Dora Constantinidis

How does business analytics contribute to business value

This paper presents a model, synthesized from the literature, of factors that explain how business analytics contributes to business value. It also reports results from a preliminary assessment of that model. The model consists of two parts: a process and a variance model. The process model depicts the analyze‐insight‐decision‐action process through which use of an organizations business analytic capabilities is intended to create business value. The variance model proposes that the five factors in Davenport et al.s DELTA model of business analytics success factors, six from Watson & Wixom and three from Seddon et al.s model of organizational benefits from enterprise systems, assist a firm to gain business value from business analytics. A preliminary assessment of the model was conducted using data from 100 customer success stories from vendors such as IBM, SAP and Teradata. Our conclusion is that the business analytics success model is likely to be a useful basis for future research.

Crowdsourcing Culture: Challenges to Change

Cultural heritage is a perishable resource that is not renewable and is at constant risk of permanent loss. Galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) have traditionally been regarded as the guardians and gatekeepers of a nation’s culture and have taken on the role of “protecting” heritage. This traditional role can now be extended to incorporate the curation of digital cultural heritage, including that sourced by citizens (crowdsourced). By asking the public for their assistance to preserve their heritage, albeit by digital means, two objectives are achieved. One outcome is the creation and preservation of digital cultural heritage for future generations. Another significant outcome is that crowdsourcing provides a conduit for increased public engagement with heritage that is of significance and relevance to them. The current ability to crowdsource digital cultural heritage potentially challenges the role and status of GLAMs as primary caretakers of heritage. Since the public can play a greater role in preserving their heritage, authoritative control will need to be reconsidered and adapted to align with heritage that has been deemed important by people. Irrespective of these challenges the opportunity to digitally preserve heritage should take precedence, especially in high risk countries facing conflict and socio-political unrest. This chapter will highlight some of the challenges of engaging people with crowdsourcing cultural heritage and the requirement of designing appropriate engagement strategies. The need for crowdsourcing Afghan cultural heritage will be considered given that it is currently facing many threats to its preservation for future generations.

A Preliminary Testing of the Strategic IT Decision Making Model

Strategic IT decisions are critical and can result in major impacts on an organization’s ability to remain competitive. Improved management of influencing factors on such decisions can lead to a reduction of cost overruns and greater return on the investment of large-scale IT expenditures. However, limited IS research has investigated strategic IT decision making processes and their associated influencing factors. To address the current knowledge gap, Tamm et al. (2014) proposed a Strategic IT Decision Making Model (SITDMM) based on a comprehensive literature synthesis. However, the SITDMM had not been tested with empirical data. This research-in-progress paper conducted a preliminary testing of the SITDM model by using a qualitative approach. An initial interview was conducted with a senior executive who was involved in a strategic IT decision at an Australian pharmaceutical company.

Is there a prescription for strategic IT decisions

Strategic IT decisions are complex and critical since they significantly influence an organisation’s growth and long-term survival. The large number of strategic IT failures reported in the media and academic literature indicate we have limited understanding of how to make optimal IT strategic decisions. More work is needed to understand the factors influencing strategic IT decision processes and outcomes. By exploring the key influence factors presented in this case study, students will be more informed about how senior decision makers can better manage strategic IT decision-making processes. This improved understanding will help reduce project cost overruns and enable organisations to realise the expected benefits of large-scale IT investments. This teaching case study provides insights into the key factors that influenced the strategic IT decision-making process at a major Australian pharmaceutical company (PHARMA). A decision was made under pressure to upgrade the existing enterprise resource planning system at PHARMA in order to meet an increased need for demand forecasting and planning. The implications of strategic IT decision-making theory and practice are discussed in relation to this case study.