Analyzing IT Impact on Organizational Structure: A Case Study

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1 Analyzing IT Impact on Organizational Structure: A Case Study Pia Gustafsson, David Höök, Evelina Ericsson, Joakim Lilliesköld Dept. of Industrial Information and Control System, KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, SWEDEN Abstract--Each year companies spend millions of dollars on IT investments hoping they will lead to higher profits. There are many methods for analyzing what these investments actually bring back to the companies, but unfortunately they are not stringent enough to make the analysis repeatable. This means that different investments cannot be compared to each other. The management paradigm of Enterprise Architecture (EA) is commonly used to structure a company from a holistic perspective. In this paper, an EA framework for assessing ITsystems impact on an organization s business value through changes in its structure is validated. The foundation of the framework is a Bayesian inference engine allowing quantified analysis. For practical usage, this analysis framework is also expressed through modeling the organization with a metamodel. Together they form a structured method for quantitative analysis of the IT impact on organizations. An IT system for maintenance management within a European electric power utility has been used as a case study to validate the method. The organization and IT support have been modeled using the proposed metamodel and thereafter analyzed with the Bayesian network. The study has been conducted using guided interviews and a survey. The results from this study of how the business value has been influenced are compared to the user s perceptions on how the business values have changed are also presented in this paper. I. INTRODUCTION It has long been discussed in the IT value research area whether IT adds value to an organization or not. Following Brynjolfsson [1], the discussion in the literature increasingly supports the theory that IT can add business value to an organization. For instance, Bergsjö et al [2] have shown that the IT functionality, usability, and information structure affects the quality, efficiency and innovations of IT users. Researchers (and practitioners) now turn focus to the question of how IT adds value to the organization [3]. Dahlgren [4] stresses that organizational structure has a defining role on how information flows within an organization and, as a consequence, how well processes are performed and resources are spent. Other studies of the impact of electronic communication systems on business organizations are Fulk et al., [5], Andersen [6] and Gurbaxani et al. [7]. This paper is part of an ongoing research project that has previously been published in [8][9][10]. The contribution in [8] was a framework exposing how IT-systems adds value to an enterprise the by causally impacting the structure of the enterprise s organization. [9] described how the input values could be aggregated mathematically and not only quantitatively. The operationalization was realized by introducing a modeling language containing the framework s information [10]. The philosophy advocated in [8], [9], and [10] and thus also in this paper is directed at the synthesis of traditional theories of organizations, management and current research in the field of business value of IT. To understand how IT affects business values, IT s impact on the organization need to be understood first. With this approach the IT-system impact on business value can be visualized as in Fig. 1 below. Fig. 1: How IT affects an enterprises business value through organizational impact The method for understanding IT s affect on organizational structure contains an analysis framework as well as a modeling language. To validate the usability of the framework, it has been applied to analyze a case where an IT system has been introduced to an organization. The case is presented below The aim of the case study is to investigate how well the earlier proposed method is suited to make the analysis and identify further research areas. The remainder of the paper is structured as follows; in chapter 2, the framework applied in the case study is presented. Chapter three outlines the case study more thoroughly including how information was gathered and the collected data chapter four analysis the result given from the framework and contrasts it to how the business values have changed according to the system users. Finally, the conclusions drawn from the study are presented in chapter 5. II. THE FRAMEWORK In this chapter we present the framework that is being validated in this paper. The theory described in the present paper makes use of several important concepts borrowed from a variety of research. Starting with Extended Influence Diagrams (EID) that express the theory the analysis is based on, continuing with the Conditional Probability Matrices that set the mathematics for how the EID should be calculated and finally ending with the abstract model that visualize the method, an overview is given in Fig

2 associations of the real world, such as an automation system affects the process efficiency. In Fig. 3 this is visualized by Scenario Selection that causally affects the Process efficiency which itself causally affects the Organizational performance. This means that dependent on what decisions you make as a decisions maker will causally affect the efficiency of your organization s processes. Fig. 2 The relationship between EID and abstract model A. The Analysis Framework (EID) Extended Influence Diagrams (EIDs) are an extension of influence diagrams, as described by Shachter [11][11] which in turn are an enhancement of Bayesian networks [13][14]. In extended influence diagrams, random variables graphically represented as nodes may assume values, or states, from a finite domain. A utility node represents a goal that is strived for, such as Organizational efficiency or Organizational performance, as in Fig. 3. The utility node could be further described by using either definitional or a causal relations to subordinate nodes in the EID. Causal relations capture Fig. 3: An extended influence diagram and a simple example In this paper the utility nodes are composed by a subset of the business values compiled by Gammelgård et al. [15]. Below in Table 1 the business values are listed together with a brief definition. Business Value Flexibility Efficiency Integration Coordination Decision making Control and Follow up Organizational culture TABLE 1: BUSINESS VALUES THAT ARE EVALUATED Definition An organizations ability to adapt to changes in market conditions or requirements, changed demand, political and economical factors etc. This business value can be summarized as doing as much as before with less resources, e.g. shortening of manufacturing times/lead times/cycle times/work times/reduced paper work and administrative task, automation of work tasks, staff reductions etc. The ability of different organizational parts to jointly perform work tasks The ability to synchronize sequential work tasks in a process The ability to conduct more well informed decisions, decisions taken closer to operation, shorter time to decisions, increased reliability in decisions, less uncertainty and complexity in the decision making process. The ability to control and follow up, e.g. improved reporting possibilities which also leads to increased ability to evaluate options. The involvement/interest from management, an increased job satisfaction, stress reduction, etc The EID in the analysis framework at hand is based on Henry Mintzberg s theory of organizations. Based upon a synthesis of the literature, Mintzberg attempts to model the form and functioning of organizations by structuring those external and internal factors. Mintzberg s theory is used since it enables a wide view of organizations and thereby opens up for how IT can be used to benefit the performance of organizations. Several theories have tried to describe the complexity of organizations from an equal amount of perspectives. The classical organization theory starts with Weber and Fayol presenting the cornerstones of management and bureaucracy. Mintzberg s theories belongs to the modern school of structural theories which often are inspired by adjacent fields, such as system theories [17], ecology [18] and feminist theories [19], but that has not yet been able to present a complete theory that describes all areas of the organization. Mintzberg [16] presents the following design areas; (i) design of positions, (ii) design of superstructure and (iii) design of lateral linkages. Since the areas are applicable for all organizations, no business specific views can be included in the analysis, such as degree of functional fit. Design of positions within an organization can, according to Mintzberg, be divided into (i) the level of specialization, (ii) the formalization of behavior and (iii) the training and indoctrination of workers. The specialization can be defined as horizontal or vertical where the horizontal specialization tend to increase productivity by streamlining work tasks whilst vertical specialization focusing on separating the performance of the work from the administration. Formalizing the behavior of the organization can be done by formalizing the behavior of the workers according to regulations in their work flows or the output of the processes 3198

3 but also by formulizing roles and regulating the limits of the work. Design of superstructure describes the highest level of an organizations diagram, the grouping and the size of the constituent units. To governing a feasible unit sizes the primary factor according to Mintzberg is the mechanism of coordination employed by the organization. According to Mintzberg a unit with more than 5-7 members is difficult to supervise. The organizational grouping can be divided into functional grouping, where the functions are allowed to develop their own specialized procedures and market based grouping on the other hand, which puts emphasis on processes and work flow and trade with cross-functional integration to avoid specialization. The function grouping is common where standardization works well and where there are significant interdependencies between processes and scales whilst market based grouping occur in significant interdependent workflows where standardization works poorly. Design of lateral linkages is defined by (i) liaison devices and (ii) planning and control systems where liaison devices are common in modern organizational structures with its aim to interconnect distant parts of an organization. Mintzberg introduce a number of liaison devices that characterizes the spectrum between a functional and a market oriented organization. The most radical liaison measure mentioned by Mintzberg is the introduction of the matrix organization which makes the control unit redundant. The planning and control systems These theories have been expressed in the form of an EID, which describes the causality chain of how IT systems affect the organizational structure which generates changes that add value to the company. A closer description of how this was done can be found in [8]. The resulting EID is shown in Fig. 4. Flexibility Efficiency Integration Coordination Quality of Decision making Control and follow up Organizational culture Market based structure Underlying market based structure Level of liaison Functional structure Level of standardization Level of automated work Ability of direct supervision Organizational hierarchy Distance decision maker & process Performance data Motivation Units with integrating roles Underlying functional structure Unit size Number of levels between decision maker and process performer Employees/ Managers with liaison roles Standardization of skills Standardization of output Standardization of processes Processes with performance data Horizontal communication application service Internal training programs Recruiting based on education Process specification contains output specification Automation application service Process has specification Work flow application service Vertical communication application service Fig. 4: Extended influence diagram expressing Mintzberg s theories of organizational structure. B. Conditional Probability Matrices The mathematical rigor of EIDs derives from their basis in Bayesian networks. Each causal relation in an EID corresponds to a conditional probability matrix (CPM), which determines the probabilistic relationship between the quantities involved. In [9], the EID formalism was used to model three important phenomena within the realm of enterprise modeling: 1. Incompleteness, α. The incompleteness of models can be expressed by including a background event ; viz. all factors not explicitly accounted for. Noisy relations are a formalism for this [14][20][21]. 2. Weighting, β. The relative importance of different factors influencing a property (such as process specifications and automation systems influencing standardization) can be determined and expressed as weights. This is the basis of the popular analytic hierarchy procedure, [22]. 3. Dominance, γ. If several factors influence a property, they might be ordered in a domination relation, such that if factor A is present, factor B will not affect the outcome, but if factor A is absent, factor B might determine the outcome. [10] describes how these notions can be mathematically expressed in EIDs, and how a few parameters, denoted as α, β, γ (with subscripts) are sufficient to specify a wide range of important empirical relations. To exemplify this, [10] identified the Level of liaison to be dependent on Horizontal 3199

4 communication system, Units with integrating roles, Managers with integrated roles and Employees with integrating roles, see Fig.. 5 The probabilistic dependence was modeled by a specific conditional probability matrix, built on the fact that three entities influence a fourth one. In the Fig., the entities are denoted by β1, β2 and β3, which indicates that they are weighted against each other as described in [10]. The corresponding CPM is given in Table 2. Fig. 5: EID describing Level of Liaison [8] TABLE 2: CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY MATRIX FOR LEVEL OF LIAISON IT system Yes No Units with integrating roles Yes No Yes No Managers/employees with integrating roles Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No High Low C. The metamodel The metamodel should be able to contain all information that is needed to make the analysis with the EID presented in the previous chapter. To model a similar understanding between the IT system, the organizational structure and the business value the Archimate metamodel is used as a baseline to create the metamodel [23]. The Archimate metamodel identifies three layers; the business, the application and the technology layer where the business is supported by the applications and the applications are supported by the technology. Since this analysis is focused on the organizational structure only a subset of the entities from the business layer in Archimate are used. The entities are extended with attributes to grasp important characteristics of the entities and some entities are specialized when differentiation is needed for the analysis. The application of the attributes in the Archimate framework enables the expression of qualities of the entities important to generate an analysis. The nodes in the EID Fig. 4 are expressed through attributes of entities in the model or through information about the model structure. By the causal attribute relations in the metamodel it is possible to conduct quantified assessment of how to obtain affects on the business values of the organization generated by IT systems or the organizational structure. Fig. 6: Metamodel containing the same information as the EID 3200

5 D. Analysis method The method is used by first modeling the organization using the metamodel presented in the previous section. The structure of the instantiated model as well as the values of the attributes are then used as input in the EID and then aggregated. To calculate the results, a Bayesian network analysis tool GeNIe [24] was employed, see Fig. 7. GeNIe allows a decision analyst to create large influence diagrams, to set conditional probability matrices and to perform the actual analysis using Bayesian theory. Fig. 7: A screenshot from GeNIe showing how the values of the attributes are aggregated into an overall measure III. THE CASE STUDY The application of the method described so far will be described in this chapter. The chapter starts with a description of the research approach, together with information about the interviews and survey that have been used for data collection. The results of the data collection is presented beginning with the overall processes and then identifying the values of important attributes that are used for calculating the business values in the following chapter. The case study object is a service company (denoted as SC) that performs maintenance work for a large power distribution company (further on denoted as DC) operating in the Nordic region. Recently, due to reorganization, there has been a shift in the responsibilities between the two parts; SC and DC. As an enabler for this shift in responsibility an ITsystem (further on denoted as IT-S), previously used by DC has been introduced into SC. The adaption of IT-S into SC implies a new way of conducting work for both involved parties. Briefly, DC determines what work that needs to be done and consequently submits work orders (WO) to SC. SC then sets up plans for how to perform the maintenance. SC has gradually received WOs from DC for longer and longer periods and during 2008, when IT-S was introduced, they got all WOs of the full year. SC must utilize IT-S for reporting performed work after a WO initiated maintenance task has been finished. Reporting finished tasks through IT-S must be conducted in order for SC to get financial compensation from DC. SC also performs maintenance work for other companies, where they are not using IT-S. The aim of the case study presented in this paper, apart from the more general aim of validating the empirical applicability of the developed method, is to investigate how the introduction of IT-S as an interface between SC and DC have impacted the considered business value of the organization. More explicitly an identification of which areas of the organization that due to the introduction of IT-S has changed from an altered business value is identified. A. Research approach Using the EID from [8] as well the metamodel from Fig. 6 an instantiated model formed after the structure, process flow, activities, etc, of SC is constructed. By adopting the characteristics of the EID into the metamodel, capabilities for quantitative analyses of how the concerned business values are influenced by introduction of IT-SC can be drawn. The research case study is designed according to the criteria given by [25]. [25] declares that the case study approach is suitable for investigations scoping the how or why dimensions of a specific phenomena. In the context of the current research we focus on how business value of an organization is influenced by adoption of a new IT system. For information gathering during the case study structured interviews as well as a survey was conducted. Following in the next subsections is a more thorough outlay of how information gathering in the study using interviews and survey were conducted. The interviews were conducted with the purpose of obtaining a broader qualitative understanding of the processes conducted in SC, e.g. what processes contains which activities, how these activities and processes related to each other, which are the important roles and what parts of the processes are they related to. This sort of more qualitative information was to a large extent used when the metamodel was instantiated. The interviews were conducted with five SC employees. All of them had a team leader position, meaning that they had a broader understanding of how activities and processes were performed in the maintenance function. Thus a holistic view of each process component could be provided. To minimize the risk of missing out on important information an open approach to the interviews were applied. The respondents were hence given the possibility to freely give their own view of the maintenance process were conducted in their subdivisions of SC. The information gained from the five interviews was then consolidated and a complete view of the important parts of the maintenance function within SC could be formed. The survey was sent to all employees at SC that were registered as users of IT-S; 189 persons. 59 persons responded to the survey. 32 of the respondents claimed that they used the system every day and 16 persons claimed that they used the system at least every week and the rest use the 3201

6 system infrequently; every month or less. The purpose of the survey were two-folded, hence its structure also had two parts; one qualitative and one quantitative. The purpose of the qualitative part was to validate what was learned from the interviews, and also to obtain another iteration of qualitative information gathering if something of significance had been missed during the interview session of the study. The purpose of the quantitative second part of the survey was to obtain information that could be set the values of the metamodel attributes. The data put into the measurable nodes/attributes are then aggregated to the utility nodes, the business values, through Bayesian Inference. The conditional probability matrices needed to enable this aggregation were set according the principles in [9]. When the CPTs had been set and all information put into the measurable nodes/attributes of the EID/metamodel analyzes of how the business values had been altered could be performed. To validate the correctness of the model the results were compared with information gained from the survey. B. Modeling the maintenance process The maintenance process at SC consists of several activities, or sub processes related to reporting work done, reporting found errors etc. The interviews gave an understanding of which processes that were affected by the introduction of IT-S. There are two main processes we will focus on, which we will call process A and process B to be able to separate them. Process A describes the generic maintenance process where DC decides which maintenance that will be made during the year and send an order to SC. The team leader prepares the work orders that have been released by DC. The maintenance work is performed by team members and then the work is reported back to the DC. Process A is viewed in Fig. 8. Organizational unit DC -Size -Level of standardization -Level of motivation -Level of liaison -Level of direct supervision -Level of coordination -Level of automated work -Level of monitorability Worker Organizational unit SC -Size less than 8 -Level of standardization -Level of motivation -Level of liaison -Level of direct supervision -Level of coordination -Level of automated work -Level of monitorability Worker: Team leader Performs process Worker: maintainer Performs process Process: Maintenance Reporting - Existence of performance data Process: Order WO - Existence of performance data Process: Prepare/plan WO - Existence of performance data Process: Perform MW - Existence of performance data Fig. 8: Activities within process A and related roles Process: Financial Reporting - Existence of performance data In process B the team leader is not only responsible for planning the maintenance work but also preparing inspection protocols. The inspections are performed by the team members and sometimes lead to the discovery of errors. The team leader then creates error reports, and when applicable, also makes suggestions on maintenance activities that can fix the errors. The Suggestion on maintenance activities are sent to the DC who makes the decision if the activities should be performed or not. If the suggested maintenance is released, process A takes on. Process B is viewed in Fig. 9. Fig. 9: Activities within process B and related roles 3202

7 C. Design of lateral linkages The lateral linkages consist of the ability to communicate between different organizational units operating within the same process, the quality of decision making, and the ability to follow up the overall performance of the organization, see Fig. 10. Fig. 10: Design of lateral linkages consists of level of liaison and planning and control The communication between the processes specifically asked for in the survey was performed through the IT-S. According to 90,0% of the respondents, the communication between the process of ordering maintenance work (performed by DC) and the process of planning and preparation (performed by SC) is made through the IT-S, see Fig. 11. The Fig. also shows that 85,4% answered that the IT- S is the communication link between the preparation/planning of WOs and Performing the WOs. Regarding process B, the numbers were similar. Organizational unit DC -Size -Level of standardization -Level of motivation -Level of liaison -Level of direct supervision -Level of coordination -Level of automated work -Level of monitorability Worker Person Organizational unit SC -Size less than 8 -Level of standardization -Level of motivation -Level of liaison -Level of direct supervision -Level of coordination -Level of automated work -Level of monitorability - Standardized skills - Recruited based on knowledge - Motivation Worker: Team leader Performs process Person - Standardized skills - Recruited based on knowledge - Motivation Worker Order WO - Existence of performance data Application service Business collaboration Level of liaison Liaison role - Reached by manager/employee = No -Reached by unit = No -Reached by IT system = YES (90,0%) Prepare/plan WO - Existence of performance data = YES Business collaboration Level of liaison Worker: maintainer Performs process Liaison role - Reached by manager/employee = No -Reached by unit = No -Reached by IT system = YES (85,4%) Perform MW - Existence of performance data = YES Maintenance Reporting - Existence of performance data = YES Business collaboration Level of liaison Liaison role - Reached by manager/employee = No -Reached by unit = No -Reached by IT system = YES (78,0%) Financial Reporting - Existence of performance data = YES Application Service Financial compiling - Existence of performance data Business collaboration Level of liaison Liaison role - Reached by manager/employee = No -Reached by unit = No -Reached by IT system = YES (82,2%) Fig. 11: Level of liaison between activities within process A 3203

8 The existence of an IT system that works as an internal linkage, and therefore the value of IT: Horizontal communication system is set to YES, while the values of employees, managers and units with liaison roles are set to NO. The values are modeled in Fig. 11 and also registered into Genie according to Fig. 12. Looking at the same process, the interviews revealed that the previous IT support did not have the wanted functionality, and therefore the liaison was mainly performed by employees with liaison roles. We leave out the model of the liaisons of the before scenario, but the values inserted into GeNie are shown in Fig. 13. Fig. 12: The values inserted into GeNie for the after IT-S scenario Fig. 13: The values inserted into GeNie for the before IT-S scenario The processes which ability to follow up have increased are the Performance of maintenance work process and the Financial reporting process. These two processes have their performance data directly in the IT-S while performance data to other processes can be extracted from the IT-S, but is not easily depicted. These values are also modeled in Fig. 11 and the values inserted into GeNie are viewed in Fig. 14. D. Design of positions The design of positions is influencing the efficiency and the effectiveness of the organization. Design of positions constitutes of the level of standardization within the organization according to Fig. 15. Fig. 14: The values inserted into GeNie for the before IT-S scenario and the after IT-S scenario Fig. 15: The partial EID, depicting Design of Positions 3204

9 We asked how SC secured that the way of working was standardized within the company for a sample of processes and if any processes should be more standardized. For the maintenance work, performed in the field, the answers from the survey showed that there standardization of the processes had been achieved through training of the staff. Zooming in at the Financial reporting from process A and the person who performs the maintenance work are viewed in Fig. 16. Even though some of the processes are not standardized through IT-S, as maintenance that is standardized through training, several of the activities within process A and B have been standardized through IT-S. The values inserted into GeNie are shown in Fig. 17. Person - Standardized skills =YES - Recruited based on knowledge - Motivation Worker: maintainer Performs process Maintenance Reporting - Existence of performance data = YES Perform MW - Existence of performance data = YES Financial Reporting = YES - Existence of performance data = YES Fig. 16: Close up at the Financial reporting Fig. 17: The processes are mainly standardized through the IT system E. Design of Superstructure The design of superstructure is divided in two parts; ability of direct supervision and organizational structure (i.e. communication between units). These two parts are shown in Fig. 18 below. Fig. 18: Partial EIDs for direct supervision and organizational structure 3205

10 As can be seen in the Fig. above, Fig. 18, could the unit size, together with the level of standardization, the distance between decision maker and the process, and a vertical communication system, influence the coordination. The underlying organizational structure sets the real organizational structure together with the level of liaison, and in turn the efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility get affected. At SC, the sizes of the units according to the respondents vary between 13 and 30 persons which is larger than the group size of 5-7 members which is the ideal size for direct supervision to be possible. Also, the distance between decision makers and the process has been shortened since process B has introduced the possibility of people closer to the maintenance process to make suggestions of future maintenance work. The teams are structured according to which geographical area they are maintaining, which leads to a market based structure. The large team sizes of SC and the underlying organizational structures are modeled according to Fig. 19. These values are put into the EID according to Fig. 20. Fig. 19: Instantiated model of organizational structure Fig. 20: Values that are inserted into GeNie, in both scenarios. F. Changes in business values according to survey respondents In the survey we also asked the users to indicate if the change of the business values had changes positively, negatively or if they had not perceived any change at all. The respondents opinions about the change in business values are presented in Table 3. TABLE 3: THE RESPONDENTS OPINIONS ABOUT THE CHANGE IN BUSINESS VALUES Has become worse No change Has improved Number of Respondents Flexibility 43.1% (22) 49.0% (25) 7.8% (4) 51 Efficiency 28.8% (15) 51.9% (27) 19.2% (10) 52 Integration 28.6% (14) 59.2% (29) 12.2% (6) 49 Organizational culture 69.2% (36) 25.0% (13) 5.8% (3) 52 Decision making 42.3% (22) 36.5% (19) 21.2% (11) 52 Control and follow up 30.8% (16) 26.9% (14) 42.3% (22) 52 Coordination 27.5% (14) 52.9% (27) 19.6% (10)

11 IV. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS When the model has been instantiated with entities carrying attributes with values according to the interviews and surveys, these values have been inserted into GeNie simultaneously. The analysis is performed automatically in GeNie where the correct CPT s have been inserted as well to aggregate the node values. Looking at Fig. 21 the lowest row of nodes are the ones which values have been introduced in earlier chapter, and the EID corresponds to the EID in Fig. 4. The aggregation of the nodes values is straightforward and results in the business values. Fig. 23 shows the resulting business values for the organization before the introduction of IT-S. The final business value has been aggregated to 47%. Fig. 24 shows the resulting business values for the organization after the introduction of IT-S, indicating a business value of 71 %. Fig. 21: The complete GeNie network for the scenario of not using IT-S 3207

12 Fig. 212: The complete GeNie network for the scenario of using IT-S Fig. 22: The business values before the introduction of IT-S according to the analysis using the framework. Fig. 23: The business values after the introduction of IT-S according to the analysis using the framework. 3208

13 A. Results The results from the evaluation of the business values show a positive change in all business values except for Flexibility which shows no change at all. These results have been inserted Table 4 together with the results from the survey, from Table 3. The results from the analysis are given in how many percentage points the change is and the actual numbers are given in parenthesis as (before after). TABLE 4: THE RESPONDENTS OPINIONS ABOUT THE CHANGE IN BUSINESS VALUES According to survey respondents According to analysis framework Negative change No change Positive change Negative change No change Positive change Flexibility 43.1% (22) 49.0% (25) 7.8% (4) X Efficiency 28.8% (15) 51.9% (27) 19.2% (10) 29% (50-79) Integration 28.6% (14) 59.2% (29) 12.2% (6) 19% (14-33) Organizational culture 69.2% (36) 25.0% (13) 5.8% (3) 18% (59-41) Decision making 42.3% (22) 36.5% (19) 21.2% (11) 24% (38-62) Control and follow up 30.8% (16) 26.9% (14) 42.3% (22) 64% (18-82) Coordination 27.5% (14) 52.9% (27) 19.6% (10) 52% (52-87) B. Discussion Looking at Table 4 it can be said that generally, the analysis framework have resulted in an overall much more positive view of the new IT system then the users opinion from the survey. While most analysis results indicate an improvement at around 20 percentage points, the business values Control and follow up and Coordination stands out with a 64 and 52 percentage point increase respectively. Control and follow up happens to be the only one that according to the users have had a positive change due to the introduction of the IT system while Coordination is said to have had no change. The Organizational structure that seem to be the business value that have decreased the most looking at the users answers while it shows an 18 percentage points increase according to the analysis. The flexibility is the only business value that show no change according to either the users or the analysis framework. The underlying structure, which is the node with the largest impact on Flexibility is Market based both before and after the introduction of the IT system. Even though, since most of the business values are indicated not to have changed according to the user s opinions, it cannot be stated that the analysis framework gives an accurate result when it comes to Flexibility. The Efficiency has increased with 29 percentage points according to the analysis framework and that is not coherent with the answers the user gave. The framework stresses the influence from standardization on efficiency and since this has been higher because of IT-S, the efficiency has gotten a higher fulfillment. The respondents have not given any comments that can give any explanation of which aspect that is missing in the framework. Users answer that the integration has not been changed while the analysis points at an improvement with 19 percentage points. One user pointed out that it is much easier to pick up the phone and call someone instead of sending messages back and forth through the system. Several respondents said that the system was impersonal, which points in the same direction. The answers also indicated that these respondents were quite old, which is a factor that is not included in the analysis framework; older user might sometimes be more adverse of using new IT features in normal communication. The coordination has been improved by 35 percentage points according to the analysis, while the users claim that it has not changed at all. Decision making has increased by 24 percentage points according to the analysis, and has decreased according to the users. The degree of the Decision making has been improved in the analysis framework due to two things; the distance between decision maker and the process concerned with the decision has become shorter and there is more performance data. These two aspects have been mentioned in the survey as commentaries. First, there were comments that the decisions still take too long time to get regarding Process B. So even thought there is a possibility for the maintenance leaders to suggest maintenance tasks it still takes too long time for the decision. The existence of performance data is the second factor that leads to a high degree of Decision making according to the framework. According to the survey comments, this aspect is neutralized since the facility register is not complete, and therefore soma work orders have to be registered on other facilities then the ones that actually are being maintained. Control and follow up is getting the highest result in the analysis based on the framework. This is in line with the respondents answers since it is the only area which they have said has increased after the introduction of IT-S. This implies that the ability to follow up (which influences Control and follow up) is portrayed fairly even though it does not take the data quality/ data completeness into consideration. 3209

14 According to the analysis the organizational culture has increased while the survey shows that the users of the system interpret the organizational culture as decreased. The large number of respondents (69,2%) that claim that the organizational culture is worse now indicates that the framework is not adequate. V. CONCLUSIONS Using the analysis framework was easy and straightforward. Modeling the processes and related constituents was unproblematic as well as filling in the values of the attributes. The interviewees also took part of the process models and gave positive feedback on the correctness and usability. Regarding the result of the analysis framework, some changes need to be made. For instance, the percentage numbers the analysis result in, what do they correspond to? And how accurate are they? Another conclusion is that at some areas, for instance the performance data and shortening the distance between decision maker and the process, should be more specified and include data quality/data completeness of performance data etc. The research project will continue, performing the same kind of analysis when the system has been in use for more than two years. This will be made to identify if any of the business values change over time and if some business values will change due to the users increased knowledge. REFERENCES [1] Brynjolfsson, B.: The Productivity Paradox of Information Technology, Communications of the ACM Vol.36, No.1 p (1993) [2] Bergsjö, D. and Malvius, D. (2007) A model to evaluate efficiency, Quality, and Innovation through user satisfaction with Information management Systems, in Proceedings CSER 2007, Hoboken, USA. [3] Sneller L., Bots J.: A Review of Quantitative IT Value Research. Nyenrode Business University, The Netherlands (2006) [4] Dahlgren, L. et al., (2000), Öka nyttan av IT!, Stockholm Ekerlids Förlag, Stockholm [5] Fulk J., DeSanctis G.: Electronic Communication and Changing Organizational Forms. Organization Science, Vol. 6, No. 4. pp (1995) [6] Andersen T.J.: Information technology, strategic decision making approaches and organizational performance in different industrial settings. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Volume 10, Issue 2, pp (2001) [7] Gurbaxani V., Whang S.: The impact of information systems on organizations and markets, Communications of the ACM, Volume 34, Issue 1 pp (1991) [8] Gustafsson P., Franke U., Johnson P., Lilliesköld J.: Identifying IT impacts on organizational structure and business value, Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Business/IT Alignment and Interoperability, Vol. 344, p 44-57, June 2008 [9] Gustafsson, P., Franke, U., Höök, D., Johnson, P.: Quantifying IT impacts on organizational structure and business value with Extended Influence Diagrams, Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, Vol.15, p (2008) [10] Gustafsson, P., Franke, U., Höök, D., Johnson, P.: Modeling IT impacts on organizational structure and business value, submitted. [11] Shachter, R.: Evaluating influence diagrams. Operations Research. Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. 34 (6), (1986) [12] Shachter, R.: Probabilistic inference and influence diagrams. Operations Research, 36 (4), (1988) [13] Neapolitan R.: Learning Bayesian Networks. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA (2003) [14] Jensen F. V.: Bayesian Networks and Decision Graphs. Springer New York, Secaucus, New Jersey, USA. (2001) [15] Magnus Gammelgård et al.: A Categorization of Benefits From IS/IT Investments, In Conference proceedings from the European Conference on Information Technology Evaluation, September [16] Mintzberg H.: The Structuring of Organizations. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey (1979). [17] Katz, D., Kahn, RL.: Organizations and the system concept - Classics of Organization Theory, Thomson Learning [18] Hannan, MT., Freeman, J.: The Population Ecology of Organizations American Journal of Sociology, Chicago Press 1977 [19] Martin, J. (1990). Deconstructing organizational taboos: The suppression of gender conflict in organizations. Organization Science, 1: [20] M. Henrion. Some practical issues in constructing belief networks. In L. N. Kanal, T. S. Levitt, and J. F. Lemmer, editors, Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence 3, pages Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., North Holland, [21] J. Pearl. Fusion, propagation and structuring in belief networks. Artificial Intelligence, 29: , [22] Thomas L. Saaty: Axiomatic Foundation of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, Management Science, Vol. 32, No. 7. (Jul., 1986), pp [23] Lankhorst M. et al, Enterprise Architecture At Work, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2005 [24] Troux Technologies. (2007). Metis Architect Datasheet. Retrieved online at August [25] Yin R.K: Case study research design and methods 3rd ed, Sage Publications Inc, Thousand Oak, CA, USA,