In reviewing the influence of information systems on today's organisations, it becomes evident that top managers play a critical role in their inevitable success or failure. Yet, despite these systems strategic relevance many studies reveal a dichotomous relationship between 'management' and 'information systems', a relationship kept polarised by organisational myths resulting in the emergence of differing community perspectives. Such division is borne out in the increasingly high rates of information systems failure within practice. As strategic stewards of the organisation, top managers are noted to play a vital role in supporting information systems. Support is said to be a multifaceted concept requiring both thought and action. This paper in reviewing the information systems management literature attempts to unravel the mystery that has shrouded this topic over the past five decades. The journey seeks to provide top managers with a roadmap before Crossing the Rubicon to support the introduction of information systems. Keywords: Top Manager; Information Systems; Top Management Support; Critical Success Factors.Word Count: 8,0281 Introduction:The introduction of information systems can greatly assist organisations in attaining greater effectiveness and efficiency. Information systems promise to increase rationalisation, reduce duplication, streamline business processes, integrate disparate systems, offer greater competitive advantage, increase innovation, and remove redundant managerial tasks through disintermediation. Yet despite such claims many implementations remain marred by poor performances and returns on investment. A key factor for enabling greater information systems success is top management support. This paper reveals that top managers who foster a positive attitude towards information systems can build a powerful coalition group to develop a vision that is aligned to the corporate strategy. In deploying vehicles such as steering committees top managers can communicate this vision thus ensuring organisational wide buy-in and increasing the information systems' chances of coming in on time and under budget. Organisations & Information Systems:Following the path of information systems 1 (IS) since their introduction into work organisations over five decades ago, research reveals that these systems have moved beyond their operational origins to firmly take their place within the executive boardroom. Early IS systems were standalone, functional-based, transaction-oriented, however today's suite of IS tools continue to match organisational needs becoming highly integrative, enterprise-wide, global and strategic systems.In fact, a brief historical tour of organisations illustrates a similar journey for IS development.Throughout the 1980s a primary concern for many top managers was the attainment of competitive advantage within their respective industries (Porter, 1980). The IS field responded by developing systems that sought to provide top managers with timely information to make strategic decis...

Organisations, including public service organisations, are increasingly adopting a digital transformation strategy, and deploying digital capabilities to enhance customer experience. However, digital initiatives in public services often focus more on the technology with relatively less regard to the citizen for whom the services are designed. To address this lacuna, this study contextualises the digital transformation of public services by focusing on the citizen. This study is based on data collected in the conduct of two projects involving public services within an EU member state. Based on the analysis of the citizen-journey in availing of public services, five common pain-points are identified – information inconsistencies, intricate website navigation, bureaucratic jargon, disconnected multichannel touchpoints, and a lack of real-time online support. To alleviate the pain-points, we offer five insights based on academic insights and international benchmarking.

In defence of the case study methodology for research into strategy practice RESEARCH CONTEXT AND BACKGROUNDThe objective of the wider study was to answer the research question 'How is strategic information systems planning (SISP) practised by senior managers?' The research involves investigating the practice of SISP by senior managers set in a public service context, thus answering enduring calls for studies into information systems (IS) strategising behaviour within organisations located in a public service context (Rocheleau, 2007;Rubin, 1986). An effective IS strategy is recognised as contributing to improved firm performance (Leidner et al., 2011;Ravichandran and Lertwongsatien, 2005), as well as being a key enabler of business strategy (Preston and Karahanna, 2006). IS strategy has been a significant concern for practice, dominating management agendas in recent decades (Teubner, 2013) and becoming integral to business positioning and processes (Stace et al., 2012).The specific purpose of this article is to elucidate the methodological approach employed to achieve the wider study's goal. The strategy-as-practice (SAP) and SISP literature sets are the two core strands of literature informing the research question as posed. Each literature set has made a unique contribution to the formulation and execution of the chosen research design. THE REVIEWED LITERATUREAn overview of each domain of literature now follows, with particular emphasis upon the core constructs that informed the approach to enquiry. The SAP domainVaara and Whittington (2012) trace the origins of the wider practice perspective back to the works of Wittgenstein (1951) and Heidegger (1962). Wittgenstein is viewed as having the most significant influence upon the placement of the practical dimension of philosophy front and centre of philosophical debate in modern times (Deslandes, 2011 Abstract: This paper aims to illustrate how the case study methodology may be used in novel and productive ways for research into strategy practice. Instigated by the quest for a research design that could target the 'practice' of strategic information systems planning (SISP), a review of the strategy-as-practice (SAP) literature uncovered parallels with the SISP domain from a methodological standpoint. A SAP perspective was employed in conjunction with the case study methodology to investigate SISP (the strategy practice) on the part of senior managers (the practitioners) at the meso level (the level of praxis). Ultimately, this approach was found to offer original insights and uncover valuable new directions for future academic enquiry.

The objective of this chapter is to provide a detailed review of the core principles, foundations and issues of enterprise systems (ES). Since the late 1990s, enterprise systems have promised to seamlessly integrate information flowing through the organisation. They claim to lay redundant many of the integration problems associated with legacy systems. These promises are timely considering the current trends of globalization, virtual organisations, and constant business and technological changes, features of many strategy agendas. In an effort to better understand the nature of these packages this chapter reviews the ES evolutionary process, and generic software characteristics are also identified, followed by system benefits and limitations. A review of current approaches to ES implementation allows for a critique of system outcomes and identification of challenges facing today’s ES implementations. The chapter concludes with suggestions for overcoming some of these challenges.