Everyone is Different! Exploring the Issues and Problems with ERP Enabled Shared Service Initiatives

In today’s increasingly competitive environment, there is constant pressure for corporate leaders to add value to their organizations. These contemporary organizations are increasingly moving into business models that attempt to reduce duplicate supporting processes and staff by streamlining business processes that are not central to the organization’s operations and concentrating on strategies on strategic or core, business processes. This concept, known as Shared Services, attempts to bundle some of the supporting processes and non-strategic activities into a separate organization, which in turn treats those processes and activities as the core of its own business. Shared Services consolidate and support redundant functions, such as accounts payable and procurement, for disparate business units. By leveraging economies of scale from a common IT infrastructure, such a group is able to market specific services to business units. Many organizations are employing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, for example SAP, to facilitate Shared Service initiatives by aggregating backroom functionality across departments. This research-in-progress paper investigates issues and problems with ERP enabled Shared Services in 19 organizations. The results reveal five main issues that organizations face in implementing a Shared Services initiative

Multi-Stakeholder Assessment of Critical Success Factors: Insights from the World's Fastest SAP R/3 Implementation

Organizations invest substantial resources in Enterprise Systems (ES) expecting positive outcomes for the organization and its functions. Implementing an ES is a lengthy and costly undertaking, with general upheaval for many of the organizations. Many organizations therefore are seriously considering rapid ES-implementations to reduce cost and other related resources. This paper presents findings of a study conducted to understand critical success factors of rapid ES-implementations gathering data from the world’s fastest SAP implementation, completed in a record time of three weeks. Using a two-phased case study design, gathering data from four distinct stakeholders, this study recognized the relevance of critical success factors identified through the literature to the context of rapid ES-implementations. Moreover, the study identified three new critical success factors that are specific to rapid ES-implementations. The study also demonstrated differentiating views of multiple stakeholders on each of the critical success factors

Identifying Experts in Information Systems for System Evaluations

This research-in-progress paper reports preliminary findings of a study that is designed to identify characteristics of an expert in the discipline of Information Systems (IS). The paper delivers a formative research model to depict characteristics of an expert with three additive constructs, using concepts derived from psychology, knowledge management and social-behaviour research. The paper then explores the formation and application ‘expertise’ using four investigative questions in the context of System Evaluations. Data have been gathered from 220 respondents representing three medium sized companies in India, using the SAP Enterprise Resource Planning system. The paper summarizes planned data analyses in construct validation, model testing and model application. A validated construct of expertise of IS will have a wide range of implications for research and practice

The AST View of ES Knowledge Management: Insights from World\u27s Fastest SAP R/3 Implementation

Organizations invest substantial resources in Enterprise Systems (ES) expecting positive outcomes for the organization. Implementing an ES is a lengthy-costly undertaking, with general upheaval for many of the organizations. Many organizations therefore are seriously considering rapid implementations of ES to reduce related resources. A rapid ES implementation requires effective management of knowledge (KM) as the extent of the engagement of external and internal parties (consultants and vendors with the client) is limited. This research paper introduces a theoretical model to assess the impact of KM in a rapid implementation of SAP R/3 that had completed in a record time of three weeks. Using the Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) this paper proposes a theoretical model 1) to identify the KM enablers and KM strategies of an rapid ES implementation that facilitate knowledge creation, retention and transfer and 2) to determine the importance of knowledge transfer modes in a rapid ES implementation

The State of Empathy in Agile Information System Development Methodologies (ISDMs)

The planning fallacy highlights people’s propensity to underestimate project completion times leading to disastrous results. Yet this is only one out of more than a hundred cognitive biases known to affect people’s thinking processes. Beholden to these powerful biological mechanisms, practitioners must continually contend with these biases to create something greater than themselves, painting a picture of ISDs as a socially complex process of negotiation. Agile ISDMs acknowledges this social reality, and with its popularity, understanding the factors of successful human interaction is now more important than ever. Despite empathy’s central role in communication, a rigorous search of IS literature has surprisingly found no studies of it in Agile ISDMs. This paper contributes to IS research by pioneering an exploratory study on the state of empathy in Agile ISDMs, gathering data on the field towards the creation of an initial theory, setting the stage for a richer, more robust theorizing

Cyber Security Maturity Model Capability at The Airports

Cybersecurity is an important facilitator for essential aviation safety. The adoption rate for levels of cyber-security protocols at commercial airports is the focus of this research. Scope of this research is limited to cybersecurity maturity model capability norms covering fourteen domains. The paper presents primary data collected from several airport authorities. This survey-based study will be useful in identifying areas for improving operational procedures and developing strong cybersecurity governance at airports. This will allow airports to understand risks and respond proactively by adopting cybersecurity best practices and resilience measures. This study includes domestic, international, privately owned airports, airstrips, or aerodromes. This research found that level one of cyber-security maturity model is the most followed while proactive and advance levels i.e., level 4 and 5 are least adhered to. Most airports appear to have some resources allocated to cyber protection and resilience

Cybersecurity Maturity Model Capability in Aviation and Railway Industry

Cybersecurity is pivotal for the established aviation and railway industries. This study will examine the compliance of various levels of cybersecurity practices according to Cybersecurity Maturity Model Capability. This study will conduct a survey for aviation and railways. The data collected will be compared to identify which of the two industries is more compliant with the cybersecurity operational procedures. It will also enable the two industries to better evaluate and proactively acknowledge the threats by implementing cybersecurity best practices, governance and resilience processes