IMPACT OF EXECUTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS
IMPLEMENTATION ON INTRANETS IN
ORGANISATIONS IN KWAZULU-NATAL
Udo Richard Averweg
eThekwini Municipality and University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban
Information Services, eThekwini Municipality, PO Box 828, Durban, 4000
averwegu@durban.gov.za
Abstract
Intranets are being used as the platform for developing and deploying critical business applications to support
business operations and managerial decision-making across the internetworked enterprise. Executive Information
Systems (EIS) grew out of the information needs of executives. Web-based technologies are causing a revisit to
existing information technology (IT) implementation models, including those for EIS. Some technologies include:
Intranet, Internet, Extranet, e-Commerce Business-to-Business (B2B), e-Commerce Business-to-Consumer (B2C),
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) including other mobile technologies. The author conducted a survey of
thirty-one well-established organisations in KwaZulu-Natal which successfully implemented EIS. A validated survey
instrument was administered to an EIS stakeholder in each organisation surveyed to rank Web-based technologies in
order of their perceived impact on EIS implementation in organisations surveyed. The author reports that an Intranet
has the highest level of impact on EIS implementation in organisations surveyed in KwaZulu-Natal.
Introduction
Managerial tasks in organisations typically require more collaborative work than day-to-day operational
tasks (Abraham and Seal, 2001). Organisations perceive information systems (IS) and any accompanying
information perspectives as vital to their success (Blyth, 1995). Abraham and Seal (2001) report that an
Intranet facilitates the communication behaviour between individuals who have to accomplish a task
together. Giesecke (2001) foresees that creating information will become a team process. Communication
is facilitated because the Intranet provides the platform to integrate communication tools (eg. electronic
mail) as well as information sharing mechanisms (eg. data bases and file servers). As work teams and
organisations grow increasingly complex and geographically distributed, so has grown the need for better
ways to share knowledge among workers (Millen and Fontaine, 2003). It makes it easier for people in
managerial roles to make use of information technology (IT) to carry out their work. The use of the
Intranet becomes integral to the success of the managerial functions in the organisation.
Intranets are being used as the platform for developing and deploying critical business applications to
support business operations and managerial decision-making across the internetworked enterprise
(O’Brien, 2000). Many applications are designed to interface with and access existing organisation
databases and legacy systems so that employees (within the organisation) can access and run such
applications using Web browsers from anywhere on the network whenever needed. Evernden (2004)
reports that many organisations have reported economic benefits and competitive advantages from the
proper exploitation of their organisation’s resources. O’Brien (2000) reports that some Intranet-using
organisations are in the process of Web-enabling operational and managerial support applications
including executive information and decision support. The impact of Intranets on executive information
systems (EIS) implementation in organisations is the focus of this paper.
Intranets
With the growth in the usage of Web-based technologies, there has been a significant growth in
‘organisational Internets’ or Intranets (Scheepers and Damsgaard, 1997; McNay 2000). Intranets build on
popular Web-based technologies to facilitate information sharing within the organisation. An Intranet (or
internal Web) is a network architecture designed to serve the internal information needs of an organisation
using Web (Internet) concepts and tools (see, for example, Cortese, 1996). Turban et al. (2005) indicate
that an Intranet is a private network that uses Internet software and TCP/IP protocols. Defined technically,
Intranets are the application of Internet technology (and specifically the World Wide Web service) for a
prescribed community of users (Scheepers and Rose, 2001). An Intranet is a network designed to serve the
internal informational needs of an organisation, using Internet concepts and tools (Turban et al., 2004).
Organisations can use Internet networking standards and Web technology to create Intranets (Laudon and
Laudon, 2000). It provides similar capabilities, namely inexpensive and easy browsing, communication
and collaboration (Turban and Aronson, 1998) and are used solely for intraorganisational communication
activities and information flow (Abraham and Seal, 2001). Access to the Intranet can be easily restricted
to organisational members making it the perfect conduit for disseminating private organisational
information (Scheepers and Damsgaard, 1997).
Intranets can create networked applications that can run on many different kinds of computers throughout
an organisation (Laudon and Laudon, 2000). Typical Intranet applications include:
•
publishing corporate documents;
•
providing access to searchable directories (eg. telephone and address lists);
•
publishing corporate, departmental and individual pages;
•
providing access to groupware applications;
•
distributing software;
•
providing electronic mail;
•
transacting with other organisational computer-based IS;
•
organisation-wide information searches;
•
providing a consistent user interface; and
•
data warehousing and decision support access.
Turban and Aronson (1998) and Turban et al. (2004) note Intranets have the power to change decisionmaking processes, organisational structure and procedures and helps re-engineer organisations. Strom
(1996) reports that much information on Intranets is available directly on the Web. The use of Intranets is
increasing rapidly not only as an internal communication system, but also as a facilitator of e-Commerce
(Turban et al., 1999). Robinson (1996) suggests that Intranets can be applied to enhanced knowledge
sharing and group decision and business processes. Information that is most frequently included in
Intranets inter alia includes data warehouse and decision support access (Chabrow, 1998). Many
organisations have benefitted from use of the Intranet Web-based technology and have made their
organisations more efficient (Sprout, 1995). KPMG Consulting (2002) reports that organisations are
focusing strongly on internal communications projects (such as Intranets). It is the differences in
governance and communication that enables some organisations to success and flourish where others fail.
However, users still face the difficulty of filtering and organizing information from different sources and
choosing relevant information at the desired quality level (Ho and Tang, 2001).
Executive Information Systems
EIS grew out of the development of IS to be used directly by executives and used to augment the supply
of information by subordinates (Srivihok, 1998). An EIS is a computer-based system that serves the
information needs of top executives (Turban et al., 2004). For the purposes of this chapter, EIS is defined
as ‘a computerized system that provides executives with easy access to internal and external information
that is relevant to their critical success factors’ (Watson et al., 1997). EIS are an important element of the
information architecture of an organisation. EIS is a computer-based technology that is designed in
response to executives’ specific decision-making needs (Turban et al., 2005). Turban (2001) suggests that
EIS capabilities are being ‘embedded in BI’. All major EIS and information product vendors now offer
Web versions of the tools designed to function with Web servers and browsers (PricewaterhouseCoopers,
2002). Business Intelligence is a broad category of application and techniques for gathering, storing,
analysing and providing access to data to help users in organisations make better decisions and strategic
decisions (Oguz, 2003).
With the increasing amount of IT investment and substantial evidence of failures (Remenyi and Lubbe,
1998), many managers and researchers feel that IS justification and evaluation has become a key
management issue. EIS has become a significant area of business computing and there are increasing
amounts of money invested by organisations in EIS development projects (Kaniclides and Kimble, 1995)
and the subsequent operation (use) of these systems (Millet et al., 1991; Belcher and Watson, 1993). For
example, in October 1997 the largest water utility in South Africa, Rand Water, took a decision to build an
EIS (based on Oracle® products) and invested R4,5m in revamping its IT infrastructure to support that
deployment (Harris, 2000). For a survey of the state of EIS implementations in organisations in South
Africa, see, for example, Averweg et al. (2004).
Web-based technologies are causing a revisit to existing IT implementation models, including EIS
(Averweg et al., 2003). Web-based tools ‘are very much suited’ to executives key activities of
communicating and informing (Pijpers, 2001). With the emergence of global IT, existing paradigms are
being altered which are spawning new considerations for successful IT implementation (Averweg and
Erwin, 2000).
Background and Goal of the Research
Intranet technology is essentially a pull technology and Intranet use is largely voluntary (Lyytinen et al.,
1998). Computer or IS usage has been identified as the key indicator of the adoption of IT by
organisations (Suradi, 2001). Igbaria and Tan (1997) report that system usage is an important variable in
IT acceptance since it appears to be a good surrogate measure for the effective deployment of IS resources
in organisations. Lu and Gustafson (1994) report that people use computers because they believe that
computers will increase their problem solving performance (usefulness) and they are relatively effort free
to use (ease of use). From the available literature, there is little evidence to suggest that the impact of
Web-based technologies on EIS implementations has previously been investigated. This creates a platform
for conducting such research. User acceptance of IT has been a primary focus in IT implementation
research (Al-Gahtani, 2001). Researchers in the field rely on the theories of innovation diffusion to study
implementation problems. Davis’ (Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)
is based on the diffusion of innovation model. TAM is a well-respected model of IT adoption and use
(Al-Gahtani, 2001).
As the usage of IT increases, Web-enabled information technologies can provide the means for greater
access to information from disparate computer applications and other information resources (Eder, 2000).
These Web-based technologies include: Intranet, Internet, Extranet, e-Commerce Business-to-Business
(B2B), e-Commerce Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and other
mobile technologies. The focus of this chapter is on Intranets. There exists a high degree of similarity
between the characteristics of a ‘good EIS’ and Web-based technologies (Tang et al., 1997).
The technology for EIS is evolving rapidly and future systems are likely to be different (Sprague and
Watson, 1996). EIS is now clearly in a state of flux. As Turban (2001) notes, ‘EIS is going through a
major change’. There is therefore both scope and need for research in the particular area of future EIS
implementations being impacted by Intranets as executives and business end-users need systems that
provide access to diverse types of information that form part of information age economies. Emerging
(Web-based) technologies can redefine the utility, desirability and economic viability of EIS technology
(Volonino et al., 1995). Damsgaard and Scheepers (1999) describe Intranet technology a multi-purpose,
rich networked and malleable in terms of its application.
With the absence of research efforts on the impact of Intranets on EIS implementation in South Africa,
this research begins to fill the gap with a study of selected organisations in KwaZulu-Natal which have
implemented EIS.
Research Method and Data Gathering
The survey instrument developed by the author was based on previous instruments used in published
research papers (see Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989; Averweg, 2002). The questionnaire consists of three
parts:
•
Section 1 contains the organisation’s demographics;
•
Section 2 contains the attributes of the organisation’s EIS and which are extracted and translated
from the Roldán (2000) EIS questionnaire; and
•
Section 3 contains seven-point Likert scale statements (anchored with (1) Not at all and
(7) Extensively) dealing with how an interviewee perceives specific Web-based technologies
impacted his organisation’s EIS implementation. The selected Web-based technologies are
(1) Intranet; (2) Internet; (3) Extranet; (4) e-Commerce: Business-to-Business (B2B);
(5) e-Commerce: Business-to-Consumer (B2C); (6) Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and
other mobile technologies; and (7) Any other Web-based technologies.
The questionnaire was administered during a semi-structured interview process. Pooling data across
different technologies is consistent with prior research in user acceptance (see, for example, Davis, 1989;
Davis et al., 1989; Venkatesh and Morris, 2000).
The sample was selected using the unbiased ‘snowball’ sampling technique. Cooper and Emory (1995)
state that this technique has found a niche in applications where respondents are difficult to identify and
are best located through referral networks. A formal extensive interview schedule was compiled and used
for the semi-structured interviews. Interviews were conducted during May-June 2002 at the interviewee’s
organisation.
There are six major metropolitan Councils in South Africa. Ethekwini Municipality Area (EMA) is the
most populous municipality in South Africa (SA2002-2003, 2002). EMA’s geographic area size is 2,300
km2 with a population of 3,09 million citizens (Statistics South Africa, 2001). The author’s survey of
organisations in KwaZulu-Natal which have implemented EIS is confined to organisations in the EMA. It
is acknowledged that some organisations may have implemented more than one EIS. In those cases and
for this study, only the latest EIS implementation is used in the author’s survey.
Some studies suggest that EIS should not only be accessed by executive users (see, for example, Volonino
et al., 1995; Rai and Bajwa, 1997). Salmeron (2001) notes EIS as the technology for information delivery
for all business end-users. Kennedy (1995) and Messina and Sanjay (1995) report that EIS have spread
throughout organisations. It is evident that EIS requires continuous input from three different stakeholder
groups (known as constituencies):
•
EIS executives/ business end-users;
•
EIS providers (ie. persons responsible for developing and maintaining the EIS); and
•
EIS vendors or consultants.
All constituencies are surveyed in the author’s data sampling.
A field study of thirty-one different organisations in the EMA which have successfully implemented EIS
was conducted. Each semi-structured interview was conducted by the author.
Results and Discussion
An activity sector list of organisations surveyed by the author is reflected in Table 1.
Table 1. Activity sector list of organisations surveyed which have implemented EIS
Activity Sector
Number of Activity Sectors in survey
sample and associated percentage of total
sample surveyed (N=31)
Agriculture
1 (3,2%)
Catering
1 (3,2%)
Construction and Automotive
1 (3,2%)
Education
1 (3,2%)
Electrical Power Distribution
1 (3,2%)
Financial Services
6 (19,5%)
Food Processing
1 (3,2%)
Information Technology Services
2 (6,5%)
Manufacturing
7 (22,6%)
Medical Scheme Administrators
1 (3,2%)
Public Administration
1 (3,2%)
Public Transportation
1 (3,2%)
Publishing
1 (3,2%)
Retail
2 (6,5%)
Software Development
1 (3,2%)
Warehousing and Distribution
2 (6,5%)
Water Distribution
1 (3,2%)
TOTAL
31 (100,0%)
From Table 1, 27 (90%) of organisations surveyed were large enterprises in the EMA. One organisation
surveyed had an annual ‘sales for the year exceeding R12 bn’ (Butcher, 2002). Twenty (64,5%) of
organisations surveyed had more than 500 employees.
The three EIS constituencies, number of surveyed interviewees and associated percentages per
constituency are reflected in Table 2.
Table 2. EIS constituencies and number of interviewees surveyed per constituency
Stakeholder groups (constituencies)
Number of interviewees surveyed and
associated percentage of total sample
EIS executives/business end-users
20 (64,5%)
EIS providers
7 (22,6%)
EIS vendors or consultants
4 (12,9%)
SAMPLE SIZE
31 (100%)
The frequency of EIS usage reported by the respondents in the organisations surveyed is reflected in
Table 3. From Table 3, frequently (several times per day) and regular use of the EIS were reported by a
total of 25 (80,6%) respondents. An EIS has the effect of multiplying the frequency of use (Palvia et al.,
1996).
Table 3. Frequency of EIS usage reported by respondents and associated percentages
Frequency of EIS use in organisation
Tally and associated percentage of EIS use
in organisation as reported by respondents
in total sample surveyed (N=31)
Very rarely or not at all
1 (3,2%)
Rarely (a few times per month)
1 (3,2%)
Occasionally (a few times per week)
1 (3,2%)
Sometimes (about once per week)
1 (3,2%)
Fairly regularly (several times per week)
4 (12,9%)
Regularly (once a day)
12 (38,7%)
Frequently (several times per day)
13 (41,9%)
From the author’s survey instrument, Table 4 reflects data the different types of information held by an
EIS in an organisation surveyed. From Table 4, Financial information (90,3%) appears as the most
important item followed by Business/Sales (74,2%) and then Strategic Planning (35,5%).
Table 4. Functional areas where EIS is used in organisations
Types of information held by EIS in
organisation
Tally and associated percentage of the number of
types of information as reported by respondents in
total sample surveyed (N=31)
Strategic planning
11 (35,5%)
Inventory management/Suppliers
10 (32,3%)
‘Soft’ information
4 (12,9%)
Finance
28 (90,3%)
Business/Sales
23 (74,2%)
Trade/Industry
4 (12,9%)
Human Resources
9 (29,0%)
Quality
7 (22,6%)
External news services
1 (3,2%)
Production
8 (25,8%)
Competitors
3 (9,7%)
Stock Exchange prices
1 (3,2%)
From Table 4 the information that appears predominantly in EIS has an internal characteristic. External
information obtains low response levels: Trade/Industry (12,9%), External news services (3,2%),
Competitors (9,7%) and Stock Exchange prices (3,2%). By utilising their Intranet, organisations have the
ability to share (internal) information, collaborate and transact across various incompatible technical
platforms and IS and across functional, structural and geographical boundaries within the organisation in a
standard and user-friendly manner (McNaughton et al., 1999; Damsgaard and Scheepers, 2000).
From Section 4 of the author’s survey instrument, a tally and associated percentage of the perceived
degree to which specific Web-based technologies impacted a respondent’s EIS implementation is given in
Table 5. The shaded area in Table 6 suggests that there is little (if any) perceived impact by Web-based
technologies on EIS implementation in organisations surveyed in KwaZulu-Natal.
Table 5. Tally and associated percentage of the expected degree to which specific Web-based technologies impacted respondent’s
EIS implementation
The degree to which Web-based technologies impacted respondent’s EIS
implementation (N=31)
Web-based technology
Not at all
Very little
Somewhat
little
Uncertain
Somewhat
much
Intranet
17 (54,8%)
2 (6,5%)
2 (6,5%)
0 (0,0%)
3 (9,7%)
4 (12,9%)
3 (9,6%)
Internet
21(67,7%)
1 (3,2%)
1 (3,2%)
0 (0,0%)
2 (6,5%)
3 (9,7%)
3 (9,7%)
Extranet
24 (77,4%)
1 (3,2%)
2 (6,5%)
1 (3,2%)
1 (3,2%)
2 (6,5%)
0 (0,0%)
e-Commerce: (B2B)
28 (90,4%)
1 (3,2%)
0 (0,0%)
0 (0,0%)
0 (0,0%)
1 (3,2%)
1 (3,2%)
e-Commerce: (B2C)
26 (83,9%)
1 (3,2%)
1 (3,2%)
0 (0,0%)
2 (6,5%)
0 (0,0%)
1 (3,2%)
WAP and other mobile technologies
29 (93,6%)
1 (3,2%)
0 (0,0%)
0 (0,0%)
0 (0,0%)
0 (0,0%)
1 (3,2%)
Portal
26 (83,8%)
0 (0,0%)
0 (0,0%)
0 (0,0%)
2 (6,5%)
2 (6,5%)
1 (3,2%)
Very much Extensively
Table 5 shows that only seven (22,5%) of organisations surveyed reported that the Intranet significantly
impacted their EIS implementation. From a managerial perspective Intranet technology’s cost, flexibility
and wide spectrum of uses does render it an attractive IT in the organisational environment (Scheepers and
Rose, 2001). The level of impact by the Internet on EIS implementation is slightly lower with six (19,4%)
of organisations surveyed reporting that the Internet had significantly impacted their EIS implementation.
While 24 (77,4%) of organisations surveyed reported the Extranet had no impact on their organisation’s
EIS implementation, the balance of the data sample (22,6%) reported different degrees of impact.
Turban et al. (2004) note that the use of Extranets is rapidly increasing due to the large savings in
communication costs that can materialize. The author’s reported relatively low level impact by the
Extranet on EIS implementations in organisations surveyed, may be an avenue for further investigation.
The Internet, Intranet and Extranets can be used in various ways in a corporate environment in order to
gain competitive advantage (Turban et al., 2004).
The results show that the vast majority (90,4%) of respondents reported that e-Commerce: (B2B) had not
impacted EIS implementation in organisation surveyed. A slightly lower result (83,9%) was reported for
e-Commerce: (B2C). One possible explanation for e-Commerce (B2B) and (B2C) low impact levels is
that the software development tools are still evolving and changing rapidly. Another possible reason is it is
difficult to integrate the Internet and e-Commerce software with some existing applications and databases.
However, Ciborra and Hanseth (1998) suggest that Intranet technology may even emerge without a grand
plan in the organisation.
WAP and other mobile technologies have no (93,6%) or very little (3,2%) impact on EIS
implementations. Of the seven Web-based technologies given in Table 6, WAP and other mobile
technologies have the least impact (combining ‘Somewhat much’, ‘Very much’ and ‘Extensively’) on EIS
implementation in organisations surveyed. Only one respondent (3,2%) reported that WAP and other
technologies had extensively impacted the EIS implementation in her organisation. A possible explanation
for this result is that the EIS consultant was technically proficient in WAP technologies.
From Table 5, three interviewees reported that their organisation’s EIS implementations were significantly
impacted (‘Very much’ and ‘Extensively’) by portal technologies. This is noteworthy as the portal
technology impact on EIS implementations (9,7%) is higher than the Extranet (6,5%), e-Commerce:
(B2B) (6,4%), e-Commerce: (B2C) (6,4%) and WAP and other technologies (3,2%) impacts. Corporate
portals provide single-point access to specific enterprise information and applications available on the
Internet, Intranets and Extranets (Turban et al., 2004). One of the major problems of modern decentralized
organisations is fragmentation and isolation of its components and collaboration through portal structures
could provide a powerful solution (ExecutiveInformationSystem Inc, 1999). For a discussion of the impact
of portal technologies on EIS implementation in organisations, see Averweg et al. (2003).
Combining the results (‘Somewhat much’, ‘Very much’ and ‘Extensively’) for each of the seven
Web-based technologies, Table 6 gives a descending ranking order of the levels of impact on EIS
implementations. From the selected Web-based technologies, Intranets have the highest level of impact on
EIS implementation in organisations in KwaZulu-Natal. Intranets are envisioned as platforms for
organisational knowledge management (Davenport and Pruzak, 1998). This information is particularly
useful for IT practitioners in the planning of future EIS implementations.
Table 6. Descending rank order of impact levels of Web-based technologies on EIS implementation
Rank
Web-based technology
Tally and level of impact
on EIS implementations
1
Intranet
10 (32,2%)
2
Internet
8 (25,9%)
3
Portal
5 (16,2%)
4
Extranet
3 (9,7%)
4
e-Commerce: (B2C)
3 (9,7%)
6
e-Commerce: (B2B)
2 (6,4%)
7
WAP and other mobile technologies
1 (3,2%)
Concluding Remarks
Intranet technology calls into question some of our traditional IT implementation wisdom and presents
new challenges for seeking to implement the technology (Balasubramanian and Bashian,
1998; Scheepers, 1999). Consequently approaching an EIS implementation with a traditional mindset or
using existing implementation models may be shortsighted. The advent of the organisational application
of Internet-based technologies (especially Intranets), now marks the ubiquitous computing paradigm that
weaves together a complex array of existing information and communication technologies into one rich
medium (Dahlbom, 1996). There is a need to identify crucial differences in existing IT implementation
models that enable some organisations to success with their IT investment where others have failed.
While problem dimensions may differ from organisation to organisation and that each organisation and
user may have their own problem situations which change over time, there is a need to develop and
implement flexible EIS which can be maintained easily to meet the changing Intranet needs. Developers
must be aware of emerging trends in the Intranet market to create systems that will be able to incorporate
the latest technological developments and new methods of information delivery and presentation. As the
use of Web-based technologies in the distribution of internal information in organisations in
KwaZulu-Natal becomes more widespread, it is envisaged that future EIS implementations will be further
impacted by Intranets.
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