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Computing Project’s ProposalVersions 13The Project Aims and Objectives: the aim of this research is to explore how the requirements of Information Technology (IT) business Strategic Alignment , Information Technology Flexibility (ITF), and Information Technology Effectiveness (ITE) impact Mobile Business Intelligence (MBI) in the Nigerian telecommunications industry. The competitive maturity of MBI would be tested and areas of improvement identified.Project Outline:Literature review initiation: This stage includes the documentation of a draft literature review and preliminary research on IT business Strategic Alignment, ITF, and ITE from an MBI context. Survey: Design and develop a survey to evaluate the relationships, recurring events and trends with using MBI. The survey would test whether the user business executives, senior managers, mangers and supervisors in the sales and distribution channles, supply chain channel, logistics execution, plant maintenance, customer care service, finance, and financial controls and budget find MBI useful. If they do use MBI or not, what type of information would they be interested in receiving on the MBI device. It is expected that a minimum of 10 users with one user per domain would complete the survey. A test would be carried out to determine whether the users intend to review trends against key performance indicators (KPIs) or the users intend to review eventsEvaluation versus literature review: The data from the survey would be analyzed and the further research on literatures would used to evaluate the outcome of the survey evaluation. The result of these assessments would assist aligning the expectations of the MBI users with manner in which IT department would roll out MBI. Bridging the divide would ensure a list of recommendations should be followed before MBI rolled out to the user community.Dissertation document completion: discuss potential improvements areas on how IT business Strategic Alignment, ITF, and ITE would deliver better MBI service.Literature Survey / Resources’ List: The strategic alignment of IT and information systems (IS) with the business objectives of an organization is critical for achieving continued competitive advantages otherwise the IS and/ or IT departments maybe considered irrelevant to the organization. There are a few definitions of IT business Strategic Alignment though regardless of the source, its essence remains the same. Ness (2005) defined IT business Strategic Alignment “as the art and science of formulating, integrating, and implementing decisions between the business and IT, which enables an organization to achieve its objectives”. IT business Strategic Alignment was also defined as "the degree to which the IT mission, objectives and plans support and are supported by the business mission, objectives and plans" (Benbasat, 2000 cited in Saeid Khalil & Lotfi, 2011). To fulfil the requirements of IT-business strategic alignment the IT department would ensure advanced responsiveness, flexibility and in some instances pro activeness to the aggressive business requirements. Since business and IT usage trends are very flexible because of the market situation, and IT infrastructure will definitely become a major concern of management teams because the team would be seeking to invest in technology platform(s) that can support both present and future applications required for its business needs (Chanopas, Krairit & Khang, 2006). IT flexibility in the context of this project is referred to as the rapid deployment of technology through a firm’s existing technology- and personnel-based resources. To achieve this flexibility, the IT enterprise architecture of the organization must be properly designed by selecting the IT processes and IT systems that have been standardized and integrated (Ross, Weill & Robertson: p8-10, 2006). Hence for the IT department to continuously meet the objectives of IT business Strategic Alignment by deploying the appropriate enterprise architecture that does not impact negetaively on the overall goal of the organization.ITE quite differs from ITF in many way majorly because it is accomplished as a result of automating IT task and standardization of processes and procedures with a view to improve the operations cost, turnaround time, performance and productivity. ITE is a product of and IT business Strategic Alignment and ITF. To further align IT with the business objectives of the organization, measuring the effectiveness of IT services delivered to the user community is also as important as IT business Strategic Alignment and ITF. However ITE is a subjective assessment since it is a function of the IT value that it would be measure. This project work would be measure the value of the MBI service deliver to the user community hence ITE is the level of performance obtained by the IT organization while IT business value is the result of IT effectiveness in terms of the contribution IT makes to the firm’s performance (Ness: p3 – p4, 2005).ReferencesChanopas, A. Krairit, & D. Khang, D. (2006). Managing information technology infrastructure: a new flexibility framework. Available online from http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/journals.htm?articleid=1576384&show=abstract (Accessed 12/09/2011)Elbashir, M. Collier, P. Sutton, S. (2011). The Role of Organizational Absorptive Capacity in Strategic Use of Business Intelligence to Support Integrated Management Control Systems. ACCOUNTING REVIEW, p155-p184. Available online from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/eds/detail?vid=3&hid=124&sid=205f393a-b331-4d0d-87c1-eef22d86e46c%40sessionmgr115&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=edswss&AN=000286138300006 (Accessed 12/09/2011)Gassman, B. Sallam, R. L., Bitterer, A. Hagerty, J. Chandler, N. (2010). New Relationships Will Change BI and Analytics. Gartner report available online from http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=260&mode=2&PageID=3460702&docCode=209225&ref=docDisplay (accessed 03/08/2011)Lai E. (2011). Mobility joins the business. Available online from http://download.sap.com/download.epd?context=B88E5F930C2B7D0F4CCA5D900E6DE33D9EF3912565131FFA6361F92FEDD8D75FCEDFACF152A30FE24F8DBAFDD9E01EC6175D344F87DC0023 (accessed 17/08/2011)McKnight, W. (2011). Business Intelligence: When Mobility Matters Source: Information Management. Available online from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=f5e05010-fa54-49f4-8078-a2cf80e2c820%40sessionmgr10&vid=2&hid=13 (accessed 08/07/2011)Ness, R. (2005). Assessing the relationships among IT flexibility, strategic alignment, and IT effectiveness: Study overview and findings Journal of Information Technology Management. Aavailable online from http://jitm.ubalt.edu/XVI-2/article1.pdf (accessed 20/08/2011)Ross, J. Weill, P. & Robertson, D. (2006). Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution. Harvard Business Press ISBN: 1-59139-839-8Saeid, J. Khalil, N. Lotfi, N. (2011). Assessing the Impact of IT Connectivity and IT Capability on IT-Business Strategic Alignment: An Empirical Study. Computer & Information Science, Vol. 4 Issue 3, p76-87. Available online from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/eds/detail?vid=2&hid=124&sid=680f9d15-1228-47e1-82e6-8fa6760d2692%40sessionmgr110&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=iih&AN=62095638 (accessed 08/09/2011)Scwalbe, K. (2007). Information technology project management fifth edition. Thomson course technology ISBN: 13:978-1-42390170-9Unhelkar, B. Murugesan, S. (2010). The Enterprise Mobile Applications Development Framework IT Professional. V12(3). Available online from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5440154 (accessed 03/07/2011)Scholarly Contributions of the Project: provide an assessment of the impact of Information technology business Strategic Alignment (SA), ITF (Information Technology Flexibility), and Information Technology Effectiveness (ITE) on how the implementation of mobile business intelligence (MBI) can be used as an enabler of sustaining competitive advantage in the Nigerian telecommunications industry.Description of the Deliverables: the deliverables of this research work include a dissertation document that includes survey data, and its corresponding comparative analysis of how MBI is impacted by IT business Strategic Alignment, ITF and ITE.Evaluation Criteria: the research work would be evaluated based on the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the survey data across the MBI community against the literature findings.Resource Plan: the resources required to complete the project work are categorized into the following:Hardware & Software: Work tools: personal desktop and laptop. Already available.Survey software: SurveyMonkey will be used to create and publish online surveys. Available for use and not license is required.Internet connection: internet connection service has been upgraded and it cost about NGN 10, 000 ($65)/ month. This has been budgeted for the duration of the research work.Literature research resources: University of Liverpool online library and books would be referenced and detailed in the project work. Project Plan and Timing: Milestone number IDTask NumberTask NameDurationStartFinish Dissertation project plan103 daysThu 8/18/11Mon 1/9/121 Literature review initiation47 daysThu 8/18/11Fri 10/21/11 IResearch Plan3 daysThu 8/18/11Mon 8/22/11 IICreate a draft literature review and complete proposal5 wksTue 8/23/11Mon 9/25/11 IIIMilestone report1 dayFri 09/26/11Fri 10/26/112 Survey35 daysTue 9/27/11Mon 11/14/11 Ispecification and Design document 10 daysMon 10/24/11Fri 11/4/11 IIQuestionnaire design and development6 daysMon 11/7/11Mon 11/14/11 IIIContact people in telecommunication's industry2 daysTue 9/27/11Wed 9/28/11 IVObserve the selected industry operator2 daysThu 9/29/11Fri 9/30/11 VMilestone report1 dayMon 10/3/11Mon 10/3/113 Evaluation and literature review21 daysTue 11/15/11Tue 12/13/11 IConduct consultations and interviews2 daysTue 11/15/11Wed 11/16/11 IIArrange group meetings3 daysThu 11/17/11Mon 11/21/11 IIIliterature review continuation14 daysTue 11/22/11Fri 12/9/11 IVPublish questionnaires3 daysTue 11/22/11Thu 11/24/11 VCollate data from survey5 daysFri 11/25/11Thu 12/1/11 VIAnalyze findings from meetings and questionnaires5 daysFri 12/2/11Thu 12/8/11 VIIAnalyze and review completed questionnaires4 daysFri 12/2/11Wed 12/7/11 VIIIAdapt findings from questionnaires into dissertation1 dayMon 12/12/11Mon 12/12/114 Dissertation document completion19 daysWed 12/14/11Mon 1/9/12 ISubmit dissertation to dissertation adviser and await approval10 daysWed 12/14/11Tue 12/27/11 IIUpdate dissertation based on feed back from dissertation adviser3 daysWed 12/28/11Fri 12/30/11 IIIFinalize report and submit5 daysMon 1/2/12Fri 1/6/12 Risk Assessmentthe research work has been limited to a very specific domain –MBI and the industry where this assessment would be carried out is a localized telecommunications industry to reduce the risk of activities outside the circle of control. However this does not completely eliminate the risk of feedback from MBI user community, other related software and availability issues that are related the survey tool that is going to be used. Quality Assurance: the data collected for this research work would be independently verifiable. Also the continuous feed back and assessment done by my dissertation adviser would guarantee a thorough job is done.
Solution: proposal research project