<p>Date: 2008-06-04</p><p>Purpose: The primary goal of this research is to describe the IT function and examine how its alignment to an organisations strategy affects the way it is organised.</p><p>Method: The chosen method was a purely theoretical examination with the use of the case study of Windham International as primary resource and secondary resources such as book and literature review used for the thesis.</p><p>Research Questions: How does the alignment of IT to business strategy affect the organisation of the IT function?</p><p>Conclusion: One of the findings was that a few researchers seem to suggest that the centralized mode of organising IT was symbolic of the past, while outsourcing and decentralization are the modern approach to organising IT. Wyndham International shows the opposite, after the introduction of the CIO in 2002, centralization was the chosen mode of organisation because that was what would best fit the new strategic approach of the organisation. Insourcing rather than outsourcing proved to be a winning formula.</p>

After 1990s, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) gradually becomes the enterprises¡¦ basic information platform. ERP is often employed by companies to integrate SCM and CRM, leading to an integrated supply chain with capability to link supplies and customers. The deployment of information resources is predicated on information technology infrastructure(ITI), which provides various sorts of information services. The implementation success of information system requires ITI to work smoothly with business processes. It is apparent that ITI, although an issue related to the IT domain, is capable of influencing the whole organization. This leads to an important role for ITI in implementing ERP by enterprise. The purpose of a company¡¦s strategic planning is to adopt itself to the environment change. This would demand a sounding planning of limited resources with ITI being included. The objective of IT strategy(ITS) is to provide the enterprise an overall action plan for employing information resources.From the literature survey, an interactive relationship between ITI, ITS, and ERP implementation was proposed by this research. This research employed case study methodology to investigate four companies which had implemented ERP.The focus is to explore the relationship among ITI, ITS, and ERP implementation. The research results indicated that, if ITS is well planned prior to the implementation, the implementation process would be less problematic and the results would be beneficial to the company¡¦s competitive advantage. As for the relationship between ITS and ITI, if the deployment of IT is directed to improve business value and competiveness, the required investment on ITI would be more. In turn, a competent ITI which provides support which are less prepared in ITI, implementing ERP has the effect of reininforcing the company¡¦s ITI.In addition, for the value judgement of ITI and the motivation of ERP implementation, this research developed an investment intensity matrix which can provide reference for investment decision on ITI. In the final analysis, the research provided a list of the IT infrastructure service needed by ERP implementation, acting as a guideline for information resource deploymeny for the enterprises that intent to implement ERP system.

Organizational subunits such as marketing, sales, human resources, and customer service invest in software as a service (SaaS) as a means to reduce information technology costs, speed time to market, gain access to new technologies, and improve application support and maintenance. For these reasons, SaaS has been characterized as a form of outsourcing, and one in which the internal IT function is losing relevancy because contracts are being executed between external application service providers and the affected subunits directly without IT oversight. Here we argue that SaaS is not outsourcing as it has been traditionally envisioned and enacted, and that through the generation of four types of functional slack it has demonstrated the ability to result in higher levels of IT innovation in support of a digital business strategy. A redistribution of IT resources from efficiency to innovation as a result of SaaS adoption was found that prescribed movement toward an equilibrium of ambidexterity between exploitative and exploratory activities. This research has established a number of firsts: 1) explored the production and combination of multidimensional slack, concentrated at a functional level; 2) demonstrated a previously disconfirmed positive relationship between IT outsourcing and innovation; 3) confirmed the feasibility of a theorized positive relationship between outsourcing and ambidexterity, and 4) discovered a new pathway within the realm of digital business strategy between a key external trend and an internal organizational shift of roles, responsibilities, and knowledge patterns. Further, our findings suggest that IT ambidexterity may be a better construct for investigating the impact of IT on firm performance than traditional measures of IT performance.

Date: 2008-06-04 Purpose: The primary goal of this research is to describe the IT function and examine how its alignment to an organisations strategy affects the way it is organised. Method: The chosen method was a purely theoretical examination with the use of the case study of Windham International as primary resource and secondary resources such as book and literature review used for the thesis. Research Questions: How does the alignment of IT to business strategy affect the organisation of the IT function? Conclusion: One of the findings was that a few researchers seem to suggest that the centralized mode of organising IT was symbolic of the past, while outsourcing and decentralization are the modern approach to organising IT. Wyndham International shows the opposite, after the introduction of the CIO in 2002, centralization was the chosen mode of organisation because that was what would best fit the new strategic approach of the organisation. Insourcing rather than outsourcing proved to be a winning formula.

With the current drive of both academia and practice to ensure that there is an appropriate degree of collaboration to ensure mutual benefit, any study undertaken that has the application of theory as one of its objectives, should therefore be able to make a contribution to both areas. From a strategic ICT planning perspective the ability to apply a planning process in a cohesive and coordinated manner throughout diversified or complex organisations has been one of the challenges that faced both academics and practitioners. This becomes especially relevant in view of the drive to ensure alignment between business and ICT so as to ensure that the potential utility of ICT can be leveraged and sustained to contribute towards the competitive advantage of the organisation. This situation is also relevant to the South African Department of Defence as a particular kind of diversified organisation. With this in mind the initiative was recognised to establish an appropriate strategic ICT planning process for the department and to apply it to the point where a corporate strategic ICT master plan could be institutionalised. A progressive and longitudinal action research process resulted in not only the development of an appropriate process of definition and alignment, but also on the ability to apply and manage the strategic ICT planning function with full collaboration of all role players and stakeholders. The conclusion from this research was that it is indeed possible to develop and apply an appropriate strategic ICT planning process that recognises the strategic – corporate and business unit level – environment of a diversified organisation, but that it is largely dependant upon the ability to ensure collaboration and participation within a clear and distinct construct of functions and responsibilities. Without appropriate management arrangements and mechanisms, it was found to be very difficult indeed due to issues relating to the semi-autonomous nature of the respective business units in relation to corporate management. / Thesis (PhD(IT))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Informatics / unrestricted

This study aims to explore Swedish organizations within the accounting industry that have adapted their operations to the recent introduction of cloud services. Fortnox, a cloud service provider, has transformed the working methods of organizations, changed the relationship with customers and contributed to creating new rules for the market within accounting. Semi- structured interviews were conducted with employees using Fortnox in their work in areas relevant to accounting. The theoretical framework in this study combines the TOE-framework with theories such as sociomateriality, IT-strategy and technology acceptance. The study goes one step further and investigates how individuals perceive organizational change in the accounting industry as a result of cloud services. The results show that cloud services have enabled major organizational changes where accounting firms have made the strategic choice to diversify and move towards counseling. The speed with which the individual perceives that the business is adapting depends on both the individual and structural conditions that exist. / Denna studie syftar till att undersöka svenska organisationer inom redovisningsbranschen som anpassat sin verksamhet till följd av införandet av molntjänster. Inom ramen för molntjänster menas här hur användandet av Fortnox har förändrat organisationens arbetssätt och relation till kunden samt bidragit till att skapa nya spelregler för marknaden. Datainsamling har skett genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer från organisationer med anställda med relevant koppling till redovisning och som använder sig av molntjänsten Fortnox i sitt arbete. Det teoretiska ramverket för denna studie applicerar TOE-ramverket på en kvalitativ forskningsmetod och kombinerar ramverket med teorier kring sociomaterialitet, IT-strategi och teknologiacceptans av teknologi. Kombinationen leder studien djupare in på hur individer uppfattar att organisationer inom redovisningsbranschen förändrar sitt arbete med löpande redovisning till följd av molntjänster. Resultatet visar att molntjänster har möjliggjort större organisatoriska förändringar där redovisningsbyråer gjort det strategiska valet att diversifiera sig och övergå mer mot rådgivning. Hur snabbt individen uppfattar att verksamheten anpassar sig beror på vilka individuella förutsättningar samt strukturella förutsättningar som finns.

Most large enterprises are facing numerous challenges concerning their information systems, IS, and information and communication technology, ICT. Today, many enterprises employ a considerable number of applications that often have redundant functionality. There is also a large diversification in the ICT products and technologies employed. Further, integration costs are a major issue in almost all acquisition projects and many enterprises experience a lack of data quality and information security. The list of IS/ICT management challenges can be made much longer. At most enterprises, IS/ICT decisions are made by autonomous business units. In order to change the situation described above and build a more cost-effective IS/ICT environment, all business units need to make consistent IS/ICT decisions. Distributed and consistent decisions can only be made if the decision maker knows which decisions to make and why he/she needs to make them. The latter can be described by the target architecture for the whole enterprise IS/ICT, the information needed to conduct the business and its relationship to the business processes and business organization together with the benefits that the target architecture provides to the business. Which decisions to make are formulated into architectural principles, i.e. rules that express how your enterprise needs to design and deploy IS/ICT. The present thesis is a composite thesis including eight papers. The first four papers describe the reference model for IS/ICT management responsibilities that is one of the outcomes of the present research. Two different surveys have been performed in order to find out what the major IS/ICT management challenges are. The first survey was answered by 62 Swedish Chief Information Officers, CIOs, from large private enterprises as well as municipalities. The second survey was answered by twelve CIO’s from the European electric power industry. In the fifth paper, one of the IS/ICT management responsibilities, i.e. data quality, is used to illustrate how the IS/ICT manager’s responsibilities can be decomposed into measurable units. Over 70 respondents were used in order to perform an enterprise- wide measurement of the data quality at a Swedish insurance company. The last three papers are devoted to architectural principles. Architectural principles are introduced and guidelines on how to define and manage them are proposed in the sixth paper. The guidelines have been used in a review of Vattenfall’s architectural principles. In the last two papers, architectural principles and the reference model are combined in a methodology for assessing the enterprise architecture. The methodology has been used in two different case studies, one at Vattenfall and one at Scania. In both case studies multiple information systems were assessed from many different viewpoints resulting in that many respondents were interviewed. / QC 20100908

<p>Background: The notion of IT strategies has changed during recent years, because our perspectives towards IT in the organizations have changed. We expect IT to be fulfilling business goals and lever-age business opportunities and we have strengthened the role of IT in the supply chain. Our individual view on IT, whether it is strategic or supportive, whether the infrastructure should be standard-ized or individualized etc., most likely affects how IT strategies are interpreted and conducted in the organization. This is critical in companies who have their subsidiaries on foreign land. It is not obvi-ous that managers in different countries interpret the IT strategy the same way, just because it happens to be the same company. In most large global coalitions, a common central strategy for IT is the standard. I have chosen to examine Argentinean subsidiaries to Swedish companies as an example. Eight research questions were formulated, with the purpose of finding what is included in a generic IS/IT strategy, if the perspectives of managers are in line with the theory, whether views are consistent throughout the concern, and determine the challenges of global IS/IT management.</p><p>Purpose: This paper aims at finding the generic parts in a IS/IT strategy formulation and explain how business management and IT specialists of global coalitions interpret the concept IS/IT strat-egy. A sub-purpose is to define the priorities in global IS/IT management. The analysis of the paper culminates in a model - “the interpretation of IS/IT strategies”, with the ambition to give guidelines for managers and strategy formulators in a global environment.</p><p>Method: The study is of qualitative, exploratory and explanatory type, it has a descriptive part and a theory enhancing rational. By a thorough literature study and a pre- study I wished to explore and shed light on the perplexities in IS/IT management, nationally and globally. The broad research spectrum was a conscious choice to cover the complex area of IS/IT strategy and the various people affected. By conducting interviews; through questions and observations I also aimed at describing and explaining how IS/IT strategies are interpreted in practice. As a result of my hermeneutic research approach I am drawing conclusions from the similarities and dissimilarities I found in the different perceptions and relate it to the result of previous studies. The idea is thus to combine these insights in order to enhance theory in the area.</p><p>Analysis and result: what could be determined from the analysis is:</p><p>• IS/IT strategy composed of strategic planning, alignment between business- and IT, competitive advantage, knowledge management, responsibilities, system architecture, interaction and security.</p><p>• No “generic” strategy exists. A good strategy for a global coalition is forward-looking and flexible and frequently evaluated. The strategy gives competitive advantage if leveraged; the results are related to IS paradigm view.</p><p>• IT people proves short sighted while business/strategy management have long term perspective, which contradicts Earl, (1999). The difference could be due to culture in this case. The organiza-tional structure does not determine IT architecture, which contradicts King Sethi (1999).</p><p>• Managers and IT people are generally not in agreement. Interpretations of strategy are not consistent in global firms. Managers and not IT people need to take responsibility for the formulation and realization of the strategy. This is in accordance with Axelsson, (1995).</p><p>The implications to managers are: The organizational structure chosen should not be steering the politics for architecture, moreover that IT specialists with a technical view can not be responsible for strategy work or global standards. Managers are encouraged to develop knowledge management, to include intellectual assets in the IS/IT strategy and work with culture enhancement programs.</p>

Information systems and technology strategy has been discussed by many researchers and authors over last three decades. The concepts of business alignment, competitive advantage, value generation etc. have been elaborated and still similar discussions continue. While the advances in IS/IT strategy formulation were being made, the businesses were changing their operating models. More specifically they became global businesses active in multiple geographies at the same time. This research aims to provide deeper understanding of IT developments in global organizations as manifested in the changing social and political environment of the organization and the reciprocal effect of social and political changes on IT strategies. Further it aims to investigate whether the relevant theories and concepts can be integrated to develop a new model that can incorporate the socio-political aspects into IS/IT strategy formulation. To achieve this objective the literature survey was conducted to explore available published papers in the sphere of IS/IT strategy formulation. Considering that the applicability of information systems and technology falls into the sphere of social sciences, the research design focused on the qualitative approach. The primary method of data collection was through semi-structured interviews with IT managers. This was complemented by interviews with business managers and consultants. Further the experiences of the researcher in the earlier role of practitioner were taken into account. Using grounded theory approach the information collected through interviews, own experiences and the data gathered from literature survey were used to develop a new model of IT strategy formulation. The model addresses the context part of IT strategy formulation process. This model development is aimed to counter and account for the political and social aspects of strategy development and deployment in global corporations characterised by diversity of cultures, attitudes and behaviours.

The alignment of business and information technology (IT) strategy is an important and enduring theoretical challenge for the information systems discipline and has remained a top issue in practice for the past twenty years. The extant literature makes two implicit assumptions. One is that IT strategy is aligned with a single business strategy, either at the corporate level or within a single strategic business unit (SBU). The other is that strategies are developed at a single point in time. Therefore, multi-business organisations present a particular alignment challenge, because business strategies are developed at both the corporate level and SBU levels, and these strategies are developed over time. This dissertation contributes a dynamic, capabilities-based theory of business and IT strategy alignment. Rather than extending existing models, this study draws on theory from the resource-based view of the firm and path dependence to address business and IT alignment within and between corporate and SBU levels across the strategy cycle. A new dynamic alignment model conceptualises IT alignment as the fit between business and IT strategies within the corporate and SBU levels and the coherence between these two levels. Value is created by complementary relationships among business and IT capabilities. IT alignment (or misalignment) is embedded over the strategy cycle, with the degrees of freedom declining quickly over time. The new model is validated using pattern matching with a single critical case of strategy development in a multi-business organisation across a complete strategy cycle. The strong match between the empirically observed and theoretically predicted patterns, and the complex nature of these patterns, provides strong support for the model. The model reconceptualises the way IT alignment drives organisational performance and how IT alignment changes over time. This has implications for existing IT alignment models, providing alternative theoretical explanations of how IT alignment creates value and how IT alignment changes over time. The new model also has implications for practice across the IT investment value chain and its governance.