Julie Smith David

Managing your total IT cost of ownership

Though the TCO of end-user workstations can always be reduced by sacrificing end-user service, careful planning can reduce the costs without the sacrifice.

The Performance Effects of Congruence Between Product Competitive Strategies and Purchasing Management Design

The objective of this study is to examine a performance contingency effect between product competitive strategy and organization design using an archival approach. Specifically, this study examines a sample of 194 firms from 20 industries based on the data collected by Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies (CAPS) in its benchmarking surveys between 1989-1994 and links the benchmarking data to the COMPUSTAT (Standard & Poors) financial data of these firms. The results of the study reveal a contingency relationship among product competitive strategies, purchasing design characteristics, and overall firm financial performance (return on assets). Specifically, the nature of this contingency relationship suggests that a firms product competitive strategy must be enabled with a complementary design in purchasing management to promote firm performance. Given the growing practice of benchmarking at the functional level, this study also examines whether or not a firm achieving a congruency in product strategy and design will necessarily enjoy higher operational efficiency at the purchasing management level. The results show that this is true only under specific conditions. The implications of the preceding findings are discussed accordingly.

How information systems influence user decisions: a research framework and literature review

Abstract Technology has created new information alternatives that may influence the way information system users make decisions. This paper proposes a research framework for examining how features of an information system affect the decision-making process. The framework is synthesized by merging frameworks from the accounting information systems (AIS) literature and the human information processing (HIP) literature. The framework is then used to organize a literature review of 15 journals from 1987 through mid-1999, which identified 57 decision-making studies. Findings indicate that a wide range of opportunities is available for information systems research on issues of contemporary importance. This discussion includes changes in the decision process initiated by implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, data warehouses, electronic commerce, virtual organizations, on-line financial reporting, and disaggregated financial statement information.

The impact of offshore outsourcing on IT workers in developed countries

Examining the global implications of outsourcing for IT workers.

Agility---: the key to survival of the fittest in the software market

The ideas of Darwinian evolution can illuminate the niches in which systems can flourish in todays tumultuous IT environment---and help identify the inevitable evolutionary changes.

The Research Pyramid: A Framework for Accounting Information Systems Research

This paper extends Sowas (1997) Meaning Triangle to develop a framework for accounting information systems (AIS) research—the Research Pyramid. This framework identifies relationships between objects in economic reality, peoples concepts of economic reality, symbols used to record and represent economic reality, and the resultant accounting information systems that capture and present data about economic reality. The Research Pyramid has two major uses. First, the paper illustrates how the Research Pyramid can be used to identify new research questions to extend existing research streams. To be used in this manner, existing AIS research is classified along each of the edges of the Research Pyramid. Once an area of the literature has been analyzed, the edges that have not been studied extensively reveal potential primitive mappings for future exploration. Second, each primitive mapping is evaluated to identify which of four research methodologies (design science, field studies, survey research, and labor...

Creating a multi-processor environment through systems integration

An integrated computer system can benefit virtually any operation, and there are several types of computer-system networks from which to choose

Making Computers “People-Literate”

Abstract Before too long, operating your computer may be as simple as giving it a handwritten note or speaking out loud what you want it to do

Scripted computer demonstrations: (How to standardize vendor's presentations)

Abstract An effective way to evaluate and select from among the great variety of hospitality computer systems involves requiring vendors to “audition” by following a prepared script

Scripted Computer Demonstrations (How to Standardize Vendors' Presentations) An effective way to evaluate and select from among the great variety of hospitality computer systems involves requiring vendors to "audition" by follouving a prepared script

THE IDENTIFICATION, evaluation, and selection of hospitality computer systems can be complex and time consuming. While there are several purchase-process techniques popular among consultants and industry practitioners, they tend to provide limited assistance in the simplification of system comparisons. Such purchase routines typically begin with an evaluation of user needs and the development of a property profile, and then they proceed through sending out &dquo;request for proposal&dquo; (RFP), evaluation of proposals, product presentations, contract negotiations, and, eventually, system selection. Understandably, hospitality managers unfamiliar with current technological advances may be uncomfortable making a system purchase decision and, as a result, may be intimidated by system vendors. In hopes of discovering a more effective scheme for hospitality computersystem evaluation and selection,