Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation ECIME 2013

Proceedings of theProceedings of the7th European Conference

onInformation ManagementInformation Management

and EvaluationFaculty of Management

University of Gdask PolandUniversity of Gdask, Poland12-13 September 2013

Edited by

Przemysaw Lech A conference managed by ACPI, UK

www.academic-conferences.org

Proceedingsofthe7thEuropeanConferenceon

ISManagementandEvaluationECIME2013

FacultyofManagementUniversityofGdask

SopotPoland

1213September2013

EditedbyProfPrzemysawLechFacultyofManagementUniversityofGdask

Poland

CopyrightTheAuthors,2013.AllRightsReserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermissionfromtheindividualauthors.Papershavebeendoubleblindpeerreviewedbefore finalsubmission to theconference. Initially,paperabstractswerereadandselectedbytheconferencepanelforsubmissionaspossiblepapersfortheconference.Manythankstothereviewerswhohelpedensurethequalityofthefullpapers.TheseConferenceProceedingshavebeensubmittedtoThomsonISIforindexing.Pleasenotethattheprocessofindexingcantakeuptoayeartocomplete.Further copies of this book and previous years proceedings can be purchased from http://academicbookshop.comEBookISBN:9781909507579EBookISSN:20488920BookversionISBN:9781909507555BookVersionISSN:20488912CDVersionISBN:9781909507586CDVersionISSN:2048979XTheElectronicversionoftheProceedings isavailabletodownloadatISSUU.com.YouwillneedtosignuptobecomeanISSUUuser(nocostinvolved)andfollowthelinktohttp://issuu.comPublishedbyAcademicConferencesandPublishingInternationalLimitedReadingUK441189724148www.academicpublishing.org

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ContentsPaperTitle Author(s) Page

No.Preface iiiCommittee ivBiographies viKnowledgeManagementintheProcessofEnterpriseSystem'sConfiguration

JerzyAuksztolandMagdalenaChomuszko 1

UnderstandingandSupportingCloudComputingAdoptioninIrishSmallandMediumSizedEnterprises(SMEs)

MarianCarcary,EileenDohertyandGerardConway 10

NewDeliveryModelforNonProfitOrganisations:SharedComputingServices

BarbaraCrumpandRajaPeter 18

EnhancingITCapabilityMaturityDevelopmentofaConceptualSMEFrameworktoMaximisetheValueGainedFromIT

EileenDoherty,MarianCarcary,UnaDowneyandStephenMcLaughlin 25

OrganisationalPolitics:TheImpactonTrust,InformationandKnowledgeManagementandOrganisationalPerformance

NinaEvans,AtharMahmoodAhmedQureshi 33

OpportunitiesandRisksoftheUseofSocialMediainHealthcareOrganizations

GinevraGravili 41

SocialMediaMarketing:AnEvaluationStudyintheWellnessIndustry

KerstinGrundnandStefanLagrosen 51

BuildingthePersuasivenessIntoInformationSystems

MarjaHarjumaaandSallaMuuraiskangas 58

CommunicationsManagementinScrumProjects VeredHolzmann,IlanitPanizel 67TheDevelopmentofanIntroductoryTheoreticalGreenISFrameworkforStrongEnvironmentalSustainabilityinOrganisations

GrantHowardandSamLubbe

75

FunctionalConsultantsRoleinEnterpriseSystemsImplementations

PrzemysawLech 84

ASystematicLiteratureReviewonBusinessCases:StructuringtheStudyFieldandDefiningFutureResearchDimensions

KimMaes,WimvanGrembergenandStevenDeHaes 93

IntegratingGreenInformationSystemsintotheCurriculumUsingaCarbonFootprintingCase

CarolynMcGibbonandJeanPaulVanBelle 104

ElectronicHealthRecordRequirementsforPrivateMedicalPracticesinNamibia:APilotStudy

JuliusOyelekeandMekeShivute 114

SelectedFactorsInfluencingCustomers'BehaviourineCommerceonB2CMarketsintheCzechRepublic

MichalPilk 121

InformationAssetManagement:WhoisResponsibleandAccountable?

JamesPrice andNinaEvans 129

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PaperTitle Author(s) PageNo.

AnIntegratedModelforEvaluatingICTImpactintheEducationDomain

MirjaPulkkinen 137

SwedishandIndianTeams:ConsensusCultureMeetsHierarchyCultureinOffshoring

MinnaSalminenKarlsson 147

ProjectCommunicationManagementinIndustrialEnterprises

JanaSamkov,JanaujanovandKristnaKoltnerov 155

InformationSecurityinEnterprisesOntologyPerspective

StephenSchiavone,LalitGargandKellySummers 164

OrganisationalValueofSocialTechnologies:AnAustralianStudy

MohiniSinghandKonradPeszynski 174

AnEvaluationofPotentialBenefitsofMobileBI OlgertaTonaandSvenCarlsson 185AnalysisofITProjectsintheModelsofEnterpriseValueBuilding.ASummaryofResearchbetween20102012

BartoszWachnik 192

PHDPapers 203CloudComputingSaaSAssessment(CCSaaSA):MeasuringandEvaluatingCloudServicesendUserPerceptions

GiuseppeErcolani

205

BusinessProcessMaturityasaCaseofManagerialCyberneticsandEffectiveInformationManagement

JaroslavKalina,ZdenkSmutnandVclaveznek 215

SustainingITInvestmentValueUsingITArtifactsasaKnowledgeGenerativeTools

NathanLakew 222

StrategicAgilityandtheRoleofInformationSystemsinSupplyChain:TelecommunicationIndustryStudy

NicholasBlessingMavengere

229

ASearchforPatternsofProductivityGainsofInformationWorkers

NatalliaPashkevichandDarekHaftor 239

MastersResearchPaper 247EvaluatingtheValueofEnterpriseResourcePlanninginHomeCareServices

JuhaSoikkeli,MirjaPulkkinenandToniRuohonen 249

WorkInProgressPaper 259BackshoringHome:DevelopmentsinHomeBasedTeleworking(HbTW)intheEuropeanLabourMarket

DaigaKamerade,PascalePeters,HelenRichardson,MinnaSalminenandSudiSharifi 261

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PrefaceThe7thEuropeanConferenceonInformationManagementandEvaluation(ECIME)ishostedthisyearbyTheFacultyofManagement,UniversityofGdask,Sopot,Poland.TheConferenceCoChairsareProfPrzemysawLech and Prof Bernard Kubiak, and the Programme CoChairs are Prof Stanislaw Wrycza and Prof JerzyAuksztol,allfromtheUniversityofGdask,PolandECIMEprovidesanopportunityforindividualsresearchingandworkinginthebroadfieldofinformationmanagement,includinginformationtechnologyevaluationtocometogethertoexchangeideasanddiscusscurrentresearch in the field.Wehope that this years conferencewillprovide youwithplentyofopportunities toshareyourexpertisewithcolleaguesfromaroundtheworld.TheopeningkeynoteaddresswillbedeliveredbyWojciechPiotrowicz,UniversityofOxford,UKonthetopic"EvaluationoftheInformationSystemsresearchintheVisegrdGroupofcountries".Theseconddaykeynotewill be givenbyBenjaminDewilde, PresidentofWesternacher Consulting,Germany on the topic of InformationArchitectureandApplicationStrategy,what canwe learn fromElizabethNewton,Caesar,GenghisKhan,theStDenisBasilicaandotherseeminglyunrelatedstoriesonhowtomakethissuccessfulinpractice?ECIME2013receivedaninitialsubmissionof84abstracts.Afterthedoubleblindpeerreviewprocess23academicpapers,5PhDpapers,1Masterspaperand1workinprogresspaperhavebeenacceptedfortheseConferenceProceedings.Thesepapers represent research fromaround theworld, includingAustralia,Belgium,CzechRepublic,Finland,France,India,Ireland,Israel,Italy,Namibia,NewZealand,Poland,RepublicofKorea,Serbia,SlovakRepublic,SouthAfrica,SouthKorea,Spain,Sweden,UK,USAWewishyouamostinterestingconference.ProfStanislawWryczaandProfJerzyAuksztolProgrammeChairsProfPrzemysawLechandProfBernardF.KubiakConferenceChairsSeptember2013

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ConferenceCommitteeConference Executive DrPrzemysawLech,UniversityofGdask,Gdask,PolandDrWojciechPiotrowicz,SadBusinessSchool,UniversityofOxford,UKDrPiotrSoja,CracovUniversityofEconomics,PolandMiniTrackChairsIanOwens,CranfieldUniversity,UKDrCiaraHeavin,UniversityCollegeCork,IrelandGrantR.Howard,UniversityofSouthAfrica(UNISA),SouthAfricaDrKarenNeville,BusinessInformationSystems,UniversityCollegeCork,IrelandConference Committee

Theconferenceprogrammecommitteeconsistsofkeypeopleintheinformationsystemscommunity.Thefollowingpeoplehaveconfirmedtheirparticipation:Prof.AbdelBadeehSalem(FacultyofComputerandInformationSciences,AinShamsUniversity,Cairo,Egypt);AdemolaAdesina (UniversityofWesternCape,SouthAfrica);AdetolaAdewojo (NationalOpenUniversityofNigeria,Nigeria);AbidemiAina(LagosStateUniversity,Nigeria)MariaAlaranta(CopenhagenBusinessSchool,Denmark);ProfMariaCeuAlves(UniversityofBeiraInterior,Portugal);DrHusseinAlYaseen(AmmanUniversity,Jordan);ProfKarenAnderson (MidSwedenUniversity,Sweden);DrJoanBallantine (UniversityofUlster,UK);DrMustafa Balsam (UniversityMalaysia Pahang (UMP),Malaysia);Dr Frank Bannister (Trinity CollegeDublin, Ireland);DrOferBarkai (SCE SamiShamoonCollegeofEngineering, Israel);DrDavidBarnes (WestminsterBusinessSchool,UniversityofWestminster,London,UK);PeterBednar (Departmentof ISCA,Portsmouth University, UK); Dr Egon Berghout (University of Groningen, The Netherlands); DrMilena Bobeva(BournemouthUniversity,Poole,UK);AnnBrown(CASSBusinessSchool,London,UK);DrGiovanniCamponovo(University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland, Switzerland); Dr Marian Carcary (NUIM, Ireland);ProfessorSvenCarlsson(SchoolofEconomicsandManagement,LundUniversity,Sweden);DrNoelCarroll (Dublin CityUniversity,Ireland);DrWalter Castelnovo (Universit dellInsubria, Como, Italy); Prof AnnaCavallo(UniversityofRome,"Sapienza",Italy);DrSunilChoenni(UniversityofTwenteandMinistryofJustice,TheNetherlands);DrPeterClutterbuck(UniversityofQueensland,Australia);DrReetCronk(HardingUniversity, Arkansas, USA); Jacek Cypryjanski (University of Szczecin, Poland); Prof Renata Dameri (University ofGenoa,Italy);PaulDavies(UniversityofGlamorgan,UK);DrMigueldeCastroNeto(ISEGI,UniversidadeNovadeLisboa ,Portugal);GuillermodeHaro (InstitutodeEmpresa,Madrid ,Spain);FrancoisDeltour(GETENSTBretagneEngineeringSchool,France);DenisDennehy(BusinessInformationSystemsDept,UniversityCollegeCork.,Ireland);DrJanDevos(GhentUniversity,Belgium,);ProfessorDrEduardoDiniz(EscoladeAdministracaodeEmpresasdeSaoPaulo,FundacaoGetulioVargas,Brazil);DrMariadoRosrioMartins(UniversidadeCapeVerde,Portugal);RomanoDyerson (RoyalHollowayUniversity, London,UK);DrAleaFairchild (VesaliusCollege/VrijeUnivBrussels,Belgium);DrElenaFerrari(UniversityofInsubria,Como,Italy);JorgeFerreira(eGeoGeographyandRegionalPlanningResearchCentre/NewUniversityofLisbon,Portugal);DrGrahamFletcher(CranfieldUniversity /DefenceAcademyof theUK,UK);ElisabethFrisk(ChalmersUniversityofTechnology,Gteborg, Sweden); Dr Andreas Gadatsch (BonnRheinSieg University of Applied Sciences , Germany); DrSayedMahdiGolestanHashemi(IranianResearchCenterforCreatology,TRIZ&InnovationScience,Iran);ProfessorKenGrant(RyersonUniversity,Toronto,Canada);ProfessorGinevraGravili(FacoltaDiEconomia,lecce,Italy);DrPaulGriffiths (TheBirchmanGroup,Santiago,Chile);LoshmaGunisetti (SriVasaviEngineeringCollege, India);DrPetriHallikainen (UniversityofSydney,BusinessSchool, ,Australia);CiaraHeavin (UniversityCollegeCork,Ireland);DrJonasHedman(CopenhagenBusinessSchool,Denmark);DrMatthewHinton(OpenUniversityBusinessSchool,UK);Dr.VeredHolzmann(TelAvivUniversity /Holon InstituteofTechnology, Israel);GrantRoydHoward(UniversityofSouthAfrica(UNISA),SouthAfrica);BjrnJohansson(LundUniversity,Sweden);DrPaulJones(UniversityofPlymouth,UK);ProfGhassankbar(RiyadhTechnoValley,KingSaudUniversity,SaudiArabia);ProfessorRanjanKini(IndianaUniversityNorthwest,Gary,USA);LutzKirchner(BOCInformationTechnologiesConsultingGmbHVostr.22,Germany);ProfJesukKo(GwangjuUniversity,Korea);DrJuhaKontio(TurkuUniversityofAppliedSciences,Finland);DrJussiKoskinen(UniversityofJyvaskyla,Finland);Prof.LuigiLavazza (UniversitdegliStudidell'Insubria, Italy);DrPrzemysawLech (UniversityofGdask,Poland);DrHaraldLothaller(UniversityofMusicandPerformingArtsGraz,Austria);ProfSamLubbe(University

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ofSouthAfrica,SouthAfrica);PaoloMagrassi(PolytechniqueofMilan,Italy);PonnusamyManohar(UniversityofPapuaNewGuinea,PapuaNewGuinea);ProfNenadMarkovic (BelgradeBusiness School, Serbia);SteveMartin (University of East London,UK); ProfNicoMartins (University of SouthAfrica, SouthAfrica);MilosMaryska (UniversityofEconomics,Prague,CzechRepublic); JohnMcAvoy (UniversityCollegeCork, Ireland);ProfNor LailaMdNoor (Universiti TeknologiMARA,Malaysia);DrAnnetteMills (UniversityofCanterbury,Christchurch,NewZealand);DrMariaMitre(UniversidaddeOviedo,Spain);DrMahmoudMoradi(UniversityofGuilan,Rasht, Iran);DrGunillaMyreteg(UppsalaUniversity,Sweden);DrTadghNagle (UniversityCollegeCork,Ireland);ProfMrioNegas(AbertaUniversity,Portugal);KarenNeville(UniversityCollegeCork,Ireland);EmilNumminen(BlekingeInstituteofTechnology,Sweden);DrBrianO'Flaherty(UniversityCollegeCork,Ireland);Dr TiagoOliveira (UniversidadeNova de Lisboa, Portugal);Dr PaidiO'Raghallaigh (University CollegeCork,Ireland);ProfPatriciaOrdezdePablos(TheUniversityofOviedo,Spain);DrRoslinaOthman(InternationalIslamicUniversityMalaysia,KualaLumpur,Malaysia);IanOwens(CranfieldUniversity,Shrivenham,UK);Sevgizkan(MiddleEastTehcnicalUniversity,Ankara,Turkey);DrShaunPather(CapePeninsulaUniversityofTechnology,,SouthAfrica);KaleviPessi(ITUniversity,Gothenburg,Sweden);Dr.DaniloPiaggesi(FondazioneRosselli Americas, USA); Elias Pimenidis (University of East London, UK); Zijad Pita (RMIT University,Melbourne,Australia);DrCosminPopa (TheUniversityofAgriculturalSciencesandVeterinaryMedicine,Romania);NayemRahman (IntelCorporation,Aloha, ,USA);HugoRehesaar (NSW,Sydney,Australia);Prof. JooManuelRibeirodaSilvaTavares(FaculdadedeEngenhariadaUniversidadedoPorto,Portugal);DrDimitrisRigas(DeMontfortUniversity,UK);ProfessorNarcyzRoztocki(StateUniversityofNewYorkatNewPaltz,USA);Professor Hannu Salmela (Turku School of Economics and Business Administration, Finland); DavidSammon(UniversityCollegeCork,Ireland);ElsjeScott(UniversityofCapeTown,Rondebosch,SouthAfrica);DrElenaSerova(St.PetersburgStateUniversityofEconomicsandFinance.,Russia);DrYilunShang(UniversityofTexasatSanAntonio,USA);Dr.HosseinSharif(UniversityofPortsmouth,UK);GilbertSilvius(UtrechtUniversityofProfessionalEducation,TheNetherlands);DrRiccardoSpinelli(UniversitaDiGenova,Italy);Dr.DarijusStrasunskas(Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim,Norway);Professor Reima Suomi(UniversityofTurku ,Finland);LarsSvensson(UniversityWest,Trollhttan,Sweden);JarmoThkp(TurkuSchoolofEconomicsandBusinessAdministration,Finland);TorbenTambo (AarhusUniversity,Denmark);DrLlewellynTang(UniversityofNottinghamNingbo,China);DrClaudineToffolon(UniversitduMansIUTdeLaval,France);DrGeertJanVanBussel(HvAUniversityofAppliedSciencesAmsterdam,TheNetherlands);DrMinhongWang (TheUniversityofHongKong,HongKong);DrAnnaWingkvist (SchoolofComputerScience,Physics andMathematics, LinnaeusUniversity, Sweden); Dr LesWorrall (University of Coventry, UK); ProfStanislawWrycza (UniversityofGdansk,Poland);TuanYu (KentBusinessSchool,UniversityofKent,Canterbury,UK);DrAtiehZarabzadeh(UCD,Ireland);DrRyszardZygala(WroclawUniversityofEconomics,Poland);AlexandruTugui(AlexandruIoanCuzaUniversity,Iasi,Romania)

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BiographiesConferenceCoChairs

Prof Przemysaw Lech, PhD is a Professor at theUniversity ofGdask and ConsultingDepartmentManagingPartner inthe ITconsultingenterpriseLST.Hisareasof interestinclude knowledge management, MIS evaluation, IT business impact, MIS projectmanagementand implementationmethodologies.Hehasworkedasaseniorconsultantand projectmanager in several IT projects, including IT strategy formulation and ERPsystemsimplementations.HeistheauthorofmorethanthirtypapersandtwobooksonManagementInformationSystems.

Dr Bernard F. Kubiak is Full Professor of Information Systems and Information Technologies at TheDepartmentof InformationSystems (FacultyofManagement)at theGdaskUniversity.Hisresearchesanddidacticsfocusesoninformatizationstrategyoforganization,systemsanalysis, knowledge and information management, ecommerce, organizationalperformanceandelectronicbusiness strategies.Hehaspublishedbooksandarticles inmany national and foreign journals and publishing houses. He has gained extensiveexperienceassystemanalystandasapplicationspecialist informulatingandrealizationofinformatizationstrategyinorganizations.ProgrammeCoChairsStanisaw Wrycza is professor and head of Department of Business Informatics at University of Gdansk,

Poland.Hisnumerouspublicationsbooks,articles,papersregardbusinessinformatics,informationsystemsdevelopment,UML,SysML,ebusiness,elearning.Heistheeditorialboard member of Information Systems Journal, Information Systems Management,JournalofDatabaseManagement,InformationSystemsandEbusinessManagement.Hehas been involved in organization of numerous international conferences, serving asorganizing chair of the following regular conferences: European Conference onInformationSystemsECIS2002,Business InformaticsResearchBIR2008,SIGSAND/PLAIS

EuroSymposium 2011 on Systems Analysis and Design, Conference on Advanced Information SystemsEngineering CAiSE12, all held inGdansk.Hewas Vice President of Information Systems AcademicHeadsInternational(20082010.Dr JerzyAuksztol isProfessor at the Information SystemsDepartment,UniversityofGdask, Poland. His main areas of interest are: information technology (IT) andinformationsystems (IS)sourcingarrangements,statisticsof IT/ISservices,enterprisearchitecturemanagement, interoperationofmanagement informationsystems.He istheauthorand coauthorofmore then thirty researchpapersaswell as fourbooksdealingwiththefiledofinformationtechnologyandmanagementinformationsystems.KeynoteSpeakers

BenjaminDewilde isManagingPartnerandCEOoftheWesternacherConsultinggroup.He provides advice to seniormanagement atWesternacher clients aswell as strategysetting, business process analysis, system design and implementation expertise to theprojectsunderhismanagement.Hehasatrackrecordofguidingtopclassglobalplayersthrough complex business reengineering and information technology challenges,providingpivotaladviceandvisiontotop leveldecisionmakersand implementersalike.His key role in projects is ensuring optimal business results through correct strategy

setting, business process design and highest quality implementation of the appropriate informationtechnology.Benjaminhasover18yearsofconsultingexperience intopicsranging from finance,controlling,investment and projectmanagement, forecasting, logistics and business intelligence in industries like: lifesciences,fastmovingconsumergoods,financialservices,utilities,telecom,consumerelectronicsandretail.Hisclients includewell knownmultinational companies likeGillette, ColgatePalmolive, Sandoz,NationalGrid,DeutscheTelekom,DeutschePost,RTL,DeutscheBank,TJXandFederalMogul.

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Dr Wojciech Piotrowicz (PhD Brunel, MA Gdaosk, PGDipLATHE Oxon) is a member of the Faculty of Management, University of Oxford at Sad Business School and the Wolfson College. His research is related to supply chain management, information systems, IT/BP outsourcing, performance measurement and evaluation, with focus on emerging markets. Wojciech is recipient of Outstanding and Highly Commended paper awards from Emerald Literati Network for Excellence.

Mini Track Chairs

Dr Ciara Heavin is a College Lecturer in Business Information Systems at University College Cork, Ireland. She also holds a BSc and MSc in Information Systems from UCC. Her main research interests include the development of the ICT industry, primarily focusing on Irelands software industry and knowledge management in software SMEs.

Grant Royd Howard is an Information Systems lecturer in the School of Computing, College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET), at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He is a PhD student at the North-West University (NWU) in Mafikeng, South Africa. He obtained his Master of Science (MSc) degree inInformation Systems at UNISA. He has authored and presented papers published at peer-reviewed conferences, both local and international, and has published in an accredited journal. His research focus is Information Systems in the domain of organizational, environmental sustainability. Before being a lecturer he worked in the financial industry in South Africa as a Business Analyst.

Dr Karen Neville is a researcher and lecturer in Business Information Syst ems (BIS) at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. Her current research interests focus on the areas of ISS and Compliance, Social Learning and Biometrics. Karen has published in international conferences and journals.

Ian Owens is a lecturer and researcher at Cranfield University. His research interests include information systems evaluation, information systems development methodologies, sense making and mindfulness, enterprise architecture, and service oriented architecture. He has published a number of papers on these topics in international journals and conferences. Ian is currently UK representative on the NATO RTO IST 118 panel that is researching the use of service-oriented architecture over disadvantaged grids.

Biographies of Presenting Authors

Dr Jerzy Auksztol is Professor at the Information Systems Department, University of Gdaosk, Poland. His main areas of interest are: information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) sourcing arrangements, statis-tics of IT/IS services, enterprise architecture management, interoperation of management information sys-tems.

Marian Carcary is a post-doctoral researcher working on an IT Capability Maturity Framework research project at the Innovation Value Institute, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Marian previously worked as a member of Faculty in the University of Limerick and Limerick Institute of Technology. She has an MSc by re-search and a PhD in IT evaluation.

Sven Carlsson is Professor of Informatics at Lund University School of Economics and Management. His current research interests include: Business Intelligence, KM, and enterprise 2.0. He has published more than 125 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers. His work has appeared in journals like JMIS, Decision Sciences, and Information Systems Journal.

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Barbara Crumps research involves evaluation of digital divide initiatives and research projects investigating the culture of the computing tertiary and work environments. She has collaborated with research colleagues from Japan, Malaysia and the UK. She is a Senior Lecturer in the information systems group in the School of Management, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand.

Dr Eileen Doherty is a Research Fellow at the Innovation Value Institute, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland. Having completed a PhD in 2012 into The adoption of Broadband Technology by Irish SMEs, her research interests include technology / innovation adoption and how the organization can gain maximum value from its IT capability.

Giuseppe Ercolani is a PhD candidate in Information Systems at University of Murcia (Spain). With more than 25 years' experience as a business and information systems consultant and trainer, he works as Technical Pro-ject Manager at the University of Tuscia (Viterbo, Italy). He owns several IT certifications released from I.B.M., 3Com, Siebel, JdEdwards, Microsoft, Citrix and Planet3 Wireless.

Nina Evans holds qualifications in Chemical Engineering, Education, Computer Science, Master of IT, MBA and PhD. She is Associate Head of the School of Information Technology and Mathematical Science at the Univer-sity of South Australia. She teaches and conducts research in Knowledge Management, ICT Leadership, Busi-ness-IT fusion, Stakeholder Engagement, Women in ICT, CSR and Information Asset Management.

Ginevra Gravili was born in Lecce in 1969. Since 2002, she has been professor of Organization Theory at the University of Economics. Salento, Lecce, Italy. She has written numerous books and articles on SMEs, knowl-edge sharing, social recruitment, HRM of public administration, ICT.

Kerstin Grundn is senior lecturer in informatics at the West University of Sweden. She has also a background as a sociologist. She was participating in the research project Innoveta funded by Vinnova for the study of cus-tomer centres implementation within municipalities in Sweden 2009 2011. Her main field of research is e-Government and e-Learning.

Dr. Darek Haftor is the PostNord Professor of Information Logistics, at Linnaeus University, Sweden. His previ-ous work exposed him initially for various aspects of operations development. Dareks current research fo-cuses two frontiers: Information Economy and Digital Business Models, the Normative foundations, inherent in any design and developmental effort of an organized effort.

Marja Harjumaa, M.Sc., works as a research scientist at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. She is experienced in conducting user-oriented research in different domains. Her main interests are knowledge in-tensive services for health and environment, focusing especially on technologies for health behaviour change.

Dr Vered Holzmann, MBA, is an experienced practicing project manager with a distinguished track record in managing computer software development teams, implementation of quality assurance programs and man-agement of fast track construction projects. She is a faculty member of Holon Institute of Technology - H.I.T. and lectures at Tel-Aviv University.

Grant Royd Howard is an Information Systems lecturer in the School of Computing at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He has authored papers published at peer-reviewed conferences, both local and international, and has a publication in an accredited journal. His research focus is information systems in the domain of or-ganizational, environmental sustainability.

Jaroslav Kalina graduated from applied informatics. Currently, he is PhD student at the Faculty of Informatics

and Statistics, University of Economics, Prague. He deals mainly with modelling.

Nathan Lakews research interest is studying ISD methods applied to develop and/or update systems in or-ganizations, their effect in the overall worksystem. He is also interested in studying IT investment approaches from the perspective of value creation in IS. He is a PhD student at Mid Sweden University, Sweden and a member of ValIT research group.

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PrzemysawLech,PhDisaProfessorattheUniversityofGdaskandConsultingDepartmentManagingPartnerintheITconsultingenterpriseLST.Hisareasofinterestincludeknowledgemanagement,MISevaluation,ITbusiness impact,MISprojectmanagement and implementationmethodologies.Hehasworked as a seniorconsultantandprojectmanager inseveral ITprojects, including ITstrategyformulationandERPsystems implementations.KimMaes,PhDcandidateatUniversityofAntwerp (IWTgrant)and researcher ISManagementatAntwerpManagementSchoolandaffiliatedwith ITAGResearch Institute,performs researchonbusiness case,valuemanagement, ITgovernanceandalignment.Hepublished in International Journalof IT/BusinessAlignmentandGovernanceandpresentedatHICSS,MCIS,PREBEMandBENAISbazaar.NicholasBlessingMavengere isaresearcherattheUniversityofTampere,Finland.Hisresearch interests includesupplychainmanagement,businessstrategy,strategicagility,ICTfordevelopment,theroleofITinbusiness.Currently,he isworkingonhisPhD thesison investigatingsupplychainenhancement fromastrategicagilityperspectiveandroleofinformationtechnology.CarolynMcGibbon,ResearchAssociateattheCentreforITandNationalDevelopmentinAfrica(CITANDA)attheUniversityofCapeTownisdoingherPhDinGreenISintheHigherEducationsector.SheholdsaMasterinBusinessAdministrationandaBachelorofSciencedegreeaswellasaHigherDiploma inHigherEducation(cumlaude).Shehascoauthoredabookchapterandfourpeerreviewedconferencepapers.SeidAhmedisanMBAcandidateintheFacultyofCommerceandBusinessAdministrationattheJNTUUniversity,HyderabadIndia,PriortoenteringtheMBAprogram,hereceivedaBCAfromtheOsmaniaUniversity.HiscurrentresearchinterestsincludecompetenceofbusinessmanagersandAREprofessionals.SallaMuuraiskangas(M.H.Sc.)worksasaresearchscientistatVTTTechnicalResearchCentreofFinlandsince2008.Sheisexperiencedinusertesting.Herresearchinterestscoverdevelopingtechnologiesforwellnessandhealthbehaviourchangeandevaluatinguserexperience.JuliusOyekunleOyelekereceivedhishonoursDegreeinBusinesscomputingatthePolytechnicofNamibiain2012.HeiscurrentlypursuinghisMastersinBusinessAdministrationdegreeandhisresearchinterestsareontheelectronichealthrecordsystemsandhowtheyaretoprovideacomprehensiveviewofpatientinformationintheNamibianprivatesector.NatalliaPashkevichisaPhDcandidateatSUSB,Sweden.ShehaspreviouslycarriedoutresearchinthefieldofLabourEconomics.Herresearch intereststargetatheoreticalgapwithinthenanoleveloftheProductivityParadoxdiscourse that isconcernedwithchallenges to identifyproductivity increase inoperations thatareconductedwiththesupportofIT.MichalPilkMarketingishisprofessionalorientation.HecollaboratesonEUprojects.HeistheresearcherofthescientificprojectCzechScienceFoundationP403/11/P175:The factors influencingcustomersonlinebehaviour inecommerceenvironmentonB2CandB2Bmarkets in theCR.He is theauthorofmanyscientificpapers.JamesPriceisthefounderandManagingDirectorofExperienceMatters,afirmthattakesapositionofgloballeadership inthebusinessaspectsof InformationManagement. He isthe leaderofaprojectconductingresearchonthreecontinentsintothebarrierstotheeffectivemanagementofinformationassets.DrMirjaPulkkinen isaSeniorResearcherattheDepartmentofComputerScienceandInformationSystems,Universityof Jyvskyl.She joined theFaculty in2001 toworkwith researchprojects,and iscurrentlyalsoteachingmasters levelcourses inEnterpriseArchitecture,whichwasthetopicareaofherdoctoratethesis,andBusinessProcessManagement.VaclavReznicekgraduatedfrominformationmanagementattheFacultyofInformaticsandStatistics,UniversityofEconomics,Prague.Currently,heisinternalPhDstudentattheDepartmentofSystemsAnalysis,FacultyofInformaticsandStatistics,UniversityofEconomics,Prague.Hisdoctoralthesisdealswiththeissueofhumanknowledge.

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Dr.HelenRichardsonisaProfessorofGenderandOrganisationandjoinedSheffieldBusinessSchoolatSheffieldHallamUniversity,UKin2012.SheisengagedinCriticalResearchinInformationSystemsincludingissuesofgenderandtheICTlabourmarketandthegloballocationofservicework.ToniRuohonenholdsbachelorsdegreeinInformationTechnology(SatakuntaUniversityofAppliedSciences)andPhDdegreeinComputerScience(UniversityofJyvskyl,Finland).HeiscurrentlyworkingattheUniversityofJyvskyl,ITDepartmentandAgoraCenterasapostdoctoralresearcher.Hisresearchinterestsincludehealthoperationsmanagement,processanalysisandsimulationandservicedesign.MinnaSalminenKarlsson researches theareagendertechnologyorganizationeducation,withparticular focusonICTtechnologies.Herresearchincludesgenderstudiesofengineeringeducation,othertechnicaleducationaswellasgenderedconditions,suchassituated learningandcareerbuilding, inhightechworkplaces,bothinprivatecomputercompaniesandintechnicalandscientificdisciplinesintheacademy.JanaSamkovPh.D.worksattheSlovakUniversityofTechnology,FacultyofMaterialsScienceandTechnology inTrnava, Instituteof IndustrialEngineering,ManagementandQuality.At the Institute she isassistantprofessorinprojectmanagementwithafocusonprojectcommunicationmanagementandbusinessmanagement.StephenL.Schiavone,EnterpriseITArchitectandDirectorofITEngineeringforalargeinternationalpharmaceuticalcompanybasedinScottsdale,Arizona,USA.ObtainedBScinCognitiveSciences,UniversityofSurrey,UKand recentlycompletedMSc in InformationTechnology,UniversityofLiverpool,UK.Thirtyyearsexperienceworkingforlargeinternationalenterprisesacrossfiveindustryverticals.MekeShivute isa lecturer in informationsystemsattheUniversityofCapeTown.Herresearch interests lieprimarilyinICTuseforHealthcaretoenhancehealthservicedelivery,withafocusonPeople,Businessprocessesandtheuseof InformationTechnologyandhow itrenderseconomicandsocialbenefits inthehealthcaresector.MohiniSinghisProfessorofInformationSystemsatRMITUniversityinAustralia.Shehaspublishedwellover100scholarlypapersintheareasofebusiness,egovernment,ERPsystemsandnewtechnologyandinnovationmanagement.Hercurrentresearchfocusisonsocialmediainorganisations,cloudcomputingandbroadbandforbusiness.ZdenekSmutnygraduatedfromappliedinformaticsandmediastudies.Currently,heisinternalPhDstudentattheFacultyofInformaticsandStatistics,UniversityofEconomicsinPraguewherehedealswiththeproblemsofsocialinformatics.JuhaSoikkeliisaMastersstudentattheDepartmentofComputerScienceandInformationSystems,UniversityofJyvskyl. Hisresearch interestsareBusinessProcessReengineering,ERPPerformanceMeasurementandProcessMining.OlgertaTona isaPhDStudentatLundUniversitySchoolofEconomicsandManagement,departmentof Informatics.Her PhD project is related toMobile Business Intelligence area.Additionally, she has publishedsomearticlesbookchapters,journalarticleandconferencepapersonBusinessIntelligencetopic.JeanPaulVanBelle,professorattheUniversityofCapeTownanddirectorofCITANDA(CentreforITandNationalDevelopment inAfrica),hasauthoredorcoauthoredabout20books/chapters,20 journalarticlesandmore than80peerreviewedpublishedconferencepapers.Hiskey researcharea is thesocialandorganisationaladoptionofemerginginformationtechnologiesinadevelopingworldcontext.Thekeytechnologiesresearchedincludeecommerce,Mcommerce,e/MgovernmentbutalsogreenIS/IT,opensourcesoftwareandcloudcomputing.BartoszWachnikspecializes inMIS implementation.He isamemberofseniormanagement inAlnaBusinessSolutions inPoland,abranchofLithuaniancompany,which isoneof the largest ITcompanies in theBalticarea.Hehaspublishedmorethan20articlesinprofessionalandacademicjournals.HehascooperatedwithUniversityofTechnologyinWarsawwherehecompletedhisPhD.

KnowledgeManagementintheProcessofEnterpriseSystem'sConfiguration

JerzyAuksztolandMagdalenaChomuszkoManagementDepartment,InformationSystemsFaculty,UniversityofGdansk,Sopot,[email protected]@gmail.com

Abstract:Reliable and easy reachable informationhasbecome a valuable assetof amodernenterprise. The ability tomanageit,bycollecting,organizing,selectionanduseinordertoachievecertainbusinessobjectivesisanadvantagethatcandirectlytranslate intoabettercompetitiveposition inthemarket.EnterpriseResourcePlanning (ERP)systemshavecontributedsignificantlytotheimprovementofinformationmanagementprocesses.Whiletheimplementationofsuchasystemisbothtechnologicalandorganizationalchallenge,itsfurtheroperationrequiresdedicatedmanagementmethodssothatitwouldnotloseastrategicplaceintheenterprise.ChangesmadetotheERPsystemrespondtodirectionsoftheorganizationdevelopment,bywhich that changemanagementprocessesbecomeakeyassetof theorganization. ThisarticleaimstosystematizetheissuesrelatedtothemanagementoftheERPsystemconfigurationchangebasedonamostcommonrepresentativefromthefirmSAP,namelySAPERP.

Keywords:enterprisesystem,enterpriseresourceplanningsystem,configurationprocess,SAPERP,knowledgemanagement

1. Introduction

Thedevelopmentof informationtechnologyand itsuse inbusinesstodayhasnotonlyachievedahigh level,butalsocanbemetinalargenumberofcompanies.Currently,itisimpossibletoparticipateintheeconomywithouttheorganizationofmanagementsupportsystems.Theprogress,whichcanbeobservedinthisarea,isrelatedtothecontinuouschangethatisanintegralpartofthedevelopment.AccordingtotheWebstersThirdNewInternationalDictionarythetermchangemeans:tomakeovertoaradicallydifferentform,composition,state,ordisposition(Websters1993,p.373).Ageneraldefinitionofthechangealsoappliestobusiness.This"radical different form" is the result of the interpretation of incoming information that is reportedby theparticipantsof theorganizationaswellas thedemand for innovationandanorganizationalchange.This, inturn,isdefinedbyGriffin,asanysubstantialmodificationofanypartoftheorganizationandcanaffectalmostevery aspect of the organization: the span of management, overall project organization and the veryemployees(Griffin2012).ChangesintheorganizationwillnaturallybringchangesintheITsystem,bywhichacompanymanages execution of its business processes. Skillfulmanagement of information resources andknowledgeallowingtoplayatanytimeortoanalyzethesequenceofevents involved inthechangesofthesystembecomes thecrucial issue.Themainobjectivesofconfigurationchangesmanagementare (Guide tosoftwareconfigurationmanagement1995,p.3):

softwarecomponentscanbeidentified, softwareisbuiltfromaconsistentsetofcomponents, softwarecomponentsareavailableandaccessible, softwarecomponentsnevergetlost(e.g.aftermediafailureoroperatorerror), everychangetothesoftwareisapprovedanddocumented, changesdonotgetlost(e.g.throughsimultaneousupdates), itisalwayspossibletogobacktoapreviousversion, ahistoryofchangesiskept,sothatisalwayspossibletodiscoverwhodidwhatandwhen.Itgoeswithoutsayingthatthetoolsthathelppeopleachievethesegoalsarenecessary.ITcompaniesbeganto offer software that could manage configuration changes and record all the related knowledge, andinformationsystems,suchasERPwerealreadyequippedwithsuchsolutions.DepartmentofDefenseoftheUnitedStateswasoneofthefirsttointroducein1950theconfigurationmanagement(Masewicz2008).Thisgaverisetothecreationofnewsolutions(models,tools,applications)tomanageconfigurationchanges.Themostimportantoftheseare:

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JerzyAuksztolandMagdalenaChomuszko

ISO9000(QualityManagementSystem), ITIL(InformationTechnologyInfrastructureLibrary), CMMI(CapabilityMaturityModelIntegration), Prince2(ProjectsInaControlledEnvironment), COBIT(ControlObjectivesforInformationandrelatedTechnology), ILS(IntegratedLogisticsSupport).Inaddition,therearededicatedsolutionsandindustrystandards.Eachofthesemodelshasbeendesignedforthe specific functions and areas,but allbenefited from thebasic assumptionsof the configuration changemanagement.AsdefinedbyThe InstituteofElectricalandElectronicsEngineersconfigurationmanagement(IEEEStandard1990,p.20):isadisciplineapplyingtechnicalandadministrativedirectionandsurveillanceto:

identifyanddocumentthefunctionalandphysicalcharacteristicsofaconfigurationitem, controlchangestothosecharacteristics, recordandreportchangeprocessingandimplementationstatus, verifycompliancewithspecifiedrequirements.Allconfigurationchangesareimplementedbasedontheknowledgebroughtbytheimplementationteams,aswell as information released in the course of the system operation caused by changes in the businessorganizationandanyotherchanges(e.g.legal).Thewholeprocesscoversthreeareasanditisnotpossibletoseparatethem.Thesearetheareaofexpertise,configurationchange,andorganizationalchange.Knowledgeofthelifecyclesofexpertiseinthecontextoftheidentifiedandimplementedchanges,allowstoprovidethelinkbetweentheareasof:

changemanagement, knowledgemanagement, configurationmanagement.Asaconsequenceacompletepictureofknowledgemanagementofconfigurationchanges isgiven.Figure1showsthreesituations:envisagedchange,thecreatedchange,anopportunityarisingfromthechangeintheorganization relates to business processes. Capability to predict changes as well as the evaluation ofopportunitiesarisingfromthemcanbeachievedbasedonthepossessedknowledgeandtheabilitytoshareitin the organization. Knowledge of the expertise life cycle allows linking and presenting the relationshipbetweenthetwocycles.ChanandRosemann(2001)proposethefollowinglifecyclestagesofexpertise:

identifying, creating, transferring, storing, reusing, unlearning.Beforeanychangeappears,itisnecessarytoidentifytheknowledgeoftheneworexistingsituation.Creationandthetransfer(recording)andstoragearenextstages.Usingknowledgeisthemomentwhenthechangeisformalized.The laststage is theoutdating,which isoften referred toasunlearning.Thereare twokindsofknowledgeintheeconomicorganization:tacitandexplicitasdescribedbyHansenetal.(1999)andpreviouslyNonaka & Takeochi (1995, p.8). Tacit knowledge is based on personal experience and cannot be easilyseparatedfromthepersonthatpossessesit,whileexplicitknowledgeiseasytocodify,storeandtransferviamechanicalmedia, suchasbooks,databasesor computer software.However,when theareasofexpertise,organizationalchangeandinformationsystemsconfigurationarecombinedonlyexplicitknowledge(codified)isused.Tacitknowledgemaybeinvolvedintheprocessofknowledgemanagementconfigurationonlyafteritiscodified,thatis,afterchangingittoexplicitknowledge.Figure1showstherelationshipsbetweenthethreeareaslistedabove(knowledge,changeandconfigurationoftheERPsystem).

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Source:ownelaboration

Figure1:Therelationshipbetweenchange,configurationknowledgeandtheERPsystem

Figure1showstheprocessofknowledge identificationasaresultofthechanges.Thesechangesmayoccurbothwithintheorganizationandoutsideof it.Thewholeprocess isaclosedcycle,becausethechangesarenotpossiblewithouttheuseofknowledge,andchangealwaysstimulatesthedevelopmentofknowledge.Allchangesmadeinanenterprise,whichderivefromtheERPsystemmodifications,areregisteredbythissystem.Appropriate mechanisms supporting the management of change and to record it ensure stability anddevelopmentoftheITsysteminaplannedandsafeway.

2. ConfigurationknowledgemanagementinthelifecycleofanITsystemAn ITsystem just likeanyotherproducthas its lifecycle. Itwasdescribed inmanypublications.Thepresentonedescribesthe lifecycleofthetwotypesofsystems:dedicatedandduplicable.Lifecyclesofdifferent ITsystemsdifferdependingontheirnature.Fordedicatedsystems (prepared foraparticularcompany) its lifecycle beginswith planning and specifying requirements,while in the case of duplicable systemswith thepurchasedecision.Table1presentsthephasesoflifecycleofanyERPsystemforbothofthesetypes.

Table1:PresentationofERPsystemslifephases

Phasededicatedsystem

Phaseduplicablesystem

Phasecharacteristics

Requirements,specification,planning

Adoptiondecision ManagingpeoplespecifiesrequirementstobemetbytheERPsystem.Businessproblemsaswellastheimprovementstrategyaredeterminedbyprovidingthebenefitsofimplementingthe

system.Designing Acquisition Inthisphase,theselectionandpurchaseoftheproductthat

mostcloselymatchestherequirementsandneedsoftheenterprisearemade.Inaddition,therealsooccursaselectionofaconsultingfirmtohandlethesubsequentphasesofthe

cycle.Incaseofduplicablesystemsitisdesignedinaccordancewiththecustomerrequirements.

Implementationintegration

Implementation Thisstepallowsforparameterizationandadaptationofthesystemtothespecificcircumstancesoftheorganization.A

consultingcompany,incollaborationwiththebusinessteam,carriesoutimplementation.Atthisstagetestsanduser

trainingsarecarriedoutaswell.Inthecaseofthededicatedsystem,thesoftwareauthordoesimplementation.

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Phasededicatedsystem

Phaseduplicablesystem

Phasecharacteristics

UseandMaintenance

Postimplementationoperationofthesystemstillrequirestheusertomonitorthefunctionalityofthesystem(intermsof

expectedbenefits).Maintenanceisbasedonthemanagementoffailuresandcorrectingdiscrepancies.

Operationalmode

Evolution Atthisstage,thesystemacquiresadditionalvalues,whichresultfromitsaccompanyingtheexecutionofbusiness

processes.Thisincludesnotonlythedevelopmentofsystemfunctionality,butalsoimprovedhandlingorworkingwith

externalapplications.Thisphaserunsparalleltotheexploitationphase.

Retirement Retirement Whennewtechnologiesemergeorthesystemisrecognizedtobeinadequatetobusinessprocessesintheorganization,the

systemiswithdrawnandreplacedbyanewone.

Source:Chomuszkoetal.(2012)ParametersforeachstageoftheERPlifecyclearedefined.Someofthemarecoveredbythestandardsettings(validforeachsystem implementation),andsomeofthesettingsarespecifictothecompanyor industrytowhichitbelongs.AccordingtotheERPsystemlifecycleaspresentedinTable1,Table2showsitsconfigurationsteps.

Table2:configurationstepsfortheimplementationoftheERPduplicablesystem

ERPsystemlifecyclestages Stagesetup ActivitiesImplementation Defineinitialsettingsmostlybasedon

standardassumptions,butalsotakingintoaccountthespecificcharacteristicsofthe

company

Foundingofthecompany,accountplan,distributionchannels,areasof

costaccounting,wagesystem,dictionaryofmeasuresandunitsusedinthebusinessorganization.

UseandMaintenance Completionofconfiguration.Atthisstage,theparametersforaspecificcompanyare

configured.

Configuringthemissingparametersthatwereskippedduringthesystemimplementation.

Evolution Extendingtheconfigurationwiththechangesresultingfromvariouscausesthat

wereformedwhileworkingwiththesystem.Changesofthisstageareshownin

theTable3

Buildingextensionsandimprovementsinthefunctionality

ofthesystem.

Source:ownelaborationDuringtheoperationandgrowthoftheERPsystemtheremaybemanydifferentcausesmakingitnecessarytointroducechanges.TheyhavebeendescribedintheTable3(Chomuszkoetal.2012).

Table3:Classificationofsystemmodificationsintheevolutionphase

Name InterpretationLegalchange Theneedformodificationsresultingfromchangesinthelaw.

Businesschange Observationsreportedbyusers,basedontheneedforsupportofbusinessprocessesnotincludedintheexistingsystemfunctionality

Softwareerrors AmendmentsresultingfromprogramexecutionerrorsErgonomics

improvementchangeModificationofthesystembasedonthecreativityofprogrammersorsuggestions

raisedbymemberstofacilitatetheoperationoftheprogram.Technologicalmodification

Changestoimprovesystemoperationsuchaschangingtheformatofthedatabaseuseofmoderntechnology.

Securingthesystem ValidationModificationstoensureperformanceofproceduresinaccordancewiththeassumptions.

Others Incidentalchangesnotdescribedabove

Source:Chomuszkoetal.(2012)ERP parameterization before running it in a company is not the end of thework on its configuration. Asmentioned inthe introduction,theERPsystemgrowswiththeorganizationaswellasbusinessand ithasto

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recordallthechangesoncurrentbasis,soitcouldreallyhelpthemanagement.Thatiswhyitisveryimportantthatthesystem isconfigurabledependingonthe individualneedsofthecustomerandcharacteristicsoftheindustry inwhich itoperates,aswellas inthecaseofrequirementsgrowth itsextensionand integrationwithother IT systems, Internetbasedormobile applicationsweremadepossible.A flexible system,whichevolvestogetherwiththecompany,aquickresponsetochangesispossible(Romanowicz2013).

3. SolutionstomanagementofchangeandconfigurationofERPsystemsFor the purposes of this study a small surveywas conducted. Questions related to configuration changemanagementtoolsinthesystemsinuseweresentto20businessesinvolvedinthesaleanddistributionofERPsoftware.Five companiesanswered thequestions.The twoagreed that such toolsarenotpresent in theirsystemsbecausetheydonotmaketheconfigurationavailablefreelyto itsusersandspecializedconsultantscarryoutanychanges.The threecompaniesdeclared that their systemsareequippedwithmechanisms tomanage thechange.At thesame time inall threecases,respondents identified thosemechanismswith theflexibilityof the systemandaccess to theconfiguration.No systemwasequippedwithany tools to recordprocessparameterizationorthesystemexpansion.SymfoniaForte,whichisthemostpopularERPsysteminthePolishmarket,attachesdocumentstoeachlatestversion,withthedescriptionofallmodificationsmadetothepreviousone.However,thesechangesareforthestandard,globalsolutionsandaparticularcompany isnot interested in collecting this type of documentation. The information that would be relevant for thecompanyinthemanagementofconfigurationchangeprocessshouldincludeatleastthefollowing:

dateofcommencementofworkonthechangeinthesystem, descriptionofthechange, thepersonwhomadethechange, wasthechangetestedandwhatwastheoutcomeofthetests, dateofthechangesimplementation.This type of information create valuable knowledge about the system configuration of the company. Thisknowledgecanbeused incasesofsubsequentconfigurations incompanieswithsimilaractivities,orforthetrainingofkeyusersandconsultantsofERPsystems

4. ManagementofinformationflowsaboutthechangesinSAPERPconfigurationSAPERP system isdesigned for largeandwealthycompanies.The implementationof sucha system inanybusiness is always a large, complex and timeconsuming project. Therefore, the software designer had toprovideitwiththesolutionsthatnotonlycontrolandmanageconfigurationchangesbutalsoraisethesafetyofthesystem.Thebasicpremiseofthisapproachistheprinciplethatnoconfigurationsettingcanbeappliedtotheproductionsystem(target)withoutpriortestingitinatestenvironment(AuksztolJ.etal.2012).Figure2showshowthisideaofimplementingsuchaconfigurationchangescanbedesigned.

Source:ownelaboration

Figure2:ModelofconfigurationchangemanagementinSAPERP

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TheabovediagramshowsnotonlytheimplementationofthesystemconfigurationinSAPERP,butitisawayofdocumentingofthechangesthathavebeenmade inthesystem,thusnotonlysupportingthesecurityofoperation but also creating the valuable knowledge base about the system configuration. The conceptproposedby thedevelopersofSAPERPsystem involvesrunning threeenvironments:configuration, testing,and the socalled, target environment that is called production. Table 4 presents the tasks of eachenvironment.

Table4:Tasksofconfigurationchangesenvironment

Configurationenvironment Testingenvironment TargetenvironmentParameterizationofthesystemwithinthestandardsolutions

Testingofthebasicparameterizationvalidity.

Workinginrealenvironmentwiththecompanydocumentation,whichisinaccordancewiththerequirementsof

thebusiness.Implementationoffunctional

extensionsTestingthecorrectnessofthedesignedextensionsandtheir

configurationsConfigurationofthesystem

expansionareasMaintainingthesecurityofthe

targetenvironmentCollectinginformationabout

thechangesmadeinthesystemCollectinginformationabout

thechangesmadeinthesystem

Collectinginformationontheconfigurationchangesthatwere

implementedfromatestenvironment.

Source:ownelaborationThe possibility to combine these groups into a specific sequence, the socalled transport of configurationorderspath(transportroad)isanimportantelementoftheconceptdefinedinsuchaway.Itisbasedonthefact that theconfiguration requestsare transferred inaccordancewith thedefinedpath. If thepathof thesystemconfigurationwillbebuilt from fourenvironments,suchasconfiguration,testing1, testing2, targetenvironment, inagivenorder, itwillnotbepossibletosendordersfromthetransportconfigurationtotheproduction (target) environment skipping the two testing environments. A user can enter a configurationwithouttestingit,butitwillbeeasytofindout,becauseeveryconfigurationorderhasalog,whichinadditiontothepersonwho implementedthechange,recordsthedateofthechangeand itssubjects.Thenamesoftableswherechangesweremadecanbefound.Testingsystemsmakeitpossibletofinddocumentsrelatedtothetestofthecorrectnessofagivenconfiguration.Thesedocumentscanbe identifiedbythedatesoftheirintroduction inthefirstplace.Theperiod inwhichtheyshouldappear inatestenvironment isthetimespanbetweentheintroductionoftheorderintotheTESTsystem,andintroducingitintothePROD(target)system.Ifdocuments in theTESTsystem in thespecifieddate rangearemissing itproves the lackofcontrolof theconfiguration changes.Ability to track and recreate this type of information is extremely valuable for theconstruction process of the ERP system. It primarily provides its controlled development, and secures theproduction(target)environment.The system configuration place is called: Customizing ImplementationGuide. There are about 30 areas ofconfiguration,suchas:FinancialAccounting,Controlling,MaterialsManagement,Production,GeneralLogisticsor other,which are less often implemented, like: TimeManagement,QualityManagement, Environment,HealthandSafetyandmany,manyothers.Eachareacontainsmanysubdirectorieswheretheconfigurationsofspecificfunctionalitiesarelocated.Thereareoverthousandsuchlocationsinthefinancialaccountingareaalone.Itisobviousthatwithsuchawiderangeofconfigurationoptionsthelackofmechanismsthatmanagethechangeaswellasconfigurationknowledgeisunacceptable.AnychangeinthesystemwithinCustomizingImplementationGuide is automatically stored in the TransportManagement System documentation in theformofthesocalledtransportationorders.Itispossibletosaveallthedefinedsettingsinonetransportorder,but such an action contradicts the ideaof configuration knowledgemanagement (described inChapter1).Eachtransportordershouldincludeactionsassociatedwithdefiningspecificparameters.AsshowninTable2,thefirststepsrelatedtothesystemconfigurationapplytostandardbasicsettings.Theseareamongothers:CreateCompanyCode,FiscalYearVariantMaintain,DefinePostingPeriodVariant,DefineDocumentNumberRanges,EnableFiscalYearDefault,etc.Thenextstageoftheconfigurationistodefinetheparameters,whicharespecifictoaparticularenterprise,andthenextone,followingthetable.3,isthesystemextensions.Creationoftheconfigurationchangesrecordsstartsattheattempttosavetheparametersthatwereenteredintothesystem.Beforetheyarestored,theuserdescribesthechangesthatheintroduced.Thisisdoneinthe

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PromptforCustomizingrequestwindow,whichwillbeopenbeforesavingchanges. Inthiswindow,theuserentersashortdescriptionof theRequest,and thesystemautomaticallycompletes thedataconcerning theordercreationdate(thedateandthegiventimetothesecond)andthedataoftheuserwhoamendedtheconfiguration.Moreover,thetablenameisdisplayedinaforthcomingorderconfigurationwherenewdataaredefined, and the system automatically gives a unique number that identifies clearly this order. Orderconfiguration is saved in theTransportOrganizer,whereyou canalso see the specificdata thathavebeenentered.Thenextstageiscalled:releaseofthetransportorder,soitismovingitonthetransportpathfromthe configuration environment to the testing environment. In order to load that transport orderwith theconfigurationchange,theTransportManagementSystemmustberun.Thisiswheretransportordersqueueismanaged.Withthehelpofaproperbutton,theconfigurationdefinedintheDEVsystem(developer)shallbetransferredtotheTEST.Figure3showsthelogofthisoperation.

Figure3:Overviewoftransportlogs

Source:SAPGUI7.20TheiconLogDisplayappearswitheachrecordwiththeinformationaboutthedetailsofaconfigurationorder,anditcanbeusedtoviewdetailedrecordsoftheexecutedconfigurationtransferprocess.Fromthispoint,itispossibletotestthechangeinthetestenvironment.Thisisanimportantstep,becausethetestresultprovidesthebasistotransferthedesignedconfigurationtothetargetsystem.Incaseanyerrorsarefoundduringthetesting phase the configuration order will not be sent forward. Having corrected errors and verified thesettings the configuration is again transferred to the testing system as per earlier described procedure.Positivetestresultallowsmovingthesettingtothetargetsystemconfiguration.Table5gathersallstagesofinformationregistrationconcerningtheimplementedchangesintheconfigurationofSAPERP.

Table5:StagesofmanagementofknowledgeaboutsystemconfigurationSAPERP

Item Configurationchangeregistration

phase

Description Configurationdataentering

1 Recordingconfigurationorder

Introductionofconfigurationchangeintheenvironmentconfiguration(system

DEV)

Briefdescriptionofthetask,dataontheuserintroducingthechange,ordercreationdate,thenameofthetablewherethedatawereintroducedandthedatathemselves.

2 Releasingconfigurationorder

Transferofconfigurationchangetothetransportpath

Instance(principal)source,dateofreleaseofthetransportorder(instanceinSAPERPsystemisatermreferringto:thebinariesofspecificSAPERPversion,database

managementsystemanddatalocatedinthisdatabase.Itcanbeinstalledmorethan

onesonasinglehost).

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Item Configurationchangeregistration

phase

Description Configurationdataentering

3 Enteringtheordertothetestsystem

Theintroductionofconfigurationchangestothetestenvironment

(systemTEST)

Enteringdate,theowneroftheorder,themandantstargetandthedetailsoftheorder(mandantisaspecialtermusedby

SAPERPsystemwhichreferstothepackageofdataconnectedwithits

configurationsettings,whichunifyallelementsofonebusinessgroup.

4 Testing Checkingforcorrectnessofthedefinedconfiguration

Documentsinthetestsystem,whichareintroducedinthecontextofconfiguration

control.5 Enteringtheorder

inthetargetsystem

Introductionoftheconfigurationchangetothetargetenvironment

(PRODsystem)

Enteringdate,theowneroftheorder,themandantstarget,thedetailsoftheorder

(data).

Source:ownelaborationIn the SAP ERP system that was implemented in a capital group with the following modules: financial,controlling, fixed assets, real estate, distribution and sales, 2338 transport orderswere registered in theTransportManagementSystem,ofwhichaboutonethousandappliedtobasicsettings(beforethesystemwasactivated).Afterover four yearsof the systemusage it ispossible to recreate thedocumentationand theknowledgeabouttheconfigurationthatwasimplementedinthiscompanyinthisERPsystem.

5. ConclusionsSAPERPhasbeenused incompanies forover30years.Globalizationof themarketmade that it is readilyimplemented in countries not only in Europe but also around theworld. Due to their functionalities ERPsystemsareveryexpandedsolutions,butthosethatbecome internationalsystemsevolvetovery largeandcomplexITproducts.Supportingthemrequiresconsiderableamountofknowledgeandisoftensharedamongseveral specialists, the socalledmodularadministrators.However,before the system is ready foruse, it isnecessary to configure it.Thework that is conducted in thisareaprepares functionalities toensure that itmost closely matches the business concept of the company. The developers of the SAPERP, which isrepresentativeofthisclassofsoftware,designedasolutionthat isnotonlyappreciatedbytheusersofthesystem,butalsobytheenvironmentengagedinthedevelopmentandimplementationofSAP.Configurationchangemanagement thathasbeenpresented in thisarticle isaproposal thataims tobean inspiration tootherERPsystems.Thisisareallynoteworthyproposalbecauseitaccumulatesinauniqueway,notonlythefactsabouttheimplementedchanges,butalsobuildstheknowledgebaseaboutthewholesetup,whichwasdevelopedonthesystem.Itisalsoimportantthatnexttothefunctionofcollectingandorganizingdata,italsohas aprotective function against incorrectlydefined system configuration,which ismeaningful inall theseapplications.Thebenefitsofconceptpointedout indocumentChangeRequestManagement(2013), i.e.(i)increasedmaintenanceandprojectefficiency,(ii)minimizedcostsforprojectmanagementandIT,(iii)reducedriskofprojectfailureandcorrection,(iv)shortercorrection,Implementation,andgoinglivephase,(v)efficientmaintenanceof customer implementationsanddevelopments, (vi) transparencyanddocumentationof thechange process from approval of a request for change to the transportation of changes into followonsystemscanbeconfirmedinmanyenterprises,whichuseSAPERP.ThesolutiondesignedinSAPERPmeetsalltheaforementionedEuropeanSpaceAgencyassumptions.Inaddition,itiseasytousebyautomationtasks.Inthecontextof increasinglydynamicchanges,agile implementationmethodologiesshoulddirectsresearchtowardsthedevelopmentsofstandardsforERPsystemsbasedonsuchasthoseusedintheSAPERP.

Acknowledgements

WewouldliketoexpressourappreciationtoSawomirPatelczykforhisusefulremarksandvaluablereview.

References

AuksztolJ.,BalwierzP.,ChomuszkoM.(2012)SAP.ZrozumiesystemERP/SAP.UnderstandingERPSystem,WydawnictwoNaukowePWN,Warszawa.

Chan,R.,Rosemann,M.(2001)Managingknowledgeinenterprisesystems,JournalofSystemsandInformationTechnology,Vol.5,No.2,pp.3754.

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ChomuszkoM.,LechP.,AuksztolJ.(2012)Knowledgecreationandmergingintheexploitationphaseoftheenterpriseresourceplanningsystemscasestudyresearch,Studies&ProceedingsofPolishAssociationforKnowledgeManagement,No.60,pp.3042.

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MasewiczM.(2008)MechanizmywspomagajcezarzdzaniezmianamikonfiguracyjnymiserwerabazydanychOracle11gijegootoczenia/RulesforConfigurationChangeManagementintheOracle11gDatabaseServerandforitsEnvironment,PaperreadatXIVthConferencePLOUG,Szczyrk.

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9

UnderstandingandSupportingCloudComputingAdoptioninIrishSmallandMediumSizedEnterprises(SMEs)

MarianCarcary,EileenDohertyandGerardConwayNationalUniversityofIreland,Maynooth,[email protected]@[email protected]:CloudComputingadoptionhasexperiencedaconsiderablerateofgrowthsinceitsemergencein2006.In2011,ithadbecomethetoptechnologypriorityfororganizationsworldwideandaccordingtosome leading industryreportsthecloud computingmarket isestimated to reach$241billionby2020.Reasons for adoption aremultifold, including forexample the expected realisation of benefits pertaining to cost reduction, improved scalability, improved resourceutilization,workermobilityandcollaboration,andbusinesscontinuity,amongothers.Researchintothecloudcomputingadoptionphenomenonhastodateprimarilyfocusedonitsimpactonthelarger,multinationalenterprises.However,onekeyareaofthemarketwherecloudcomputingisexpectedtoholdconsiderablepromiseisthatoftheSmallandMediumSizedEnterprise (SME).SMEsare recognizedasbeing inherentlydifferent from their largerenterprisecounterparts,notleastfromaresourceconstraintperspectiveandforthisreason,cloudcomputingisreportedtooffersignificantbenefitsforSMEsthrough,forexample,facilitatingareductionofthefinancialburdenassociatedwithnewtechnologyadoption.Thispaper reports findings froma recent studyofCloudComputingadoptionamong Irish SMEs.Despite its suggestedimportance,thisstudyfoundthatalmosthalfoftherespondentshadnotmigratedanyservicesorprocessestothecloudenvironment.Further,withrespecttothosewhohadtransitionedtothecloud,thedatasuggeststhatmanyoftheseSMEsdidnotrigorouslyassesstheirreadinessforadoptingcloudcomputingtechnologyordidnotadoptindepthapproachesformanaging thecloud lifecycle.These findingshave important implications for thedevelopment/improvementofnationalstrategies or policies to support the successful adoption of Cloud Computing technology among the SMEmarket. ThispaperputsforwardrecommendationstosupporttheSMEcloudadoptionjourney.Keywords:cloudcomputing,SMEs,cloudadoptionreadiness,cloudnonadoptionreasons

1. IntroductionCloud Computing affords organisations the opportunity to access ondemand IT services using Internettechnologies on a free or payperuse basis, thereby enabling them to improve their strategic andtechnologicalagility,andresponsivenessintheglobalbusinessenvironment(Sonetal,2011).McAfee(2011)regardsCloudComputingasaseachangeadeepandpermanentshiftinhowcomputingpowerisgeneratedandconsumed.Itsas inevitableand irreversibleastheshiftfromsteamtoelectricpower inmanufacturing.CloudComputinghasevolved tobecome the top technologypriority fororganisationsworldwide (Gartner,2011).Theestimatedfigureforcloudservicesworldwidein2013is$44.2bn(ENISA,2009).CloudComputingisdefinedbytheUSNationalInstituteofStandardsandTechnology(NIST)as:

Amodel forenablingubiquitous, convenient,ondemandnetworkaccess toa sharedpoolofconfigurable computing resources (e.g. networks, servers, storage, applications, and services)thatcanberapidlyprovisionedandreleasedwithminimalmanagementeffortorserviceproviderinteraction(MellandGrance,2011,p.2).

BecauseCloudComputing is a relativelynew IT andbusinessphenomenon, there remainsmanyuntappedareas of research in this field (Son et al, 2011). Of the studies reviewed in developing this paper, prioracademicresearchhasfocusedonissuesincludingtheemergenceofanddevelopmentsinCloudComputing,Clouddeploymentanddeliverymodels,benefitsandchallengesinmigratingtotheCloud,readinessforcloudadoption, among others. However, the majority discuss Cloud Computing topics with no references tocompany size, and for some it can be inferred that they are orientedmore towards larger organisations.However,itisrecognisedthatSMEs(definedbytheEuropeanCommissionasanyenterprisewithlessthan250employees)areinherentlydifferentfromlargeenterprises(StreetandMeister,2004).Given, Cloud Computings ability to support increased capacity or extended firms capabilities, withoutincurringextracostswhichwouldhavehistoricallynecessitatedinvestmentininfrastructure,softwareorstafftraining, itcanbe inferredthatthistechnologicalplatformmayholdseveralopportunitiesforSMEs(Aljabre,2012).HoweverthisemergingtrendneedstobefurtherresearchedfromtheSMEperspective.SMEsareanimportantandintegralcomponentofeverycountry;theyformacornerstoneoftheEUeconomy,representing

10

MarianCarcary,EileenDohertyandGerardConway

99%ofallenterprises.IntheRepublicofIrelandSMEsrepresent98%ofallcompaniesemployinglessthan50people,andconstituteapproximately60%oftheoverallworkforce(CentralStatisticsOffice,2008).Giventhepivotal role SMEs play in the European economy, ensuring that they have a firm understanding of issuesassociatedwithcloudcomputingadoptioniscritical.Thispaperpresents resultsof anexploratory studyon the cloud computingphenomenon in the Irish SMEcontext.The structureof thispaper isas follows:Section twooutlines themethodologicalapproach taken.Section three outlines survey findings. For those SMEs who have adopted Cloud Computing, the paperexamines the steps those organizations have taken in preparing formigration to the cloud environment(section 3.2). For those SMEswho havenot taken steps towards adopting Cloud, the paper examines thereasonsbehindthisnonadoption(section3.3).Understandingtheimplicationsofthesefindingsresultsinthedevelopmentof a setof recommendationsorpolicy steps that shouldbe addressed at anational level topromote and support the SME cloud adoption journey (section 4). Section five draws a conclusion to thepaper.

2. MethodologyThefollowingaretheresearchquestionsaddressedinthispaper:

WhatdegreeofpreparationdoSMEsundertakepriortoadoptingCloudComputing? Whatfactors/reasonsdeterSMEsfromadoptingCloudComputing?Thisstudyemployedaquantitativeresearchapproach.Themeritsofthequestionnairearelinkedtoitsabilitytoprovidequantifieddatafordecisionmaking,itprovidesatransparentsetofresearchmethods,itsupportsthepresentationofcomplexdatainasuccinctformat;anditprovidestheopportunitytoapplyacomparablemethodologyacrosslongitudinalstudies.Thisquantitativestudywasconceptualizedfromatheoreticalbaseinorder to ensure that the instrument employed in this process had prior validity, reliability and wasappropriatelydesignedtoaddressandanswertheresearchquestions.Indevelopingquestionnaireconstructs,adetailedreviewofexisting literaturewhich focusesonreasons fortechnologyadoption/nonadoption,aswellas readiness fornew technologyadoptionwasundertaken.Thisliteraturehelpedtoframethequestionnairesconstructstheseconstructswerethentestedwithasampleof20 SME owner/managers and senior academic researchers, and refined to ensure relevance andcomprehensionintheSMEenvironment.Thequestionnairegatheredresponsesusinga5pointLikertscale.Anumericalscorewasassociatedwitheachresponseandthisreflectedthedegreeofattitudinalfavourableness,withstronglydisagreeassociatedwithnumber1onthescaleandstronglyagreeassociatedwithnumber5.Thesurveyalsoconsistedofacombinationofopenendedandclosedquestions.Apurposive stratified sampling techniquewasemployed indeveloping the sampling frame (Saundersetal,2007)usingthissamplingstrategyunitsarechosenbecausetheyhavespecificcharacteristicsthatenableacore theme to be understood in greater detail. Purposive sampling ensures that key research themes areaddressedandthatdiversityineachcategoryisexplored(Silverman,2005).Thesamplingframewasstratifiedaccordingtothefollowingcriteria:

Firmsmusthavelessthan250employees FirmsmustbelocatedinIreland.WithineachSME,theownerormanagerwaschosenasthepointofcontact,ashe/shewasregardedasinthebestposition toanswerquestionspertinent to the researchproblem.Thestudyssampleconsistedof1500SMEs.Theresearchersaimedforaresponserateof7percentinordertoachieve100usableresponses,whichisdeemedasuitableminimal level ina largepopulation (Harriganetal,2008). Thedatacollectionprocessgenerated95usableresponses,achievinga6percentresponserate.

3. Findings

3.1 ProfileofrespondentsThesurveyprovided95usableresponses.EachrespondentorganizationwaslocatedinIrelandandemployedlessthan250individuals.70percent(n=66)weremicrosizedfirms;26percent(n=25)weresmallfirms,while4percent(n=4)wereofmediumsize(seeFigure1).Intermsofindustrysectors(Figure2),thelargestsector,

11


represented by almost half of all respondents (48 percent, n=46),were those firms from the KnowledgeIntensive Business Services (KIBS) sector. 39 percent (n=37) were from the service sector, while only 13percent(n=12)werefrommanufacturing.

Figure1:Respondentprofilebyfirmsize Figure2:Respondentprofilebysector

3.2 AdoptionofcloudcomputingamongSMEshowpreparedarethey?45 percent (n=43) of the survey respondents had adopted Cloud Computing; themost popular businessservice/process they had migrated to the cloud were email (40 percent, n=38), followed by sales andmarketing (15 percent, n=14), CRM (11 percent, n=10), R&D (10 percent, n=9), finance (8 percent, n=8),softwareapplicationsdevelopment(6percent,n=6)andpurchasing/procurement(2percent,n=2).Thissectioncarefullyconsidersthedegreetowhichtheserespondentfirmscarefullypreparedandestablishedstrategies to support the transition to the Cloud environment and the ongoingmanagement of the cloudlifecycle.Understanding thisdegreeofpreparation is importantaspreviousstudieson technologyadoptionhave found that small firmswithhigherorganizational readiness ...willbemore likely toadoptandmorelikely toenjoyhigherbenefits than firmswith low levelsof readiness (Iacovouetal,1995).Only40of theSMEsprovidedinsightintothestepstheytookwhenmigratingtothecloud.Respondentswerepresentedwithaseriesofstatementsoutliningpossiblestepstosupportcloudmigration,andwereaskedtoratetheextenttowhichthesestatementsappliedtotheirfirmscloudadoptionjourneyona5point Likert scale (Figure3).The findings indicate that threekeyareas received thegreatestdegreeofattentionfromSMEsintermsofpreparingforCloudComputing.Theseinclude:

EstablishingthestrategicintentandobjectivesofCloudComputingadoption EstablishingaprocessforidentifyingthoseservicessuitableformigrationtotheCloud InvolvingstakeholdersinassessingservicereadinessforthecloudFindings indicate that themajority of cloud adopter SMEs in this study (53 percent;n=21) considered theimportanceofestablishingthestrategic intentandobjectivesof transitioning tocloudbasedtechnology.Asoutlinedinprevioustechnologyadoptionstudies,akeyconsiderationintechnologyadoptionisthealignmentbetweentheobjectivesofanorganizations ITstrategyandbusinessstrategy (HendersonandVenkatraman,1992).Manyprevious studieshave found that suchalignmentwithanorganizations strategicobjectives isimportant in maximising returns from ICT investments, in assisting in competitive advantage realizationthroughICTandinprovidingdirectionandflexibilitytodealwithnewopportunities(Avisonetal,2004).FromaCloudComputingadoptionperspective,ConwayandCurry(2012)emphasizetheimportanceofdeterminingtheorganizations ITobjectives, includingtheroleofCloudComputingwithinthe ITstrategy;understanding,managing and controlling the impacts on the business; aligning these objectiveswith business needs; andstrategicallyplanningthetransitiontothecloudenvironment.48percentoffirms(n=19)establishedaprocessforselectingthoseservicesthatwerepotentiallysuitableforcloudmigration. In line with the literature, one of the central tenets of Loebbecke et als (2012) CloudReadinessModelistheneedfororganizationstomakeinformed,strategicdecisionsregardingwhichoftheirIT services are appropriate tomigrate to the cloud environment, as poor selection decisionsmay proveoperationallycostlyandmaypotentiallynegativelyimpactonbusinessstrategy.

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Figure3:SMEspreparationforcloudadoption

43percentofthesurveyrespondents(n=17) indicatedthatmanagement,employeesandotherstakeholderswereinvolvedinassessingservicereadinessforthecloud.Asoutlinedintheliterature,thekeydifferentiatorsof technologydeployments longtermsuccess restwithin theorganizations internalcontext, in the formofmanagersandemployeesknowledgeandskills.PreviousstudiesbyCaldeiraandWard (2003)highlight thattopmanagementattitudesandperspectivestowards ITadoptionexplaindifferences inthe levelsofsuccessachieved. Further, ensuring employees are aware of new technology adoption and are involved in theadoptionprocessyieldshighersuccessrates (Nguyen,2009).Fromacloudcomputingadoptionperspective,thecriticalityof stakeholder involvementand influence isalsoemphasizedbyConwayandCurry (2012),asfailuretoactivelyinvolveinterestedparties,particularlythosefromtheusercommunity,resultsinresistancetocloudmigration.Furtherpreparatorysteps forCloudComputingadoption,as identified in the technologyadoption literature(e.g. Conway and Curry, 2012; Loebbecke et al, 2012), were followed less frequently by the surveyrespondents.

28percent(n=11)establishedaprocesstoregularlyreviewtheorganizationscloudservicerequirements, 25percent(n=10)establishedanoperationalstrategytomanageservicetransitiontothecloud, 23percent(n=9)developedcriteriaforassessingservicecloudreadiness, 20 percent (n=8) conducted assessments using the defined criteria, to determinewhich preidentified

serviceswerecloudready,

18percent (n=7) indicatedthattheyconsidered/designedthecurrentand futurestateofservicestobemigratedtothecloud.

15percent (n=6)establisheda threshold toseparatecloud readyservices from thosenotyet ready forcloudmigration,

15percent(n=6)establishedastrategicplanforrolloutoftheselectedservicestothecloud, 15 percent (n=6) documented a strategy for selecting the Cloud Service Provider(s) and managing

relationship(s)withthem.

3.3 NonadoptionofcloudcomputingamongSMEs48 percent (n= 46) of the respondent SMEs had not migrated any services or processes to the cloudenvironment. These cloud nonadopterswere primarily (54 percent, n=25) those firms from the servicessector.ThisisaparticularlyinterestingfindinggiventhefactthatCloudComputingisreportedintheliterature

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toofferSMEsconsiderablebenefitsintermsofcostreduction(Aljabre,2012;Armbrustetal,2010;Geczyetal,2012), improved resource utilization (Neves et al, 2011), and improved mobility and collaborativeopportunities(Aljabre,2012;Kynetix,2009;Nevesetal,2011),amongothers.Surveyrespondentsreasonsfornotadoptingcloudcomputingarereportedinthissection(insightsprovidedby40SMEs).RespondentswerepresentedwithaseriesofstatementsoutliningpossiblereasonsfornotadoptingCloudComputing,andwereaskedtoratetheextenttowhichthesestatementsappliedtotheirfirmsona5pointLikertscale(Figure4).

Figure4:Reasonsfornotadoptingcloudcomputing

40percentof the respondents reporteda lackof timeasakeydeterrent to theadoptionprocess,whileafurther32percentsuggestedtheydidnothavethenecessaryITskillstosupportmigration.ThesefindingsaresupportedbyThong(1999)whostatesthattheskills,timeandstaffrequiredforeffectivetechnologyadoptionarenotpredominantissuesinlargeorganizationsbutrepresentconsiderabledifficultiesinsmallerbusinesses.Concerns regarding the securityof thecloudenvironment (40percent);dataownershipandprotection (35percent);andcompliance(35percent)werefurtherobstaclestocloudmigrationidentifiedbytheSMEsurveyrespondents.These largelymirroredconcernsas found inotherstudies.Arecentstudy,conductedbyFrostand Sullivan for (ISC)2 in 2011 reported that Cloud Computingwas one of the key areas that representedpotential risks from an organizational perspective. Security concerns present the greatest barrier to cloudadoption (Armbrustetal,2010; IyerandHenderson,2010; LuomaandNyberg,2011),due to theneed fororganizations to entrust external Cloud Service Providers with their business critical data. Such concernsincludephysical andpersonnel security in accessingmachines and customerdata, identitymanagement inaccessing information and computing resources, application security pertaining to applications that areavailableasaserviceviathecloud,anddataconfidentiality.Privacy,fromtheperspectiveofusersneedingtoupload and store critical data in publically accessible data centers, as well as legalities surrounding dataprotection, confidentiality, copyright and audits are fundamental concerns (Yang and Tate, 2009). Rulespertainingtocountries,countryjurisdictionsandindustriesimpactonthefreeflowofdataacrossboundaries(IyerandHenderson,2010).Hence,ensuring compliancewith local, regionalandglobal statutoryand legalrequirements representsapotentialbarrier to cloudadoption (SIMAdvancedPracticesCouncil,2011).Thephysicallocationoftheserverswhichstoreanorganizationsdataisimportantundermanynationslaws,duetodifferentnational legislationsregardingprivacyanddatamanagement.Forexample,withintheEU,therearestrictlimitationsontheflowofinformationbeyondtheusersjurisdiction(IyerandHenderson,2010;SIMAdvancedPracticesCouncil,2011).27 percent of the survey respondents felt that they had insufficient financial resources to support Cloudmigration;totheauthorsthisperceivedbarrierorreasonfornotadoptingCloudComputinghighlightsalackofunderstandingofthecloudenvironmentandhowitcanalleviatesomeSMEfinancialconcerns.Whilelackoffinancial resources typically limits SMEs ability to receive strategic benefits from new technology; a keycharacteristicofcloudcomputing is itsability toreduce the financialburdenplacedonSMEs in technologyadoption(Aljabre,2012;Armbrustetal,2010).Forexample,Cloudcomputingprovidespotentialforsignificantcost reductions in, for example, capital acquisition, IT infrastructure operations and maintenance costs(Aljabre,2012;Armbrustetal,2010;Geczyetal,2012;IyerandHenderson,2010;LuomaandNyberg,2011;Yang and Tate,2009). Firms can switch from aCAPEX to anOPEX cost structure (Kynetix,2009), and take

14


advantageofthepayperusemodel(Armbrustetal,2010). Theauthorsperceptionthatthis isan inherentmisunderstandingofCloudComputingcharacteristicsisfurthersupportedbythefindingthat35percentofthesurveyrespondentswereunawareofanyCloudComputingbenefits.Asspecifiedbyonerespondent,Idontknowhowtosetitup,ormuchaboutit.Afurther27percentbelievedCloudComputingwasunsuitablefortheirbusiness/productofferings,while42percentofrespondentsdidntmigrateservicesorprocessestothecloudenvironment largelybecause theyperceived thatCloudComputingwasnotwidelyemployed in theirspecificindustrysector.22percentof the survey respondents suggested theirbroadband speedwas inadequate.CloudComputingrelieson thequalityandavailabilityof the Internet connectionand the cloud service itself (Kynetix,2009),givingrisetobusinesscontinuityconcernsduetoInternetdowntime,connectionunreliabilityorCSPoutages(Armbrust et al, 2010). Further, latency or the delay incurred in transferring data packets is of concernespecially for timecritical applications such as those used in financial markets and international trading(Kynetix,2009).LatencyoftheInternet isunpredictableandsuchperformanceunpredictabilityandresultingdatatransferbottlenecksimpactontherealizationofcloudcomputingpower(Armbrustetal,2010;YangandTate,2009). Inrelationtoavailabilityofagoodquality Internetorbroadband infrastructure,theRepublicofIrelandstelecommunicationsmarketwaslatetoopenuptocompetitionandonlyinitiatedbroadbandrolloutin2002(Doherty,2012).Thisslowstartmayhavecontributedtothefactthatby2006thecountryhadoneofthelowestratesofbroadbandpenetrationinEurope(PointTopic,2011).Morerecently,theIrishgovernmenthaveadoptedanaggressiveinterventionistapproachtobroadbandrollout(Doherty,2012)andcombinedwiththefactthatIrelandhasoneoftheyoungestdemographicsinEurope,ithasseenstrongbroadbandgrowthinthelastfewyears(PointTopic,2011).However,muchstillremainstobedoneashighlightedinarecentOECD(2010)reportwhereIrelandwasranked22ndoutof33countriesintermsoffixedlinebroadbandpenetrationratesandreceivedthelowestrankinginEuropeintermsofitsaveragebroadbandspeed(OECD,2010).

4. WhataretheImplicationsofthesesurveyfindings?recommendationsforimprovement

AnalysisofthefindingsonSMEspreparationforcloudadoption,aswellasthereasonsforSMEsnotadoptingCloud,resultinsomeinterestingimplications.ExaminationofthedepthofpreparationSMEsundertookpriortomigratingtotheCloudenvironmentsuggeststhere isasubstantialgapbetweenwhat ispublished intheliteratureregardingsteps tosupportcloudcomputingadoptionandwhat is implemented inpracticeby theSMEcommunity.Specifically,onlybetween43percentand53percentofthesurveyrespondentsdeterminedthestrategicintentandobjectivesofCloudadoption;establishedaprocessfordeterminingtheservicesmostsuitableforthecloudenvironment;andinvolvedkeystakeholdersthroughouttheprocessofassessingservicereadinessforthecloud.Thedepthofeffortinforexampletheprocessappliedtodeterminesuitabilityforthecloud issomewhatquestionable,asonly23percentdevelopedcriteria forassessingcloudservicereadinessandonly20percentused thosecriteria toassessactualcloudreadiness.Other importantpreparationstepswerepoorly followed.Forexample,only15percentestablisheda strategicplan for rolloutof the selectedservices to the cloud,anddocumenteda strategy for selecting theCloudServiceProvider(s)andmanagingrelationship(s)with them. The low levelsofpreparation correspond to some findings in the literature. Forexample, Iacovou et al (1995), state thatmany small organisations lack a required level of organizationalreadinessforadoptinghighimpactsystems.However,thesurveyfindingsalsosuggestthatapproximatelyhalfoftheSMEsinthisstudywhoadoptedcloudcomputingdidnotengageinanypreparationformigrationtothecloud.Recommendations:ThereisaneedforamoreconcertednationaleffortledbyGovernmentandStateBodiestosupportSMEswhoplantoengageinCloudComputingAdoption.ThisrequiresthedevelopmentofsimpleSME specificmodels/frameworkswhich emphasise and increase awareness of thepreparatory steps SMEsshouldundertaketoensureefficientmigrationtothecloudenvironment.Further, the reasons forcloudnonadoptionarequitevaried.Allof the following findingspoint toa lackofawarenessandeducationsurroundingcloudcomputing.Forexample,27percentofthesurveyrespondentsfelt that theyhad insufficient financial resources to supportCloudmigration;40percent reporteda lackoftime as a keydeterrent,while a further32percent suggested theydidnothave thenecessary IT skills tosupportmigration;35percentwereunawareofanyCloudComputingbenefits,whileothersperceiveditwasnotsuitablefortheirproduct/serviceoffering,orwasnotadoptedwithintheirindustrysector.

15


Recommendation:Amore concerted awareness/education campaign targeting Irish SMEs, on the inherentcharacteristicsandbenefitsassociatedwithcloudcomputingneeds tobe rolledoutnationally.WhilemuchliteratureontheCloudalreadyexists,muchofthispresentsaspecificvendorperspective.WhatisrequiredisanindependentanalysisoftheimpactofcloudcomputingintheSMEcontext;thisiscriticaltoenablingSMEsto make informed decisions regarding the suitability of Cloud technology for their businesses. Such anawarenessprogrammewouldhelpalleviatecommonmisconceptions,andcouldforexamplespecifytheleveloftimeinvestmentrequiredforcommonservice/processtransitions;couldoutlinehowlackofinhouseskillsmaybeaddressedbytheoutsourcingofmorecomplexservices/processestoacloudprovider;andcouldoffercostbenefitanalysis findings in relation tosavingsmade incomparisonwithany financialoutlayassociatedwith cloud transitioning. A possible strategy to support such education and awareness would be theestablishmentofanexpertisecentrewhosepurposewouldbetoprovideSMEswith independentadviceonmanagementofthecloudlifecycle.Aparticularly interesting finding from theSMEcontextwas theperceptionofsomeSMEs (22percent) thattheir broadband speed was inadequate. Absence of a stable, high quality Internet connection is a keydeterrent.Aspreviouslyoutlined,inarecentOECD(2010)report,Irelandranked22ndoutof33countriesintermsof fixed linebroadbandpenetration rates and received the lowest ranking in Europe in termsof itsaveragebroadbandspeed.Despitestrongbroadbandgrowthbeingexperiencedinrecentyears,IrelandspoorrankingisparticularlyconcerninggiventhecurrenteconomicclimateandthefactthatIrelandisaperipheraleconomy,bothintheEuropeanUnion(EU)andinglobalmarketterms(Doherty,2012).Recommendation: Continued and aggressive broadband rollout byGovernment,with enhanced and fit forpurposebroadbandspeedsavailableonanationalbasis, iscriticaltoensuringthat IrishSMEsareno longerdisadvantaged and are in a position to harness the power of available information and communicationtechnologies.Atpresent,broadbandisnotavailablethroughoutIrelandonastablelikeforlikebasis;henceSMEsneedtobemadeawareofcurrentplansandtimelinesforhighspeed(e.g.fibreoptic)broadbandrolloutandavailablealternatives (e.g. satellite).The issueofproviders specifyingaminimumbroadband speed,asopposedtothecurrentuptobroadbandspeediscritical.EffectivestrategiestoenableGovernmenttoholdservice providers accountable for issues such as this and to showmore support for smaller businesses isrequired.

5. ConclusionsThis study was one of the first empirical studies to examine cloud computing adoption preparation andreasonsfornonadoptionamongSMEsinIreland.Giventhestudysexploratorynatureandthelimitedsampleofrespondents,theauthorsarefarfromreachinggeneralisableconclusions.Nonetheless,theinsightsgainedfrom the IrishSMEcloudsurvey respondentsprovidesome interesting findings in termsofhow thestudysSMEshaveengaged in thecloudadoptionprocessand indeed thereasonsbehindsomeSMEsnotadoptingcloudcomputing.Ascloud technology isasserted toholdsignificantbenefitpotential forSMEs, theauthorsbelievethatfurthereffortscanbetakenonanationalscaletosupportgreaterunderstandingandadoptionofcloud.ImplementationofthekeyrecommendationsoutlinedinsectionfourwouldbeofconsiderablebenefittotheSMEmarketinovercominganymisconceptionsofthecloudenvironment,inmakinginformeddecisionsregardingcloudadoption,and inmanagingtheadoptionprocessandderivingthebenefitsthatare inherentwithincloudtechnology.

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