The Impact of Software as a Service on IS Authority – A Contingency Perspective

For some business applications, using Software as a Service (SaaS) is becoming increasingly popular. However, it is largely unknown how SaaS adoption affects the arrangements between business and IT departments. In this study, we take a contingency approach to investigate how firms allocate authority for SaaS applications. Based on semi-structured interviews with business and IT representatives of companies that have adopted the wide-spread SaaS solution Salesforce CRM, we extend existing contingency theory to propose a set of factors for governance arrangements on the application level. These factors are used in a comparative case study of 4 cases of SaaS adoption to explain why application authority is allocated either to the business or the IT side. The results suggest that in most cases there exist dominant and reinforcing contingencies determining a definite mode of SaaS governance

Implementing the Information Technology Information Library (Itil) Framework

This project proposes the implementation of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework for a mid-sized Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) specializing in commercial warehouses. Due to rapid growth, lack of process and lack of business visibility, the Information Technology (IT) department struggles to provide highly reliable business systems that meet the requirements for the business. The gap in business relationships results in a negative image for the IT department and causes situations where individual business groups contract directly with outsourced IT providers. After developing the IT solution, the business group contacts the internal IT department for involvement with the deployment. The IT department must ensure the outsourced solution will work with internal IT systems or networks regardless of the technology stack or support model. Often, the costs associated with this last minute support are not captured or reported within the overall outsourced IT project. The IT department consulted with Forrester research and Capgemini to review the overall IT environment and process maturity. After performing the review and analyzing the findings, IT management determined that process improvement was required to improve overall IT services and IT service delivery speed. Rather than focus on what led to the decision to implement ITIL, this project will discuss how ITIL provided the foundation to ensure timely, consistent and reliable delivery of IT Services. ITIL also helped improve the IT departments\u27 image with the business by assisting in higher quality implementations and consistency resulting in less IT downtime and more controlled IT systems. When asked about the benefit of ITIL, Carie Zoellner-Buell, a VP of Global Infrastructure and Operations said, ITIL has taken the organization to a whole new level of operation that we were never able to attain in the past. Using ITIL based processes has allowed us to be much more effective in managing IT by adding structure and efficiency

Conceptual modeling for the design of intelligent and emergent information systems

A key requirement to today's fast changing economic environment is the ability of organizations to adapt dynamically in an effective and efficient manner. Information and Communication Technologies play a crucially important role in addressing such adaptation requirements. The notion of `intelligent software' has emerged as a means by which enterprises can respond to changes in a reactive manner but also to explore, in a pro-active manner, possibilities for new business models. The development of such software systems demands analysis, design and implementation paradigms that recognize the need for ‘co-development’ of these systems with enterprise goals, processes and capabilities. The work presented in this paper is motivated by this need and to this end it proposes a paradigm that recognizes co-development as a knowledge-based activity. The proposed solution is based on a multi-perspective modeling approach that involves (i) modeling key aspects of the enterprise, (ii) reasoning about design choices and (iii) supporting strategic decision-making through simulations. The utility of the approach is demonstrated though a case study in the field of marketing for a start-up company

Toward a Model for Customer-Driven Release Management

Undetected software bugs frequently result in service disruptions, productivity losses, and in some instances significant threat to human life. One way to prevent such bugs is to engage customers in acceptance testing prior to the production software release, yet there is a considerable lack of empirical examination of the release process from the customer’s perspective. To address this research-practice gap, this study proposes a model for customer-driven release management that has been shown to minimize the number of software bugs discovered in production systems. The model is evaluated during a 27 month study at a municipality using the action research method. Following the model, 361 software bugs were detected and eliminated prior to final production releases, confirming the value of customer-driven release management for elimination of production software bugs

Applying IT Services Business Relationship Management on Security Outsource Company

Most outsource security companies have not implemented information technology optimally. A company must implement information technology that is oriented to customers and stakeholders to be competitive. Outsourcing security companies need to apply a systematic approach for managing customer-oriented services. In this study, we implemented business relationship management based on Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework to develop a service strategy, especially for an outsourced security company. There are 5 stages of activities carried out, namely identifying stakeholders, defining business outcomes, establishing strategic and funding requirements, defining business cases, and validating business activity patterns. Verification and revision of customer requirement analysis are performed to validate and evaluate the results. The result of implementing business relationship management is the recommendations of four IT services that suits the organization. The four IT service recommendations are websites, CRM services, monitoring services, and ordering services. Business case documents for each service have been created to identify business impacts and risks

10. Interuniversitäres Doktorandenseminar Wirtschaftsinformatik Juli 2009

Begonnen im Jahr 2000, ist das Interuniversitäre Wirtschaftsinformatik-Doktorandenseminar mittlerweile zu einer schönen Tradition geworden. Zunächst unter Beteiligung der Universitäten Leipzig und Halle-Wittenberg gestartet. Seit 2003 wird das Seminar zusammen mit der Jenaer Universität durchgeführt, in diesem Jahr sind erstmals auch die Technische Universität Dresden und die TU Bergakademie Freiberg dabei. Ziel der Interuniversitären Doktorandenseminare ist der über die eigenen Institutsgrenzen hinausgehende Gedankenaustausch zu aktuellen, in Promotionsprojekten behandelten Forschungsthemen. Indem der Schwerpunkt der Vorträge auch auf das Forschungsdesign gelegt wird, bietet sich allen Doktoranden die Möglichkeit, bereits in einer frühen Phase ihrer Arbeit wichtige Hinweise und Anregungen aus einem breiten Hörerspektrum zu bekommen. In den vorliegenden Research Papers sind elf Beiträge zum diesjährigen Doktorandenseminar in Jena enthalten. Sie stecken ein weites Feld ab - vom Data Mining und Wissensmanagement über die Unterstützung von Prozessen in Unternehmen bis hin zur RFID-Technologie. Die Wirtschaftsinformatik als typische Bindestrich-Informatik hat den Ruf einer thematischen Breite. Die Dissertationsprojekte aus fünf Universitäten belegen dies eindrucksvoll.

Understanding and Specifying Information Security Needs to Support the Delivery of High Quality Security Services

In this paper we present an approach for specifying and prioritizing information security requirements in organizations. It is important to prioritize security requirements since hundred per cent security is\ud not achievable and the limited resources available should be directed to satisfy the most important ones. We propose to explicitly link security requirements with the organization’s business vision, i.e. to provide business\ud rationale for security requirements. The rationale is then used as a basis for comparing the importance of different security requirements.\ud Furthermore we discuss how to integrate the aforementioned solution concepts into a service level management process for security services, which is an important step in IT Governance. We validate our approach by way of a focus group session

MSP model integration and optimisation : A flourishing opportunity for an economic expansion on the French IT managed services market?

According Gartner Information Technology Glossary« Managed service provider (MSP) delivers services, such as network, application, infrastructure and security, via ongoing and regular support and active administration on customers’ premises, in their MSP’s data center (hosting), or in a third-party data center. » This innovative providing model is approximately 30 years and is still considered as a new model. In France, MSP market is existing and is working well. Anyway, its growth evolves slower than other countries. In this innovative model, agility in business process is important. When it comes to tools and other solutions and processed used to manage the activity, constant optimisation and integration are possible. This paper provides an eight-step processes on which optimisation and integration process can be based on. Besides, this paper provides insight from three French IT MSPs, one MSP reseller to MSP and one supplier/editor representative. Through interviews, observations and practical case, recommendations are made to support understanding of this model. This research follow a qualitative methodology combined to a positivist approach