“All marriages are happy. It’s the living together afterwards that causes all the trouble.” - Raymond Hull, Canadian Playwright. Although Mergers and Acquisitions are common, no merger is termed as successful until post merger integration is successful. During M&A, two companies that function uniquely are fused together, and the Information Technology group is expected to consolidate two different systems efficiently. This integration should be well-executed, and without any disruption to business or customers. Every merger is different, and can have innumerable reasons for failure, ranging from poor implementation strategies to cultural or attitudinal problems. One of the reasons, many Post-Merger Integration activities fail, is due to the Information Technology complexity and inadequacy to address the issues, it brings to the table. This thesis aims at studying the importance of post-merger Information Technology (IT) integration and developing an IT strategy for the integration. There are no scientific guidelines laid out for a post-merger IT integration and each company employs its own methods. Hence the author has researched and developed a post-merger IT integration framework that can give definitive approach and assist in seamless integration. This framework includes practices that can be followed for a smooth IT transition and checklist to ensure successful integration. Lastly the author presents two cases of M&A that illustrate the importance of IT integration, namely, Sallie Mae- USA Group and HP-Compaq. Sallie Mae & USA Group was a huge success due to its successful IT integration implementation while HP-Compaq merger was a disappointment for the lack of understanding the importance of IT integration. From these two cases, the author has also derived the usefulness of the proposed framework. Author has also presented another case of Oracle-Sun merger, which does an analysis of the IT integration carried out by the two companies. It would not be unwise to say, that IT plays an ever increasing pervasive role in today’s organizations, hence a successful merger demands successful IT integration. / text

Business Processes (BP) and Information Technology (IT) are two areas that work very closely in helping organisations to keep or retain competitive advantage. Therefore, design in these areas should consider the advantages provided by, and the limitations that each of these domains imposes on each other. BP design tries to ensure that IT specifications are considered during the design of BP. Similarly, Information Systems (IS) design attempts to capture organisational needs, known as IS functional and Non-Functional Requirements (NFR), in order to meet the organisational goals. Despite this, BP and IT modelling techniques barely depict the way IT may affect BP performance or vice versa. For example, Business Process Simulation (BPS) is one of the modelling techniques that has been increasingly used to support process design. The performance measurements obtained from BPS models, though, are obtained considering only organisational issues, and thus cannot be used to assess the impact that IT may have on process performance. Similarly, IT modelling techniques do not provide IS performance measurements, and hence cannot depict the way IS may improve BP performance. The relationship between BP and IT can be alternatively described in terms of the relationships between BP, IS and Computer Networks (CN). By looking at the parameters that govern these relationships a simulation framework was developed, namely ASSESS-IT, that develops simulation models that provide performance measurements of BP, IS and CN, and thus can reflect the impact that IT (IS and CN) may have on BP performance. This research uses a case study to test the proposed framework (theory testing), to understand the way BP, IS, and CN domains interact (discovery), and to propose alternative theories to solve the problems found (theory building). The experimentation with the ASSESS-IT framework suggests that in order to portray the impact that IT may have on BP, analysts in these domains should first identify those performance specifications that describe how well the IS delivers its functionality (also known as non-functional requirements). It was found that when the IS does not depend on determined response time, the relationships between BP, IS and CN can be assessed using only the relationship between BP and IS. An alternative simulation framework, namely BPISS, is proposed to produce BPS models that provide performance measurements of BP and IS. Thus, BP and IT analysts can investigate the impact that a given IS design may have on BP performance, and identify a better BP and IS solution.

Thesis (MTech(Information Technology)) --Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2012 / Due to the legacy of apartheid South Africa is facing developmental discrepancies with inequalities between the advantaged few in the more urban areas and the disadvantaged majority in the rural areas. With quality education being key, not only to the success of an individual but of a country’s development, efforts have been made to ensure equal access for all. ICT is seen as a key enabler to this end. The study investigated the status of ICT deployment and its integration into curricula in schools. The objective was to understand the factors affecting the efforts to achieve successful implementation of ICT integration into schools in underdeveloped areas, to understand the challenges that exist and ultimately, to inform solutions. A qualitative study was conducted, using a case study method. A purposive sampling method was used to select population elements; educators and school coordinators of ICT programs in Western Cape schools (i.e. Kulani Secondary, Sithembele Matiso Secondary, Macassar Secondary and Marvin Park Primary). To gain an understanding of the status quo, literature was explored and semi-structured interviews were conducted with ICT coordinators and educators within the 4 sampled schools. Activity theory was used to provide an analytical framework for the study. Through this framework the aims and objectives of the study were conceptualized and summarized to form a graphical representation of the phenomena under study. In spite of efforts to ensure universal access to ICT, the findings indicate that the status of ICT deployment and its integration into school curricula is far from favourable in underdeveloped schools.