A case study of information systems decision-making: Process characteristics and collaboration technology support

The paper presents an analysis of a collaborative decision-making process related to the selection and implementation of a new corporate solution for collaboration and information management in a Norwegian oil company. Several challenges were identified in the decision-making process, related to ensuring continuity between different phases, enabling efficient communication among the different stakeholder groups, and gaining involvement and commitment from the business areas. The analysis also focuses on the utilization of various collaboration technologies in the different phases of the decision-making process. The use of a common information repository, a well established communications infrastructure, and skilled meeting facilitators, were important factors for successful completion of the project. A more differentiated and role-based access to the information repositories, and more extensive use of online discussion forums were identified as potential means for increasing involvement in the process and closing communication gaps between stakeholder groups. Further, combination of different technologies for supporting multimode interaction was identified as a potential way of enabling more effective interaction in time pressed activities. The study contributes to increase our understanding of collaborative IS decision-making processes, and the role of collaboration technologies for supporting these.