is & digital business transformation applied to civil and industrial engineering firms

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1 TERM PAPER ABSTRACT INFORMATION SYSTEM AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS Lucas de Haro December 6, 2016 MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang. MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

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Page 1: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

1

TERM PAPER ABSTRACT

INFORMATION SYSTEM AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL

ENGINEERING FIRMS

Lucas de HaroDecember 6, 2016

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Page 2: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

Lucas de Haro2

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

1. Background and scope.

2. How traditional engineering firms work.

3. Market challenges.

4. Business Transformation. An IS that orients Organization to Market.

5. An IS consistent and adaptable to market changes.

6. Remote work and virtual teams.

7. Recommendations and conclusions.

TERM PAPER ABSTRACT. IS AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS

List of contents

Page 3: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

Lucas de Haro3

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

I used to work for the Engineering sector back in Spain during the first decade of 2000s. Afterthe 2008 crisis, many companies tried to adapt to the new market conditions. The companythat I used to work for at that time undertook an organizational change led by a newInformation and Technology (IT) system that focused on improving how projects wereinternally managed. This new system specifically addressed budgeting, resources allocation,and costs and revenues monitoring. I remember to be under the impression that the markethad substantially changed by the time the new IT system was about to complete itsimplementation and, as a consequence, a new system would be necessary despite theexisting one had many well-performing features.

Background and scope

Reading the “Managing & Using Information Systems” (Pearlson, Saunders, and Galetta), I gotthe feeling that some of the chapters could cast some light on the business situationpreviously described, especially:

• Chapter 3: Organizational Strategy and Information Systems,• Chapter 4: Digital Systems and the Design of Work,• Chapter 5: Information Systems and Business Transformation, and• Chapter 9: Governance of the Information Systems organization

The scope of this Paper is proposing an approach by which Information Systems and BusinessTransformation can be durable and flexible at the same time when being implemented in atraditional-hierarchical corporation that is trying to navigate a turbulent environment

TERM PAPER ABSTRACT. IS AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS

Page 4: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

Lucas de Haro4

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Traditional industrial/civil engineering firms accrue extensive technical knowledge. On the other hand, some of the most relevant challenges that they face are:

- Small revenue margins.

- Hierarchical structure organized according to BUs: transportation, architecture, energy, railways, etc.

- Finding the right balance between international branches and technical BUs.

- Oversized organizational structures.

- Silos structure that should move towards a networked structure.

- Need to implement cross-functionality and horizontal services such as project & construction management.

- Compromise between team size and duration of the contracted services.

- Balance between domestic and international production and business volume.

How traditional engineering firms work? TERM PAPER ABSTRACT. IS AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS

Page 5: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

Lucas de Haro5

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

- The direct client has changed. New players: PPP (Public-Private partnerships) and multi-lateral funds and banks.

- New services and industries: consulting services, technological solutions, and sustainability.

- Globalization. Clients, providers ,and team members can be located – literally- anywhere in the world.

- Competition. Engineering firms are doing more with less.

- Organizational and Behavioural challenges: (1)career is not anymore just about success but personal accomplishment, (2) there is no such a thing as specialized engineer anymore, and (3) keeping the expertise from senior engineers who retire.

TERM PAPER ABSTRACT. IS AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS

Market changes

Page 6: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

Lucas de Haro6

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Before entering the Business Transformation argument, the Paper develops an analysis on misalignments between Market Needs and Organizational Strategy and how IS can bridge

such misalignments. Some of the key tools that the IS can use for this scope are summarized in the figure below.

Business Transformation. An IS that orients Organization to Market 1/3

TERM PAPER ABSTRACT. IS AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS

Technical knowledge

Projects’ documents

Staff

Business Units Procedures

Subconsultants

Financial results

Site services

Engineering

Design

New services

Globalization

Environment

Strategic Alliances

Financial dearth

New clients

Virtual environment

Social development

New competitors

Mapping Process

Business Process Management

Companies Integration

Remote and virtual teams

Enterprise Resource Planning

The paper further develops some of these tools (see following slides)

Page 7: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

Lucas de Haro7

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Business Transformation. An IS that orients Organization to Market 2/3

TERM PAPER ABSTRACT. IS AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS

ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNINGEnterprise Resource Planning

COMPANIES INTEGRATION

• High standardization and high integration should be pursued within the company itself.

• In face of the links between the firm and sub-consultants, partners, and clients, the company should pursue a low business process standardization with a high business process integration.

• In terms of connectivity, a Federal IT system is highly recommended.

Page 8: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

Lucas de Haro8

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Business Transformation. An IS that orients Organization to Market 3/3

TERM PAPER ABSTRACT. IS AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS

Enterprise Resource PlanningACHIEVING BUSINESS PROCESS

MANAGEMENT

• Radical Change vs. Continuous Improvement.

• When to go Radical Change or Continuous Improvement? It depends on how far the organization is from market.

• The Paper shows two different SODA maps, one for Radical Change and another one for Continuous Improvement, mapping the journey that the firm may undertake for each case.

REMOTE WORK

(Developed in a further section)

Page 9: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

Lucas de Haro9

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

The concept developed in this section of the Paper is that Business Transformation needs to be dynamic. Market is not static while the company changes, therefore, the IS has to keep the alignment between

organization and business in a rapidly changing environment.

An IS consistent and adaptable to market changes 1/2

TERM PAPER ABSTRACT. IS AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS

Organization Market

Business TransformationOrganizationChanged

Organization

Market

market

MARKETM

Before business transformation

After business transformationWhere is

market now?

The following figure represent an organization that changes without tracking the market evolution…

Page 10: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

Lucas de Haro10

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

An IS consistent and adaptable to market changes 2/2

TERM PAPER ABSTRACT. IS AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS

Organization

MarketMarket

MARKET

M

Changed Organization

And now…where will market be in future?

Information System

…whereas this figure represents a firm that uses its IS system to keep the organization aligned with market in a rapidly changing environment

Page 11: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

Lucas de Haro11

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Remote work and virtual teams

TERM PAPER ABSTRACT. IS AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS

In this section, the Paper presents first a list of needs and constraints that the Virtual System has to respond to

The second part of the section presents a detailed workflow of the Virtual System itself developed in

4 different stages:

1. Conceptual stage2. Design stage

3. Implementation stage4. Post implementation stage

Page 12: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

Lucas de Haro12

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

• Any company should start by analyzing misalignments between business strategy, organizational strategy, and IS strategy.

• Analyze what kind of transformation process the firm must go through. • Before starting any transformation, it is important to identify the strengths

of the firm as well as the demands from the market, and find the intersections between the two.

• Before starting any transformation, it is also mandatory to bring the organization on board.

• Picture the kind of organization that we want to develop in order to be aligned with a changeable market.

• Stages of a new IT system: conceptual, design, implementation and post implementation.

• The business transformation process must have an ending date and its results must be measurable.

• Once the business transformation is successfully implemented, then the company should have in place an IT system that is the backbone of its business and organization.

RecommendationS

TERM PAPER ABSTRACT. IS AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS

Page 13: IS & Digital Business Transformation applied to Civil and Industrial Engineering firms

Lucas de Haro13

MIS 650 Information Technology Management. Fall 2016. Dr. Shouhong Wang.MBA Program. Charlton College of Business. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Conclusions and potential further analysis

• Civil & Engineering firms need to adapt to the challenges that market poses.

• Market and globalization are demanding new services, companies integrations, and remote and virtual teams.

• The transformation journey has to consider the changing conditions of the market.

• Organizational support during all the stages of the change (including pre and post stages) is of the essence in order to be successful.

• ERP and IT system features must be defined according to the needs of the firms and implemented according to organizational constraints.

• The IT system must be the backbone that keeps the organization modernized and dynamic and make the business profitable and sustainable.

TERM PAPER ABSTRACT. IS AND DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION APPLIED TO CIVIL/INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING FIRMS

• Using RBV to asses the value created by IS.• An IT that prescribes either Radical Change or Continuous Improvement.• Mapping a flexible IT system.