Editorial

Citation

Irani, Z. and Sarikas, O.D. (2006), "Editorial", Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 19 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim.2006.08819daa.001

Editorial

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the fourth issue of the 19th volume of the Journal of Enterprise Information Management.

We kick off this issue with two papers that related back to the roots of the journal – the logistics of information management. The term Logistics is generally understood as being concerned with material flow (raw materials, interim and final products) but, also involves providing companies with services and information. Through the logistics supply chain, information technology (IT) has a key enabling role to play and with the advent of third and fourth generation mobile technologies, has been extended even further. The first paper by Vasileios Zeimpekis and George Giaglis titled “Urban dynamic real-time distribution services: insights from SMEs” examines the circumstances of success in telematic use and strategic effects from the implement and use of mobile network-augmented telematics solutions from SMEs in the Greek Market. The authors report that urban transportation constitutes a significant part of the operation costs of delivery for a firm. To minimise operational cost and optimise customer service, many firms have implemented mobile network-augmented telematics solutions, which that allow them to monitor the status of delivery and distribution of their fleet in real-time. A timely challenge is to further such solutions through making use of the increasing potential in mobile technology and, availability of next-generation mobile networks, on-board wireless devices, and back-end decision support systems. In addition to such technological developments, the efficiency and effectiveness of such solutions is also largely dependent on business critical factors, such as the IT literacy of the vehicle operating staff, as well as alignment with corporate strategic IT planning. To address this issue, the paper explores customer perceptions and requirements for the implementation of mobile real-time support services for city logistics. The analysis is based on a three-phased triangulated research methodology; that is an extensive literature, interviews from 15 logistics directors and a questionnaire survey of 73 logistics SMEs in Greece. The research points out that although the penetration of telematics is still low in Greece, logistics operations understand the importance of mobile services and role that it plays in providing satisfaction to their customers. It is further highlighted that characteristics of the transportation industry sector are contributory factors to the extent of adoption and exploitation of telematic solution to support the process of urban distribution. The requirements, drawn from the survey results, are used to propose a system representation of a real-time vehicle management mechanism for urban transportation.

The second paper by Michael and Constantine Bourlakis is on “Integrating logistics with information technology strategies for sustainable competitive advantage”. The paper investigates the integration process, or retailers IT strategy within a logistics strategy, and note those aspects of the retailers distribution and operation performance that are mostly influenced via integration. The study uses a qualitative case study methodology where the managers of the major domestic and multinational firms in the Greek food multiple retail market are interviewed. The findings of the study portray that logistics and IT strategies are developed and implemented in a parallel way by both local and multinational food multiple retails in Greece. However, domestic firms became aware of the usefulness of the integrated use of logistics and IT functions “in the aftermath of foreign entry” and still need much time to install the necessary advanced logistics-related systems. As such, they are disadvantaged compared to the multinational counterparts. A financial ratio analysis carried out for these firms suggests that multinational firms possess greater operational efficiency at both secondary and in-store distribution operations compared to domestics firms. Multinational firms’ superior operational efficiency is also resulting in higher profitability performance. It is evident that successful integration process between the logistics and IT functions seem to confer a competitive advantage upon retailers’ distribution operations. This advantage was found to lead to operational efficiency land higher profitability performance. This finding is useful to retail managers and researchers responsible for the development of logistics and IT strategies to understand that fully absorbed IT and logistics strategies, and operations will be rewarded with superior pecuniary and operational efficiency benefits.

Mying Ko and Kweku-Muata Osei-Bryson shift our attention to “Analyzing the impact of information technology investments using regression and data mining techniques”. Information technology and information systems (IS) evaluation is a subject of much heated debate and many attempts to justify the business value of increased investments in IT have shown mixed results. Meanwhile, recent firm level studies indicate that IT investments have a positive impact on productivity but, whether IT adds “value” to organisations is an issue worth of further investigation. To provide an answer, the authors’ employee a plethora of quantitative techniques such as regression, regression trees and regression splines and integrate the responses provided for each technique. While the results of the study indicate that IT investments have a positive impact on productivity, the impact is conditional and not uniform but depends on the amounts invested in other related areas, such as Non-IT Labor, Non-IT Capital, and/or IT investments. Therefore, the impact on productivity needs a combined effort that is maximised when IT is considered together than when considered in isolation of other factors. This consensus has a very interesting implication where IT investment decision should not be myopic and without consideration on the levels of other investments within the organisation to avoid any waste in additional funds in IT that will create hungry orphans.

Piotr Soja, with a paper “Success factors in ERP systems implementations: lessons from practice” reveals the mechanisms determining the success of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations on the basis of research conducted among practitioners dealing with ERP projects. To do so, identifies a list of potential ERP implementation success factors and verifies their significance with the help of real implementation project participants. The compiled list of critical success factors is related to implementation participants, top management involvement, project definition and organisation, project status, and the actual factors of the technical system (IS). The respondents of the surveys (pilot and extended), voiced their opinions concerning the importance of subsequent factors for implementations success and about the factors’ appearance and implementation success in their projects. The pragmatic findings recognise the factors that have the greatest implementation success regardless of the project type but, reveal that the leading roles of certain factors appear among specific project groups. For example, the practitioners do not appreciate the significance of particular factors that have an important influence on project success, whereas other factors are underestimated. This allows us to understand the differences in perceptions of attitudes between parties involved in an implementation project.

Last but not least, Marinos Themistocleous and Gail Gorbitt remind us that what worked yesterday may not work today or tomorrow, in their paper “Is business process integration feasible”. This exploratory paper uses a case study strategy to gather data related to the implementation of an enterprise application integration (EAI) solution. EAI has emerged in recent years to overcome the limitations of ERP to process automation and integration. The authors summarise the basic search for business process integration via legacy technology and its offering as another alternative solution at an old problem. The authors contend that EAI technology allows indeed organisations to redesign their business processes and reconfigure their IT infrastructure in a way that efficiently reflects the changes of the business process. This, they argue, is achieved through the development of an integrated EAI infrastructure that incorporates functionality from disparate systems that automate the business processes and in doing so, organisations can follow a strategic or “opportunistic” approach. The latter supports the integration of software solutions that automate a specific business process or a sub-process by redesigning limited parts of it, whereas in a strategic approach, organisations re-engineer the whole of their business process or a large proportion of them.

I hope you enjoy reading another exciting issue of the Journal of Enterprise Information Management and look forward to receiving your papers.

Zahir IraniEditor (zahir.irani@brunel.ac.uk)Omiros D. SarikasEditorial Assistant