Abstract
Despite the rapid growth in client/server technologies and their development and usage in work organizations, there have been all too few academic studies of the technical human and organizational issues associated with the phenomenon. This paper provides a longitudinal case study of a 1989-1995 client/server project in a $1 billion annual revenue United States based silicon chip manufacturing company. Using an interpretive research approach the financial and business dimensions of the projects' success were analysed. Seven critical enabling factors were identified, namely business re-engineering driving technical choices, insourcing of new development, the form of vendor partnering adopted, incremental implementation approach, senior level support and participation, close IS-user relationships and IS seen as a business investment, not just a cost centre. These suggest that there is little difference in implementing client/server compared to any other information technology new to an organization. The paper tests this point further by comparing distinctive issues raised by client/server as suggested in the wider IS literature, against the specifics of the case history.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 95-128 |
Number of pages | 34 |
Journal | Journal of Strategic Information Systems |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 1997 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Client/server
- Strategy
- Technology
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Management Information Systems
- Information Systems
- Information Systems and Management