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Business continuity plans for the wireless world must address solar activity.

In this study, senior executives with electronic data interchange (EDI) experience explained the factors their firms considered when deciding to use EDI. The majority of their comments focused on the operational (i.e., internal) benefits they are receiving from EDI. Most of the firms that participated in the study have moved from an operational mindset regarding EDI and noted external/competitive benefits as they electronically link to customers and suppliers. The executives acknowledged power inequities between their large firms and the trading partners with whom they use EDI. Although EDI is a mature technology, when classified by innovation adoption and diffusion theory, it provides adopting firms significant benefits.

In organizations in which the information center has matured, a stable set of services is offered. A survey was done of 126 information centers to determine the services they currently provide to users and to obtain a perspective on the future of the information center itself.

This study examines the key issues facing information centers ICs by identifying and comparing the issues that IC managers rated as most important in two surveys, one in 1986 and the second in 1989. Both surveys elicited 21 issues, with the 1989 survey adding four new issues while deleting four issues from the 1986 survey. The study compares and contrasts the two sets of issues to discover those that increased in importance, decreased in importance, or remained the same. The findings provide insights into the changing nature of the IC's function in organizations.

End user computing (EUC) has developed into a critical part of the information resource of the organization. The information center (IC), an essential support and control mechanism for EUC, has also become a critical component of the organization's information resource. ICs support the end users by providing services for them. Our study surveyed 126 ICs to determine which services they presently offer, which ones they do not offer, and which ones they previously offered but discontinued. In addition, the study collected data on services requested by the end users. This paper furnishes a definitive catalog of services offered by ICs and compares them with the services requested by end users. The findings illustrate the responsiveness of ICs to their end user communities. Even though ICs typically offer a broad variety of services, there are differences in the services most offered by ICs and services most requested by end users.

Image processing is a new technology that may prove to be strategically significant for information management in many organizations. This article uses survey data from 14 organizations to examine the costs, benefits, alternative and complementary technologies, and critical success factors associated with implementing image processing systems.

A new technology has emerged in recent years to assist in modeling all facets of a business enterprise and in the design and development of information systems. This technology, computer-aided software engineering (CASE), has caused much confusion in the IS community about its exact purpose. This article provides a detailed definition of CASE, distinguishes between CASE and integrated CASE (ICASE), and provides several strategies for ICASE implementation.

The information center (IC) is a well-established resource for supporting end-user computing in an organization. Since IBM-Canada's installation of its information center, thousands of organizations have developed ICs to provide a variety of services to the user community, the MIS department, general management, and the IC staff. This article examines the services currently provided by information centers and identifies which group or groups request each service. The article also discusses the influence of the MIS department on these IC services. These findings are based on the results of a survey of 92 IC managers.

During the past decade, strategic information technology (IT) applications, such as electronic mail (e-mail), have been used to gain competitive advantage over rivals or prevent rivals from gaining a competitive advantage. The use of e-mail has been considered a component of overall business strategy, and its application depends more on understanding unique business opportunities than on competitive benefits from technological features that are easily duplicated. Since the first message was sent in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, e-mail has emerged as an important technological requirement in business. E-mail is as common as the U.S. postal mail in the twentieth century. Businesses, schools, and universities are insisting that employees and students have an e-mail account to check updates or download information concerning business tasks or class activities. Given the widespread acceptance and use of this technology, the strategic value of e-mail within an organization should be apparent.

The EXIS export information expert system that facilitates the use of the UN's COMTRADE export-import database is described. It is based on the assumptions that business needs for international trade data are different from the needs of governmental, international, and supranational agencies. Business executives make decisions based on market size, market share, competitors, growth rates, and so on, whereas government personnel have different criteria. In addition, business executives utilize this trade data on a nonroutine basis and require aid and assistance in acquiring, using, and understanding it. EXIS provides inexpensive technology to aid the executive in the decision process. >

This chapter provides a new perspective on the competitive advantage of electronic mail within organizations. Essentially, e-mail assists individuals with efficiency and effectiveness. It improves the overall productivity of the firm and provides better coordination of internal processes. Electronic mail has been considered an important channel of communication. Since quality, time and cost are considered the main means of competition in today’s global market, this study investigated the relationship between the strategic uses and competitive benefits of electronic mail in contemporary organizations. A sample of 99 management-level staff members in 41 companies responded to a questionnaire assessing their e-mail usage and their perceived e-mail benefits. The results suggested that e-mail usage could augment the competitive posture of the firm.

126 information centers (ICs) were surveyed to determine which services they offer, which ones they do not offer, and which ones they offered previously but discontinued. Based on the survey responses, a definitive list of 35 individual IC services offered by information centers was obtained. Although only seven of the services are offered in les than one-half of the responding companies, some services are offered less frequently than expected. The service group of software support is offered most frequently and the miscellaneous support group is offered least frequently. It is observed that the diversity of these services and the frequency with which they are offered indicate that the IC continues to be a strategically important concept for supporting end-user computing in organizations. >

The increased cost of doing business domestically and the impact of global competition are two reasons companies establish plants in foreign locations. To have a successful global business, manufacturers must have an effective global supply chain infrastructure, which requires effective information technology. Firms now routinely consider remote domestic and international locations when evaluating potential sites. Many factors must be considered when choosing the right location for manufacturing facilities. These include: physical infrastructure, proximity to suppliers and customers, tax considerations, international trade conditions, and as this research explored, telecommunications infrastructure. This study examined the degree to which the telecommunications infrastructure impacts the decision to select a specific foreign manufacturing site for the organisation. The results of four case studies of electronics firms indicated that telecommunications is a necessity to conduct business. Two of the firms indicated that telecommunications was considered in their most recent site selection. Although the other two firms did not overtly consider telecommunications in the site selection criteria, they did indicate that it is critical to the success of the company in a global market.

A stage hypothesis for information centers (ICs) is proposed and 26 critical success factors (CSFs) for IC managements are investigated. Based on 311 responses from IC managers, support is found for the proposed stages and information is provided about the importance of the CSFs. A principal components analysis is performed on the 26 CSFs which identifies five composite CSFs: (1) commitment to the IC concept; (2) quality of IC support services; (3) facilitation of end-user computing; (4) role clarity; and (5) coordination of end-user computing. Statistical tests show that the importance of these composite CSFs tend to vary among themselves but is relatively constant individually across the IC stages.