Development of a Framework for Management of Benefits Realization from Information Technology in Organizations

Abstract

Nowadays, information technology systems which are relatively expensive keep rapidly changing so that users show more tendencies to gain benefits from such systems as much as possible. The main focus of the research is based on the development of a framework for benefits realization of a management information system in organizations by reviewing the literature and studying current cases. The developed framework consists of two parts. The first part considers the positive factors that have a significant impact on the benefits of the information technology systems in an organization. To do this, 6 factors were investigated as follows: the extent of knowledgeable and competent personnel, the level of good relationships between personnel, the degree of acceptance of change by personnel, the use of information technology to communicate, the degree of intention to use an information technology system, and the planning of information technology benefits. The second part contains the processes of the benefits realization from information technology aspect. Accordingly, 5 processes were studied as the following: the planning utilization of information technology systems, the implementation of the plans to improve the use of information technology systems, the utilization of information technology systems, and finally the control and evaluation processes. In this work, a strategic management approach was applied in every process. Consequently, in order to achieve and accomplish the implementation objectives of the study, the users need to follow the proposed framework's systematic steps by developing tools in a form to use in the context of each task. The developed framework can have profound benefits for better management of the information technology systems in organizations in more efficient and effective ways. To examine the reliability and validity of the results, the proposed framework was qualitatively investigated by some of the experts of the field of information technology through a Focus Group Discussion method of research. The experts unanimously agreed on the fact that the developed framework is suitable for use in real life situations and scenarios as the consistency index is 1.00 based on their evaluation. The results of the assessment of the suitability of the framework show appropriate levels (i.e., with the values = 4.63 and S.D. = 0.49).  The operational value of the process also indicate appropriate levels (i.e., with the values  = 4.58 and S.D. = 050).