An analysis of the driving forces for Web services adoption

Web services are supported by major IT vendors and have been adopted by some enterprises in various applications. However, due to the hype surrounding Web services, information technology (IT) personnel and business managers often have difficulty assessing the potential uses, impacts, and benefits of Web services. Based on literature review and technical information, as well as field and Web-based case studies, we have developed a framework for analyzing the driving forces for Web services adoption. The framework and detailed benefits analysis model can be used by IT and business strategy planners to identify technical options and business opportunities, as well as to formulate Web services implementation strategies.     

Technical Briefing: Business Continuity Management

Abstract

This article discusses business continuity management as a risk management activity that extends well beyond the realm of IT Disaster Recovery Planning. It describes a rational, iterative process for assessing the risks, selecting appropriate risk treatments, and implementing various mitigating controls including resilience, recovery and contingency measures. While the IT Department undoubtedly has an important part to play in business continuity management, the article emphasizes that the process should be driven by senior managers since they are ultimately accountable for the organization's health and survival. As such, they have an obvious interest in balancing business risks against business opportunities.     

An empirical study of misalignment between Australian CEOs and IT managers

This paper discusses the results of a critical success factors (CSFs) study carried out to determine the key IT management needs of Australian CEOs. In the past, several studies to determine the IT management needs have been carried out, but they have aimed mostly at the IT managers, not the CEOs. This study fills this gap, and by comparing the CSFs of the CEOs with those of the IT managers shows the areas of misalignment in the management of IT in Australian enterprises. It is concluded that to achieve ongoing alignment, the CEOs and senior executives need to gain management level understanding of IT. But perhaps, even more important is for IT managers to develop a business oriented perspective for the success of their enterprise.     

The it Imperative in Business Transformation

The IT imperative is to construct enterprisewide systems and capabilities needed by business to compete. For IS managers, this means embracing the viewpoint that IT plays a crucial role in building the business of the future. IS and business management must act as true partners, each supporting the other in creating an optimally performing company.     

Commoditization and IT Product Innovation Strategies from an IT Firm Perspective

Based on a survey (N = 248 business managers) this study confirms that different types of innovation in IT products have a direct positive impact on IT firms’ business performance. The commoditization level of IT markets acts as a moderator dampening this positive relationship. This implies that IT firms should take existing commoditization levels as well as a mix of IT product innovation types into account as part of their innovation strategy.     

Information Technology Alignment Planning—a case study

This paper describes the Information Technology (IT) Alignment Planning process—a strategic IT planning process created to complement the corporate planning model used by a major utility company in the Midwest. Corporate planning activities produced the divisional strategies, critical success factors (CSFs), and goals that then were used to by the IT Alignment Planning process to align IT within the company.The process is intended to aid in making the best possible use of IT resources in meeting the corporation's business objectives. Fifty-eight managers from five major business units participated in the study. Several important factors and their resulting benefits were identified. The model utilized an intuitive color-coded alternative to statistical output that was readily accepted by management. We found that the process helped align IT with business strategies and improved and facilitated communication on IT project management and development.     

Managing the Decentralized IT Organization

The growing trend to decentralize the IT function and move applications development to business units is often controlled by top management. A coordinated set of best practices helps IT managers take charge of change, position the IT organization as both a vendor of development services and a provider of vital infrastructure services, and ensure a logical career-enhancing structure for IT professionals.     

Testing the accuracy of the IT stereotype: Profiling IT managers’ personality and behavioural characteristics

Recent literature has identified many communication and leadership inadequacies amongst senior IT managers and consequent breakdowns in the IT/business relationship. This paper goes beyond the largely anecdotally based evidence presented to date; it uses psychometric testing to investigate the personal and behavioural characteristics of IT managers and compare these with reported characteristics of business managers. The results indicate significant differences related to issues of control and consequent leadership behaviour and task/relationship orientation. It is speculated that IT managers with the personality characteristics identified in this study may tend to position IT in a service rather than a strategic role and experience greater difficulties in negotiating the IT/business relationship.     

一个基于管理信息单元的描述

先进的管理理念诸如全面质量管理、业务流程再造或是六西格马管理在企业应用过程中获得了巨大的成功。从中我们发现,这些管理创新都以业务流程改进为出发点。因此,对业务流程进行管理显得至关重要。本文描述了一个业务流程管理系统的管理信息单元组织模型和流程模型,以及系统功能模块及其实现工具,为企业进行业务流程管理提供了一定的参考。     

Strategic context and patterns of IT infrastructure capability

The importance of a firm's information technology (IT) infrastructure capability is increasingly recognised as critical to firm competitiveness. Infrastructure is particularly important for firms in industries going through dynamic change, for firms reengineering their business processes and for those with multiple business units or extensive international or geographically dispersed operations. However, the notion of IT infrastructure is still evolving and there has been little empirically based research on the patterns of IT infrastructure capability across firms.We develop the concept of IT infrastructure capability through identification of IT infrastructure services and measurement of reach and range in large, multi-business unit firms. Using empirical case research, we examine the patterns of IT infrastructure capability in 26 firms with diverse strategic contexts, including different industry bases, level of marketplace volatility, extent of business unit synergies and the nature of firm strategy formation processes. Data collection was based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods with multiple participants.More extensive IT infrastructure capability is defined as a combination of more IT infrastructure services and more reach and range. More extensive IT infrastructure capability was found in firms where: (i) products changed quickly; (ii) attempts were made to identify and capture synergies across business units; (iii) there was greater integration of information and IT needs as part of planning processes; and (iv) there was greater emphasis on tracking the implementation of long term strategy. These findings have implications for both business and technology managers particularly in regard to how firms link strategy and IT infrastructure formation processes.     

Can ITIL contribute to IT/business alignment? An initial investigation

Strategic alignment has been viewed as one of the main concerns of management and IT executives. Organizations have realized that in order to achieve competitive advantage, IT needs to be strategically aligned with business objectives. Strategic alignment enables organizations to choose IT applications that meet their needs and as a result, to enhance their profitability and reduce costs. Despite the importance of this matter and a large body of literature written on this subject, it has not yet been identified how it can be successfully achieved and maintained. This paper attempts to provide insight on this matter by investigating an initiative called Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which ensures the effective and efficient delivery of IT services. The intention of this research was to identify how effective ITIL was in improving alignment between IT and business objectives. The Strategic Alignment Model (SAM) developed by Henderson and Venkatraman was used for this research. This consists of four parts: IT strategy; business strategy; organizational infrastructure and processes; and IS infrastructure and processes. By placing ITIL in the internal domain of the model as a substitute for the IS infrastructure and processes it has been identified that it has the ability to impact the other three main areas of the model and as result enables alignment between all the four parts of model to be achieved. In addition to the above an empirical study has been conducted in order to further investigate the ability of ITIL in achieving alignment between IT and business objectives. Four participants have been interviewed from three organizations ranging from education and banking to the IT sector. The results of the research indicate that ITIL has potential as an effective approach in achieving alignment.     

Strategic IT alignment Projects. Towards Good Governance

The senior management of organisations frequently perceive IT Projects as merely technological in nature. They fail to realise that in reality, the mission of IT is to provide technology-based support to business processes that can be key to the organisation. This lack of understanding means that these IT projects are not aligned with the business objectives and that investments in resources and personnel are not adequately prioritised. This can lead to an opportunity loss: a mere computerising of the business is sought, and processes that could turn out to be transformative, generating added value, driving a true digital transformation of the business are overlooked. This article proposes a model for implementing and operating a portfolio of strategic IT projects. Based on Good Governance principles, these latter projects move strategic decision-making up to an organisation's senior management, succeeding in gradually implicating these managers into the IT strategy. But above all, the model succeeds in achieving the targeted strategic alignment of IT projects with the organisation's business objectives and interests. The model has already been implemented in fourteen medium and large size public universities. The follow-up through interviews of the nine longest-standing experiences—some are nearly a decade old—revealed that the portfolio implementation strategy had helped to markedly improve the following elements: the institutions’ state of maturity of Good Governance; senior management's involvement in IT projects; and the identification of the most interesting IT projects for the business. To conclude, based on our experience, we can affirm that the strategic IT alignment projects is an effective IT Governance tool and, by extension, an example of Good Governance practice.     

The Turnover and Retention of it Managers in Rapidly Changing Organizations

The explosion of information technology (IT) during the 1990s created tremendous opportunities and challenges for IT professionals. As organizations expanded and integrated their information technology into their business functions and made greater use of the Internet as a business tool and marketing channel, the demand for IT managers to guide these efforts created unprecedented career opportunities. Industry sources suggest that even amid the peaks and valleys of turbulent IT business cycles, there is a chronic shortage of top-quality IT managers in North America and that this situation will persist well into the foreseeable future. These supply-and-demand dynamics make it imperative for organizations to know why IT managers leave their positions and, using this knowledge, formulate effective retention strategies.     

Information technology Alignment Planning—a case study

This paper describes the Information Technology Alignment Planning Process—a strategic IT planning process created to complement the corporate planning model used by a major Utility company in the Midwest. Corporate planning activities produced the divisional strategies, critical success factors, and goals that then were used to by the IT Alignment Planning process to align IT within the company.The process is intended to aid in making the best possible use of IT resources in meeting the corporation’s business objectives. Fifty-eight managers from five major business units participated in the study. Several important factors and their resulting benefits were identified. The model utilized an intuitive color-coded alternative to statistical output that was readily accepted by management. We found that the process helped align IT with business strategies and improved and facilitated communication on IT project management and development.     

An exploratory field study of differences in information technology use between more- and less-innovative middle managers

Based on data collected in 1988, this research explored the differences between more- and less-innovative middle managers in their use of information and information technology (IT). It involved a field study of ninety-nine middle managers in a division of a major defense contracting manufacturing organization in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area of the USA. Results suggest that the more-innovative middle managers are inclined to use data drawn from personal experience and insights rather than historical data and found IT generally important. Apparently, innovative middle managers use less complex programs, and when in-depth analyses are needed, their execution was generally delegated. The prime interpretation of the results is that innovative middle managers use IT as a vehicle for networking. They distribute more of their IT output to others. Even though they do not use IT more, they frequently contact local and expert support functions. These findings indicate that future research efforts should address the issues of how managerial business and IT innovativeness are related to IT use and networking behaviors.     

Road Map to the E-Revolution

Clearly, E-commerce is revolutionizing both IT and business. What may not be so evident for IT managers is the direction in which this revolution will take their organizations. This article helps IT managers determine this direction by showing how to develop a road map to chart their organizations' course through the E-revolution.     

Guest Editors' Introduction: Strategic Planning in Today's IT Environment

This introduction to the special issue dedicated to strategic planning presents the complexity and dynamics of global enterprise IT management in today's tight and unstable economic environment. IT managers and enterprise executives can achieve their overall business success by opening channels of communications among their normally independent organizational silos and by creating an enterprise-shared culture that recognizes the critical role IT has in this endeavor.     

A critical success factors model for ERP implementation

An effective IT infrastructure can support a business vision and strategy; a poor, decentralized one can break a company. More and more companies are turning to off-the-shelf ERP (enterprise resource planning) solutions for IT planning and legacy systems management. The authors have developed a framework to help managers successfully plan and implement an ERP project     

Dynamic information technology capability: Concept definition and framework development

In a digital world, information technology (IT) units routinely update their capabilities to cope with changing business requirements and frequent technology releases. Extending the dynamic capabilities literature, this article presents the concept of dynamic IT capability, a multidimensional first-order dynamic capability that enables IT units to assist firms in appropriating business value from IT resources by influencing a set of IT-related ordinary capabilities. Scholars currently lack a dynamic capabilities framework that explains, from an IT unit’s perspective, how IT resources can be acquired, deployed, integrated, and reconfigured to fulfill business objectives. To bridge this research gap, we develop a high-level framework that highlights three constituent components of dynamic IT capability: dynamic digital platform capability, dynamic IT management capability, and dynamic IT knowledge management capability. Through an extensive literature review, we identify and summarize the set of ordinary capabilities that each dynamic IT capability component creates and reconfigures. We then offer guidance on future instrument development. To encourage further exploration of this critical construct, we close by highlighting future avenues for dynamic IT capability research.     

Road Map to the E-Revolution

Abstract

Clearly, E-commerce is revolutionizing both IT and business. What may not be so evident for IT managers is the direction in which this revolution will take their organizations. This article helps IT managers determine this direction by showing how to develop a road map to chart their organizations' course through the E-revolution.