TRANSFORMING THE ORGANIZATION - THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE INFORMATION-SYSTEMS FUNCTION

This paper argues that transformation, which is a fundamental reshaping of an organization's behaviour, is an effective response to an uncertain and changing business environment, A critical element in developing a transformed organization is a process that coherently combines the design, development and exploitation of systems and their organizational context. The paper contends that information technology can be an important enabler and integrator in this process. However, for the technology to be properly exploited, the information systems function needs to be aligned with the business processes, and information systems specialists need additional knowledge and skills, and must adopt changed attitudes.