As Information Systems matures as a discipline, there is a gradual move away from pure statistics towards consideration of alternative approaches and philosophies. This has not been incorporated into the literature of the field. Until now. Collecting major social theorists and philosophers into one volume, Social Theory and Philosophy for Information Systems provides a historical and critical analysis of each that is both authoritative and firmly focused on practical relevance to IS. The result is an insightful text for researchers, academics and students that will provide an...

The most important class of enterprise system is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Organizations typically take the decision to employ ERP systems in order to streamline existing processes. Once these new systems are in place, far more can be achieved by leveraging the technology to maximize the capabilities and benefits of ERP-enabled processes. In this book, the editors have assembled some of the world's best research on ERP systems to provide a foundation for second wave improvements to enterprise systems. Written primarily for managers and consultants, this book is also an ideal...

In 2003 IT outsourcing already represents almost 33 per cent of the average IT budget and IT outsourcing has enabled organizations to survive the pace of change in the new economy at a time when business activities need to be focused on the right activities and resources need to be kept lean and aligned with the core business. outsourcing decisions, processes and management to arm such individuals with tactical knowledge of the activities, tricks, traps and ways of working that have been gleaned from the authors' research and consulting activities. The book presents the outsourcing lifecycle...

Survey and study background In an effort to gain some answers on the 1ST capital investment (project selection) decision criteria used in practice, a survey was undertaken in 1990 of 80 American, British, Australian and New Zealand companies. A one-page survey form was used that provided 15 possible 1ST investment criteria, a means of indicating whether they are used or not, the percentage of projects to which each criterion is applied, and an overall ranking in terms of total project value for each criterion. The criteria are shown in Table 2.1. The criteria are categorized into financial,...

Intelligent IT Outsourcing enables practitioners to focus in on the essential issues that need to be addressed so that the fundamental structure of their sourcing strategy and its implementation is sound. The authors provide insight into the challenges likely to be faced and give detailed advice on how to pre-empt and manage these.IT and outsourcing continue to be problematic, not least because fundamental learning about this subject fails to be applied systematically, and because IT is inherently difficult to manage. The economics are not obvious and emerging technologies...

The Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and Foucauldian perspectives are brought to bear on five outsourcing relationships in order to test the application of these discourses to rich qualitative data over the outsourcing contractual life-cycle.