<p>Informationsteknologin (IT) fortsätter att utvecklas snabbt. Det ger möjlighet för företag och organisationer att kostnadseffektivisera sina processer och hitta alternativa lösningar som ökar konkurrenskraften. Den höga utvecklingstakten och de stora kostnader som är inbegripna skapar samtidigt en genuin beslutsosäkerhet vid investering i IT. Företagare ställs inför en rad dilemman: var, när och hur ska investeringar göras? I de situationer där utfallen av ett beslut är oklara eller motstridiga befinner sig beslutsfattaren i ett dilemma. Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och analysera beslutsdilemman som beslutsfattare har vid dessa IT-investeringar.</p><p>Studien bygger på beslutsteori, där referensramen bestäms av såväl den rationella skolans mycket bestämda beslutskedja som av mer socialkonstruktivistiska beslutsmodeller. Beslutsperspektiven varierar med kontexten och intressenterna. Företaget är en koalition mellan olika aktörer, alla med sitt perspektiv på företagets beteende i den specifika branschen.</p><p>Empirin utgörs av två myndigheter (fallstudier), Skatteverket respektive Premiepensionsmyndigheten (PPM). Genom intervjuer, studier av arkivmaterial samt deltagande observation har jag samlat information om två beslutsprocesser: PPM:s val mellan att köpa ett färdigt IT-system och att utveckla ett eget samt Skatteverkets val mellan ett proprietärt IT-verktyg och ett baserat på öppen källkod.</p><p>Analysen av det empiriska materialet har resulterat i en typologi med tre typer av beslutsdilemman vid IT-investeringar. Den första typen av dilemman är de beslutspunkter som uppstår i samband med investeringar. Jag kallar dessa för (a) dilemmapunkter. Den andra typen av dilemman beror av att resultat och konsekvenser ofta är svårbestämda. Det leder till en hög beslutsosäkerhet och jag benämner därför det (b) konsekvensdilemman. Beslutsdilemmat kan också betyda att man ställs inför flera beslutsalternativ med både förväntat önskat och möjliga, oönskade resultat. Det ställer beslutsfattaren inför valet att balansera mellan alternativen. Jag kallar dessa för (c) balansaktsdilemman.</p> / <p>Summary: The rapid progress of Information Technology (IT) continues. IT can make processes more cost-effective and be a tool when identifying alternative solutions to increase competitiveness. However, the rapid pace of development and the high costs attached, creates a genuine uncertainty when it comes to IT-investments. Eventually, the organization will be confronted with dilemmas such when decisions or their outcomes are unclear or contradictory, you have a dilemma.</p><p>The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze balance acts (dilemmas) of IT-investments. The base of study is decision theory, from the traditional rational way of reasoning to more socially constructed models. The perspective varies with the contexts and actors. The company is a coalition of actors, all with a different perspective on a specific part of the business.</p><p>The empirical data consist of two public authorities (case-studies), Swedish Tax Authority and Premium Pension Authority (PPM). I have collected data by conducting interviews, taking part of archived material and being an observant participator. PPM’s dilemma is whether to buy or to develop a system and Swedish Tax Authority’s dilemma is whether to use open source or a proprietary development tool.</p><p>The analysis of the empiric material have resulted in a typology of dilemmas in conjunction with IT-investments. The typology consists of:</p><p>(a) dilemma points - events where the dilemmas originate.</p><p>(b) dilemma consequences – dilemmas that are hard to discern and thus associated with a great deal of risk.</p><p>(c) balancing acts dilemmas - the decision maker must balance between multiple choices in order to reach a satisfying outcome. Each choice has its pros and cons.</p>

s the dependence of IS/IT has grown in modern organizations, IT investments have soared in the last couple of decades. Large amounts of money are spent with the hope that the investments will generate value for the business organizations using the systems. It is hence easy to understand the needs for methods to assess the business value of IT-investments. The investment decision is basically about selecting the best IT-system or the best combination of IT-systems, i.e. the system(s) that provides the most business value in dimensions that are important business-wise. However, a problem with many of the avail-able methods is that they often fail to concretely explain what technical characteristics the IT systems(s) should have to achieve the business value desired. A complicating aspect of IT-investment evaluations is also that the evaluations usually include a high degree of un-certainty. In this thesis, an IT investment evaluation method is presented that indicatively assesses the differences in contribution to business value from IT-investment alternatives. The method provides, at a relatively low cost of investigation, indications of not only the technical differences between the IT-investment alternatives in a specific investment situation, but also an assessment of the differences in types and amounts of their business value. The presented method has been applied in a large case study at an electric power company. Furthermore, it also incorporates concepts found within Enterprise architecture (EA), particularly in how the information used in the evaluation is collected. The presented thesis is a composite thesis that, besides an introduction, includes five papers (paper A-E). Paper A presents an outline of the method as well as its application in the case study. It also presents the theoretical fundaments for the criteria used for the technical evaluation and the business value assessment including the method’s applications in relation to Enterprise architecture. The following two papers primarily present necessary steps in the development of the method. First, paper B presents the process to develop a functional reference model (used for the functional assessments in the method), including its application in the case study. Second, a breakdown of the term business value into a set of IS/IT-affected value dimension is presented in paper C. The last two papers present the final steps, i.e. the technical evaluation of the investment alternatives (paper D) and the final business value assessment (paper E). The papers include the methods to perform these analyses as well as the application of the method in the case study and the results of the case study. / QC 20100608

Informationsteknologin (IT) fortsätter att utvecklas snabbt. Det ger möjlighet för företag och organisationer att kostnadseffektivisera sina processer och hitta alternativa lösningar som ökar konkurrenskraften. Den höga utvecklingstakten och de stora kostnader som är inbegripna skapar samtidigt en genuin beslutsosäkerhet vid investering i IT. Företagare ställs inför en rad dilemman: var, när och hur ska investeringar göras? I de situationer där utfallen av ett beslut är oklara eller motstridiga befinner sig beslutsfattaren i ett dilemma. Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och analysera beslutsdilemman som beslutsfattare har vid dessa IT-investeringar. Studien bygger på beslutsteori, där referensramen bestäms av såväl den rationella skolans mycket bestämda beslutskedja som av mer socialkonstruktivistiska beslutsmodeller. Beslutsperspektiven varierar med kontexten och intressenterna. Företaget är en koalition mellan olika aktörer, alla med sitt perspektiv på företagets beteende i den specifika branschen. Empirin utgörs av två myndigheter (fallstudier), Skatteverket respektive Premiepensionsmyndigheten (PPM). Genom intervjuer, studier av arkivmaterial samt deltagande observation har jag samlat information om två beslutsprocesser: PPM:s val mellan att köpa ett färdigt IT-system och att utveckla ett eget samt Skatteverkets val mellan ett proprietärt IT-verktyg och ett baserat på öppen källkod. Analysen av det empiriska materialet har resulterat i en typologi med tre typer av beslutsdilemman vid IT-investeringar. Den första typen av dilemman är de beslutspunkter som uppstår i samband med investeringar. Jag kallar dessa för (a) dilemmapunkter. Den andra typen av dilemman beror av att resultat och konsekvenser ofta är svårbestämda. Det leder till en hög beslutsosäkerhet och jag benämner därför det (b) konsekvensdilemman. Beslutsdilemmat kan också betyda att man ställs inför flera beslutsalternativ med både förväntat önskat och möjliga, oönskade resultat. Det ställer beslutsfattaren inför valet att balansera mellan alternativen. Jag kallar dessa för (c) balansaktsdilemman. / Summary: The rapid progress of Information Technology (IT) continues. IT can make processes more cost-effective and be a tool when identifying alternative solutions to increase competitiveness. However, the rapid pace of development and the high costs attached, creates a genuine uncertainty when it comes to IT-investments. Eventually, the organization will be confronted with dilemmas such when decisions or their outcomes are unclear or contradictory, you have a dilemma. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze balance acts (dilemmas) of IT-investments. The base of study is decision theory, from the traditional rational way of reasoning to more socially constructed models. The perspective varies with the contexts and actors. The company is a coalition of actors, all with a different perspective on a specific part of the business. The empirical data consist of two public authorities (case-studies), Swedish Tax Authority and Premium Pension Authority (PPM). I have collected data by conducting interviews, taking part of archived material and being an observant participator. PPM’s dilemma is whether to buy or to develop a system and Swedish Tax Authority’s dilemma is whether to use open source or a proprietary development tool. The analysis of the empiric material have resulted in a typology of dilemmas in conjunction with IT-investments. The typology consists of: (a) dilemma points - events where the dilemmas originate. (b) dilemma consequences – dilemmas that are hard to discern and thus associated with a great deal of risk. (c) balancing acts dilemmas - the decision maker must balance between multiple choices in order to reach a satisfying outcome. Each choice has its pros and cons.

Bakgrund: Dagens snabbföränderliga värld och höga konkurrenstryck ställer krav på innovativa investeringar för en verksamhets fortskridning. Nytt paradigm inom IT-branschen är molntjänst, där utbjudande leverantör bör ta hänsyn till vissa faktorer för att erhålla ett gynnsamt utfall. Vanligt förekommande inom IT-branschen är att nyttja Business Case i beslutssituationer där olika faktorer noga övervägs innan investeringsbeslut fattas. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att med hjälp av Business Case identifiera och belysa avgörande faktorer och riskkällor vid investeringsbeslut. De identifierade riskkällorna ska också undersökas i syfte att söka minimera dem. Med hjälp av teoretisk och empiriskt underlag ämnar studien sammanställa ett Business Case för säkrare investeringsbeslut vid multidimensionella IT-investeringar. Metodik: Detta är en fallstudie utifrån en kvalitativ forskningsmetod. Studien är uppbyggd kring semi-strukturerade intervjuer, där tre representanter ifrån fallföretaget IST låtit svara på djupgående intervjufrågor. Slutsats: Samtliga faktorer som granskats har mer eller mindre betydande roll för beslutstagande vid multidimensionell IT-investering. De faktorer som anses ha störst betydelse vid ett investeringsbeslut är också de faktorer som utgör störst risk. Dessa är marknadsbehov IT-branschen och tekniska förutsättningar vilka besvarar kandidatuppsatsens frågeställningar. Med Business Case som utgångspunkt reduceras osäkerheter och säkrare investeringsbeslut möjliggörs. / Background: In today’s rapidly changing society, the high competitive pressures require innovative investments in order for companies to proceed. A new paradigm within the IT-industry is Cloud service, where the vendor needs to take into account certain factors to obtain a favourable outcome. Therefore, it is common to use Business Case in the IT-industry during the decision making process where different factors are carefully considered before deciding whether or not to make an investment. Purpose:  By using Business Case, the aim of this study is to identify and highlight the critical factors and sources of risk when making an investment-decision. The identified hazards should also be explored in order to seek to minimize them. With the help of theoretical and empirical data the study intends to compile a Business Case for safer investment for multidimensional IT-investments. Methodology:  In this study qualitative research has been used. The study is based on semi-structured interviews, where three representatives from IST have been asked to answer essential interview questions. Conclusion: All factors examined in this study were more or less of a significant role in the decision making process of a multidimensional IT-investment. However, the most important factors when making a decision are also the factors that constitute the greatest risk. These are the market needs in the IT industry and technological conditions, which respond to the questions asked in this particular thesis. Using the Business Case as a starting point, uncertainties are reduced and the possibilities of a safer investment decisions are improved.

Abstract Date              2009-06-07 Level             Master thesis in Information Technology and Business Administration, 15 hp, EIK024 Authors        Anna Karlsson, akn05009@student.mdh.se                      Lena-Maria Lindström, llm05002@student.mdh.se Tutor            Peter Ekman Title              IT Governance with an IT investment focus Keywords     IT Governance, IT investments, IT decisions Problem       To control and manage IT and IT functions in the organization has been a big challenge for many businesses for a long time. In order to make the management of IT more efficient IT Governance is needed. If the organization is going to be successful IT Governance is necessary and this type of governance enables a more effective use of IT that supports the business and its operations. The problem questions for this thesis are: How is the company’s IT Governance built up? How are decisions regarding the company’s IT investments taken? How is the connection between the company’s IT investments and the company’s IT Governance? Purpose        The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze how a company’s IT Governance is built up and how the company uses IT Governance to reach the desired results from the IT investments. Method        The thesis is a qualitative study. The thesis group has made three interviews; one at Swecon Anläggningsmaskiner AB, one at Volvo Construction Equipment AB and one at Telge nät AB. The respondents are all IT managers. The interviews were semi structured as the authors of the thesis wanted it to be more of an interview / discussion. framework Theoretical   The theoretical framework of the thesis begins with a presentation of decision making in the organizations followed by a background to IT investments. Finally a presentation of IT Governance which is divided into four parts follows: who takes the IT decisions, which decisions are made, how are these decisions made and monitored and the fourth part that focuses on the company management’s involvement in IT Governance. The part is finished with a summarizing analytic model made by the authors of the thesis.          Conclusion   We have concluded that the three companies all have some sort of IT Governance, but how the IT Governances are built up varies. We also have concluded that the companies' ambition by using IT Governance is to reach the desired results from their IT investments.  By using IT Governance the companies are forced to pay attention to certain aspects eg., that the investments really are aligned with the companies businesses and that certain metrics are estimated for investments in the IT investment approval process.

Introduction: The traditional IT investment evaluation methods and/or techniques tend to measure the quantitative value added by eHealth. However, there are contributions brought by innovation which are intangible and sundry, and thus are difficult to identify, measure and manage. A model presented by Vimarlund &amp; Koch (2011) aims for identifying the benefits that IT investments bring to health and social care organizations. It could be used as a tool that identifies and classifies the effects and indicators of IT innovation in-vestments at different organizational levels for different stakeholders. Purpose and research questions: This is an evaluative study with the purpose to validate Vimarlund &amp; Koch’s (2011) evaluation model through practical application. A care study of EIAS (ERAS Interactive Audit System) is conducted. ERAS stands for Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, which is an innovative process aims to enhance patient’s outcome after ma-jor surgery. EIAS is a system that supports the ERAS process. The aim is to achieve a deep understanding of IT investment evaluation. The model will be used in a real case as a guide to evaluate and identify impact that derives from the use and implementation of IT applica-tions. The process of evaluation could also be seen as a process of validation of the model in terms of comprehensiveness, practicality and applicability. Through this study, we aim to find out: 1) What are the possible contributions that EIAS brings to Jönköping County Council? 2) How is the performance of Vimarlund &amp; Koch’s (2011) evaluation model in practical application, in terms of comprehensiveness, practicality and applicability? Method: The purpose of this study is evaluative and it is conducted by using adductive ap-proach. Single case study will be adopted as the research strategy. In this study, qualitative data will be collected through semi-structured interview with key respondents. The data collected will be analyzed qualitatively with a narrative approach. Conclusion: Guided by Vimarlund &amp; Koch’s (2011) evaluation model, the innovations that have been brought into healthcare organizations by EARS are electronic information supply, internal integration of clinical information and possibilities to learn from the system. The model has been validated in terms of comprehensiveness, practicality and applicability. The evaluation model is a generic model to demonstrate the contribution of IT to innovation and change in health care. It could be used in both formative and summative assessment and as well as goal-free and goal-based evaluation. The issue of the productivity paradox has been noticed as some effects are not immediate after introducing of IT. User-participation or not could be considered as an important condition for the validity of the evaluation guided by the evaluation model.

Sedan IT-bubblan sprack 2002 har marknaden nu börjat återhämta sig. Allt fler mindre organisationer investerar i IT igen. Detta gör att IT-konsulterna blir mer eftertraktade på marknaden. I takt med att IT-konsulternas ökade arbete och ökningen av de mindre företagens investeringar, ökar vikten av IT-konsulternas råd angående kommunikation, ansvarsfördelning och samordning som förmedlas till de små och medelstora företagen under investerings processen. Samtidigt presenterar dagens litteratur en mix av olika rekommendationer för hur organisationer bör hantera olika roller och dess ansvarsfördelning. Dessa teoretiska rekommendationer är både tydligt –och otydligt uttryckta av diverse författare. På grund av denna teoretiska kunskap, de små –och medelstora företagens (SME) ökade entreprenad av IT och vikten av en klar ansvarsfördelning vid IT-investeringar, har syftet med denna studie varit att undersöka vilka råd dagens IT-konsulter ger till SME i relation till de teoretiska riktlinjerna. Studien har sedan genomförts ur ett konsultperspektiv. Genom detta syfte har metoden för att samla in data varit personliga semistandardiserade intervjuer med 12 olika IT-konsulter i Jönköpings län riktade mot SME. För att vi skulle kunna utvinna en djup förståelse för dessa konsulters syn på roller och ansvarsfördelning har vi använt oss av en kvalitativ metod. Dessutom har vi haft en utforskande och jämförande ansats genom vår granskning av studie området och vår jämförelse av roller och ansvarsfördelning som först mellan alla IT-konsulter och sedan mellan IT-konsulternas kategoriserade synsätt och de identifierare teoretiska synsätten. En faktor som påverkar studiens tillvägagångssätt är den teoretiska studie som gjorts kring ämnet roller och ansvar vid IT-investeringar av Granehäll et al. (2005). Dessa författare presenterar tre olika teoretiska synsätt av roller och ansvarsfördelning vid applikationsinvesteringar. Vi fann dessa synsätt vara i behov av att kompletteras för att bli fullständiga och anpassade för små –och medelstora företag. Detta utgav grunden för den teoretiska del i denna studie och påverkat strukturen och presentationen av de teoretiska data som här presenteras. Efter en presentation av ytterligare teori om roller och ansvar och en utökning av de tidigare fastställda teoretiska synsätten, kunde vi i denna studie identifiera tre nya teoretiska synsätt fokuserade på roller och ansvar vid applikationsinvesteringar Den empirisk data som vi fått fram under studien av de olika medverkade IT-konsulterna presenteras var för sig. Detta har gjorts för att ökad förståelse och underlättad läsning. Under studien av roller och ansvar i applikationsinvesteringar och IT-konsulternas synsätt på roller och ansvar i SME applikationsinvesteringar har vi kommit fram till att teorins rekommendationer riktar sig mot företag i allmänhet, då oftast mot större företag, vilket gör att teorins rekommendationer till viss del skiljer sig från IT-konsulternas syn på roller och ansvarsfördelning. Vi såg även att IT-konsulterna presenterar olika råd angående roller och ansvar. Vi har därför haft möjlighet att kategorisera dessa olika råd till tre synsätt med olika fokus. / As the market now has begun to recover from the IT-crash in 2002, many smaller organisations are now starting to invest in IT again. This makes the IT-consultants more wanted on the market. In proportion to the increasing work of the IT-consultants and the increasing SME investments, the IT-consultants advices becomes more important regarding communication, responsibilities and collaboration, given to the Small and Medium sized Enter-prises (SME) in the time of their investment process. At the same time the theory presents a mix of recommendations for how roles and responsibility should be managed within the general organisation. These recommendations are clearly and vague expressed by different authors. Given this theoretical knowledge, the SME’s increasing outsourcing of IT-management and the importance of a clear structure of responsibilities in IT-investments, has the purpose of this study been to investigate in the advices the IT-consultants are communicating to SME in relation to the theoretical rec-ommendations. The study has then been accomplished through a consultant’s perspective. Due to the purpose this study has been accomplished by face-to-face semi-standardised interviews with 12 IT-consultants within the County of Jönköping directed towards SME in application investments. Given that we wanted to gain a deep understanding of these IT-consultants recommendations on roles and responsibilities we therefore used a qualitative method. Furthermore, we also used an explorative effort due to our purpose to scrutinise the research area and a comparative effort when comparing the IT-consultants views with each other and then comparing the categorised IT-consultants views to the theoretical views identified in this study. One factor influencing the mode of procedure is the theoretical study of roles and responsibilities made by Granehäll, Karlström and Uyanik (2005). These authors present three different views of roles and responsibilities in application investments. We found these views necessary to be further developed. This became the foundation of the theoretical data of roles and responsibilities in this study, setting the structure of the presentation of theoreti-cal data. After presenting the additional theory and adding it to the all ready known views, we were in this study able to identify three new theoretical views on roles and responsibilities fo-cused on different roles. The empirical data, established during this study, expressed by each participative IT-consultant is presented separately. This has been done to increase understanding and to facilitate the reading. During this study on roles and responsibilities in application investments and the IT-consultants view on roles and responsibilities in SME application investments we found that the theory is directed to organisations in general, with an undertone that specifies the direction towards larger organisations, causing the theory to recommend different roles of responsibilities than the IT-consultants actually are practising. The IT-consultants we found to present different advice regarding roles and responsibilities. We have therefore been able to categorise these different advices into three different views with different focus.

This diploma paper deals with measurement and management of corporate ICT costs and benefits. The main objective is to propose a set of metrics and dimensions, which can be used to measure performance of corporate ICT. Other objectives are: analyze ICT cost and benefits, describe methods of their management, introduce ValIT framework as an approach to acquiring benefits from IT investment. In order to meet all these objectives the paper is divided into three parts. In the first part basic principles of corporate IT economics and management are described. The second part is dedicated directly to ICT costs and benefits, and methods of their management. In the last part, ValIT and my set of metrics and dimensions are introduced. The main benefit of this work consists of the proposal of metrics and dimensions for corporate ICT performance measurement, and ICT costs and benefits detailed analysis.

This study empirically examines the impact of IT capability on firms' performance and evaluates whether firms' IT capabilities play a role in improving employee capability, customer value, customer satisfaction, and ultimately business performance. The results were based on comparing the business performance of the IT leader companies with that of control companies of similar size and industry. The IT leader companies were selected from the Information Week 500 list published annually from 2001 to 2004. For a company to be selected as IT leaders, it needed to be listed at least twice during the period. Furthermore, it had to be listed in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) so that its customer satisfaction level could be assessed. Standard & Poor's Compustat and the ACSI scores were used to test for changes in business performance. The study found that the IT leaders had a raw material cost measured by cost-of-goods-sold to sales ratio (COGS/S) than the control companies. However, it found no evidence that firms' IT capability affects employee capability, customer value, customer satisfaction, and profit. An important implication from this study is that IT becomes a commodity and an attempt to gain a competitive advantage by overinvesting in IT may be futile.

Informationsteknologi är en framstående möjliggörare för verksamheters framtida utveckling. En verksamhets grad av framgång kommer att påverkas av i vilken utsträckning som verksamheten lyckas med styrningen av sina verksamhetsutvecklingsprojekt. Att styra enskilda projekt är svårt och att styra flera parallella projekt ökar svårighetsgraden ytterligare. Ett sätt att hantera flera projekt är att införa en projektportfölj. En lyckad portföljstyrning kommer leda till att verksamheten realiserar sina mål och strategier och får ut bästa tänkbara nytta av varje projekt. Däremot är styrningen av projektportföljer komplex och många av de mest erfarna yrkesverksamma kämpar med att få investeringarna att löna sig. Därför är det viktigt att verksamheter identifierar vilka faktorer som påverkar portföljstyrningens grad av framgång.  Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats i informatik är att identifiera och beskriva framgångsfaktorer för portföljstyrning av verksamhetsutvecklingsprojekt med stöd av IT inom en offentlig organisation. I studien har fallstudiemetoden tillämpats. En litteraturstudie har genomförts för att inhämta kunskaper och erfarenheter i tidigare forskningsstudier. Dessa har legat till grund för utformandet av en analysmodell. Primära empiriska data har samlats in genom personliga intervjuer via Teams.  Fem olika rollinnehavare från fallorganisationen har intervjuats beträffande deras erfarenheter och uppfattningar om faktorer som påverkar graden av framgångsrik portföljstyrning.  Studiens viktigaste slutsatser är: projektportföljen ska vara ihopkopplad med verksamhetens strategier, strukturer och arbetssätt ska vara både enkla att använda och anpassade till den specifika verksamheten, att möjliggöra beslutsfattande är viktigt och uppnås genom en tydlig beslutsstruktur samt genom att tilldela mandat.