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Journal of Information Technology Case and Application Research
Volume 10, Number 3, 2008
Editorial
Preface
Change Management: A Sensible Approach for Information Technology Researchers
David Paper and Zsolt Ugray, Utah State University, Logan, UT
Research
Article One
Stakeholder Influence and ERP Implementation In
Higher Education
Adekunle Okunoye, Mark Frolick and Elaine Crable
Williams College of Business, Xavier University
Research
Article Two
Information Ambidexterity: An
Exploratory Case Study of Skills Development
Sharm Manwani, Henley Business School, UK
Mike Fishwick and Gerry Rankin, Yell Limited, UK
Teaching Case
Article
Cognizant Technology Solutions: Growth and
Transformation of Its Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
Division
Ashwani Kumar, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India
M. Janakiraman, Pearl School of Business, Gurgaon, India
The Expert
Opinion
Pioneering ‘The New Evolution’
Innovative
‘Software Service Factory’ Delivers ‘Built to Change’ Software Systems
An Interview
with Hemant K. Sabat, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Coscend Communications
Solutions, L.L.C.
Conducted and Documented by Mahesh S. Raisinghani, Texas
Woman’s University, USA
Book Review
A Sense of Urgency
By John P.
Kotter
Published in 2008 by by Harvard Business Press, ISBN:
978-1-4221-7971-0; 196 pages
Richard G. Platt, University of West Florida, Florida, USA
Editorial
Preface
Change Management: A Sensible
Approach for Information Technology Researchers
David Paper and Zsolt Ugray, Utah State University, Logan, UT
ABSTRACT
Change is all around us.
The weather is always changing. Our moods are changing from one moment
to the next. Even how we perceive our world is never really the same as
time moves forward. Each day we are alive, we age and thereby change.
The inevitability of change is the only constant. However, our
acceptance of the inevitability of change is another matter. Most people
don’t seem to like change. The literature on change strongly supports
this notion (Kotter and Schlesinger, 2008; Elving, 2008).
Research
Article One
Stakeholder Influence and ERP Implementation In
Higher Education
Adekunle Okunoye, Mark Frolick and Elaine Crable
Williams College of Business, Xavier University
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the influence of stakeholders on ERP
implementation in higher education. We conducted an exploratory case study
of a leading private university in Mid-West USA using multiple sources of evidence and data
gathering approaches (interviews, observations, historical document
reviews) grounded on prior
findings in the ERP literature. Stakeholder theory enables us to see
different stakeholders, what their stakes might likely be and different
power plays in the implementation process. Weick’s (1976) concept of loosely
coupled systems suited our understanding of the university and its
composition of many stakeholders. We found that a decision to acquire
an ERP system along with a particular vendor may be largely controlled
by those who control the scarce resources. The university depends on
the cooperation of the end users of the ERP systems for the outcome of
its implementation, but management needs to consider the influence of
the end users and their stake for effective implementation.
Research
Article Two
Information Ambidexterity: An
Exploratory Case Study of Skills Development
Sharm Manwani, Henley Business School, UK
Mike Fishwick and Gerry Rankin, Yell Limited, UK
ABSTRACT
Organizations face
increasing challenges in managing their information despite the
expansion in available technologies used to capture and exploit diverse
forms of data. Managers want to make decisions based on the needed
information not constrained by the available skills and technologies.
Yet, historically,
information skills have been differentiated by the relative structure
of the data. Technologies to manage structured data originated as
programs and files evolving into applications such as enterprise resource
planning and data warehouses. Unstructured data was previously managed
in paper form by librarians and record managers. More recently,
technologies to manage unstructured data such as content management,
document management and search engines have become increasingly
prevalent. An integrated information architecture needs to span both
structured and unstructured data.
A further distinction
in the management of information is that of control and exploitation.
Historically the focus of information technologies and skills was more
on control through operational databases. Exploiting information for
strategic decision-making has been driven by technologies for both
business intelligence and knowledge management.
Working with senior
information executives, a tentative information framework was developed
that combines these dimensions. The proposition is that information
ambidexterity represents a target skills position for organizations.
This paper explores the development of skills in an award-winning case organization
and compares the results to the IM framework.
Yell has been on a six year journey
starting with the appointment of a commercial data manager and reaching
a position where it has acquired sound expertise in developing
information governance, information architecture and information
capabilities. This research analyses Yell’s progress to establish what
have been the critical skills for its information management journey
and what recommendations emerge for other organizations. The results are
evaluated in the context of the information management framework and
proposals are made for further research.
Teaching Case
Article
Cognizant Technology Solutions: Growth and
Transformation of Its Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
Division
Ashwani Kumar, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India
M. Janakiraman, Pearl School of Business, Gurgaon, India
ABSTRACT
The case narrates the growth and transformation of Data
Warehousing and Business Intelligence (DW&BI) division of Cognizant
Technology Solutions (CTS). CTS was started as a captive software
development and maintenance unit of Dun & Bradstreet, and
subsequently began to provide service for other customers. As the
organization moved from a region-specific servicing model to a vertical
specific model, DW&BI became the first horizontal within the
company to align the delivery organization at offshore, into what is
now called VPOCs (Vertical Point of Contact) within the organization.
The initial phase of the practice was in a vanilla solution center
model. Through the unique concept of solution accelerators and value
creators and a strong advisory/ consultancy group (XCBIT), CTS-DWBI
practice has evolved itself into the role of a key strategic BI partner
for its customers, providing a range of services like Data warehousing,
Master Data Management, CPM/ BPM, BI, analytics. The case provides the
interplay of corporate and divisional strategies and helps in
understanding strategy implementation and Information Technology
strategy internally and how an IT and consulting organization can build
competitive advantage and sustain it in the dynamic market environment.
The Expert
Opinion
Pioneering ‘The New Evolution’
Innovative
‘Software Service Factory’ Delivers ‘Built to Change’ Software Systems
An Interview
with Hemant K. Sabat, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Coscend Communications
Solutions, L.L.C.
Conducted and Documented by Mahesh S. Raisinghani, Texas
Woman’s University, USA
ABSTRACT
Hemant
K. Sabat is the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of
Coscend Communications Solutions.
Most recently, he served as the General Manager of Telecom and
High-Technology Software Applications business unit at Perot Systems
Corporation. At Perot Systems,
and previously at Nortel Networks, Sabre and Fannie Mae, he built
global category-defining businesses, and evangelized enduring,
significant institutions. He has
incubated and scaled up high-ROI businesses into global operations,
helped gain strategic footprints, aggressively marketed the company’s
true benefit, expanded customer base and helped strengthen corporate
brand.
Book Review
A Sense of Urgency
By John P.
Kotter
Published in 2008 by by Harvard Business Press, ISBN:
978-1-4221-7971-0; 196 pages
Richard G. Platt, University of West Florida, Florida, USA
Each year, this reviewer welcomes a new class of MBA students
and endeavors to teach them the fundamental principles of how to
incorporate information systems (IS) into organizations. The course has
a managerial focus, uses a good book, covers many case studies, and
includes a lengthy readings list. One of the most important articles on
that list is over twelve years old and did not appear in what could be
considered an IT publication. Yet, this article is the one that
students come back and say how much they have used its content in all
aspects of their professional lives and especially how appropriate were
the principles in that article when applied to any level of IS project.
That article is a 1995 Harvard
Business Review article entitled “Leading Change - Why
Transformation Efforts Fail” by John P. Kotter. In that article, Kotter lays out the
eight stages of a successful change process and identifies pitfalls for
each of those eight stages. The first stage involves establishing what
Kotter calls a “sense of urgency.” Now, after many years of additional
research into the characteristics of managing change projects in
organizations, Kotter has zeroed in on that “sense of urgency” as the
most critical of the eight stages in the change process and has written
a book, A Sense of Urgency,
to more deeply and completely explain why urgency is a critical aspect
in any organizational change project. Since IS projects inherently
involve organizational change, this “sense of urgency” is a critical
aspect to any IS project, but is only minimally covered in most
literature dealing with how to create successful IS projects.
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