and implementing those practices from frameworks such as COBIT, ITIL, ISO/IEC 38500, among others. The level of adoption of such frameworks at universities is quite low, superficial or limited in scope. To address these issues, we propose, using design science research, the development of an IT governance model for public universities. The model will be designed having the appropriate mechanisms identified through survey research and case studies involving Portuguese and Brazilian public universities. We expect to contribute with a model having structures, processes and relational mechanisms suitable for the public sector universities with the guidelines for effective and efficient IT governance. Moreover, contributions to the body of knowledge, regarding the adoption of frameworks such as COBIT and ITIL, taking in consideration contextual and contingency factors, are also expected in what particularly relates to Portuguese and Brazilian public universities.CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior(UID/CEC/00319/2013)This work was supported by CAPES Foundation, Ministry of Education of Brazil Process n.º10415/13-0 and by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology, project UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio