Strategic Alignment and Enterprise Systems Implementation: The Case of Metalco

Abstract

This paper explores the issue of strategic alignment and enterprise systems (ES) implementation from the point of view of one organization involved in deploying an enterprise resource planning system globally. Two questions motivated this research. First, given that strategic information systems (IS) alignment is viewed as essential to organizational success in deriving value from information technology (IT) investments, what is the experience of organizations in practice in aligning their IT strategies with their business strategies? Second, what is the impact of global ES deployments on strategic IS alignment? Based on an in-depth case study of one organization's experience, the research shows that achieving alignment is still important yet difficult to attain. The pressure for alignment may be even more intense with the deployment of global enterprise-wide systems. The study provides additional empirical support for the strategic IS alignment construct and goes further to suggest that deploying an ES does not by itself create integrated and seamless operating environments. In addition, such an outcome requires significant organizational change at all levels.

Implementation costs of IS-enabled organizational change

“…The responsibility for identifying, orchestrating and managing the organizational changes associated with an IS implementation effort rests with the organization's managers (Grant, 2003;Leonard-Barton, 1988;Sharma & Yetton, 2003). As the extent of organizational change increases, organizations need to deploy more managerial and enduser resources to undertake these changes successfully, thus incurring greater implementation costs (Zmud & Cox, 1979).…”

Aligning information technology and business strategy with a dynamic capabilities perspective: A longitudinal study of a Taiwanese Semiconductor Company

“…Prior studies have found that IT alignment continuously varies with changes in the environment, strategy, organization structure, or technology itself. Therefore, achieving and sustaining strategic alignment is difficult and often frustrating (Grant, 2003;Sabherwal, Hirschheim, & Goles, 2001).…”

Aligning business process reengineering in implementing global supply chain systems by the SCOR model

“…However, little evidence exists supporting this kind of reasoning as analytical tasks are mostly carried out by individual informal decisions that may not be carefully linked to relevant business objectives (Gunasekaran and Kobu, 2002). Many failed cases involve systems deployment primarily designed for solving functional and technical problems, without considering the implications for organizational changes engendered during the adoption procedures (Grant, 2003). Successful cases are associated with detailed corporate analyses of the internal operations to establish relationships with their external organizations in order to identify supply/demand fluctuations and amplitudes (Kumar, et al, 2008).…”