Thesis (MAcc (Accountancy ))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / ERP applications have evolved into enterprise-wide applications, which are generally acknowledged today as a critical component in an organisation’s information strategy. When implementing an ERP application, the control and governance of all IT processes are critical to ensure that value is delivered, risks are managed and that the investment in IT (ERP) delivers a reasonable return. It should, therefore, be important to focus on mitigating IT process risks that have an impact on the ERP environment, so that the level of residual risk is acceptable and aligned with the business objectives. This assignment focuses on using the generally accepted IT framework, COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and related Technology), as governance and control model. The criticality of each COBIT control objective (IT process) is evaluated by applying the COBIT control objectives in an ERP environment. Specific reference is also made to Qmuzik as an ERP application. By applying COBIT in an ERP environment, the most critical IT processes applicable to ERP are identified, in order to ensure that the minimum process controls for these IT processes are designed and implemented.

There is a growing awareness that information technology plays a critical role in helping determine organizational structure. Unfortunately, that role has not been adequately defined. This study provides a foundation for an increase in our understanding of the relationship between information technology and organizational structure by defining a new set of information technology variables and identifying differences in organizational structure based on these new variables.

M. Tech. (Information and communication technology, Faculty of Applied and computer sciences), Vaal University of Technology / Historically, access to information technology (IT) in South Africa educational institutions has been socially stratified. As a result, many new learners seeking to enter South African tertiary institutions fail to meet the requirements of their preferred course and institution. In 2003, the Department of Information and Corrununications Technology at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT), in conjunction with the National Institute for Information Technology (NIIT), an internationally recognised IT organisation, introduced a short course named the Information Technology Boot Camp (ITBC). This course is now known as the Introduction to Information Technology course (Intro-to-IT). The course is targeted at learners who want to study the IT diploma at the VUT but, who as a result of their Matriculation marks, do not meet the VUT's entrance requirements. The aim of the course is to prepare and qualify these learners for possible acceptance into the IT diploma at the VUT. Although the Intro-to-IT course has impacted positively on the VUT, research has found that learners progressing from the Intro-to-IT course into the IT diploma course experience difficulties in solving programming problems in a logical way. Therefore, the failure rate in Development Software I, a first-semester programming subject, is relatively high. The model described in this study encompasses alterations (implemented and still to be implemented) to the syllabus and content of the Intro-to-IT course, changes to the learning methods and time frames for subjects, and the measurement of these changes in comparison to previous results. The model also includes a software program, which will assess the Intro-to-IT applicants, store results and provide analytical data on all learners' marks and results for the Intro-to-IT short course at the VUT. This model is designed to provide the necessary skills, knowledge and basic logic required to allow successful Intro-to-IT learners the opportunity of success when they enter the VUT's IT diploma stream.

Today's business environment is characterised by organisational dependence on information and communication technology. At the same time, this reliance on information technology and systems (IT/IS, hereafter IT) has given rise to concerns about how to evaluate IT investment initiatives. Issues such as the popular 'productivity paradox' and the broader 'value for IT money' (e.g., Brynjolfsson and Hitt 1998; Davern and Kauffman 2000) debate have further fuelled the extensive research in the area of IT investment and assessment. However, a review of current literature reveals a number of differences between IT investment assessment literature and traditional capital budgeting literature, particularly in the way that the entire decision making process is rarely discussed in IT investment decision making research. Instead, much attention has been focused on project justification or evaluation alone. Thus, it was argued for this research that an emphasis on the entire decision making process - from IT planning and analysis to post-implementation evaluation - is important, as potential organisational and other contextual variables that may not be apparent at the evaluation stage, can be better identified and appreciated. Another theme that this research seeks to investigate is the applicability and practicability of current IT decision making theories and evaluation methods discussed in the literature. Considering the breadth and depth of existing research in this area, IT investment decision making is, however, still seen as problematic today (e.g., Mahmood and Mann 2000). In particular, the literature reports a polarisation of empirical evidence towards the use of either over-optimistic or over-pessimistic forecasts of IT performance and return on investment (e.g., Irani et al. 1997). Thus, the usefulness of these theoretical models and techniques cannot be seen as clearly established. As a result, no single theory or technique can be said to be unequivocally successful in helping firms to evaluate IT investment opportunities and to identify where IT value lies. This discrepancy between the desired and the actual outcomes of IT investment decision making highlights a possible gap between what is offered in theory by researchers and what is used by practitioners. Gaining an understanding of the underlying issues associated with this gap is important, as its existence raises questions about the veracity of recent theoretical developments in IT investment decision making methodology. Hence, the research problem investigated in this research is: What is the level of applicability and practicability of the current theories and techniques relevant to IT investment decision making and evaluation, as observed in large Australian companies? To address the research question, this research was conducted by two studies. The first study adopted a survey methodology to establish the specific decision making content and process involved in IT investment. The collected data from this part of the research were used for both descriptive and inferential statistics analysis purposes. The second study consisted of three convergent interviews, which examined the significant institutional contexts that might influence the decision outcome, further adding meaning to the findings of the first study. The key findings of the research are that the planning, evaluation, and post-implementation evaluation activities for IT investments have not been performed widely and consistently. Although sophisticated evaluation methods have been developed over the years, they do not appear to have provided a satisfactory answer to improve IT decision making practice. It appears that the underlying problem with IT investment decision making cannot be explained by the inadequacy of the adopted evaluation techniques alone, and answers must also lie elsewhere. Two potential problem areas were found to be organisations' unenthusiastic attitude towards IT, and a general lack of applicability and practicability of current decision making and evaluation theories. The unenthusiastic attitude towards IT is explained by several factors as identified in this research. Particularly, they were related to: (1) difficulty with forecasting future business needs, (2) lack of time for sufficient IT planning, (3) performance of past IT investments leading to IT conservatism, (4) IT being generally seen as operating costs, (5) budgetary constraint, (6) competitors' imitation leading to undifferentiated or similar technology/process, (7) technologies fast becoming obsolete, and (8) organisation complexity, power structure, and existing policy and procedures all making change difficult. It was suggested that without fundamentally changing the way technology is perceived and treated by the business community, the value of IT will continue to be questioned and IT investment decision making will continue to be difficult. The lack of applicability and practicability of contemporary decision making and evaluation theories was also found to be significant, with very few organisations considering them to be useful. Four key factors impeding adequate system planning and evaluation were also uncovered: (1) business necessity remains a main IT driver, (2) IT is accepted as a cost of being in business, (3) users' IT needs must be met responsively, and (4) IT is inherently difficult to evaluate with any accuracy. As a result, organisations were often found to adopt the following evaluation strategies: (1) situational, rather than systematic evaluation, (2) a cost-management approach to evaluation, often resulting in the use of an excessive discount rate or cost of capital, (3) waiting for the technology in question to mature before investing. The contribution of this research is that it has both theoretical and practical significance. The theoretical significance of this research arises from insights into the existing body of theory and further, from theorising about the decision making practices as adopted by large Australian companies. At the same time, this research also serves as a practical reference for the development of decision making practice and policy. Only with a clear understanding of the important aspects involved in IT investment decision making, can organisations define and approach their investment tasks more successfully.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-272).

No description available.

Since 1990s, rapidly changing business environments such as information technology advancements, international economic integration, and global market competitions have brought companies many challenges and crises. Under such circumstances, most companies make efforts to retain their competency and keep abreast of market status through so-called business process reengineering (BRP). Nowadays, the advent of Internet and emerging information technology as enterprise resources planning, supply chain management, and customer relationship management have once again shaped a whole new competitive environment that companies have never faced before. How business performs BRP to regain their competitive advantages in such situations becomes the main issue of this research study. Our research method is based on case study. The case is selected from semiconductor industry, which plays an important role in Taiwan¡¦s total production values. This focal company is leading in the industry and thus provides a benchmarking BPR practice. From case analysis, it is found that there exist two distinctive BPR waves in their BPR practice. BPR adoptions of the first wave and the second wave are further investigated with explanatory models being suggested. In addition, it is interesting to note that information technology strategy is also changing from reactively enhancing business effectiveness in the past to proactively achieving business competitiveness at present. It reflects the crucial impact of emerging information technology on current business operations. The contributions of this research are two-fold. First, we provide systematic analysis on BPR-related literature, which benefits following researchers on BPR studies. Second, we propose the company¡¦s BPR progression of the two waves by examining relevant BPR models in literature. This result can provide suggestions and directions to other semiconductor companies in preparing their BPR practice.

Thesis (MTech. degree in Business Information Systems)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2011. / Studies done in Information Technology (IT) mostly demonstrate and capture the significant and acceptance of IT in organizations. IT has become an increasingly fundamental section of every organization, extending into our personal environment. Studies have been done focusing just on IT acceptance use and how IT leverages our daily life or the business. With a sound implementation and use, IT can enable a business to prosper. This dissertation argues that a sound development and implementation of an IT strategy may be leveraged with the consideration of social factors - these factors often get left out as organizations tend to focus more on the technological aspect of IT. Against the above backdrop, this minor dissertation focused on how communication, power and culture relationships as social factors affect the development, maintenance and alignment of the IT strategy with the business.

Customer satisfaction is a critical component of a business's competitive strategy. Autolab Csi, a division of the South African Sugar Association, is operating in a deregulated market environment and thus has to ensure that customers are always satisfied with the quality of service received. Poor service can threaten the viability of a business and Autolab Csi need to establish suitable and effective service delivery mechanisms and minimise the threat of competitors entering the sugar industry laboratory systems services market. Customer satisfaction is dependent on the quality of service that a service provider has to offer its customers. Autolab Csi have embarked on a programme to adopt best practice Information Technology (IT) service process as described in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) model as a means to improve customer satisfaction. The ITIL model consists of twelve service processes that are grouped into four categories namely, Service Delivery, Service Support, Service Desk and Security Management. ITIL is not recognised by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) as an international standard for IT service delivery. The British Standards Institute standard BS 15000 had been released to address the need for a recognised standard and is shortly due to be adopted by the ISO. The study hypothesises there is adoption of all twelve service processes by Autolab Csi but not all processes have been completely and/or successfully implemented. Compliance of the ITIL Service Delivery process to the BS15000 standard is reviewed concomitantly with the ITIL adoption assessment. As part of the process of implementation of the ITIL framework, Autolab Csi had faced challenges to the process yet had also benefited. The study investigates these benefits and challenges from the perspective of understanding how success can be achieved with the implementation of ITIL processes. The study shows that Autolab Csi has made measurable progress in the implementation of all twelve ITIL service processes. The service process areas of Security Management, Service Desk and some processes of Service Delivery show the highest levels of ITIL compliance. Service Support shows the lowest levels of ITIL compliance in particular, the Change and Release Management processes. The presented data allows for the development of targeted strategies to continuously improve Autolab Csi's service delivery mechanisms. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College, 2004.

Thesis (M.Arch.) - Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-107). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.