<p><strong>Introduction. </strong>This bachelor thesis concerns the subject of IT Governance, how organizations prioritize and decides IT-related issues. The thesis will approach how Swedish Small-to-Medium sized Enterprises, which are considered successful, governs IT-related issues.</p><p><strong>Theoretical Framework. </strong>In order to conduct this research, the Governance Arrangement Matrix, created by MIT Sloan 2003, is applied which was also incorporated in a global study by Weill in 2003. The matrix involves five different decisions domains within IT and different corporate archetypes divided by stakeholder involvement.  The compiled data will thus be analyzed and mapped against Weill's study to derive the contemporary decision structure in Swedish SME's and create a comparison to map any alterations that might have occurred.</p><p><strong>Method. </strong>Through utilizing an online-survey and conducting telephone interviews, 108 responses from Swedish SME's provided the necessary data to map the contemporary decision-structure within IT in a deductive manner to both utilize quantitative and qualitative data, creating an understanding of the derived outcome. The analysis will provide an understanding for organizations to see the fit between business objectives and IT-usage, creating future possibilities for organizations to further optimizes their alignment between the business and IT. The main conclusions from this thesis could be summarized as follow:</p><p><strong>Results. </strong>The involvement of the board-of-directors has become more frequent, and with the inclusion of a Chief Information Officer, the collaboration throughout the corporate hierarchy enables a broader understanding of the impact of IT. Although that this approach was the most frequent selected archetype, the decisions relating to IT acquisitions and architecture, the majority of responses showed indications relating these areas to be decided by CIO/IT-department thus in conclusion: the knowledge that CIO/IT-departments has are sufficient to support the everyday business need.</p><p>Furthermore, the differences found between this research and the underlying study by Weill, indicates that IT is considered a multi-dimensional problem that needs constant supervision and that the view upon prioritizations and governance has been altered.</p>

Introduction. This bachelor thesis concerns the subject of IT Governance, how organizations prioritize and decides IT-related issues. The thesis will approach how Swedish Small-to-Medium sized Enterprises, which are considered successful, governs IT-related issues. Theoretical Framework. In order to conduct this research, the Governance Arrangement Matrix, created by MIT Sloan 2003, is applied which was also incorporated in a global study by Weill in 2003. The matrix involves five different decisions domains within IT and different corporate archetypes divided by stakeholder involvement.  The compiled data will thus be analyzed and mapped against Weill's study to derive the contemporary decision structure in Swedish SME's and create a comparison to map any alterations that might have occurred. Method. Through utilizing an online-survey and conducting telephone interviews, 108 responses from Swedish SME's provided the necessary data to map the contemporary decision-structure within IT in a deductive manner to both utilize quantitative and qualitative data, creating an understanding of the derived outcome. The analysis will provide an understanding for organizations to see the fit between business objectives and IT-usage, creating future possibilities for organizations to further optimizes their alignment between the business and IT. The main conclusions from this thesis could be summarized as follow: Results. The involvement of the board-of-directors has become more frequent, and with the inclusion of a Chief Information Officer, the collaboration throughout the corporate hierarchy enables a broader understanding of the impact of IT. Although that this approach was the most frequent selected archetype, the decisions relating to IT acquisitions and architecture, the majority of responses showed indications relating these areas to be decided by CIO/IT-department thus in conclusion: the knowledge that CIO/IT-departments has are sufficient to support the everyday business need. Furthermore, the differences found between this research and the underlying study by Weill, indicates that IT is considered a multi-dimensional problem that needs constant supervision and that the view upon prioritizations and governance has been altered.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to enrich the literature, by increasing the understanding of how business intelligence (BI) initiatives can be aligned with the business strategy in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Thus, prior research is insufficient in terms of BI and IT alignment research in SMEs. To fulfill the purpose the following research questions were addressed: RQ1: What are the challenges when aligning business intelligence initiatives with the business strategy in SMEs? RQ2: How can the identified challenges be mitigated, when aligning business intelligence initiatives with the business strategy in SMEs?  Method: This study is a qualitative single case study carried out at a Swedish IT-consultant firm. The primary data was conducted through 15 interviews in three different interview iterations exploratory, semi-structured, and validation interviews. The semi-structured interviews were analyzed through a thematic analysis.   Findings: The findings of the study are divided into two parts, where the first part addresses BI utilization, implementation, and BI alignment challenges and mitigators in SMEs. Where five challenges were identified: (1) management support, (2) data quality and quantity, (3) strategic ambiguity, (4) measurability and KPIs, and (5) miscommunication and conflict. Moreover, the study identified four mitigators to the challenges: (1) driver identification, (2) champions, (3) communication, and (4) strong data foundation. In the second part, the findings are summarized and put in context in a BI alignment roadmap, that describes how BI initiatives can be aligned with the business strategy in SMEs. Implications: This study contributes to the immature research field of BI and IT/business alignment in SMEs. Identifying BI alignment challenges and how they can be mitigated, resulting in a BI alignment roadmap. The roadmap can be used as a guide for SMEs who want to align their BI initiative. Furthermore, BI consultants can use the roadmap as a material of discussion, to determine their client’s BI maturity or readiness. Moreover, the roadmap can be built upon to include more challenges or perspectives.  Limitations and future research: This study is limited in terms of data collection, in a single case study setting, which affects the generalizability. Therefore, future studies could expand the scope of the data collection, in a multi-case study setting. / Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att berika litteraturen genom att öka förståelsen för hur business intelligence (BI) initiativ kan anpassas till företagsstrategin i små och medelstora företag (SMF). Tidigare forskning är otillräcklig när det gäller anpassning av BI och IT i SMF. För att uppfylla syftet har följande forskningsfrågor behandlats: FR1: Vilka utmaningar finns det när det gäller att anpassa business intelligence till företagsstrategin i SMF? FR2: Hur kan de identifierade utmaningarna mildras vid anpassning av business intelligence initiativ till företagsstrategin i SMF? Metod: Denna studie är en kvalitativ enskild fallstudie utförd på ett svenskt IT-konsultföretag. Primärdata samlades in genom 15 intervjuer i tre olika intervjuiterationer, utforskande, semistrukturerade och valideringsintervjuer. De semistrukturerade intervjuerna analyserades genom en tematisk analys. Resultat: Resultaten av studien är uppdelade i två delar, där den första delen tar upp BI-användning, implementering och BI-anpassningsutmaningar och mildrande faktorer i SMF. Där fem utmaningar identifierades: (1) ledningsstöd, (2) datakvalitet och kvantitet, (3) strategisk oklarhet, (4) mätbarhet och nyckeltal och (5) felkommunikation och konflikter. Dessutom identifierade studien fyra lindrande faktorer för dessa utmaningar: (1) Identifiering av drivare, (2) förespråkare, (3) kommunikation och (4) stark databas. I den andra delen sammanfattas resultaten och sätts i ett sammanhang i en BI-anpassningsplan, som beskriver hur BI-initiativ kan anpassas till affärsstrategin i SMF. Bidrag: Denna studie bidrar till det omogna forskningsfältet BI och IT/affärsanpassning i SMF. Genom att identifiera utmaningar med BI-anpassning och hur de kan mildras, vilket resulterar i en anpassningsplan för BI-anpassning. Anpassningsplanen kan användas som vägledning för SMF som vill anpassa sitt BI-initiativ. Dessutom kan BI-konsulter använda anpassningsplanen som diskussionsmaterial för att fastställa kunders BI-mognad eller beredskap. Dessutom kan anpassningsplanen byggas vidare på för att inkludera fler utmaningar eller perspektiv. Begränsningar och framtida forskning: Denna studie är begränsad när det gäller datainsamling i en enskild fallstudie, vilket påverkar generaliserbarheten. Därför skulle framtida studier kunna utöka omfattningen av datainsamlingen, i en flerfallstudie.

Web applications provide the information technology (IT) implementation of business and align IT with business. Retirement of IT applications should ensure stability of business and IT alignment. The current study investigated the alignment gaps created between business and IT resulting from retiring IT software applications. The purpose of this study was to identify IT integration points with business and provide a process-based solution that sustained IT alignment with business after retiring IT applications. The theoretical framework strategic alignment model aided in identifying 3 IT domains as the IT integration points with business: enterprise architecture, configuration management database, and service-level agreement. The research methodology was grounded theory method. A process-in-operation facilitating application retirement generated the data. The grounded theory approach revealed the core category as IT and business alignment and established that the identified IT domains enabled IT alignment with business. The research findings revealed that structured decommissioning, timely repository updates, and 2-way communication between IT and business ensured continued accuracy and reliability of the repositories so business made valid interpretations. The findings may enable employees to realize their self-worth and dignity, leading to increased collaboration and coordination. The positive social change implications of these findings are in the increased alignment between IT and business, resulting in improved overall employee performance.