Janet Toland

Electronic Commerce for the South Pacific: A Review of E-Readiness

The two most powerful forces affecting the world economy are the increasing rate of globalisation and advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The combined effect of these two forces could empower people by opening up the worlds knowledge, or it could result in an increasingly divided society. For the developing countries of the South Pacific the challenge is to find a suitable niche in the global economy, ICT has the potential to be a significant enabler in creating this niche. This paper is an exploration of the opportunities made available by developments in the area of electronic commerce. How can the countries of the South Pacific best exploit these opportunities, and will they be able to benefit from leapfrogging to the latest available technology, missing out some expensive stages of infrastructure building?

Can ITIL contribute to IT/business alignment? An initial investigation

Strategic alignment has been viewed as one of the main concerns of management and IT executives. Organizations have realized that in order to achieve competitive advantage, IT needs to be strategically aligned with business objectives. Strategic alignment enables organizations to choose IT applications that meet their needs and as a result, to enhance their profitability and reduce costs. Despite the importance of this matter and a large body of literature written on this subject, it has not yet been identified how it can be successfully achieved and maintained. This paper attempts to provide insight on this matter by investigating an initiative called Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which ensures the effective and efficient delivery of IT services. The intention of this research was to identify how effective ITIL was in improving alignment between IT and business objectives.The Strategic Alignment Model (SAM) developed by Henderson and Venkatraman was used for this research. This consists of four parts: IT strategy; business strategy; organizational infrastructure and processes; and IS infrastructure and processes. By placing ITIL in the internal domain of the model as a substitute for the IS infrastructure and processes it has been identified that it has the ability to impact the other three main areas of the model and as result enables alignment between all the four parts of model to be achieved.In addition to the above an empirical study has been conducted in order to further investigate the ability of ITIL in achieving alignment between IT and business objectives. Four participants have been interviewed from three organizations ranging from education and banking to the IT sector. The results of the research indicate that ITIL has potential as an effective approach in achieving alignment.

E-Finance for Development: Global Trends, National Experience and SMEs

Introduction The title of this chapter accurately reflects its content: it covers current developments in efinance with the initial emphasis being on overall global trends. The second half of the chapter is an exploration of how these developments are likely to impact SMEs in developing countries in the near future. There is a thorough coverage of relevant efinance topics including: Internet banking; Internet payments; international electronic trade and finance systems; online credit information and credit insurance systems; private equity mobilisation and microfinance initiatives. The chapter is clearly explained and well written, and gives a good introduction to the efinance issues relevant to SMEs, and in particular to those issues likely to be more relevant to SMEs in developing countries. The chapter has a wide-ranging global coverage and discusses issues impacting on both OECD and developing countries; there are many useful examples of e-finance initiatives in developing countries. The chapter is based on information made available at two UNCTAD e-finance related events held in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Finance is an information-intensive industry, which has the potential to alter greatly as a result of the Internet. The chapter adopts a narrow definition of efinance as “financial services delivered online through Internet fixed and wireless networks to enterprises and households”, though it also covers the offline use of electronic devices fo r payment transactions in remote areas. E-finance includes Internet banking and payments, e-brokerage, e-insurance and other related services. Internet technologies are used in all aspects of the financial services industry, including retail and wholesale, back office and front office. In the near future the distinction between finance and e-finance will become less relevant as the core financial technology becomes Internet-based. The chapter identifies four lessons that have been learnt from the early phases of efinance adoption:

How the current orthodoxy of local government is failing IT managers: an illustrative case study

Information Technology (IT) is often assumed to be a critical enabling factor for modern democratic processes. We briefly examine widespread reform of public service institutions along market principles, known as the New Public Management (NPM). We then examine some of the IT management issues that have arisen as a result of the changing nature of local government. We identify a disconnect between the current orthodoxy of local government, the expected benefits of IT, and the actual experience of IT management in public sector organisations. Many public sector organisations suffer from multiple IT management problems. These seriously affect their ability to deliver on the promise that IT management will deliver the quality management information that is required by increased demands for public accountability. We illustrate this with a case study.

ICTs and Tourism in Small Island Developing States: The Case of the Maldives

Tourism is the leading economic activity in many small island developing states, such as the Maldives. Increasing reliance on information and communication technology in the tourism industry has become one of the major challenges facing developing countries, especially the small island developing states. Though the use of information and communication technology can potentially overcome barriers of distance and open up new markets, exploiting the full potential of information and communication technology can be problematic for small island developing states due to limited resources in terms of finance and human capital. This research uses a combination of grounded theory and multi-grounded theory to investigate this issue. This process generated a set of factors and institutional influences affecting the adoption and integration of information and communication technology in the tourism organizations of small island developing states like the Maldives. These factors and institutional influences formed the basis of a new theoretical framework organized around three themes: country, sector, and information systems. Many of the issues in using information and communication technology in the Maldives tourism industry are similar to those faced by other developing countries; however, two factors were found to be unique to small island developing states: the issues of vulnerability and technology dependency. These issues were found to have a major impact on the way the tourism industry operates in the Maldives, because of the industry’s dependence on information and communication technology.

Information and Communications Technology in the Tourism Sector of the Maldives: An Institutional Perspective

For many small island developing states tourism is a significant area of business. The increasing reliance on information and communication technology in the tourism industry has become one of the major challenges facing developing countries. This paper reports on research which investigated the adoption and effective use of e-commerce in the tourism industry of the Maldives. After a grounded theory analysis of interview data three domains were identified as significant, Sector, Country and Information Systems. These three inter-related domains are used to identify the institutional influences affecting the use of e-commerce in the tourism industry of the Maldives.

Lessons from the Past: The Value of Global Historical Perspectives in Information Technology Management

ABSTRACT Computers have been around for over 60 years, and despite the ever-changing nature of information technology, important lessons can be learned by studying its history. The historical approach enables researchers to step back and consider the long-term relationship between information technology, organizations, and wider society providing rich insights and the ability to address “big picture” questions. However, despite its importance, research on the history of information technology has tended to concentrate on Western countries and elite groups. Though this has been addressed to some extent in recent years, there is still a need to ensure that the recorded history of information technology becomes more representative and inclusive, telling the stories of people in all parts of the world who have been affected by this technology and enabling a more complete understanding of computing on society’s impacts.

Using Historical Methods to Explore the Contribution of Information Technology to Regional Development in New Zealand

This article examines the role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) play in regional development and their relationship with factors such as regional learning, innovation, culture, and internal and external regional information networks. Historical methods are used to build up a picture of significant changes that have taken place within two contrasting regions of New Zealand between 1985 and 2005. The interdependent relationships between the development of hard ICT-based networks and regional social networks are explored.

The Discovery Camp: A Talent Fostering Initiative for Developing Research Capabilities among Undergraduate Students

Introduction One of the critical success factors for a university is its ability to sustain a rich and vibrant research environment. This factor is often demonstrated by a regular listing of high quality research-based publications, a steady stream of completed PhD theses and the offerings of postgraduate courses that facilitate the development of such research skills. However, in order to achieve these goals, a university also has to recruit high achieving undergraduate students who can be inspired to move on to commence post-graduate research-based studies. So the key question is this: What can a university do to attract and inspire these budding researchers to consider moving on to post-graduate research-based courses? This paper describes an initiative developed by a university department that aims to engage high achiever undergraduate students in small scale collaborative research projects and through these experiences inspire them to move on to graduate study. The School of Information Management (SIM) at Victoria University of Wellington has one of the highest student enrolments in undergraduate courses in the university. The two main directions of the SIM courses are Information Systems (INFO) and Electronic Commerce (ELCM). Despite the high undergraduate numbers, the throughput percentage to postgraduate Honours (Hons) study is very small. In addition, with the generally large classes, lecture and tutorial presentations tend to be pitched towards the slightly-above-average student, rather than at the top students. It is thus a challenge to stimulate the latter while aiming to motivate the rest of the class to higher academic achievement. Various interested and concerned staff members had held informal discussions about this but a more formal, coordinated and directed approach was needed. The SIM Talent Fostering initiative was thus established as a coherent set of systems and processes to foster student talent (Gandz, 2006). The initial steering group comprised six staff members and the Director of the Undergraduate Programmes--all acting on a voluntary basis. The overriding goal of the initiative is to attract top quality students and nurture them through their undergraduate years so that they develop a passion for information systems (IS) and various aspects of the discipline, including research. As a result, a good potential class of honours students should emerge--or enthusiastic practitioners with strong bonds to the school. A number of sub-initiatives to realize the goal were identified: * A discovery camp for talented undergraduate students * A boot camp for talented high school students in their final year. * A young scientist research mentoring programme * Awards for top achievers in INFO and ELCM 300-level courses * Arrangements of internships with local industry * Conducting exeunt focus group interviews with final year students not pursuing graduate studies * Ongoing customer relationship management with undergraduate students * Establishment of informal groups nurturing international and Maori/Pacific Island students These would be planned to occur at different times of the year, with the Discovery Camp being the first specific event. This paper reports on the first of the listed events and proceeds as follows. Section 2 briefly reviews existing literature. Section 3 presents the objectives and organization of the event, followed by experience reports in Section 4. Section 5 reflects on the experiences and Section 6 concludes the paper with a discussion of the experience. Prior Literature Talent development has been recognized as an important activity for businesses (Gandz, 2006). While the aim in the event presented here was to develop candidates for graduate studies, the techniques of talent development in business remain applicable. …