Achieving success in enterprise systems (ES) implementations is challenging. The success rate is not high in view of the sums invested by many organizations in these companywide systems. The literature is charged with reasons for unsuccessful implementations, such as a lack of top management support and insufficient change management. Contrary to this research, empirical data from an ES re-implementation in a Scandinavian high-tech company shows successful implementation despite many problematic shifts in outsourcing partners. Therefore, it is natural to ask: why was the re-implementation of the ES at SCANDI successful despite the major troubles encountered during the project? Building on critical success factor (CSF) analysis of ten CSFs combined with an investigation into the institutional structures at play, we present several reasons for the successful implementation. The CSF analysis shows an equivocal result: four fulfilled, three partially fulfilled and three not fulfilled. Even the two top CSFs, top management support and change management, are either not fulfilled or only partial fulfilled. However, the institutional analysis provides additional explanations, such as a few heroes acting as glue in a conflicting multisourcing environment and resilience towards ES implementations created over many years. Important implications from this study are that one should be critical of CSFs and that the combined analysis can guide both practitioners and researchers to understand and position factors better for success in ES implementations.

Remote Infrastructure Management Services (RIMS) is a fast growing service in IT which has been outsourced to third party service providers by leading global firms. Service providers in this line face huge challenges because they have to ensure agreed upon service levels by monitoring and controlling the client’s infrastructure from an offshore location. This research paper explores the relatively nascent area of RIMS to identify and categorize service provider risks. The three categories of risks that emerged from this analysis are: (i) Service delivery risks, (ii) Relationship specific risks, and (iii) Macroeconomic risks. There is a close relationship between the first two categories of risks and similar categories of risks in application development. However, dimensions of timeline and requirements uncertainty elicit a different set of risks in RIMS. Relationship maturity, nature of client, contract design, and nature of service are contextual factors which influence the degree of risks in RIMS.

Maximizing the outcome of IT project investments has been a major concern for years. Several approaches have been suggested one of them being Project Portfolio Management (PPM). Even though PPM offers valuable techniques for aligning IT project portfolios with organizational needs and maximizing the outcome of project portfolios, practitioners find it difficult to implement. Our research suggests one of the reasons being the fact that PPM builds upon classic rational ideals about decision-making in organizations that are hard to realize and in some aspects counterproductive for non-routine decision-making. Especially, we focus on the importance of incorporating mechanisms that deal with uncertainty and conflict during portfolio decision-making, and on the importance of identifying and understanding dysfunctional decision-making patterns as part of improving PPM practice. Reducing the reliance on classic rational decision-making ideals and incorporating other decision-making styles more aligned with decision-making practices in organizations might ease PPM implementation and improve the outcome of systematic PPM efforts.
The research is based upon a multisite case study from public sector organizations attempting to improve their PPM capabilities.

Anyone who has studied the use of information technology as a competitive weapon has encountered the name Charlie Feld. Mr. Feld led the Management Services Department of Frito-Lay during the 1980s when he pioneered one of the earliest applications of information systems used to generate a competitive advantage. No less than eleven Harvard Business School case studies document the work of Mr. Feld during his tenure at Frito-Lay, covering the period starting when Feld was hired at Frito-Lay in 1981 through his departure in 1992. So, when Blind Spot appeared in the results of this reviewer’s regular search for new and innovative books, it had to be considered for review. And this reviewer knows the reader will not be disappointed.

There are literally dozens of books from the mundane to the excellent that discuss and recommend methods and practices for aligning IT with the organization. Further, there is the ubiquitous chapter in just about every MIS textbook on the same subject. However, almost all of these books deal with the subject of strategic alignment from the perspective that it is the CIO’s responsibility to align the IS strategic plan with that of the business. In Blind Spot, Feld makes the case that ...