Shailendra C. Jain Palvia

An examination of the IT satisfaction of small-business users

Although there are many articles in the NIS literature which address small-business computing, in effect the organizations represented in these studies are, in many ways, similar to medium- and large-sized organizations. In this article, we focus on businesses that are truly small: they have very few employees and there is no formal NIS department. In this environment, the small business owner/manager is the principal user and has to perform most of the IT functions. For such an environment, an IT satisfaction construct and measurement instrument are presented. A survey, using the measurement instrument, of a representative sample of small businesses was conducted to identify user satisfaction patterns. Key areas of IT dissatisfactions are: training and education (the most important), software maintenance, documentation, and vendor support. These deficiency areas can be appropriately addressed by software vendors and consultants. Finally, a contingency analysis of IT satisfaction based on business-related factors and owner characteristics was performed. A general observation was that the owner attributes have a greater impact on IT satisfaction than any of the business factors. The ones that stood out the most were the gender and the age of the owner.

Global information technology: A meta analysis of key issues

Recently, there has been an increasing number of studies and articles that have identified and ranked global information technology (IT) issues in various parts of the world. The objective of this article is to aggregate the results of these studies and explore the possibility of linkage of these key IT issues to environmental and organizational factors. An organizing framework for global IT issues is developed and one of the factors in the framework, the level of economic development of the country, is analyzed to observe its impact on the ranking of key IT issues. Cluster analysis on a sample of ranked IT issues from 16 different regions indicates a linkage between the level of economic development of a region and the ranking of various types of IT issues. The analysis provides stronger support for the three-way classification of regions into developed, developing, and under-developed rather than the more recent four-way classification of developed, newly industrialized, developing, and under-developed.

A Socio-Technical Framework for Quality Assessment of Computer Information Systems

The emergence of total quality management and the ISO 9000 suite of standards has allowed a re‐think of how (and why) the post‐implementation evaluation of computer systems is to be carried out. Traditional performance measurement, modeling and analysis techniques – while not discredited – have been tempered with a more holistic ideology. This article recommends a socio‐technical approach to determining the quality of a computer information system. In this context, two postulates have been proposed and tested by field survey of expert systems in the insurance industry in North America. Postulate one focuses on a multidimensional concept of IS quality comprising the characteristics of task, technology, people and organization. Postulate two deals with differences in assessments of these characteristics according to stakeholder groups: managers, developers, and users. Summarizes the key findings of these postulates in the context of the TQM and ISO 9000 philosophies.

Capability, Quality, and Performance of Offshore IS Vendors: A Theoretical Framework and Empirical Investigation

Information systems (IS) offshoring has become a widespread practice and a strategic sourcing choice for many firms. While much has been written by researchers about the factors that lead to successful offshoring arrangements from the clients viewpoint, the vendors perspective has been largely scarce. The vendor perspective is equally important as offshore IS vendors need to make important decisions in terms of delivering operational and strategic performance and aligning their resources and processes in order to meet or exceed targeted outcomes. In this article, we propose and test a three-level capability–quality–performance (CQP) theoretical framework to understand vendor outcomes and their antecedents. The first level of the framework represents three vendor capabilities: relationship management, contract management, and information technology management. The second level has three mediating variables representing process quality: partnership, service, and deliverable quality. The third level has three dependent variables representing vendor outcomes: operational performance, strategic performance, and satisfaction. The model was tested with 188 vendor firms from India and China, the two most popular destinations for IS offshoring. Results support the CQP framework; vendor capabilities are significant predictors of intermediate quality measures, which in turn affect vendor outcomes. Implications of the study findings to both theory development and IS offshore vendor strategic decision making are discussed.

An experimental investigation of factors influencing predicted success in DSS implementation

This paper describes the results of an experiment that examined the effects of four factors hypothesized to influence the predicted success at various stages of the implementation of a proposed Decision Support System (DSS). The setting for the experiment was the development of an interactive financial budget planning and expense tracking system. The experiment was framed using two basic models: the three-stage change process comprising unfreezing, moving, and refreezing; and second, a model for the management of technological change. The four factors studied were: (a) the time allowed for completion of the systems development and implementation effort; (b) the presence or absence of a champion; (c) the ease with which the managerial change required by the proposed system could be reversed; and (d) the level of success in the preceding stage or stages of the change process. The subjects were mid-level managers and staff attending evening MBA classes at the University of Minnesota.

Global Outsourcing of IT and IT Enabled Services: A Framework for Choosing an (Outsourcee) Country

AbstractGlobal market for outsourcing of IT functions took off in late 1980s and for the last five years, global market for IT as well as IT Enabled Services has been growing steadily. IT functions include IS analysis, IS design, IS development, IS implementation and management of entire data centers. IT enabled service, also called Business Process Outsourcing, include functions like call centers, accounting, payroll, employee benefits, tax preparation, radiology analysis, films and cartoons production, and even research and development. Outsourcing location can be onshore, near shore, offshore or far shore. Outsourcing industry has been inventing itself in a myriad ways. This is a conceptual paper providing an outsourcing scope framework and also a model for selecting an outsourcing destination country.Abstract Global market for outsourcing of IT functions took off in late 1980s and for the last five years, global market for IT as well as IT Enabled Services has been growing steadily. IT functions include IS analysis, IS design, IS development, IS implementation and management of entire data centers. IT enabled service, also called Business Process Outsourcing, include functions like call centers, accounting, payroll, employee benefits, tax preparation, radiology analysis, films and cartoons production, and even research and development. Outsourcing location can be onshore, near shore, offshore or far shore. Outsourcing industry has been inventing itself in a myriad ways. This is a conceptual paper providing an outsourcing scope framework and also a model for selecting an outsourcing destination country.

Improvement in Operational Efficiency Due to ERP Systems Implementation: Truth or Myth?

ERP systems are expected to provide many benefits, including improved business efficiency. However, they are also blamed for several business problems and failures. Past studies have analyzed investments in ERP systems based on net income, return on investment, new present value or change in market value of a firm. We argue that an analysis of more direct measures-intangible or tangible-would enhance confidence in the efficacy of ERP systems. We investigate the impact of ERP systems implementation on operational efficiency of medium sized firms in the pharmaceutical and chemicals industry. Our analysis of the data indicates that for a majority of the firms improvement of operational performance expected due to ERP systems did not materialize.

Promises and Perils of Internet based Networking

Social, professional, and entertainment networking on cyberspace are becoming the norm in todays society. As a result, several issues emerge: online and offline social capital; where the real and virtual meet; humans turning into hermits in a prospering hangout culture; generation gap among users; legal and privacy issues; fraud and misuse; is Facebook the next Google?; social networking in classrooms; marketing innovations with social networking; cyber bullying; and quality, security, and trust.

Global Market for Outsourcing IT and IT Enabled Services

In 1989, outsourcing was approximately a

Ideal, advertised and actual systems analyst skills: the Singapore context

4 billion business (Lacity et al., 1996). In 2000, outsourcing of IT functions reached