Andrej Kovačič

Achieving top management support with business knowledge and role of IT/IS personnel

The business-IT gap is still present in many companies and IT/IS professionals often impute the responsibility for this to management and claim they lack top managements support for their initiatives. The aim of this paper is to show how IT/IS personnel can achieve top management support. Based on more than 50 in-depth interviews with CIOs and CEOs in the last 10 years we hypothesize that top management support can be attained with the business and managerial knowledge and skills of IT/IS personnel as well as with the business-oriented role of the IT/IS department. The impact was empirically tested via structural equation modeling (SEM) using data from 152 Slovenian companies with more than 50 employees. Based on findings some implications for top managers and IT/IS professionals are given, especially for CIOs, on how IT/IS personnel can contribute to bridging the gap.

Assessment of E-Business Transformation Using Simulation Modeling:

Business renovation is a key aspect of electronic business and a high-level strategy for managing change that generally cannot be handled by continuous improvement and organizational restructuring methods. Business process modeling and the evaluation of different alternative scenarios for improvement are usually the driving factors of the business reengineering process. This study investigates business process simulation as a tool for deriving new knowledge about current business processes, such as additional in-depth understanding of how the process is executed and identifying sources of the problems observed during the process execution. The main objective of the paper is to investigate the potential benefits and outcomes of e-business transitioning that can be assessed in advance by using simulation modeling. An example is presented of how simulation modeling can be used to understand a procurement process and evaluate how the proposed improvements and the introduction of electronic business will influence system performance.

The Role of Business Renovation and Information in E-Government

Transition to e-government is not a simple introduction of information technology. It requires a radical change of the ways and mechanisms of operating the administration, which means a major business process change. Therefore, business renovation is a prerequisite for successful informatization. In the paper, the methodology for the business renovation in public sector is developed and demonstrated with the case of a Slovenian Ministry. The case highlights some of the main problems and develops a possible approach to the modeling, renovation and informatization of business processes in order to achieve efficiency, effectiveness and data quality improvement gains.

A Methodology for Increasing Business Process Maturity in Public Sector

Non-profit organizations such as public sector organizations have some specifics, which make renovation projects significantly different. It is clear that radical changes in the execution of business processes and in the organizational structures are not suitable for the public sector because they are not possible for many, also political, reasons. A business process change in public sector mostly means unification of business processes, automation of some activities and elimination of some unnecessary ones. Organizational changes are achievable only to a certain limit. Therefore classic business process renovation methodologies have to be adapted. The proposed methodology that is presented in the paper has been successfully applied in a process change project at one of the Slovene Ministries, which is presented as a case study. Activities, techniques, and tools are proposed for each of the six traditional business process change project’s stages. Problems and topics to which special attention has to be paid are also discussed.

Absorptive Capacity as a Precondition for Business Process Improvement

Improving organizational performance by redesigning business processes and supporting them with a proper information system is a daunting challenge. We analyze the possibilities of business process management in general and in the healthcare sector in particular. The role of business process modeling as a way to increase an organizations absorptive capacity is analyzed. A longitudinal case study of a European public healthcare insurance company identifies the factors either increasing or hindering absorptive capacity. The case presents that the dilemma between radical and incremental approach to improve business processes is somehow artificial since the radicalness of changes depends on the difference between the absorptive capacity and the extent of the proposed changes. The paper shows that business process management projects should not merely focus on the development of methodologically correct models, but should be used as an opportunity to increase the absorptive capacity of an organization.

Comparative study of SISP practices in Slovenia and Singapore

The paper presents the results of the survey on the strategic IS planning practices of large Slovenian organizations. The survey was based on the questionnaire previously developed in Singapore, and the results of both countries, one developed and the other in transition, are compared. It highlights the participation, critical success factors, initiators and the main benefits of the strategic IS planning. The results compared to similar studies show a moderate number of Slovenian organizations which perform strategic IS planning. It is also interesting that top management plays the role of a leading initiator in Slovenian organizations whereas the role of IS management is surprisingly modest. The main benefits of the strategic IS planning from the Slovenian business perspective are: improved internal coordination, efficient and effective management of IS resources and improved productivity.

Business Process Modelling as a Critical Success Factor in Implementing an ERP System

Business Process Modelling as a Critical Success Factor in Implementing an ERP System Many enterprises are adopting enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for improving their efficiency and productivity. Although there are tremendous benefits to implementing an ERP system, there are just as many risks. The problem is that many projects of this type are unsuccessful, mostly due to their complexity being underestimated. The purpose of the paper is twofold: (1) to analyse the critical success factors (CFSs) of ERP implementation projects and (2) to propose a framework based on a composite approach to ERP systems implementation. A special emphasis is given to business process modelling, because the key to the successful choice, implementation and usage of an ERP system is the fit of planned processes in an organisation with processes implemented in the solution. The paper also presents some results of empirical investigation in the field of ERP implementation.

Reference model design: An approach and its application

The main idea of reference modelling is to reuse business knowledge to create efficient business processes to be deployed inside an organisation. Reference models provide a set of generally accepted recommended practices. One of the management challenges facing todays organisations involves the development and reuse of business process reference models. We present a reference model design approach with a focus on a business process merging phase. Process merging is an approach that brings together several business process models with the objective to create a new model. We base our findings on a case study of three big Slovenian companies from the metal industry sector.