The Chief information officer (CIO) position has been seen as very important to every organization; this includes organizations that have either outsourced   or Insourced their IT function. Various studies have shown that this role emerged as a critical executive position in most organization which helps to shape organizations strategy. CIO has a major responsibility of aligning IT with business strategy that leads to an organization achieving a higher competitive advantage. This  work describeD the various roles of the CIO in organizations with a special focus on IT-business strategy alignment. Based on our investigations from previous research, case studies and current interviews with CIOs, we were able to see that the CIO roles are shifting from operational to more strategic one. The CIO is seen to be the bridge between IT strategy and business strategy. As a result of this, they have close collaboration with the CEOs in order to be successful in aligning IT strategy to the business objectives. In view of this, the CIO plays the role of both the chief architect who designs future possibilities for business and the technology provocateur (Intelligent officer) that aligns IT with business.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:26:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kalid Ali Nafal.pdf: 895883 bytes, checksum: 0e40010bd74ef09931b4b6a915317388 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-01-27 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / There is a recognition by operations and supply chain professionals including academics that the integration of the participants of a chain provides service improvement and costs reduction to the customer when the goals of each participant converge to each other. However, many matters related to strategic formulation of the business, capacities logistics and decisions under which competitive priority to choose, are not very well answered and treated by the managers of those companies for an appropriated alignment and adequate characterization, based in a strategies winners set for the supply chain. The research had as goal analyze, in a supplies chain context, if the companies of better strategic alignment present better performance in the operational activities and of logistics. It accomplished a research constituted of two stages. The first, of exploratory nature, it used of a sample of 85 companies characterized by customer, company and vendor, where we tried to evidence the main competitive priorities of this chain. With base in these results, it had beginning the second stage, whose data were treated by means of descriptive statistics and inferential. A sample of 98 companies was used. They evidenced the main competitive priorities elects by the chain: Equipment / product price (translated into of the company as Cost); Performance of the Equipment / Product; Delivery Date reliability; Delivery Date speed. The second research stage, eminently descriptive, consisted in the unfolding of the competitive priorities found in the first stage, associating them with variables related to Strategies (Corporative, of Business and of Manufacture), Logistics Capabilities, and of Productive Performance of the company. It objectified through the association, answer the research problem, In a supplies chain context, do the companies of better strategic alignment present better performance in the operational activities and of logistics? It used two technical distinct, descriptive statistics and inferential, and this last had as goal the analysis of the groups. Three non parametric tests were used: Mann-Whitney, Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Qui-square were considered in the differences confirmation among groups. It concluded by the tests the differences existence of productive performance (Better performance) among companies whose variables of Strategies and of Logistics Capabilities are aligned partial with external environment. Like future studies, it suggests enlarges him for other economy sectors, using as support measurement model built in this study, as well as the hypothesis invigoration that companies aligned strategically own superior productive performance. / Existe um reconhecimento por parte de estudiosos e gestores de operações e cadeia de suprimentos, de que o alinhamento estratégico das empresas em uma cadeia proporciona redução de custos e melhoria dos níveis de serviço prestados ao cliente. Sob esta perspectiva, esta pesquisa objetivou verificar se as empresas pertencentes à cadeia de suprimentos do setor de bens de capital mecânicos, de melhor alinhamento estratégico, apresentavam desempenho superior nas atividades operacionais e de logística. Para tanto, realizou-se uma pesquisa constituída de duas etapas. A primeira etapa, de natureza exploratória, teve como objetivo identificar as prioridades competitivas utilizadas pela cadeia de suprimentos. A coleta de dados deu-se por meio de uma amostra de 85 empresas do setor de bens de capital, seus clientes e fornecedores. Os dados, tratados pelas técnicas da estatística descritiva como média e freqüência, revelaram que o preço, o desempenho, a confiabilidade e velocidade da data de entrega foram as principais prioridades competitivas eleitas na cadeia. A segunda etapa, tendo como base a identificação das prioridades competitivas identificadas na primeira etapa, objetivou verificar o seu alinhamento com as estratégias (corporativa, de negócios e capacidades) da empresa fabricante de bens de capital. A pesquisa, de natureza descritiva, por meio do desdobramento das prioridades competitivas e associadas às estratégias (corporativa, de negócios e capacidades) utilizou-se de uma amostra de 98 empresas, estritamente pertencentes ao setor de bens de capital mecânicos. Os dados coletados da amostra, por meio de questionário estruturado e tratadas pelas técnicas de estatística não paramétrica, Man-Whitney, Kolmogorov-Smirnov e Qui-Quadrado (χ2) evidenciaram que o grupo de empresas melhor alinhadas estrategicamente tiveram melhor desempenho produtivo. Diante dos resultados encontrados, concluiu-se que o alinhamento estratégico conduz as empresas a um desempenho produtivo superior, proporcionando ganhos a todos os participantes da cadeia, principalmente à empresa foco, que consegue otimizar recursos e ações, adequando às necessidades e exigências dos elos a montante e a jusante. Como estudos futuros, sugere-se ampliá-lo para outros setores da economia, utilizando como suporte o modelo de mensuração construído nesse estudo, assim como o fortalecimento da hipótese de que empresas alinhadas estrategicamente possuem desempenho produtivo superior.

In this thesis the candidate explores the apparent gaps between strategy development and strategy implementation (the strategy alignment question), and between business end-user needs and the suppliers of information technology (IT) related products and services. With business intelligence (BI) emerging as one of the fastest growing fields in IT, the candidate develops a conceptual model in which BI is placed into context with other relevant subjects such as strategy development, enterprise architecture and modelling and performance measurement. The emphasis is on the development of processes and templates that support a closed loop control system with the following process steps: - A business strategy is defined. - The implication of the strategy on business processes, supporting IT resources and organizational structure is formally documented according to enterprise architecture principles. - This documented blueprint of the organization helps to implement the selected business strategy. - A performance measurement system is developed and supported by a well-designed data warehouse. - On a regular basis the measurements that were defined to support the implementation of the strategy, together with information from the external environment are interpreted and this analysis leads to either a new strategy, or refinement of the implementation of the existing strategy. Both options may lead to changes in the enterprise architecture, the execution of business processes and/or the performance measurement system. Some of the individual components of the model are supported by existing theories, for example the Zachman Framework for enterprise architecture and the Balanced Scorecard from Kaplan and Norton. The contribution of the author was to position them in the bigger picture to indicate how they can add value with regard to the establishment of business intelligence in organizations. Instead of packaging existing ideas slightly differently under a new name, the author intentionally searched for existing theories to fulfil certain requirements in the Bigger Picture BI Context Model. Apart from a set of templates that were adapted from various other sources and packaged into practical formats that can be used during facilitation sessions, the author has also developed and described the Fourier Model and the Pots of Money Model. The Fourier Model is a powerful conceptual model that helps a business to package solutions for market related requirements through selections of previously defined building blocks (technical components) that can be delivered through various business entities, depending on the requirements of the opportunity. The Pots of Money Model is a quantitative model embedded in a spreadsheet format to illustrate and communicate the effect of spending decisions in one area of the business on other areas. The candidate demonstrates the Bigger Picture BI Context Model in several case studies. The thesis is accompanied by a CD ROM, which contains over 700 references to relevant literature (most of them available in full text) and links to internet web sites, as well as examples of the software templates that support some of the steps in the context model. The following figure depicts the conceptual model in schematic format: (See figure in the abstract of 00front) / Thesis (PhD (Industrial Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Industrial and Systems Engineering / unrestricted

Understanding how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) support their growth strategies through the development of management capacity (MC) is of fundamental importance, particularly given the central role SMEs play in the economies of their respective countries, and the fact that there is a lack of research and useful theories in this specific field. The objective of this study is to develop a framework for MC development (MCD) in growth-oriented SMEs. This study builds on grounded theory by conducting 14 interviews with key informants: 12 founders/CEOs and 2 top managers of German SMEs (and former SMEs). Data analysis was performed by using the qualitative data analysis software ATLAS.ti. The major findings of the study are that, contrary to previous SME HR research, most companies in this study had formal processes for HR practices in place, and there was clear evidence of certain forms of strategic plans, the pursuit of strategic objectives and the taking of strategic decisions manifested itself. In addition, most participants considered their organisation to have an alignment between growth strategy and MCD strategy. However, implementing it into business practice was perceived as extremely challenging. This study thus contributes to the field of SHRM literature by showing how MC is instantiated in SMEs. Furthermore, there is, arguably, a valuable practical application of the research study as it provides growth-oriented SMEs with a clear and logical framework from which to develop MC pro-actively as a major facet of their growth strategy.