MIS Research Center Seminar Series
8:30 AM - 11:15 AM
1st Floor Auditorium, Carlson School of Management

Abstract

Nils Fonstad will present his research on how firms link business unit-initiated projects to company-wide strategic objectives. He has found that companies that effectively use projects to address both company-wide and local objectives draw on three key components: company-wide IT governance that provides business units common goals and rules for how to use IT; project management that ensures that each project solution meets local objectives and is developed on time and within budget; and linking mechanisms that ensure that project-level decisions are connected to higher-level goals. Nils will provide several examples of effective linking mechanisms and lead participants in a discussion of their experiences and reactions.

Biography

Nils Olaya Fonstad, a MIT CISR research scientist, investigates how groups use information technology to effectively engage and work across boundaries - both within and between organizations.  His current research examines how organizations develop systems of boundary-spanning mechanisms to bring together key stakeholders and use projects to simultaneously achieve urgent local objectives and advance longer-term organization-wide strategies.  He has extended this research to also examine how organizations effectively govern their relations with external sourcing providers.  Nils earned his PhD degree in Information Technology and Organization Studies from MIT Sloan School of Management.

To help us develop insights into IT governance and business performance, we would appreciate it if you could complete the survey linked below.  This survey is being distributed in collaboration with the MIS Research Center and the MIT Center for Information Systems Research.

MITCISRSurvey-ITGov
This survey will close on Friday, October 5, 2007.

The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. Participants who complete the survey will be sent a report describing aggregated survey results on how companies are using key governance mechanisms to achieve a variety of benefits from organizational integration.

Your participation, though voluntary, is important. The greater the number of respondents, the more insights we can provide to you with our research.

Survey findings will also be presented during Nils Fonstad's presentation on Oct. 12, 2007.

Please save and send the completed survey to nilsfonstad@mit.edu .  All data will be treated strictly confidential (for more information, please see below).

We very much appreciate your participation in this project. 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you again for your help,

Nils


Nils Olaya Fonstad
Research Scientist
Center for Information Systems Research
MIT Sloan School of Management
3 Cambridge Center, NE 20-336
Cambridge, MA  02142-1607

t:      1-617-253-8319
f:      1-617-253-4424
e:      nilsfonstad@mit.edu
w:      http://mitsloan.mit.edu/cisr