Information Technology Strategy Research Articles

Organizational structure and ICT strategies in the Brazilian Judiciary System

In this case study, we analyze the influence of the organizational structure in the definition and implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) strategies in the Brazilian Judiciary System. The analysis shows that the existing organizational structure favors uncoordinated actions, though the role of the National Council of Justice (NCJ) as protagonist in the process of coordinating the strategic planning of the Brazilian Judiciary System (and strategic ICT planning) might change this reality, allowing the Brazilian Judiciary System to reap the full benefits of ICT.

Information Technology and the QS Practice

The paper examines how Quantity Surveying practices can improve their business performance, market share and profit levels by embracing and evolving with the latest technological developments in electronic business practices and data/information analysis and exchange in the construction industry. Firms in the new millenium will need towork smarterto gain competitive advantage and electronic commerce provides probably the greatest scope for this to be achieved. More importantly, current project procurement trends strongly indicate that firms not able to communicating electronically at all levels with project participants will find it increasingly difficult to secure work. The results of three nationwide surveys of the Australian Quantity Surveying profession spanning from 1995 to 1999 are used to identify current business practices and technology utilisation by Quantity Surveying firms and to analyse whether firms are positioning themselves to meet future industryrequirements. The paper concludes with a range of Information Technology strategies aimed at improving business opportunities and performance for Quantity Surveying firms.

The Impact of IT Flexibility on Strategic Alignment (with Focus on Export)

Strategic alignment or the fit between information technology (IT) and business strategy remains a key topic ofconcern among managers worldwide. Change has always being considered the foremost challenge affectingstrategic alignment. Planning for alignment in uncertain and dynamic environments is fraught with risk asorganizations seek to understand how much flexibility to add to their IT infrastructure so as to maintainconsistently high levels of alignment. Reviewing the literature showed that there is a positive relationship betweenIT infrastructure flexibility and strategic alignment with strategic information systems planning (SISP) serving as amoderator of this relationship. Additionally, according to literature on exporting area and logical arguments weproposed that export performance can moderators the link between IT flexibility and strategic alignment. Also,studies results emphasize the need for organizations to use SISP to consistently monitor the relationship betweenIT flexibility and alignment. Doing so during periods of increased change in dynamic and uncertain environmentsreduces the risk of being ensnared by rigidity traps that could transform IT into an inhibitor rather than an enablerof change.

An enterprise engineering approach for the alignment of business and information technology strategy

Information systems and information technology (IS/IT, hereafter just IT) strategies usually depend on a business strategy. The alignment of both strategies improves their strategic plans. From an external perspective, business and IT alignment is the extent to which the IT strategy enables and drives the business strategy. This article reviews strategic alignment between business and IT, and proposes the use of enterprise engineering (EE) to achieve this alignment. The EE approach facilitates the definition of a formal dialog in the alignment design. In relation to this, new building blocks and life-cycle phases have been defined for their use in an enterprise architecture context. This proposal has been adopted in a critical process of a ceramic tile company for the purpose of aligning a strategic business plan and IT strategy, which are essential to support this process.

An ontological approach for strategic alignment: a supply chain operations reference case study

Firms cannot be competitive if their business and information technology strategies are not aligned. Yet achieving strategic alignment continues to be a major concern for business executives. A number of alignment models have been proposed in the literature. Enterprise modelling (EM) can deliver models that are understandable by all participants and formalised enough to map the Enterprise Engineering and Reengineering activities directly onto the business process execution. However, models need terms (names, verbs, etc.) to identify and describe the constructs modelled in the EM language used. To share business knowledge, a common modelling language is not sufficient. A common business language is required to share the understanding of any constructs used in the modelling language at a semantic level. The aim of this article is to present the importance of knowledge formalisation for strategic alignment. Our work is based on knowledge contained in a well-known reference model for supply chain: Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model. To analyse this knowledge, we transform this model into ontology. Finally, we will explore the respective advantages of the different representations of SCOR model (original text, using a business modelling language, ontology), and more generally, the contribution of ontologies as they are becoming a major issue in business modelling.

Guidelines From 80001 : Maintaining a Medical IT Network

<i>Guidelines From 80001</i> : Maintaining a Medical IT Network

Product Champions as Facilitators of Innovation

Product champions often play a major role in facilitating entrepreneurial behavior and innovation within organizations. Without the influence and efforts of these entrepreneurial champions, many organizational initiatives would not be successful. Examples of organizational initiatives often influenced by champions include: new product development, new internal ventures, implementing a new information technology (IT) system, strategy creation & implementation, etc. Prior research, however, finds that up to 70% of change/innovation initiatives fail (Higgs & Rowland, 2005). Howell and Higgins (1990) describe the role and importance of product champions this way:There is no shortage of creative ideas…However, for innovation to occur someone must take the creative idea, guide it through the trying period when resistance hits a peak, and persevere until it becomes an innovation. In short, every idea needs a champion.The objective of this paper is to understand more thoroughly the role of product champions in organizations and to identify what we know about several major areas considered important to product champion behavior.

Perencanaan Strategi Sistem dan Teknologi Informasi pada Perusahaan Telepon Genggam PT. Sinar Jaya Sukses Mandiri

PT. Sinar Jaya Sukses Mandiri (PT. SJSM) is a company engaged in telecommunications. In carrying out its business activities, PT. SJSM has not maximized the utilized the information system (IS) and information technology (IT). This research aims to produce strategic information systems planning and technology at PT. SJSM that will support the business strategy. The research uses is the data collection method by doing bibliography study, observation and interviews, and analysis and planning method by conducting an analysis of internal and external environment of business and company IS/IT using value chain analysis, SWOT, CSF, Porter’s five forces, and PEST. This research produces a recommendation of strategic planning and information technology systems of PT. SJSM including IS/IT management strategy, IS business strategy and IT strategy. The conclusions of this research is that information system and information technology strategies are needed to support the achievement of the vision, mission and corporate objectives, and are expected to increase the company competitiveness.

Perencanaan Strategi Sistem dan Teknologi Informasi pada PT. Tripuri Mitra Nobelindo

Competitions faced by companies are some obstacles in achieving the business objectives to maintain the company's growth and survival. The use of information technology trend requires companies to use it in order to compete with competitors. Strategic planning of information system (IS) and information technology (IT) which refer to business strategy should be customized to the company's business processes. The process of finding a future application portfolio is preceded by the discovery of business strategy, IS/IT strategy managemen and IT strategy. The method used is the strategic planning of information system and information technology of Ward and Peppard. The discovery of business strategy through internal and external analysis of the company is done using tools: PEST, SWOT, Porter's five competitive model, Value chain, and CSF. The analysis of the current information systems helps determine the proposed IS and IT plan. The result achieved is strategic system plan and information technology that are appropriate to the company in achieving its business goals.

Information Technology and Firm Boundaries: Impact on Firm Risk and Return Performance

In this paper, we empirically investigate the impact of information technology (IT) investment on firm return and risk financial performance, emphasizing the moderating role of the firm boundary strategies of diversification and vertical integration. Our results indicate a sharp contrast between the direct and interactive effects of IT on both the return (profitability) and risk (variability of returns) dimensions. Although the direct effect of IT capital is to increase firm risk for a given level of return, we find that suitable boundary strategies can moderate the impact of IT on firm performance in a way that increases return and decreases risk, at the margin. This interaction effect is strongest in service firms, in firms with high levels of IT investment intensity, and in more recent time periods. Our results are robust to alternative proxies for firm risk, including an ex ante risk measure (variability of analysts' earnings estimates), and alternative risk-return specifications. Put together, our results provide new insights into how IT and firm boundary strategies interact to affect the risk and return performance of firms.

About Our Authors

About Our Authors

The Relationship between Knowledge Management Strategy and Information Technology Strategy

The Relationship between Knowledge Management Strategy and Information Technology Strategy

Dynamics of CSFs for business innovation: Normal vs. Crisis economic conditions

This research reviews the literature on business innovation, identifies CSFs for business innovation, empirically tests the validity of CSFs as well as examines the impact of CSFs on the success of business innovation, and investigates whether CSFs for business innovation are identical or different in normal and crisis economic conditions. Thorough extensive literature review, eleven CSFs were identified: motivation and rewards, TF team manpower, strategy, methodology, goals and measurement, organizational structure, change management, role of information technology, implementation, leadership, and communication. The respondents rated leadership as the most important CSF, followed by motivation & rewards, change management, TF team manpower, role of information technology, and strategy. In crisis economic conditions, the respondents evaluated leadership as the most important CSF, followed by motivation and rewards, TF team manpower, change management, strategy, and role of information technology. It may be that management approaches business innovation more strategically and methodologically to successfully complete business innovation projects since there are scarce resources and increasing pressure for success in crisis economic conditions. Regression analyses show that CSFs in total have very significant explanatory power in the success of business innovation and reveal that leadership and TF team manpower have the strongest explanatory power.

Assessing the Impact of IT Connectivity and IT Capability on IT-Business Strategic Alignment: An Empirical Study

The literature argues that organizations cannot be competitive if their business and information technology strategies are not aligned. Yet achieving strategic alignment continues to be a main concern for business executives. So this research seeks to address the research problem of the lack of alignment between IT strategy and business strategy. Past studies have shown that flexibility in IT is an influential aspect of sustaining strategic alignment in today's environment while researches on dimensions of IT flexibility regarding strategic alignment are limited. One of the most important dimensions of IT flexibility is connectivity which the research has considered this dimension. Further, the researchers have found that IT capability in regard to strategic alignment and IT connectivity has been ignored in the prior studies. Thus, this research for filling this gap proposed and empirically assessed the relationships among IT connectivity, IT capability, and strategic alignment. Data for this study were collected through questionnaires filled up by IT managers of organizations in United Arab Emirates. The findings indicated IT connectivity and IT capability have a significant positive effect on strategic alignment and IT connectivity has also a positive impact on IT capability.

IT Professionals Awareness: Green IT International Comparison Study

Global warming and other environmental issues such as energy and resource constraint are becoming the world’s major concerns and need to be solved. Information Technology (IT) is perceived as an enabler to resolve those problems and bring greater efficiency. This concept is known as Green IT which covers energy conservation by IT and energy conservation of IT. It is important to analyse the awareness of IT professionals about Green IT in order to measure whether they are ready to implement a Green IT strategy. Many countries have already applied Green IT initiatives to reduce carbon emissions. Awareness of Green IT has been measured in many countries, except Indonesia, which has committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 26% in 2020. Green IT should be one of the potential enablers to achieve that goal. This paper provides a preliminary insight into Green IT awareness among Indonesian IT professionals and shows a comparison between attitude and awareness levels of other countries. Some recommendations will be discussed in order to increase the awareness and reduce the inhibiting factors that influence it. The current findings suggest that although IT professionals in Indonesia have already some concerns about climate change and the power consumption of IT, there is still a lack of implementation and action dimensions.

‘The Constant Pursuit of Excellence’

The results of AAMI's survey on the top medical device challenges do not surprise me. The convergence of clinical engineering (CE) device responsibilities with information technology (IT) systems will continue. If CE departments do not embrace IT strategies and networking skill sets, they are doomed in this business. These dinosaur departments will not be able to provide the value for their institutions, and the institutions they serve will find someone who will deliver the value they need.The problems that many departments face in this area of CE-IT integration are ignorance and the failure to continue to educate themselves on the ever-changing environment of technology and healthcare. Many clinical engineering technologists still do not know what an EMR (electronic medical record) is or the impact an EMR will have on the technology they manage. Coming to grips with the realization that our career field is changing and that all of us must continue to learn these changing technologies will ensure patient care that is excellent. Failure to keep up with the ever-changing technology will cheat our patients and ensure mediocrity for our career field.Everything we do is for the benefit of the patient and impacts the outcome of their care. Whether it is developing new ways to manage the plethora of alarm noises in a busy intensive care unit or the management of endoscopes and the repairs for these devices, patient care is affected. I am disappointed when I see clinical engineering technologists treat the positions they hold at a facility as “just a job.”The impact that a clinical engineering department has on a medical facility can be staggering, not only from a financial perspective, but also from a quality-of-care perspective. If the clinical engineering department is not doing its job and adding value to the care of patients, then the results are high costs for asset management, poor coworker satisfaction, higher staffing levels for the facility, a higher cost for patient procedures, potentially longer lengths of stay for the patients, and on and on.The solution must be the constant pursuit of excellence for the clinical engineering field. We must continue to ensure that our educational process is ever evolving so that we are developing well-trained—clinically, technically, and financially—compassionate, and highly competitive individuals.We must ensure that the clinical engineering programs document the work we do with 100% accuracy and that those results get communicated to leadership. We must benchmark our programs. We must pursue professional certification without a government mandate.We, as individuals, must continue to pursue educational opportunities on our own and not wait for someone else to either force us to get educated or for someone else to pay for this education. We still have libraries and the Internet with volumes of educational materials; of course, this demands we all show the initiative and take advantage of these opportunities. We each need to pursue the best and become the best in our field.

Risk management in Indian companies: EWRM concerns and issues

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the current status of risk management in Indian companies and explore the reasons for the adoption or lack of adoption of integrated approach to risk management. It identifies the imperatives for implementation of comprehensive risk management solutions leading to enterprise‐wide risk management (EWRM). The paper shows that effective risk management can improve organizational performance but adequate infrastructure is not available in companies for implementing EWRM.Design/methodology/approachExploratory design using the survey research methodology that includes structured questionnaires and interviews of 130 companies.FindingsRisk management in Indian companies is currently facing the problem of integration and incentivisation. The risk management function is not suitably blended into the corporate strategy and use of information technology for risk management is minimal. The portfolio approach to risk management titled as integrated risk management or EWRM is ineffective from an implementation perspective and a sea change in risk perception is required which accentuates the need for building up of risk culture across business segments and adequate incentivisation for risk management.Practical implicationsRisk management is an integral part of the decision‐making process and effective risk management can proactively help in overcoming the possibilities of the business failures.Originality/valueThe paper highlights the fact that knowledge of risk management in Indian companies is inadequate and sample companies hesitate to respond thinking that it may reflect inefficiencies.

A model and empirical test of information technology strategy success

Organisations are looking for IT solutions to propel their business, and meet the needs of an overly competitive landscape. Successful implementation of a sound IT strategy, then, is the key. Strategic use of IT and alignment with business strategies can be achieved only by developing a successful information technology strategy (ITS). A successful ITS has consequently become a vital part of strategic thinking in organisations. Despite the growing number of IT strategic planning frameworks proposed, organisations still fail. The main reason for this failure is organisations' tendency to emphasise the technical and technological aspects while neglecting the organisational (non-technical) factors of IT strategy. In this paper, we will identify the main organisational factors-related to successful implementation of ITS and ultimately, the organisation's success in the marketplace.

Competitive Potential of Micro-sized IT Outsourcing Vendors in a Small State of the European Union: A Case of Malta

Information Technology (IT) outsourcing becomes an increasingly popular phenomenon among business practitioners who seek services and/or products of third party suppliers to meet their in-house IT needs. It offers a business opportunity for IT outsourcing vendors, which, from a competitive potential perspective, may be challenging when such organisations are micro-enterprises (employing not more than ten employees) and operate from Malta a developing micro island state in the Mediterranean and a constituent part of the European Union. This paper tests the notion of competitive potential as posed by the Strategic Alignment Model (SAM) of Henderson and Venkatraman (1993), within such particular context. Through the SAM, competitive potential is viewed as a strategic co-alignment of a firm’s business strategy, IT strategy and organisation infrastructure. A best fit model which positively asserts such a notion is derived from Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) that is applied to data collected from a survey amongst the Maltese IT outsourcing micro-enterprises. The model is validated and confirmed through a Case Study involving six micro-enterprises. The paper indicates the strategic alignment of competitive, organisational and strategic factors, which, albeit not often explicit, are highly active in IT outsourcing micro-enterprises. It also indicates that competitive potential in the IT outsourcing micro-enterprises is a dynamic capability that evolves out of a well conceived business strategy, IT strategy and organisation infrastructure which seek to exploit existing competitive potential and compensate for resource constraints whilst seeking to deliver IT service and/or product through outsourcing arrangements.

The impact of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) technologies in global market-oriented enterprises

The business value created by Information Technology (IT) in modern enterprises is questionable in relation to the invested amount of money, usually, owing to bad formulation of their IT strategy. Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) technologies seem to be capable of providing the enterprises with technological solutions for formulating an IT Strategy of competitive advantage. The well-known Balanced Scorecard (BSC) method can prove SOA’s value through its enforcement to SOA implementations on real business environments. Towards this direction, this paper, after presenting the SOA concepts and technologies, examines based on the BSC the implications of SOA approach in business operations and results.