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"Annually, before July 1, shall submit a report to the secretary of administration and the joint committee on finance on the department's progress in modernizing its business processes and integrating its information technology systems."--2013 Wisconsin Act 20 (viewed July 1, 2015)

Students and teachers from secondary schools located in remote areas are faced with barriers to educational access not seen in denser population areas. Students have the problem of accessing teachers of specialised subjects and the curriculum options their urban counterparts enjoy. In turn, their teachers have limited opportunities for professional learning and development. Some of the inhibiting factors include small numbers of students and staff, and schools' inability to offer a wide range of curricula, due to geographical challenges and other barriers. To overcome the barriers, some groups of schools in New Zealand initiated and self-organised a programme known as the Learning Exchange, which is an online collaborative, course-sharing programme. To participate in the programme, a number of the neighbouring schools form a regional virtual cluster and offer online classes to teach each other's students via video-conference and other ICT settings. Similarly, teachers form online groups to collaborate with and learn from other teachers. The basic strategy behind the programme is to maximise their existing educational resources and thus overcome the barriers. Since the programme's inception in 2001-02, around 20 school clusters have been initiated; however as of 2016, only eight of the clusters have developed and become self-sustainable. Others struggled to continue their participation in the programme and have disappeared. Therefore, achieving self-sustainable development remains a challenge for the clusters. This research aimed to address the problem by having three main research questions: How was the Learning Exchange developed? How was the Learning Exchange utilised by some clusters in New Zealand? What were the facilitating and inhibiting factors in the development of self-sustainable school clusters? This study adopted a qualitative research methodology within an interpretive research paradigm and a case research method. Four school clusters were selected base

This study reviewed shortcomings present in the process of selecting the scope of offshore outsourcing vendor usage. While extensive financial cost information is available to companies considering this alternative, there is little mentioned of the quality of service performance experienced by the internal work teams that act as the primary consumers of these contracted services. Additionally, it is common practice to contract offshore outsourcing on a project or departmental level without granular examination of suitability at the job role level. This study surveyed a representative sample (n = 30) of IT professionals, and addressed two related research questions regarding internal value return. The first questioned whether a satisfactory level of overall job performance is returned by holistically-outsourced IT services to offshore vendors and results were inconclusive. The second examined if differences were present between work teams responsible for various IT functions, indicating a need for more granular consideration and found significant differences between work teams' needs. As to the first research question, results were calculated from the aggregate mean of each departmental review with which the respondent had direct experience. Overall job performance satisfaction was measured using the t-test methodology as minimally sub-par, with insufficient significance to reject the possibility of sampling error, t (22) = 2.57, p> .05. As to the second research question, departmental satisfaction ratings in 10 factors relevant to service delivery were analyzed for variation in order to determine if significant valuation differences were present. Significant variation present in satisfaction levels between teams are representative of variation in factor importance by department. Three discrete departments -- Application Development, Server Operations, & Solutions and Architecture were examined. An analysis of variance showed that the effect of performance factor was significant F (9, 27) = 304.434, p <.001 that the effect of work team was significant at F (3, 27) = 43.190, p <.001. As both performance factor and work team variations were significant above the confidence level (95%) chosen as the threshold, the null hypothesis that there was no variation in factor delivery efficacy was rejected. The results of the second research question of whether a more detailed and granular examination would reveal differences in factor importance -- or the difference in emphasis on one factor over another, a statistically significant finding that such differences are present was found. Significant differences in value perception present between individual work teams and the collective totals indicated that each work team was unique in their expectations -- and valuation -- of services provided. In order, therefore, to provide optimal value, a more granular examination of each position or team to be outsourced should be conducted in order to reserve those positions that do not perform well for in-house performance, and only outsource those positions likely to do well to an offshore vendor. As each company requires its own unique mix of IT management needs appropriate their situation, each IT work team was found to have a level of unique need as well. These needs define work team satisfaction levels with services provided. Additionally, companies that avoid single factor decision-making with regard to offshore outsourced vendor use may see more optimal results. For the same reasons outlined above, the service delivery performance seen by internal work teams reflect the quality of work performed by the vendor. If such value degrades below satisfactory levels, it is possible to erode the savings realized by cost incentives to a negative return.

South Africa is regarded as a developing country yet the gap in the Gini Coefficient presents realities of inequitable access to services including healthcare. ?South Africa has a dichotomous demography of first and second economies? existing in this country and this has impacted the adoption of technologies in healthcare (Chikotie & Owei, 2008). The research study conducted aims to provide insight on the relationship between Information Communication Technology (ICT) and innovation on healthcare performance in South Africa. The researcher attempts to contribute to the existing body of knowledge by : (1) Investigating whether communication within ICTs promotes innovation and whether this innovation in turn is significant to improving healthcare in South Africa; (2) developing a tenable multi-dimensional framework that can be utilised by healthcare providers to implement and align with the organisation s strategy; and (3) providing specific recommendations for future researchers to improve management focus. The study aims to make a significant contribution by providing healthcare organisations with a framework that is a useful resource to their management, to address the gaps in healthcare innovation and ultimately assist in achieving the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 vision of providing sustainable quality healthcare to all South African citizens at an affordable rate. The researcher adopted a mixed methodology to triangulate and interpret the subject matter more accurately. 35 Hospital Managers were surveyed and 15 Senior Executive Managers were interviewed from a large private South African Hospital Group to provide insight into the adoption of ICTs in healthcare organisations. The researcher finds that communication within ICTs drives innovation and in turn is significant to improving healthcare in South Africa. If well executed, communication shall drive innovation which shall allow healthcare organisations the ability to maximise opportunities by improving their value propositions with an enhanced quality of care while rationalising cost. The performance of healthcare organisations is dependent on leadership competencies and a culture of innovation that has the ability to overcome the barriers of adoption and the ability to deal with change. The ICT Innovation Maturity Matrix (IMM) developed by the researcher proposes a degree of integration between ICT utilisation, innovation maturity and an organisation s performance.

The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which CSR is incorporated into the management of projects within the Information Technology (IT) Sector. The study's focus was particularly on IT Projects and IT Project Management. This research adopted a qualitative, exploratory approach as the study aimed to obtain new insights. Information was gathered from a cross-section of 8 companies, with 13 experts participating in semi-structured interviews. The study found that cost reduction is the real motive behind undertaking of IT Projects. The efficiencies brought about by IT Projects improve processes and cut out unnecessary waste. The reduction of operational risk, increase of revenue and reduction of costs are the true motivations for undertaking these IT Projects. If value creation is argued from this perspective, it could be considered a viable Business Case. The study found that CSR is well incorporated in organisations that have Project Management Offices (PMOs). Because the PMOs appear to engender good CSR practices, Management should seriously consider the establishment of PMOs to effectively address the incorporation of CSR into their IT Projects and IT Project Management. The use of IT Projects to develop beneficial products presents a solid Business Case for CSR incorporation.

"Past IS studies on culture have primarily focused on two levels of analysis: national culture and organizational culture. The gap in our knowledge of culture is in the area of occupational culture of IT professionals. Occupational culture, unlike organizational culture, is not bounded by a single organization, but rather forms itself around specific expertise, similar tasks, and a sense of itself as a distinct occupational group. In Part I, the 'strong program' of cultural sociology is used to examine and interpret the meaning of the core values of the IT occupation through the framework of shared language, shared history, and shared context. The interview results informed the creation of a survey instrument in Part II to measure six occupational values, Autonomy, Structure, Precision, Innovation, Reverence for Knowledge, and Enjoyment, and ten typical business management values. Significant differences were found between responses of IT professionals and non-IT business managers in 32 companies in the U.S. An additional executive survey measured the level of IT/Business Alignment and IT Value for each firm in Part III. A PLS model provides evidence that occupational cultural differences do significantly impact both IT/Business alignment and IT Value."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.

State transportation agencies deal with numerous technical and organizational challenges in building integrated data and information systems to provide high-quality information for supporting analysis, control and decision making in asset management. There is a need to identify the approaches that work and to develop guidelines for agencies working to achieve data integration. This project seeks to identify relevant metrics for performance measurement and the underlying factors and best practices that contribute to successful approaches. The research was comprised of six tasks: literature review; design of data collection instruments; pilot testing of data collection instruments; collection of data - interviews; identification and analysis of key success factors, best practices, and performance measures; and preparation of the guidelines document. Comprehensive case studies on data integration issues and best practices regarding asset management and information systems development were conducted on the Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio Departments of Transportation. All data integration efforts must be business driven. Without a business imperative for investing in systems development, there is no incentive for people to learn or implement the new system. Successful development of asset management systems require constant involvement of both business and technology people and a great deal of communication with both end users and users of the business systems being integrated.

To list, summarize, and categorize intelligent transportation standards (ITS). Reviews best practices and provides listings for standards developing organizations at national and international levels. Provides guidance as to where to look in the furute to find relevant standards for ITS. Presents strategies for integrating standards in IRS planning, deployment, and operation.

A report produced for OCLC's worldwide membership to examine the significant issues and trends impacting OCLC, libraries, museums, archives and other allied organizations, both now and in the future. The scan provides a high-level view of the information landscape, intended both to inform and stimulate discussion about future strategic directions.

Aims to provide a broad understanding of telecommunications to assist in decision making in the areas of library and information system automation.