Abstract

The literature suggests the existence of critical success factors (CSFs) for the development of information systems that support senior executives. Our study of six organizations gives evidence for this notion of CSFs. The study further shows an interesting pattern, namely that companies either “get it right”, and essentially succeed on all CSFs, or “get it completely wrong”, that is, fall short on each of the CSFs. Among the six cases for which data were collected through in-depth interviews with company executives, three organizations seemed to manage all the CSFs properly, while two others managed all CSFs poorly. Only one organization showed a mixed scorecard, managing some factors well and some not so well. At the completion of the study, this organization could neither be judged as a success, nor as a failure. This dichotomy between success and failure cases suggests the existence of an even smaller set of “meta-success” factors. Based on our findings, we speculate that these “meta-success” factors are “championship”, “availability of resources”, and “link to organization objectives”.

Author Keywords: Executive information systems; Critical success factors; Critical failure factors; Information systems success; Case study

Article Outline

1. Background

2. System success

2.1. Access: the EIS is made available and users are given access to the system

2.2. Use: the EIS is used by the intended users

2.3. Satisfaction: users are satisfied with the EIS

2.4. Positive impact: the EIS has positive impact on the executives and the organization

2.5. Diffusion: the EIS tends to spread

3. CSFs reviewed

3.1. Committed and informed executive sponsor

3.2. Operating sponsor

3.3. Appropriate IS staff

3.4. Appropriate technology

3.5. Management of data

3.6. Clear link to business objectives

3.7. Management of organizational resistance

3.8. Management of system evolution and spread

3.9. Evolutionary development methodology

3.10. Carefully defined information and system requirements

4. Methodology

4.1. Research model

4.2. Research sites

4.3. Data collection

5. Results

5.1. EIS success

5.2. CSFs observed

6. Discussion

7. Conclusions

Appendix A

Appendix B

References