COTS implementation through process and control perspective: A Canadian government case

ABSTRACT

Strategic information system implementation is inherently challenging and it is even more so for a joint initiative by multiple government organizations involving a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) package. Besides the obvious concern related to reputation and trust, implementation for such systems is naturally complex and success is often contingent upon proper stakeholder engagement and control configuration. A review of the literature reveals that very few studies have systematically studied the implementation process of the non-ERP (enterprise resource planning) family of COTS from the perspectives of process and control. Using a revelatory case study of a Canadian government organization, we have captured the model for a successful COTS implementation and have identified several key processes that are essential for ensuring proper engagement level by all stakeholders. In addition, the current study significantly contributes to the project control literature where the importance and the nature of control balancing have not been sufficiently explored.

Acknowledgments

We would like to sincerely thank Dr. Shailendra Palvia (EIC) and acknowledge his significant editorial assistance in improving the readability of our article. We would also like to thank all three JITCAR reviewers for their valuable comments and directions provided to improve our research work.

Notes

¹ Wrapper code consists of a thin layer of code that translates a library’s existing interface into a compatible interface.

² Glue code is a custom-written programming that connects incompatible software components.

³ Subversion is an open source version control system, developed as a project of the Apache software foundation.

⁴ The lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) is a directory service protocol that runs on a layer above the TCP/IP stack. It provides a mechanism used to connect to, search, and modify Internet directories

⁵ Soh and Markus (1995) indicated that competitive processes (both internal and external) can reduce the realized benefit for IT investments such as competitor’s behavior in response to an IT initiative.

⁶ In agile development, a sprint is a set period of time during which specific work has to be completed and made ready for review.

⁷ Release management is the process of managing, planning, scheduling and controlling a software build through different stages and environments; including testing and deploying software releases.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zafor Ahmed

Zafor Ahmed (Ph. D. Candidate) is a research associate and doctoral student in information systems management (MIS) at the Research Centre for Technology Management, Eric Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Ottawa. His research interests include Enterprise Systems, Operations Management and Technology Management. A number of his research papers have presented and published at well-known international conferences and he has been awarded ‘BIMTECH-STOUGH Young Scholar Award 2015” at the International Conference on Management Cases (ICMC), New Delhi, India for his research contributions. Zafor is currently holding the position of as a Senior IT Specialist for the Bank of Canada and possesses over 10 years of industry experience in the area of System Development and IT Security.

Uma Kumar

Dr. Uma Kumar is a Professor of Technology Management and the Director of the Research Centre for Technology Management at Carleton University. Her research is in the area of management of technology including technology transfer, efficiency in new product development, e-government, quality in R&D, managing R&D internationally, sustainable new product development, and ERP adoption and implementation. She has published over 250 articles in refereed journals and proceedings. Her more than 20 papers have won best paper awards at prestigious conferences. Twice, she has won Carleton’s Prestigious Research Achievement Award. She has also won the faculty teaching excellence award and the Graduate Mentoring Award at Carleton University. She is the recipient of a number of research grants from reputed research funding agencies.

Vinod Kumar

Dr. Vinod Kumar is a professor of Supply Chain Management at the Sprott School of Business (Director of School, 1995-2005), Carleton University. Dr. Kumar has published over 350 articles in refereed journals and proceedings. He has won several Best Paper Awards in prestigious conferences, Scholarly Achievement Award of Carleton University for the academic years 1985-86 and 1987-88 and Research Achievement Award for the year 1993, 2001, 2007 and 2015. He is on the editorial board of several International Journals. In addition, Dr. Kumar has also served for several years on the Board of Governors and the Senate for Carleton University and on the Board of the Ontario Network of e-Commerce. Dr. Kumar’s research interests are in optimizing performance of operation systems; technology transfer; new product development; technology adoption; e-commerce applications and e-Government. He is on Canadian Who’s Who since a number of years.