Outdated paradigms

For more than 40 years, discussions have been going on about the cost efficiency and business value of ICT. Especially in the early days ICT systems often proved not to meet the expectations of management and users. Although the ICT investment expenditures caused a drastic change in business processes, the question arose whether the ICT investments actually provide more value and output. As the economist Robert Solow stated: "we see computers everywhere except in the productivity statistics".
Meanwhile, ICT systems have evolved from small projects aimed at productivity improvements and cost savings to large-scale company-wide strategic implementations that enable companies to gain and maintain competitive advantages. It is clear that the rapid expansion of the internet and the developments in mobile information and communication technologies and e-commerce have considerable social and financial economic consequences. "But if we see mobile technologies everywhere, do we also see its effects in the operating results?

A broader perspective

Högler begins her dissertation with one of the seven wisdoms of Aristotle: "the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Högler advocates a socio-technical perspective. "The implementation and management of mobile technology is not just technology. It influences the organization as a whole, the organizational objectives and the associated business processes and the people inside and outside the organization. Mobile technology in organization is a complex combination of people, structures, technologies and work systems".
With a research agenda worked out in the dissertation, Högler comes to an Integrative Framework for Evaluating the Business Value of Mobile Systems. In the exploratory part, the components of mobile technology are defined. The socio-technical perspective framework was evaluated by applying a multimodal approach. Specifically: a retrospective case study, several case action studies and a validation by experts in the field of project management.

Acquired insights

In the end, the research shows that the Integrative Framework for Evaluating the Business Value of Mobile Systems is applicable to support decision making processes for mobile system evaluation in an understandable way. Mobile technology is no longer the most important challenge. It is about management and employees. Högler: "My advice is to use that holistic socio-technical perspective. Don't just limit the perspective to traditional input/output ratios, but look wider. Look at improved quality, improvements in information provision and employee motivation. Do realize that the Critical Success Factors also need to be adjusted".
How does that relate to Solow's statement?  Högler: "You can see mobile devices everywhere, perhaps they are not increasing productivity, but they are creating business value because of their qualitative impact".

Promotion

Tamara Högler defends her thesis 'Evaluating the Business Value of Information and Communication Systems in a Mobile World' on Friday 15 February 2019 at 13.30 hours at the Open University in Heerlen. The supervisor is prof. dr. ir. J.M. Versendaal (Open University).

Tamara Högler