An exploratory study of enterprise architecture practices in Malaysia

This study was an exploratory investigation of the practice of the enterprise architecture (EA) in private and public enterprises in Malaysia. The Zachman Framework was used to evaluate the practice of EA in these enterprises. Ten enterprises from public and private sector participated in the study. Multiple sources including interviews, documents and survey were used as the data sources of the study. The findings presented in this paper were exploratory in our attempt to gain an insight of the EA practices in Malaysia. The paper would give the general outlook of the current practices of EA in Malaysian enterprises

Goal-oriented approach to business intelligence requirement analysis for Malaysian rural healthcare center

Despite the advancement in the Malaysian rural healthcare centers operations, the healthcare delivery is currently facing some challenges caused by the techniques in collecting the data for analyzing their performances at the end of the day.It is posited that healthcare centers can take advantages of these data and explore analytic s as a competitive tool provided by Business Intelligence (BI).However, several surveys indicate that a significant percentage of business intelligence projects fail to meet business objectives or are outright failures.One of the reasons for this is that requirement analysis is typically overlooked in real BI project.The objective of this paper is to explore a goal-oriented approach to BI requirements analysis for Malaysian Rural Healthcare Centers.The goal-oriented method proposes for the study is Goal-oriented Requirement Analysis (GRAnD).GRAnD is based on the Tropos methodology.GRAnD adopts two different perspectives for requirements analysis: organizational modeling and decision modeling. The proposed methodology is described with reference to a real case study

Assessment of Enterprise Architecture (EA) implementation using The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF)

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an area within Information Management that deals with the alignment of IT and business in an organization.It is very recent and new discipline emerged in the new millennium as a result of the lack of comprehensive architecture that can describe the relationships among elements of the enterprise encompassing People, Processes, Business and Technology.The main objective of this study is to assess the level of implementation of EA in the designated organization.This study focuses on the four architecture domains listed in The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) namely: (1)Business Architecture; (2)Data Architecture; (3)Application Architecture; and (4)Technology Architecture. The outcome of this study is a set of guideline of an EA which should help the organization in aligning its business and IT strategy.This study should also benefit those who want to understand more on TOGAF and the implementation of EA

Enabling factors for successful business intelligence systems: A review

Business Intelligence (BI) systems have continually been one of the top priorities of CIOs for almost a decade.BI systems provide the ability to analyze information in order to support management decision making process.In context of Malaysia rural development, BI can potentially be the driving force that enable major transformation to take place.Currently, studies on success factors of BI systems have been well research, yet many organizations are still struggling to make use of the information in their BI systems implementation.The aim of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the enabling factors for successful BI systems for the appropriate needs of the organizations.This paper reviews success factors of BI systems and outlines the factors according to the need of organization.The review contributes to both academia and industry by providing analysis of success factors that direct and indirect support the organization decision making process

Bridging the digital divide: Best practices at the Balik Pulau Telecenter

In today’s competitive era, knowledge is one of the most important assets in the development of nations.Digital divide can hinder the advancement of knowledge in society. Digital divide is complex as it intertwines with social, culture, economics, politics and other factors which are unique to particular communities. Bridging the digital divide among the different communities is a challenging task.An example of an organization that has excelled in bridging the digital divide among its community is the Balik Pulau Telecenter (PID).The center has successfully reduced the digital gap between its rural and urban communities, provided information and communications technology (ICT) knowledge especially to the under-served communities, created e-communities environment in order to spread information to the local communities, and created awareness of the importance of using ICTs among local communities in this borderless world.The center has also moved one level higher by successfully transforming their initial objectives to reduce the digital gap to the generation of economic and social development through ICT. The structures and processes used by the Balik Pulau Telecenter for bridging the digital divide represent best practices for other telecenters to follow.For researchers, the experience at the Balik Pulau Telecenter support and add to the body of knowledge about bridging the digital divide

Examining the practice of enterprise architecture in Universiti Utara Malaysia: A case study

Knowledge on organization current and future capabilities is an important ingredient to enable organization to effectively implementing new technologies in response to changing mission needs.Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an area within Information Management that deals with the alignment of information technology and business in an organization.It provides a strategic approach for enabling better strategies for organization to be more effective with its processes and resources. This paper presents the findings on a study of the practice of EA in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).The paper provides insights into EA activities in an organization.It embarks on the following objectives:(1) to assess EA activities in UUM; and (2) to evaluate the implementation of EA in UUM. In the study, we observed the following issues: (1) Business Architecture; (2) Information Architecture; (3) Application Architecture; and (4) Technology Architecture.The contribution of this paper is in the discovery of knowledge on EA activities in UUM which can be used by others in order to enable better implementations of EA

Enterprise information architecture: Empirical evidence to support Zachman Framework in Malaysia

The paper aims to describe findings based on a research study on current Enterprise Information Architecture (EIA) implementation in Malaysia. Ten enterprises from public and private sectors were chosen for case study analysis. The Zachman Framework was chosen as a guideline to assess the current practice of EIA in five of these enterprises. The study found that certain aspects of the framework were nor addressed at all, whilst other aspects that were addressed vary in terms of the different perspectives. The paper highlights gaps in the current practice and provides recommendations and suggestions for enterprises to consciously embark on the EIA paradigm in order to better align the whole enterprise to the goals of the enferprise

The benefits of and challenges faced by worldwide federal governments in implementing the telework program

Problem statement: In recent decades, the telework program implemented in advanced and developed countries, has started to draw the interests of many parties towards understanding their experiences.The efforts to understand telework benefits and challenges would serve as an important basis prior to considering the adoption any telework program by the federal government agencies.Books, websites and journals were the primary sources that allowed the conduct of intensive literature reviews to obtain a full understanding of the telework issue.In terms of benefits, employers gain the competitive edge; less disruption of operations and better services to remote communities.Employees could enjoy the flexible time schedule; better family dependent care; less commuting costs and time; and higher productivity. Society could enjoy new job creation; less environmental pollution and work redistribution. In contrast, the challenges experienced are insufficient central federal government funding; top management resistance; and the difficulty to measure employee productivity. No program offers 100 percent unlimited benefits.Telework, in this case, is no different.Nevertheless, no one size fits all. Further tailoring of telework policy to suit different government agencies’ specific needs is an important approach to ensure its success

Better healthcare: Exploring business intelligence for healthier Malaysian rural dwellers

Healthcare in the rural areas have been encountering decision making issues which are due to the lack of maximising the use of their historical data.It is a general believe that many of healthcare data together with strong analytics by business intelligence brings about proposition for attainment of community healthcare success.This study intends to explore and analyse the phases leading to the business intelligence requirements for strategic decision in healthcare organisation in rural healthcare in Malaysia.Thus, goal-oriented approach and Requirements Management Control methodology are employed, leading to the requirement analysis model for Malaysian rural healthcare

Ethical use of information technology and cyber cafe among Malaysian youth

This report is based on a research study under the Ministry of Higher Education’s Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) involving 6 researchers from the Graduate Department of Information Technology, College of Arts and Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia. The aim of the research is to investigate ethical use of information technology and cyber café among Malaysian youths and to propose a framework for ethical usage of public access ICT services. With the proliferation of the Internet, there has been an unprecedented trend in public access to information and digital content.This has brought about a new kind of social challenge particularly among the youth, who based on their nature are inquisitive and tend to look for explicit and exciting endeavor to satisfy their youthful lust. Public Internet access facilities such as cyber cafés have been at the forefront as avenues in attracting youths to perform anti-social and unethical activities.This study intends to gather empirical data on the activities performed at cyber cafés and propose an ethical cyber café model as guidelines for ethical usage of ICT services at public access centres. To meet the objectives of the study, surveys were carried out involving users and operators of cyber cafes. Feedbacks from communities and parents were also sought using the Theory of Planned Behavior to operationalise the research variables.In addition, relevant enforcement and regulatory bodies were also interviewed to provide inputs and experiences in enforcing and monitoring the cyber cafés. Appropriate sample sizes were used to represent the populations for each unit of analysis following the principle of statistics.For cyber café users and communities of infinite population, the sample size taken was 650, whilst sampling for cyber café operators is based on a sampling frame from the Companies Commission of Malaysia.Questionnaires were designed using items constructed from the Theory of Planned Behavior. Four factors representing the independent variables were identified: Attitude, Subjective Norm, Perceived Behavioral Control and External Factors determining the dependent variables represented by Behavioral Intention.The questionnaires were tested and found to be valid and reliable.Data collection involved administration of the questionnaire to the respective respondents and field works in the form of interviews to the respective regulatory authorities.Among the main findings of the study are that there was no clear regulations and consistent enforcement of cyber café operations.Whilst peers and teachers do influence ethical use of cyber cafés, parents appear not to be a significant factor.The study also found that the use of CCTV is an effective behavioral control, however the imposition of rules and regulations were found to have no significant influence.Similarly, external factors such as internal environment of cyber café and location are found not to be significantly related to ethical use.Results of this study indicate positive implication to the operation of cyber cafés in Malaysia if efforts are made to focus attention to education and good personal values, with clear visibility to discourage unethical acts as a form of behavioral control. Based on the findings of the study, an ethical cyber café model is suggested which comprises of three main components namely people, facilities, and governance