Key Information Technology and Management Issues 2012-2013: An International Study

Abstract

The importance of the impact of IT for organizations around the world, especially in light of a very slow recovery from the global financial crisis, has amplified the need to provide a better understanding of the specific geographic similarities and differences in IT managerial and technical trends. Identifying these influential factors is one thing; the paper also looks at the challenges in addressing them, taking into account both local responsiveness and global pressures. By comparing and contrasting IT trends from different geographies, this paper presents important local and international factors, including management concerns, influential technologies, budgets/spending, and organizational considerations). In addition these trends help to prepare IT leaders for the challenges that await them. The IT trends also serve as an indicator as the respective geographies address their difficult economic environments. The research is based on data from four geographic regions, namely United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The same questionnaire (albeit translated for the respective respondents), based on the lead author's well-respected and long-running Society for Information Management survey, was applied across the geographies. This paper presents the major findings based on survey responses from 787 organizations (195 U.S., 360 European, 55 Asian, 41 Australia, and 136 Latin) in 2012. The top five management concerns were: (1) Business productivity & cost reduction, (2) Business & IT alignment / integration / fusion, (3) Business agility & speed to market, (4) Business process management/reengineering, and (5) IT cost reduction. The five most influential technologies were: (1) Business intelligence, (2) Cloud computing, (3) Enterprise resource planning, (4) Apps developments, and (5) Customer relationship management. Overall, the paper finds that while the economic climate is improving at different rates around the globe - albeit at a slower pace than anticipated - ITs role continues to evolve as it provides organizations with a fundamental vehicle for reducing business expenses and new opportunities for increasing revenues.

Strategic IT Alignment: Twenty-Five Years on

“…Annual CIO surveys conducted by the Society for Information Management (SIM) repeatedly put IT alignment among the top three challenges facing IT executives (Luftman et al, 2013). The latest 2014 SIM survey identifies IT alignment as the third most important 'priority' or 'worry area' for CIOs (Preston, 2014).…”

In Search of Information Systems (Grand) Challenges

“…Yang (1996) surveyed Taiwanese companies for their key MIS issues and compared the results to MIS issues from the USA. Finally, a recent study of Luftman et al (2013) investigated key information technology and management issues from an international perspective. They conducted the same survey in four different geographic regions (U.S., Europe, Asia, and Latin America) questioning IS/IT professionals in these regions and comparing the results.…”

“…Considering that IS have been the major contributor to economic growth and productivity over the past decades (Watson et al 2010), this question definitely warrants our attention. While considerable effort has been put into identifying such challenges (Dickson et al 1984;Brancheau and Wetherbe 1987;Niederman et al 1990;Brancheau et al 1996;Kappelman et al 2013;Dekleva and Zupancic 1996;Krcmar 1990;Moores 1996;Wang and Turban 1994;Watson 1989;Yang 1996;Luftman et al 2013), the answers are still not obvious, and different scholars are likely to name different challenges, if asked. And, indeed, the IS field is characterized by its diversity (Schwartz 2014) as well as dynamic technological development.…”

Sistemas De Informação – Temas De Pesquisa Acadêmica No Brasil Entre 1994 E 2013

“…A preocupação com a maturidade e desenvolvimento da área de SI enquanto disciplina foi também destacada por Zimmer, Ferreira e Hoppen (2007) (LUCIAN et al, 2009;ALBUQUERQUE, ANDRADE e JOIA, 2010), seja em relação a determinados tópicos (ZIMMER e LEIS, 2007;RISS e GROHMANN, 2011;MOTA e MARQUES, 2013 Tomaram-se, assim, os anais do EnANPAD (divisão de ADI) e do EnADI no período, totalizando 1.105 artigos e 1.506 autores de 253 universidades localizadas em 13 países diferentes. A análise de dados consistiu na compilação elaborada pelos autores a partir de conjuntos de textos (títulos e resumos dos artigos) filtrados usando os procedimentos a seguir explicitados.…”