BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEM

Business information system



Business information system

This study presents an integrative framework, focusing on key factors that can influence IIOS planning effectiveness. It explores the influence of technological factors (IIOS maturity and technology competence), organizational factors (top management support and CEO/CIO relationship), and environmental factors (environmental uncertainty, competitive pressure, and trading partner readiness) on IIOS planning effectiveness (planning alignment, improvement in planning capability, and fulfillment of planning objectives). This integrative framework suggests that technological capabilities, internal organizational resources, and external competitive pressures could affect successful IIOS planning. This framework also provides some direction for e-business managers and IIOS planners, as well as researchers interested in IIOS planning and management.

sAlthough both consulting companies and academic institutions have extensively studied IIOS planning, numerous problems remain unresolved (Min, Suh, & Kim, 1999). Conventional IS planning approaches emphasize the rational and formal aspects of organizational life and ignore the complexities and messiness inherent in actual organizational situations, which are fraught with power relations and human behavior (Huysman, Fischer, & Heng, 1994). An investigation of IS planning demonstrated that only 24% of planned IS applications were actually developed (Flynn & Arce, 1995), confirming that IS planning processes require improvement.

Rapid advances in Internet and Web technology have led to the development of IIOS frameworks that consider e-commerce and e-business (Pant & Ravichandran, 2001; Raghunathan & Madey, 1999). For example, Raghunathan and Madey (1999) suggested an IS planning framework which focuses on the development of e-business applications, providing a three-dimensional coordinate axis to classify business models and establish an IS architecture for a particular model. Pant and Ravichandran (2001) presented an IS planning framework for developing e-business information systems designed to produce an information architecture based on the IT infrastructure of Internet and Web technology. These frameworks, however, do not explore the key factors (such as technological, organizational, and environmental contexts) that can influence IIOS planning effectiveness.

These frameworks may help strategic business planners to understand how to rapidly plan Internet and Web-based information systems. These frameworks, however, appear somewhat normative in that they do not consider technological, organizational, and environmental problems involving how IIOS planning should be done and how to best exploit current contexts. Furthermore, while focusing on developing particular IIOS applications, these frameworks have neglected the importance of incorporating organizational considerations into IIOS planning objectives. This may cause problems in the IIOS planning process, such as an inability to satisfy trading partners, the creation of IIOS plans that are unable to achieve internal organizational consistency, an inability to achieve organizational goals in change management, and an inability to meet planning objectives.

To achieve planning objectives for IIOS as well as ebusiness and e-commerce in the network era, this study suggests that organizations must consider organizational factors while conducting IIOS planning. Future researchers could develop IIOS planning frameworks (or models) that integrate managerial mechanisms related to organizational environment to enhance the IIOS planning effectiveness, such as innovation characteristics, knowledge sharing behaviors, and organizational learning factors. These mechanisms also can provide practitioners with a set of ...