Exploring the user – IT professional relationship

Drawing on theoretical developments within the innovation literature, a conceptual model has been developed that draws a distinction between the adoption and assimilation of information technology (IT). The substantive conclusions are that a number of incongruences exist between IT professionals and end-users. These cover 1) the mismatch between business needs and the technology solution 2) inability of adoption processes to address issues of a social, organizational, or user nature 3) failure to recognize the importance of the process of interaction between various parties to technology assimilation. By addressing the assimilation process, the conceptual model offers a way to reframe our understanding from a user perspective

Examining the True Impact of IS Research

The IS field is growing rapidly and new technological developments are providing new possibilities for business improvement. Therefore, there is a great opportunity for academic IS research due to the new business models, new procedures or even new, unprecedented problems. However, the research does not always hold out the prospect of developing or upgrading the IS field since many papers are merely published for the sake of publishing itself. They neither develop the theory, nor help the business. The aim of this research is thus to examine the impact and relevance of IS research by different stakeholders, namely academics, IS managers, top managers and students. The research will outline problems related to IS research dissemination among various stakeholders and present practical directions for future research

The Value Of IS – A New Perspective

Several studies have been done in the last decades to align business and IS personnel and to present how IS can increase business value. Nevertheless, many of them were not successful and the business-IS gap is still present in many companies causing several failed IS implementation projects. Consequently, IS department is often considered merely as a cost and not as an enabler of business value. However, researchers were focusing mostly on the business value of IS and regardless of the effort the same problems that were existing a decade ago are still present in the business-IS relationship. Therefore, there is a strong a need to improve the importance of IS by presenting the value of IS from a different perspective. By the advent of social networks new opportunities are emerging for researchers and organizations to recognize the new value of IS. The purpose of this research is thus to present IS as an enabler and constructor of a better future and not emphasizing merely the business value of IS. Approximately 400 undergraduate students will be invited to participate in the research enabling to present the value of IS in a way that helps people to live better

Business-IS Alignment: Assessment Process to Align IT Projects With Business Strategy

The value of information technology has been proved to be related to alignment between business and information systems (IS). However the constant report of failed IT projects suggests a misalignment between business and IS at the implementation stage. The majority of alignment assessment approaches focuses on the strategic level and overlooks the connections with IT projects. Although research has given little attention to this problem, it has been recognized that managers must focus on IT project planning as a mediator to improve business-IS alignment. This research proposes an assessment process across different organizational levels (strategic, tactical and operational). In doing so, the strategic alignment maturity (SAM) model is used and adapted to include the assessment of IT projects alignment maturity. IT projects are considered the unit of analysis that represents the operational implementation of strategies. The assessment process proposed has been tested in an SME in order to understand its practicability and limitations. The results show that is feasible to use the SAM model to assess the IT projects alignment maturity. Moreover, analyzing alignment across different organizational levels (strategic, tactic and operational) provides a more complete picture of the organization’s alignment maturity that could facilitate the design of specific actions to improve the project alignment with business objectives

EXAMINING THE BUSINESS-IS RELATIONSHIP: A LITERATURE OVERVIEW AND ITS IMPACT (34)

The relationship between the top management and IS has been the subject of several research studies for over 50 years since this relationship is often inefficient and prevents the effective use of IS in many organisations. This inefficient relationship is often denoted as a gap between both sides. Despite significant efforts to bridge this gap, it is still present in many organisations and several of them are not sufficiently aware of its consequences. The aim of this paper is thus to present an overview of this important research topic and to examine the research impact and its relevance. The business-IS relationship was selected since this topic has been one of the core IS research areas in the last decades; and therefore, it is reasonably to expect that the research had an important impact among wider audience. Unfortunately, it is not the case. The paper thus presents a literature overview of the business-IS gap, a preliminary impact analysis, its possible implications and the future research possibilities

Towards a Human Processual Approach of Business-IT Alignment

This study answers the question whether human processual interventions are used to improve business-ICT relationships and if not, what the reasons might be for this. Human processual interventions are about improving human relations and match the problem of troubling relationships between IS and business with its associated miscommunication, unclear responsibilities, leadership issues or perceived cultural differences better than techno-structural interventions (pertaining organizational structures, business processes, alignment models, infrastructures, etc.) that are mainly put forward in the literature. Our explorative qualitative research shows that consultants recognize the human relations nature of alignment but that they have different reasons for being inclined towards techno-structural interventions. These reasons provide a mirror to the academic community. We argue that these reasons reinforce the social structure in which many IS people work and that academics are an important group to break with that structure. To this purpose, an adoption of human processual approaches is recommended

Identifying factors in the relationship between top management and IS personnel

Permanent development of new technologies, growing expectations of customers and constant struggle for surviving in the market are forcing companies to develop business innovations including innovative information systems in order to obtain competitive advantages. However, consequences of implementing them in inefficient relationship between top management and IS personnel are often neglected. There are still numerous failed IS implementation projects due to failed attempts to align business and IS spheres in the companies. Neglecting the gap between top management and IS personnel can cause severe consequences. The purpose of this research is thus to ease the understanding of the relationship between top management and IS personnel and to define key factors that are important in this relationship. 221 CIOs and 93 CEOs agreed to participate in the research and the responses were compared reciprocally. The result of the empirical investigation reveals the existence of nine factors that are important in the business-IS relationship with seven factors being perceived differently by the top management and IS management and thus causing the gap in the business-IS relationship

Organization Size, IT Capabilities, and EA Perceptions: Dark Clouds on the ERP Horizon?

The relationship between enterprise architecture (EA) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can be a synergistic one, leading to improved organizational and IT capabilities, practices, and mission success. However, in examining this relationship, organization size must be considered since it plays an important role in influencing the success of these enterprise initiatives. This paper analyzes the responses of IT professionals to the SIM Information Management Practices Survey and discusses the relationship of organization size to the EA and ERP relationship and to IT capabilities within organizations

Analyzing community contributions to the development of community wireless networks

Community wireless networks (CWNs) have emerged as collective actions achieved by many communities worldwide to access the information highway. Developing autonomous CWNs depends, in large part, on community contributions that may include time, money, efforts, expertise and computer resources. However, there is a lack of instruments for measuring such contributions, as well as the outcomes of these networks. This study uses the social network analysis analytical approach to model, measure and analyze community contributions in the development of their wireless infrastructures. In particular, we model community contributions as a two-mode (or bipartite) graph composed of two sets of nodes: the first represents a set of community contributors and the other represents a set of wireless networks. The edges between these two sets stand for the inputs of contributors. Their contributions include volunteering time and manpower, sharing their wireless nodes with community members, donating money, donating hardware, providing technical support, and developing open source software for the network. The model is used to analyze these tangible and intangible forms of contributions. We hope this study provides a better understanding and sounder measurement of the role of communities in developing these emerging common wireless infrastructures and similar digital collective actions