Showing papers in "Information Systems Management in 2008"

Management Support with Structured and Unstructured Data-An Integrated Business Intelligence Framework

Abstract: In the course of the evolution of management support towards corporate wide Business Intelligence infrastructures, the integration of components for handling unstructured data comes into focus. In this paper, three types of approaches for tackling the respective challenges are distinguished. The approaches are mapped to a three layer BI framework and discussed regarding challenges and business potential. The application of the framework is exemplified for the domains of Competitive Intelligence and Customer Relationship Management.

Business Intelligence: An Analysis of the Literature

Abstract: This research collects, synthesizes, and analyzes 167 articles on a variety of topics closely related to business intelligence (BI) published from 1997 to 2006 in ten leading Information Systems (IS) journals. We found a generally increasing level of activity during the 10-year period and a focus on exploratory research methodologies. We noted that several methodologies were either underrepresented or absent from the pool of BI research. We also identified several subject areas that need further exploration.

Understanding Data-Driven Decision Support Systems

Abstract: It is important for managers and Information Technology professionals to understand data-driven decision support systems and how such systems can provide business intelligence and performance monitoring. Data-driven DSS is one of five major types of computerized decision support systems and the features of such systems vary across specific implementations. Different development packages also impact the capabilities of data-driven DSS and hence criteria for evaluating data-driven DSS development software are important to understand. Overall, this article builds on an historic foundation of prior decision support systems theory.

Critical Success Factors in Business Performance Management-Striving for Success

Abstract: Today, organizations recognize the value of business performance management (BPM) as a way of attaining strategic alignments and as a means of effectively creating and implementing business strategy. Yet, many still struggle in implementing a BPM solution that is enterprise focused and that enables strategic alignment. This article presents a framework for BPM and discusses the major critical success factors that will influence the success of a BPM initiative.

From Profiles to Patterns: A New View of Task-Technology Fit

Abstract: Continuing advances in the capabilities of communication and information technologies provide a wide array of interesting ways for people to collaborate across space, time, cultures, and organizational boundaries While the use of collaboration technologies spreads, researchers seek answers to understanding how best to match different technology capabilities with the tasks that teams need to accomplish Different theories of task-technology fit have been promoted and these theories help to identify key issues of interest to both researchers and practitioners who seek the answer to the best technology support for collaboration We examine existing theories of fit for collaboration technology and propose a new view, using the theoretical frame of patterns We argue that this fresh perspective is particularly relevant in the virtual contexts that are so important in the dynamic life of organizations today

A Comprehensive Examination of Internet-EDI Adoption

Abstract: By taking advantage of the Internet, a new generation of Interorganizational Information Systems, i.e., Internet electronic data interchange (I-EDI) provides great efficiency for performing business-to-business transactions and is much more affordable than other network alternatives. Few empirical studies have been conducted to examine the adoption of I-EDI and little guidance has been given to the practitioners in the field. To fill this void, this research investigates the adoption of I-EDI by U.S. enterprises based on a comprehensive framework. Results from an online survey of 219 organizational respondents indicate that the proposed framework is able to help explain organizational adoption of I-EDI. This study provides insights and interesting findings toward technology adoption in Internet era. While some new factors are found to play important roles in IOS adoption, several conventional factors, such as technology compatibility and organization size, are no longer significant in explaining the adoption of I-EDI. Different effects of interorganizational factors such as power, trust, and relationship commitment on I-EDI adoption have been revealed. Implications for researchers and practitioners are provided.

Exploring the Role of Management Accounting Systems in Strategic Sensemaking

Abstract: Management accounting systems (MAS) provide an information context that is required for strategic sensemaking. Research from the interpretive perspective of information processing suggests some mechanisms how MAS can contribute to strategic sensemaking, although it neglects the relationship between MAS use and MAS dimensions. The systems-structural perspective identified some important MAS dimensions, but it does not explain how these dimensions contribute to strategic sensemaking. The objective of this study is to explore the role of MAS in sensemaking and how MAS dimensions contribute to this role. Based on 30 interviews with top and middle managers from 7 large companies we suggest a set of MAS dimensions that relates to sensemaking.

The IT Value Hierarchy: Using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as a Metaphor for Gauging the Maturity Level of Information Technology Use within Competitive Organizations

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to present a hierarchy of progressive IT maturity using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as a metaphor for articulating the increasing value that can be derived by the application of Information Technology within competitive organizations. The authors refer to this maturity model as the IT Value Hierarchy. Each level of the IT Value Hierarchy is described using examples and comparisons to Maslow's Hierarchy. The model can be used by IT executives as a framework for better explaining and discussing the value of increasingly sophisticated Information Technology use within the enterprise.

Building Trust and Cooperation through Technology Adaptation in Virtual Teams: Empirical Field Evidence

Abstract: This article reports findings of a study of how leaders of virtual information systems development teams improve team trust and cooperation by managing adaptation of information and communications tools. Results indicate how Theory X (command and control) and Theory Y (facilitate and support) styles of leadership enable and hinder effective outcomes.

Continental Airlines Continues to Soar with Business Intelligence

Abstract: As the business intelligence industry matures, it is increasingly important to investigate and understand the nature of mature data warehouses. Although data warehouse research is prevalent, existing research primarily addresses new implementations and initial challenges. This case study of Continental Airlines describes how business intelligence at Continental has evolved over time. It identifies Continental's challenges with its mature data warehouse and provides suggestions for how companies can work to overcome these kinds of obstacles.

Measurement of Compliance Distance in Business Processes

Abstract: Ensuring that work practice is compliant to regulations and industrial standards is an increasingly important issue in business systems. Whereas as an understanding of control objectives that stem from various legislative, standard and contractual sources may be found at strategic or tactical levels, an assessment of their effective adoption in operational practices is extremely hard. In this paper, we propose a method for assessing the level of compliance in business work practice. The method builds upon business process management platforms, and provides the ability to objectively measure the compliance distance of existing processes within the organization. This in turn empowers process designers and business analysts to quantify the effort required to achieve a compliant process.

Role Negotiation and Interaction: An Exploratory Case Study of the Impact of Management Consultants on ERP System Implementation in SMEs in Taiwan

Abstract: With growing pressures for collaborative information systems (IS) partnerships, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation has been an important activity for improving supply chains efficiency in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Historically ERP consultants usually take a product-selling approach in SMEs, providing limited management consultancy services. However, a more constructive role for management consultants has become an emerging and challenging issue. This study explored the involvement of management consultants in ERP implementation, particularly with internal managers, ERP consultants and other project members. Extensive interviews were conducted with management consultants as well as 47 project members from four different SMEs in Taiwan employing ERP consultants. Using a grounded theory methodology, prior literature was used to sensitize the findings to key concepts of importance. The results were then analyzed and we described how owner-managers regard management consultants and how the consultants use role negotiation skills to work with both internal managers and ERP consultants. The study found resistance toward management consultants primarily from managers in SMEs, and not owner-managers. The relationships between management consultants and SME managers also differed from similar relationships in large organizations. Suggestions are also provided for academics and practitioners along with areas for future research to extend these exploratory findings.

Enterprise System Flexibility and Implementation Strategies: Aligning Theory with Evidence from a Case Study

Abstract: Flexibility can have important consequences for the operational efficiency and long-term effectiveness of an enterprise system, yet is often not considered explicitly as a decision factor during system design and implementation. In this article, we join managerial advice for implementation strategies with insights from a theory that determines the flexibility requirements of an enterprise system in relation with characteristics of the business process that the system is intended to support. We align our theoretical considerations with practical evidence from the case of an electronic procurement system that was implemented at a Fortune 100 firm. Based on our findings, we present a roadmap that can guide flexibility and implementation strategies based on both project and process characteristics.

Towards Collaboration Maturity in Business Processes: An Exploratory Study in Oil Production Processes

Abstract: Organizations have been relying on collaboration for knowledge sharing and productivity improvement in order to reduce costs or boost revenue. However, organizations still cannot assure that collaboration is properly conducted in daily work. This paper presents an approach to stimulating collaboration between professionals in an organization. The approach, combining a BPM methodology with the CollabMM collaboration maturity model and its corresponding method, is a result of an exploratory study in a real setting in an oil company in Brazil. The project is a move towards improving decision-making during one of the company's business processes and establishing collaboration among professionals through information sharing.

It's the Thought that Counts: The Mediating Effects of Information Processing in Virtual Team Decision Making

Abstract: Previous research shows that although collaboration technology can improve the exchange of information during team decision making, one of the challenges is that this better discussion often does not lead to better decisions. In this paper, we investigate the impact of individual information processing on team decision making. We investigated the effects of two types of collaboration technology when participants were either the member of a team majority or a team minority. There was little impact due to the majority/minority, but the use of collaboration technology that required users to categorize the comments they received from others resulted in increased information processing, which in turn led to better decisions and more satisfied participants.

Detecting Coordination Problems in Collaborative Software Development Environments

Abstract: Software development is rarely an individual effort and generally involves teams of developers collaborating to generate good reliable code. Among the software code there exist technical dependencies that arise from software components using services from other components. The different ways of assigning the design, development, and testing of these software modules to people can cause various coordination problems among them. We claim that the collaboration of the developers, designers and testers must be related to and governed by the technical task structure. These collaboration practices are handled in what we call Socio-Technical Patterns. The TESNA project (Technical Social Network Analysis) we report on in this paper addresses this issue. We propose a method and a tool that a project manager can use in order to detect the socio-technical coordination problems. We test the method and tool in a case study of a small and innovative software product company.

Quantifying the Performance of Workflows

Abstract: Business process redesign is one of the most powerful ways to boost business performance and to improve customer satisfaction (Limam Mansar & Reijers, 2005). A possible approach to business process redesign is using redesign best practices. A previous study identified a set of 29 different redesign best practices (Reijers, 2003). However, little is known about the exact impact of these redesign best practices on workflow performance. This study proposes an approach that can be used to quantify the impact of a business process redesign project on all dimensions of workflow performance. The approach consists of a large set of performance measures and a simulation toolkit. It supports the quantification of the impact of the implementation of redesign best practices, in order to determine what best practice or combination of best practices leads to the most favorable effect in a specific business process. The approach is developed based on a quantification project for the parallel best practice and is validated with two other quantification projects, namely for the knockout and triage best practices.

The Development of a Computer Auditing System Sufficient for Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404: A Study on the Purchasing and Expenditure Cycle of the ERP System

Abstract: After Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX 404) was released, developing a computer auditing system became more important for management and auditors. In this study, the researchers aim to: (1) explore the crucial control items of the purchasing and expenditure cycle in meeting the conditions of SOX 404; (2) develop a computer auditing system based on the recognized control items and requirements of SOX 404; and (3) validate the applicability of the system by using an ISO/IEC 9126 model in meeting organizational needs (ISO, 2001). The Gowin's Vee research strategy developed by Novak & Gowin (1984) was used in the study. In theory, researchers have identified eight operational procedures and 34 critical control items for the purchasing and expenditure cycle. The prototype computer auditing system of this study was then developed. On the experimental side, the researchers conducted two case studies based on the ISO/IEC 9126 software assessment criteria, the result of which showed that the system can provide company internal auditing personnel and their external auditors with a simple, continuous, timely, and analytical tool, which may promptly and effectively help in detecting problem control issues. We believe this study can contribute to the development of a sufficient and manageable computer auditing system, and provide prospective researchers and businesses with future directions in this subject area.

Generating Business Process Models from Object Behavior Models

Abstract: Object-oriented modeling is an established approach to document information systems. In an object model, a system is captured in terms of object types and associations, state machines and collaboration diagrams, among others. Process modeling on the other hand, provides a different approach whereby behavior is captured in terms of activities, flow dependencies, resources, etc. These two approaches have their relative advantages. Also, object models and process models lend themselves to different styles of implementation. In this paper we define a transformation from a meta-model for object behavior modeling to a meta-model for process modeling. The transformation relies on the identification of causal relations in the object model. These relations are encoded in a heuristics net from which a process model is derived and then simplified. Using this transformation, it becomes possible to apply established object-oriented techniques during system analysis and design, and to transform the resulting object models into executable process models that can be deployed in a workflow engine. The proposal has been implemented in an object modeling tool.

Designing E-Collaboration Technologies to Facilitate Compensatory Adaptation

Abstract: This article argues that e-collaboration technologies often pose obstacles to effective communication in complex collaborative tasks. The reason presented is that typically those technologies selectively suppress face-to-face communication elements that human beings have been designed by evolution to use extensively while communicating with each other. It is argued that technology users invariably react to those obstacles by engaging in compensatory adaptation, whereby they change their communicative behavior in order to compensate for the obstacles. The article concludes with a call for more research on how e-collaboration technologies can be designed to facilitate compensatory adaptation.

Applying a Market-Based Approach to the Development of a Sharing-Enabled KM Model for Knowledge-Intensive Small Firms

Abstract: In this paper, we draw on the knowledge market analogy and integrate the considerations of organizational culture and attributes, knowledge management (KM) guiding principles and continuous learning-based systems development into the design of a model for KM initiatives. This model has been implemented in a small medical consulting firm for its KM initiative. The successful implementation of this model indicates the possible applicability of our model to other knowledge-intensive small firms and the feasibility of applying the same concepts used in larger KM implementations to small companies.

Constructing and Sustaining Competitive Interorganizational Knowledge Networks: An Analysis of Managerial Web-Based Facilitation

Abstract: The research in this paper considers the complex and dynamic arrangements for potential and actual knowledge sharing in interorganizational networks. The essence of this stance is that “knowledge” relates to affirmative managerial action beyond the necessary collection of information facilitated through technology. The issue is to determine the nature and extent of the degree of organizational agreement that may be achieved as competitors either cooperate or continue to compete in the face of challenging and pervasive market conditions. The theory relating to network formulation is reviewed, findings from empirical analyses from the experiences from automobile distributors in a large USA city, and one scientific collaborators network are presented. A framework is proposed identifying the factors necessary to initially construct the network and then to further sustain it over time. A number of lessons learned are developed, which are believed to be of value to researchers and practitioners engaged in these processes.

Including the CIO in Top Management

Abstract: Ethylene oxide is recovered from aqueous solutions by extracting with carbon dioxide in the near-critical or super-critical state, thereby selectively removing the ethylene oxide from water, and thereafter recovering ethylene oxide from the carbon dioxide by distillation or other suitable means.

Information Alignment and Task Coordination in Organizations: An 'Information Clutch' Metaphor

Abstract: Despite their rising popularity, distributed teams face a number of collaboration challenges that may potentially hinder their ability to productively coordinate their resources, activities, and information, often in dynamic and uncertain task environments. In this paper, we focus principally on the criticality of information alignment for supporting coordinated task performance in complex operational environments. As organizations become more expertise, geographically, and temporally distributed, appropriate alignment and coordination among distributed team members becomes more critical for minimizing the occurrence of information flow failures, poor decision-making, and degraded team performance. We first describe these coordination processes using the metaphor of an 'information clutch' that allows for smooth transitions of task priorities and activities in expert teams. We then present two case study examples that illustrate the potentially significant impact of information sharing and information alignment on productivity and coordination in organizations. We conclude with a discussion of future directions in this area.

Innovative Practices for IT Projects

Abstract: Based on 57 interviews with senior IT project managers in the UK Canada, USA and New Zealand, this article presents innovative practices they have developed during difficult projects. In our respondents' view, traditional project management methods and techniques are only a starting point. Through their quotes, they show how one has to be creative and entrepreneurial to lead projects successfully.

Collaboration Challenges: Bridging the IT Support Gap

Abstract: The more collaborative enterprises are, the better they perform. However, current collaboration technologies do not contribute as much as expected to collaboration quality. Collaboration technology seems to be stuck in just overcoming the limitation of people not being in the same place at the same time. Real time communications are supported through such things as web-conferencing and instant messaging, while email, wikis, and web-based repositories provide the electronic equivalent of the shared file cabinet. Although some technologies support workflow and project management to a degree, there is little support for the joint development lifecycle of planning, creating, evaluating, negotiating, and consolidating group work. Focusing broadly on collaboration challenges highlights limitations of current technology and can help provide direction for the kinds of information technology that will be needed to bridge the IT support gap to meet current and future collaboration challenges.

Complementary Effects of Information Technology Investment on Firm Profitability: The Functional Forms of the Complementarities

Abstract: This paper focuses on developing economic theory on the interrelation between information technology investment components. Three functional forms to model the joint effects between components of investment on firm accounting profitability are identified and empirically tested. The results suggest that the complementarities between components of IT investment can be best modeled by using the multiplicative functional forms, providing a framework to model the joint effects of different factors that impact firm profitability.

The READY Model: Patterns of Dynamic Behavior in REA-Based Accounting Applications

Abstract: The Resource-Event-Agent (REA) model has gained considerable attention in accounting literature. While REA denotes a data model, which represents only the static aspect of a system, the dynamic aspect has now been introduced as the scenario concept in a recently proposed REA ontology. Using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) sequence diagram—a popular method of showing interactions among objects—and building on the REA framework and the scenario notion, the paper presents the READY model to illustrate patterns of dynamic behavior in accounting scenarios.

Issues in IS Offshoring

Abstract: The offshoring of IS functions and activities has become a routine part of IS life in organizations. Unfortunately, most IS managers have had to learn about offshoring “on the fly” since little of ...

Audit Resource Planning Success in B2B E-Commerce: Development and Testing of a Measurement Scale

Abstract: The e-commerce audit engagement scenario makes audit resource planning (ARP) an activity full of technological complexities. These complexities generally involve both e-commerce technologies and enterprise information integration, putting real pressure on the audit organization's scarce human and financial resources. However, the success (or effectiveness) of such complex audit resource planning activity is not well understood or easily measured. This paper attempts to develop and diagnostically test measurement scales using classical measurement development framework and contemporary structural equation modeling methods. This study is motivated by prior studies in the conventional (non e-commerce) audit resource planning, and audit-planning domain published in the accounting and management information systems discipline. The prior studies suggest that audit resource planning in a B2B (business-to-business) e-commerce engagement is a multi dimensional construct consisting of four latent dimensions. The four latent dimensions of ARP success are reflected through several manifest variables obtained from various relevant studies. The results confirm that audit resource planning success is operationalizable as a measurement scale with the four dimensions. The results of the study are tools for benchmarking future efforts by audit organizations. Accounting scholars can also use this study as a base for operationalizing audit resource planning success as a key dependent variable in future research.