Diss.--European Business School, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The object of this study was to survey large Canadian organizations in order to: 1) determine the extent to which these organizations have established a separate Data Administration function, 2) empirically test Nolan's Stage Model of EDP Growth as a predictor of a separate Data Administration function, and 3) survey the characteristics of the Data Administration function in those organizations that have formally established such a speciality. A survey package containing two questionnaires was sent to 555 large Canadian organizations in the private and public sectors. The "EDP Profile Questionnaire" was directed to the Manager of the EDP Activity in the surveyed organizations. This questionnaire is concerned with the EDP growth process and the existence of a Data Administrator. The "Data Administration Questionnaire" was directed to the Data Administrator in the surveyed organizations. This questionnaire is concerned with the characteristics and responsibilities of the Data Administration function. Analysis was performed on 254 EDP functions and 69 Data Administration functions. The results obtained indicate that the Data Administration function is not prevalent in large Canadian organizations; where the function does exist its role is a fairly minor one within the EDP activity. This study found that organizations with very large EDP activities and many years of experience with computers were more likely to have established a Data Administration function than-smaller and less experienced ones. Certain organizational types (those with discretionary funds available) were more likely, to have a Data Administration function than other types. The "maturity" of the organization's EDP activity was not found to be- a good predictor of the existence of a Data Administrator. The sampled Data Administration functions exhibited a wide dispersion in both the activities performed and the amount of time spent on each. Few policy setting activities were performed by the Data Administrators. The Data Administration function appeared to be focused on those "data bases" using a Data Base Management System. Organizational conflicts and a general misunderstanding of the function by EDP Management have likely held back the development of the function beyond one involved primarily with the support of DBMS application systems. Future research should be directed at- understanding these conflicts and misperceptions through an analysis of the decision process involved in establishing the Data Administration function. An attempt- should be made to more fully understand the data resource and how it might differ among organizational types. Before further use is made of Nolan's Stage Growth model, serious thought should be given to determining in more precise terms what the EDP growth process variables are and how they might best be measured. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Typescript, etc. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

This study identifies the impacts to the internal Information Technology (IT) department's policies and procedures caused by outsourcing selective IT functions and assesses the threats and opportunities to an internal IT group, presented by outsourcing selective IT functions. The trend to selectively outsource IT functions implies that this can be done with minimal disruption and risk to the IT departments policies and processes. This research investigates whether this assertion is valid and develops a model for internal IT departments to respond to the challenges presented by selective outsourcing. Existing models of outsourcing currently in use and available to organizations are reviewed to assess their suitability or adaptability for `selective outsourcing' and from this identifies which areas of internal IT policy and procedures are most impacted. An analysis of the threats and opportunities presented to the internal IT department is also provided. Research was conducted into one organization's experience with selective outsourcing to investigate how internal IT departments could approach selective outsourcing of internal IT functions and how internal IT departments could develop strategies for responding to the challenges posed by selective outsourcing. A case study was conducted of a recent selective outsourcing arrangement within the IT group of the target organization. The personal interview method was adopted to survey a cross section of management and staff from the work groups involved in the selective outsourcing arrangement. The results obtained revolved around the major themes of: 1. Planning (identified as time constraints, resource constraints and work load). 2. Management control (which encompasses the structuring of the outsourcing relationship, human resource concerns, level of ownership, communication, structure of the internal IT group and inter-departmental concerns). 3. Process (which applies to the quality of the procedures, inherent internal knowledge required, the informality of the procedures and concerns over adherence to procedures). For an IT group to develop strategies to respond to the challenges of selective outsourcing it was identified that the IT group needs to remove internal barriers to process and strive to achieve single ownership of processes within functional work groups; nurture a shift in internal groups thinking to more planning rather than doing; improve the quality of internal IT procedures and implement appropriate project team structures for task specific selective outsourcing engagements and for ongoing vendor relationship management.

Thesis (M.Com.)(Informatics)--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.