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International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – Volume 43 Number 1 – January 2017
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 56
Challenges in Implementation of Information
System Strategies in Saudi Business Environ-
ment: A Case Study of a Bank
Monirah Almalki, Shimaa Al-fleit, Aasim Zafar
Information Systems Department,
Faculty of Computing & Information Technology,
King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Abstract — The work presented in this paper aims to
demonstrate the challenges in the implementation of
Information System Strategy in Saudi based business
environment in general and in a bank. To illustrate
these challenges, this paper employs a case study and
a survey to investigate the types of challenges in a
bank. The paper then displays analysis and discus-
sion of the survey results. Based on the responses, it
presents some recommendations that may help to
overcome these difficulties. The results strongly indi-
cate that the management challenges between IT and
business could be avoided if there were an adequate
connection between IT and business.
Keywords — Information Systems Strategy (ISS),
Challenges in implementation of ISS
I. INTRODUCTION
Information system strategies (ISS) play a major
role at all the levels of the business environment. The
functions of Information system strategies are re-
sponding to the business requirements by offering the
appropriate information systems for all activities in
business and ensuring the effectiveness of planning,
and control of projects. Also, the successful imple-
mentation of Information system strategies provides a
competitive advantage which leads to improving the
outcomes, decrease the mistake, increase efficiency,
and reduce unnecessary costs. In a today business
environment with increasing internal and external
changing, the business environment may face diffi-
culties and challenges such as human or technical
barriers which lead to misalignment or differences in
performance between the business and information
system strategies, and then this may cause a negative
effect on the business.
This paper attempts to present a brief explanation
of Information System Strategies (ISS) concepts,
discusses the implementation of information system
strategies and the challenges in its implementation,
after that we will examine this study through a sur-
vey. Finally, we discuss the results and suggest some
recommendations that may help to overcome these
difficulties.
II. INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGIES
A variety of definitions of ISS have been raised
in the literature. According to Wilson [1], he defined
the information system strategy from the perspective
of its role in business strategy as the analysis of the
role that information systems do to help the
companies or business in identifying a path to
strategy competitiveness. Wilson also introduces
another definition in the field of the ISS role in the
future vision of IS in the organization. He defined the
information systems strategy function to bring
together the business goals of the organization and
the implementation of computer systems. It is an
improvement plan of systems to a future vision of the
organization information systems. Another definition
by Earl [2] he considered the information systems
strategy as implementation strategies that intend to
aligning the Information system development with
the business requirements and investigate the
competitive advantage from the information
technology. Definitions of the ISS concept were
relatively similar in most of the literature. Henderson
and Venkatraman [3] defined IS strategy regarding
three dimensions. First, information technology
scope: the kinds and area of information systems and
abilities. Second, systemic competencies: those
unique characteristics of information technology
competencies such as, higher system reliability,
interconnectivity, and flexibility that participate
positively to the creation of new business strategies
or support existing business strategy. Third,
information technology governance: choices of
structural mechanisms as long-term contracts to get
the required information technology abilities.
Information system strategy is understood as a
general plan (“master plan”) for the build-out of the
organization’s information processing.
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – Volume 43 Number 1 – January 2017
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 57
III. IMPORTANCE OF ISS FOR THE BUSINESS
In the today environment, corporates in various
industries are dependent upon the information
systems. Rockart [4] indicated the importance of the
information technology as being an essential element
for the continuing business. The organizations are not
seeking for the technology using only to strengthen
the current business operations. Furthermore, they are
trying to develop new opportunities which will give
them a competitive advantage. According to Hinton,
M [5] identifies the importance of IS strategy for
business: The different divisions of an organization
while they can work properly regarding their
objectives they are not working toward the aims of
the organization due to the loss of collaboration
between divisions, and sometimes the divisions
objectives are going against the organization’s
objectives.
The organization sometimes have to allocate their
major resources, basically for the new property
development, product, and machines development.
Information systems require a costly hardware also
acquire design expense; all these processes require
largely resource allocation, which is can not happen
unless there is a unified orientation – a future
strategy.
The organization is responsible for the owners who
may be the shareholders or the public, the clients and
employees. the groups mentioned previously have a
distinct benefit in the strategy of the organization
either by producing the benefits they require or by the
degree the strategy has in taking their interests into
account and the organization success toward in
reaching their benefits.
A key outcome of IS strategy planning is a
portfolio of IS that will support an organization in
achieving its business goals [6]. The importance of
the IT strategy varies between organizations and
sectors and also it differs in the perceptions of top
level management [7]. Chan & Huff & Copland [8]
focused on the importance of the realized IS strategy
which is the strategy reflected in the organization. In
addition to intended IS strategy which is the official
organizational strategy which was wrongly assumed
as the only strategy of interest, their study suggests
the importance to view the systems as support source
for business operations.
IV. INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGY FORMULATION
The proper strategy planning that clarifies the sys-
tems and provides managing concept to the systems
is essential. Information systems strategies is a suc-
cessful process to create information systems which
enhance the business operations; We will illustrate
some of the ISS formulation methodologies proposed
in the literature.
A. "Three-Pronged’’ Model
A "Three-Pronged’’ Model for IS strategy formu-
lation by Earl [2] is a considered model for IS strate-
gy formulation. The three strategies are: (1) the clari-
fication of business needs and their translation into IS
requirements (‘‘top down’’), the evaluation of current
ISS provision (‘‘bottom up’’) and the identification
of innovative uses and opportunities afforded by
IT/IS (‘‘inside out’’). Earl argued that the three strat-
egies could be used as alternatives or parallel accord-
ing to some factors as the nature of the IT infrastruc-
ture, the organization structure and the level of de-
velopment of the organization’s main business sys-
tems. The ‘‘top-down’’ approach aiming to match IS
capabilities to business needs, it defined the ISS re-
quirements according to business plans and goals and
used Critical success factors to establish information
and system’s needs; its insure the involvement of
business management in the ISS formulation process.
The ‘‘bottom-up’’ approach is to evaluate the current
ISS capabilities, Earl says about it: ‘‘IS strategies are
rarely developed from a green field site, but have to
recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the current
applications portfolio’’ Earl [2]. The ‘‘inside-out’’
approach identifies the opportunities of IS/IT that is
lead to a competitive advantage or create strategic
options. Earl claims that the third approach is neces-
sary for the field of indication how IS or IT provide a
competitive advantage because even the first two
methods indicate that but the picture is still not com-
plete. Earl suggests some ways for implementing
strategic advantage through IT opportunities such as
the following. First, utilizing the perspectives. Se-
cond, knowledge of sales. Third, the recruitment of
‘‘bright spark’’ staff that have had exposure to the
latest IT/IS innovations and recent thinking on related
concepts.
B. "Four Cycle Planning" Method
In the planning for the IS strategy, some research-
ers recommended the comprehensive process where-
as the plans are complex and highly integrated with
the overall strategy. While the other recommended
the incremental and informal process while plans are
simple and loosely integrated with the overall strate-
gy to achieve IS planning objectives, although many
of the studies were successful, some of them lost the
participation and experienced inferior implementing
of the plans Salmela & Spil [9] reached to the new
idea that is combined the comprehensive and incre-
mental planning approaches to achieve better results
than applying one approach. They called it the four-
cycle planning method that is divided the chosen pe-
riod into four planning cycles. Each period focuses
on the fit of external developments with internal pos-
sibilities; the first one is: agreeing on planning
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – Volume 43 Number 1 – January 2017
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 58
objectives, this cycle comprised of three planning
process which is assessing the past planning out-
comes, framing the planning scope, determining the
objectives, determining contributors and modifying
the planning methodologies. The second cycle is
merging business and information objectives, this
cycle done by reading the current plans, information
sources, and documents, doing technology and busi-
ness analyzes and merging business objectives with
IS plans. Whereas the third cycle is analyzing IS re-
sources and IT infrastructure, this cycle also contains
three planning process, designing ICT infrastructure,
designing the ICT organization, and creating the ini-
tial project portfolio. The last cycle is authorizing
actions; it is combining with their process, identify-
ing organizational implications, defining criteria for
decision making, authorizing final decisions. The
objective of the method is to facilitate the managers
in the implementing a continuous planning process
the process is flexible in choosing the appropriate
planning process. The method is a convenience for
both managers who preferred the incremental or in-
formal IS planning. They can design the plan to meet
the minimal requirement managers who choose to the
apply the broad approach. By conducting deep analy-
sis in the different planning cycles, the key difference
between this method and the comprehensive ap-
proach is the continuity and repetition, which allow
assessing the planning method periodically.
V. SUCCESS FACTORS IN IMPLEMENTATION OF
ISS
Strategy implementation has less attention in the
research than strategy formulation or strategy
planning and many textbooks perceived it as distinct
from strategy formulation, however, that seems
limited [10], they are both an interrelated process to
achieve the competitive advantage objectives of the
organization. Researchers indicated that if the
planned strategies match the realized strategy which
both aim to reach the organizational vision the
strategy will be considered successful and will
implement successfully. The key success factors
should be determined to guarantee the success of IS
strategy implementation [11]. Arvidsson &
Holmstrom & Lyytinen [11] suggests some
challenges to successful IS strategy implementation
in their research as the following. First, to perform
ideal aligning of the strategic purpose with the
system capabilities. Second, to achieve the system
implementation in the overall organization. Third, to
form the system usage and the exercise related to it
toward the alignment objective with the strategic
purpose. Cutting-edge information systems strategies
unusually occur by accident. IS managers have the
responsibility for improving IS strategy and
managing the daily IS operations of the organization.
Moreover, cooperation between different part of
business, real assistance between the system provider
and the end-user, and establishing the project team
members with the appropriate skills for the proper
job are important success factors in the
implementation ISS [12]. What is important here, the
IS strategy should determine according to the
requirements of the business in the organization, not
to the technology availability.
VI. RELATED WORK
As the challenges associated with the Information
Systems strategies, the implementation did not take
much space in the previous research. The most of the
early researchers in the area of the ISS were concen-
trated more on the formulation and implementation
methodologies of the strategies. As in Chin-Fu Ho
[13] he developed a model for a strategic alignment
between manufacturing and IT departments with
multiple stages to overcome the difficulties associat-
ed with IT implementation in manufacturing organi-
zations. He highlighted the strategic change nature
that the organization must understand through the
proposed model to reach to the successful implemen-
tation. Also, suggested working as an assistant to the
managers in identifying challenges and managing IT
while perceiving it as a strategic resource. In the
same direction Salmela & Spill [9] also proposed a
model named (four cycle method) that divided the
planning period into four different cycles, composed
of comprehensive, incremental IS planning processes
in one model with a continuous process to encounter
emerging circumstance, enabling the evaluation and
reformulation of the plans. While for identified and
investigated the development and implementation of
the ISS in the small and medium companies. Wynn
[14] study was conducted through a qualitative re-
search in 8 organizations using Earl three models for
strategy development to assess the development and
implementation of the IS strategy in each company.
The finding shows that all three Earl models have
proved its success in implementing companies, no
one outperformed the other in term of the perfor-
mance. Also, indicated that the determination of the
best approach for one company should depend on its
circumstances. The study concludes with recom-
mending the other small and medium companies to
utilized finding of the survey to work the same way
to develop their IS strategies, adopting mid to long
term IS approach and aligning it to the business
plans.
On the other hand, there are vital of researchers
discussed the challenges faced the implementation of
the information systems in different sectors including
management information systems [12, 15] and Health
and hospital information systems (HIS) [16, 17]. In
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – Volume 43 Number 1 – January 2017
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 59
the field of MIS, Badragheh et al. [15], examine the
challenges of applying IS in the agricultural
extension and education organization in Iran through
assessing a multiple factors through interviews and
surveys, including management obstacles, technical
and substructural obstacles, organizational culture
obstacles, educational and others, results find that the
management was most important factor regarding the
challenges in applying MIS. In the same area of re-
search, Kornkaew’s master thesis [12] examined the
challenges and success factor associated with imple-
menting MIS. They utilized a case study of Fenix
system, along with the impact and consequences of
the MIS implementation on the organizations. The
information was collected from the internal document
in Fenix and by interviewing people involved. The
main challenges in their results were administration,
management and people problems. Their main find-
ing was that the implementation of MIS project
should take place with more concentrate on the pro-
ject team, another finding was explained that most
business process affected by implementing the MIS
were those who have the changing nature as routines,
instance jobs, and so on. Moreover, in HIS, the hu-
man and technical factors in Saudi Arabia may work
as an obstacle in implementing of ISS also, to train
the users to deal with the system. Khalifa [17] con-
ducted a study for the purpose of evaluating those
two factors in two Saudi hospitals (private and gov-
ernment) implementing HIS to improve HIS in Saudi
Arabia and developing countries by providing plans
to overcome the challenges. Lack of software and
hardware updates which slowing their performance
highlighted as some most technical difficulties. Fur-
thermore, the human challenge, motivation,
knowledge, experience, and learning or training the
health professionals on the use of HIS were the core
challenge regarding applying HIS in Saudi Arabia.
The difficulties and concerns were affected the gov-
ernment hospital more than private, regarding the old
systems, and lack of professional experience. To
improve HIS implementation, the study recommend-
ed adding HIS training course to the under and post-
graduated medical students to increase their aware-
ness, also to improve the hardware and software
through continues updates, enhancing the system
usability through various ways. Jørgen et al. [16]
investigate the issues raised in the pilot implementa-
tion of HIS, which is used to examine the design and
implementation of the new HIS before its actual de-
velopment. On the other hand, the study depends on a
use case of failed pilot implementation of Electronic
Pregnancy Record (EPR) in Denmark. They dis-
cussed major failure reasons which are the inability
to defined the scope, failure to deal with the new
technical problems, lack of users and managers
commitment, they concluded with the importance of
the pilot implementation in implementing HIS, alt-
hough of the difficulty associated with it.
From the side of the Information Systems strategies
implementation challenges, Wilson [1] studied the
aims and barriers to successful implementing
information systems strategies particularly in
financial sectors of UK companies that applying ISS
to view to which extent UK companies adopt the
strategies of the information systems development
with another objective regarding the IS strategy
implementation aspects. He conducted his study
through interviews and questionnaire containing
questions about the strategy implementation. His
findings proved the successful implementation of ISS
in the UK companies that examined in the study, re-
sulted with 59% view their strategy success as rea-
sonably successful, and by ranking companies with
Time 500 rank. The results showed the companies
with rank less than 300 appear to be more satisfying
with their strategies than companies on the upper
rank. The respondents asked to rank many factors in
the study, the ranked of obstacles vary between the
setting up strategy, and its implementation, measur-
ing benefit appear to be the most challenge when
setting up the strategy, and difficulty in recruiting the
suitable staff as a most challenge on the stage of the
strategy implementation. Yeh et.al [18] conducted an
empirical analysis to examined the impact of the in-
formation systems capability on the e-business in-
formation system and how IT strategy implementa-
tion will affect the business performance through a
survey distributed to the chief information officer in
1000 companies in Taiwan. However, leadership and
IT resources allocation capabilities appear to be the
most capabilities affected the implementation of the
IT strategy at the individual level, while in the group
level capability, collaboration and knowledge sharing
capabilities were the most affected IS capabilities.
Finally, the system development and team manage-
ment capacities were the most impacted in the organ-
izational capabilities.
While the little of the work has been done in the
field of examining challenges facing the information
systems strategy especially in Saudi Arabia. This
work will contribute in the area of challenges
implementation of information systems strategies in a
bank in Saudi Arabia, by collecting the most
challenges appeared to have negative influencing on
the strategy implementation from the literature and
examined it’s influential power in a bank in Saudi
Arabia. We will introduce those challenges and ob-
stacles in details in the next section.
VII. CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF ISS
Many issues may happen during the
implementation of ISS. These problems can be
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – Volume 43 Number 1 – January 2017
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 60
noticed in each step of the development ISS. They
impact the planning, designing, and implementing of
information systems in organizations.
A. Management Challenges
The information system has to provide an approach
to work with the different issues and to aware of all
information management aspects. According to a
questionnaire developed by A. L. Lederer and V.
Sethi [6] they found that over half the respondents
said the implementation issues is an extreme
problem. It means that once the plan of IS strategy
was developed, they need to persuade top
management to approve the suggested systems
development. Sometimes senior management may
lack to understand the purpose or may not trust of the
IS strategies capability to carry it out. Therefore,
recommends that executives should examine its
responsibility to implementing the plan before also
confirm the time and budget required to develop the
ISS.
Some of the challenges facing management today
are the need to align its information systems strategy
and business strategy. Identification of the IS gap
between where the organization is and where it want
to be in the future. The organization should develop a
plan to solve the question “How will we get there?”
as shown in the Fig 1 bellow. Aaltonen & IkaÈvalko
[10] mentioned the problems faced the strategy
implementation in general that is weak management
roles in implementation. According to Master’s
Thesis by Artit Kornkaew, the implementation
challenges can be divided down by effect type, and
they can be categorized into some difficulties such as
management issues including the operations of an
organization such as budgeting, personnel, and
general management. According to Roodsaz &
Behrooz [19], they found Management obstacles one
of the most factors such as lack of internal
communication channels, weakness top managers
support in the improvement of the information
system. Therefore, there is a need for development an
effective relation with senior executives in applying
information system. Changes the top management
staff and replacing them will reduce the concentrate
and assistance to the system success.
B. Human Challenges
Human issues are the issues relating to every
person in the company or organization [10]. Human
obstacles barriers are stated by Wilson [1] while he
distributes a survey to 500 companies that implement
IS strategy to rank the obstacles. The results showed
that the challenges in the lack of resources to engage
in user-education, inability in recruiting appropriate
staff, and Inability to employ experts who suitably
accomplish the information technology activities, the
most reasons that caused ISS implementation failed.
The obstacles of the ways that fulfill the expectations
of users also one of the important challenges that may
occur [11]. Lack of computer skill was equally
identified as a key challenge and major difficulty to
the development of IS. There is a lack of general
computer skill amongst the employee of the
organization. Most of the older employee displayed a
lack of interest and willingness to learning computer
skills which have a high negative impact on the
operation of the organization [20].
C. Technical Challenges
Technical systems challenges are the issues relating
to the hardware and software aspects of the
information technologies [10]. Also, barriers that
may exist such as telecommunications issues Wilson
[1]. Another factor that was identified by Ossai et al.
[20] as a challenge to IS development is
infrastructures (hardware and software), also the
difficulties of the migration from old to the new
system or upgrading previous systems is a major
challenge.
D. Environment Challenges
Organizational environment challenges are
identified as factors which are less visible and
uncontrollable environmental factors such as
organizational culture, change, behavior, inadequate
capabilities, poor coordination and distribution of
responsibilities, competing for activities and
unaligned organizational systems and resources [10].
Other barriers that had a less importance were
Existing Political conflicts, lacking a commitment to
the strategy, middle and senior management attitude
involving the interaction and direction of the
organization executive, misunderstanding or
confusion of the strategies and doubts about benefits
Wilson [1].
E. Time Challenges
Fig 1: Gap Analysis [10]
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – Volume 43 Number 1 – January 2017
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 61
Roodsaz, H, et al. (2013) mentioned many factors
may contribute to difficulties such as lack of proper
analysis of time. Extend the time of planning or im-
plementing the system may lead to canceling the
whole project because the strategies might be modi-
fied in that period or changed in needs of users, this
situation can do an inefficient project. Arvidsson et
al. [11] addressed the challenges facing the IS strate-
gy implementation that is the ability to implement the
system on the established time and with the less
amount of risk. From the same vein, Ossai et al. [20]
reported that only 16% of all projects are delivered
on time and within their budget.
VIII. A CASE STUDY OF A BANK
To understand better the difficulties that may occur
during the implementation of Information systems
strategies, we have derived the challenges from the
reviews of the previous researches we have
mentioned in section 6. A case-study research
designed in a bank is presented with a questionnaire;
respondents rated the extent to which they had
encountered each of the problems above by
measuring the challenges depending on them. The
name of the bank has been kept confidential on the
request of bank as per their staratgic policy. It is
importance according to a scale from (1-3), while (1)
indicates the most influencing challenge, and (3)
indicates the fewer ones. In this study,
categorizations of information system issues that
mentioned in section 6 will be the frame of study
regarding challenges that an organization faces when
a new information system strategies are implemented.
The difficulties/challenges that considered in the
questionnaire as the following:
Management Challenges
1. Lack of top management commitment to the
strategy implementation.
2. Weak management roles in implementation.
3. Lack of top management support in creation and
implementation of the system.
4. Changes / replace senior management.
5. Poor coordination and sharing of responsibilities.
6. Lack of communication.
Human Challenges
1. Failure in employ professional persons
2. Difficulties in employing suitable staff.
3. Lack of resources to participate in user education.
4. Changing needs of users.
5. System inability to fulfill the expectations of us-
ers.
6. Lack of knowledge of the people (employee) on
the system
Technical Challenges
1. Difficulties in transforming and re-
configuring business process to suit with IT sys-
tem.
2. Technical difficulties.
3. Lack of requirement for information system
4. Upgrading previous systems is a major challenge
Other Challenges
1. Difficulties in alignment between business strate-
gy
2. Inability to implement the system strategy on
time.
3. Difficulties of measuring benefits.
4. Expenses for changing to the new system
5. Lack of software and hardware budget
A. Analysis of Results
Based on the received questionnaire results, the
following table displays the detailed results of partic-
ipants.
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – Volume 43 Number 1 – January 2017
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 61
I. TABLE 1
ANALYSIS OF SURVEY RESULTS
S/N
Challenges
Likert Scales
Management Challenges
Major
(1)
Minor
(2)
Insignificant
(3)
1
1. Lack of top management commitment to the strategy implementation
56%
42%
3%
2
2. Weak management roles in implementation
72%
22%
6%
3
3. Lack of top management support in creation and implementation of the system.
67%
25%
6%
4
4. Changes / replace senior management.
56%
39%
6%
5
5. Poor coordination and sharing of responsibilities.
50%
47%
3%
6
6. Lack of communication.
44%
50%
6%
Total
58%
38%
5%
Human Challenges
7
1. Failure in employ professional persons
31%
38%
11%
8
2. Difficulties in recruiting suitable staff.
22%
53%
25%
9
3. Lack of resources to participate in user education.
17%
44%
36%
10
4. Changing needs of users.
33%
36%
31%
11
5. System inability to fulfill the expectations of users.
17%
44%
39%
12
6. Lack of knowledge of the people (employee) on the system
14%
50%
33%
13
7. Lack of staff to implement the system
17%
50%
33%
Total:
22%
45%
30%
Technical Challenges
14
1. Difficulties in transforming and re-configuring business process to suit with IT system.
14%
50%
36%
15
2. Technical difficulties.
31%
44%
25%
16
3. Lack of requirement on information system
25%
44%
31%
17
4. Upgrading previous systems
14%
56%
28%
Total:
21%
49%
30%
Other Challenges
18
1. Difficulties in alignment between business strategy and system strategy
28%
53%
19%
19
2. Inability to implement the system strategy on time
39%
39%
22%
20
3. Difficulties of measuring benefits.
22%
36%
42%
21
4. Costs of changing to a new system
42%
33%
25%
22
5. Lack of budget for software and hardware
50%
36%
14%
Total:
36%
39%
24%
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – Volume 43 Number 1 – January 2017
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 62
The above table summarizes the survey results resid-
ing in the study area. Management obstacle appeared
to be the most critical obstacles for applying infor-
mation system strategies; sample survey shows that
about more than half of the participants (an estimated
58%) thinks that management challenges are the most
prominent one of the challenges. Very few of the
participants (5 percent) reported “Management chal-
lenges” as insignificant, particularly weak manage-
ment roles in implementation is considered as a most
significant management obstacles factor with (72%).
The respondents give other management obstacles a
less importance respectively, lack of top management
support in creation and implementation of the system
(67%), Changes / replace senior management (56%),
poor coordination and sharing of responsibilities
(50%) along with the lack of communication which
has less percentage among management factors
(44%) appeared to have less influence other than
management factors on the IS strategy
implementation in this study. Other challenges come
after management challenges in importance are those
factors relating to the cost and time associated with
implement the new system. Human and Technical
considered as less influencing factors; the two have
an almost similar impact on the strategy implementa-
tion in this study. Technical factor regarding tech-
nical difficulties associated with the implementation
have the highest impact among other technical factors
(30%), then the lack of information system require-
ment comes after difficulties insignificant (25%).
While the most influencing human factors were
changing need of users, and Inability to employ ex-
perts for accomplishing the works of information
technology with an almost similar degree (33%),
(31%) respectively.
These study results have proved the past studies
results that have been done in this field. Emphasizing
that the management challenge is very significant
factor suffering the implementation of information
systems. According to a questionnaire conducted by
Badragheh, et al. [15] their questionnaire has been
developed to investigate most importance items in-
fluencing information system strategies
implementation from a management view. They
found the following issues, poor relation with senior
managers in implementing the information system,
lack of top managers understanding about the
information system strategies implementation roles,
and lack of creation a powerful information system
[12].
Another perspective of implementation challenges
indicated by Ossai et al. [20], who presented the ISS
challenges that are similar to the literature mentioned
previously. These challenges consist of not only a
management challenge but also include user prob-
lems where the employees keep changing due to ei-
ther retirement or transfer or other reasons. Top man-
agement must pay more attention to components sur-
rounding ISS implementation challenges for all levels
of management including operational, central man-
agement and senior management where the infor-
mation is passed from bottom to top. Furthermore,
ISS is an important function of the directorate which
plays a major role in giving information that is essen-
tial for essential decision making which directly im-
pacts the performance of the organization [12].
B. Discussion and Recommendations
An excellent management has a powerful effect
that leads to align Information system strategies with
the goals of an organization, which is from the
essential factors leading to IS success. Inadequate
management is adequate reason to prevent the
alignment between the information systems goals and
those for organizations. So, goals and strategies must
determine accurately [21]. Some factors may help to
overcome the management obstacles such as the
following:
Making a robust relationship between top
management and staff along with expressing the
importance of successful implementation of ISS
particularly in relation to collaboration will help
to solve the problems of the weak management
role in implementation as mentioned in the results
of the survey.
According to the results the appropriate executive
management support is an essential in creation
and implementation of the system to success and
achieve ISS goals which have a high percentage
of the managements issues 67%.
Based on the 50% of participants consider
there are "poor coordination and sharing of
responsibilities." The recommendation is to
Participation of employees in information system
strategies, making a relation among employees
and information specialists, participation and
using interoperation teams in performing
information system will help to overcome the
challenges.
Rishi & Goyal [21] suggested that Improving
office design in the organizations to allow
interaction with top management and
communication between employees which may
have an effect on the turnover of the employees.
As per the survey results, 44% of participants
answered that there is a lack of communication.
Therefore, the recommendation is the departments
should strengthen confidence between staff
through establishes social events and informal
discussions occasionally; this will motivate the
staff to contribute more to the growth of the
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) – Volume 43 Number 1 – January 2017
ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 63
organization and implementation of
organizational culture. Strong communication
between staff and top management is an
important factor to powerful management
elements.
Based on the results of the survey, 56% of
participants stated that "Changes / replace senior
management“ as a major challenge. So,
requirements analysis and change management
must be tested before any changing decision to
make sure if it fits the business or causes adverse
impacts.
Lack of top management commitment to the
strategy implementation is a major challenge.
Thus, the top management should have the
responsibility to implement the suitable business
strategies along with the use of information
technologies to support the organization and to
make the best use of its resources and as a result,
reach its goals.
According to survey results, 50% of participants
answered that lack of budget for software and
hardware“ is an important challenge. Therefore,
each department should allocate enough budget
and should not begin the project unless all the
resources are available to be able to perform the
objectives.
Providing adequate information systems to share
knowledge to facilitate knowledge distribution
among departments so every employee should
have the chance to share views to reduce the
miscommunication between departments.
There are many ways to implement ISS within the
organization, and there is no one strategic
planning can guarantee business success, but this
can be achieved by using the traditional strategic
analysis methods, for instance, Porter’s
competitive forces model or SWOT analysis [22].
To conclude, both IS/IT and top management are
responsible for the successful in implementing
information system strategies. Therefore, the
previous recommendations should be taken into
account when implementation Information system
strategies.
IX. CONCLUSION
The results of the study show that the management
factor is a powerful element in implementing the in-
formation system strategy in the bank. It becomes
clear that the top management needs to spend more
efforts to prepare the strategies, this provides addi-
tional proof that there is a lack of communication at
the administrative level and in upper management
between IT and business. This circumstance could be
avoided through a stronger connection and collabora-
tion among these. Therefore, business managers need
to negotiate with system administrators to explain
what is relevant to their work. They need to collabo-
rate closely by appointing a representative in the up-
per management meeting or coordinators from other
departments and try to find solutions that align busi-
ness needs with IT priorities, thus promoting greater
organizational harmony. The organizations need to be
aware of the issues associated with management to
decrease the project's failure instead of spending
more on operating systems. The policies of IT de-
partment should be flexible, able to change in re-
sponse to new organizational requirements and busi-
ness priorities. Ultimately, all groups should priori-
tize the main objective by providing rules, methods,
and tools that establishing a strong alignment and
increase efficiency and enhance the productivity.
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