A Decision Support System for Student Transfer Advising

Many students start their academic careers at community colleges. After a year or two, they transfer to a university to complete their undergraduate degrees. Students who make poor course selections at community colleges may find that some of their course credits do not transfer to the university programs of their choice. A decision support system was developed to help community college students (1) understand the structure of university undergraduate degree programs, and (2) identify community college courses that meet university requirements. The system is designed to be easy to use and attractive for the typical community college student. It was consiructed by a team of three undergraduate MIS students over the course of a single semester using a Windows-based hypermedia tool

PARADOXES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS PLANNING

During two research projects to identify the difficulties associated with information systems planning (ISP), it became apparent that IS managers and users often do not apply a number of commonly accepted guidelines for successful ISP. This paper reports some instances in which the guidelines were not applied. It also explains the neglect of the guidelines and the incentives ISP participants had for not applying them. The findings suggest further research and also have practical implications for IS managers

An agency theory model of ERP implementation

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are becoming rapidly indispensable in order for large and medium sized organizations to run their operations. Therefore, management needs to know the factors that drive successful ERP implementation, a product of the continuous interaction between the implementation consultants and client firms. Agency theory has been successfully used by different researchers to explain relationships between two parties seeking a common outcome. This paper develops a model of testable propositions for applying agency theory to study the relationship between implementation consultants and client organizations deploying the ERP systems, and to consequently evaluate how the relationship affects the implementation success

The Impact of Rapid Change in Technology on the Information Systems Organization

Information technology is changing today at a rapid pace. Emerging technologies include not only new hardware, software, and data communications for user applications but also planning and development tools for IS professionals. In fact, the rate of IT change appears to be increasing dramatically. New products seem to surface with greater alacrity than ever before in the history of computing. Research has suggested that this swift change is causing difficulties for today\u27s IS organization. IS professionals on a lengthy development project can witness the emergence of dramatic, new, useful ITs and the passing of others. Capitalizing on the new opportunities while avoiding the risks of the fads can pose a complex challenge to the IS organization. Given this state of affairs, research is needed to help IS managers understand, plan, and control the impact of new IT. To advance such study, this paper describes research-in-progress that attempts to answer the following two questions: In what ways is the rapid change in IT affecting the IS organization? How are IS organizations dealing with problems that arise from this change

Alignment of Information Systems Plans with Business Plans:The Impact on Competitive Advantage

Under the right circumstances, the effective use of information resources can lead to competitiveadvantage. A model hypothesizes that the importance of information systems in the organization affects participation in IS planning which promotes alignment and produces greater IS-based competitive advantage. A survey of 153 CIOs was analyzed using structural equation modeling. The data supported the mode

A World Wide Web Primer for Small Business

The World Wide Web is growing very quickly. It offers small businesses the opportunity to reach a wider customer base. However, before deciding to launch a Web site, a small business manager needs an understanding of the Web and how to use it to achieve business goals. This article provides a foundation for using the Web to achieve them. It includes a brief history of the Web, its commercial demographics, and reasons for building a Web site. It also explains the key issues and steps for developing a Web site and assessing its success

Top Management Support, Collective Mindfulness, and Information Systems Performance

Mindfulness is a cognitive process that facilitates the discovery and correction of errors that might escalate. This study applies mindfulness theory to examine the impact of top management support for information systems on collective mindfulness, and that of collective mindfulness on IS performance. It treated such mindfulness in five dimensions, and top management support and IS performance as uni-dimensional. Forty-seven chief executive officers responded to a survey asking their perceptions of the constructs. Top management support predicted four of the dimensions with the strongest effect on sensitivity to IS operations. A negative path from support to commitment to IS resilience suggests a management predilection for planning over improvisation and adaptation. Sensitivity to IS operations alone predicted performance

TAM and the World Wide Web

The purpose of this research-in-progress is to test the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with the World Wide Web as the users\u27 application. The investigation will validate, extend, or refute TAM. It will thus help identify guidelines for developing and using Web site

Competitive Advantage from the World Wide Web

Research has suggested that organizations implement World Wide Web sites in order to gain competitive advantage. This research-in-progress uses CAPITA, an instrument for measuring competitive advantage, to determine how organizations seek to use the Web for competitive advantage and how well they succeed