Introduction
The investment in information technology results in a wide
transformation toward automating the business processes in different fields in
organizations. Organizations in the 21st century adopt diverse applications and
technologies to transform manual processes to automated processes to reduce
their costs and increase their revenues.1
Information technology is the course of action that
collects, stores, processes, and transmits data. The “term information
technology” (IT) appeared in 1958 by Leavitt and Whisler, they proclaimed that “the
new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it
information technology (IT)” [2, p. 418]. Different shapes of information technology
like hardware, software, and networks, provide solutions for business problems.
Organizations are utilizing new types of infrastructure like cloud computing
and distributed systems, and advanced applications like computer aided design
(CAD), computer aided manufacturing (CAM) and enterprise resource planning
(ERP).3
The evolving nature of new technology as well as the fast
and constant development in information and communication technology (ICT)
stimulates further developments and diffusion.4 IT has had a
significant influence on the way organizations function. Such developments have
a crucial influence on organizations’ strategies, tactics, and operational
decisions.5
This paper will explore the influence of IT investments on
organizational performance utilizing a case study method. The case explored in
this study is Japan Tobacco International (JTI). The structure of this paper is
the following: The following section will review the literature in an aim to
understand the implications of IT investments and the factors that may lead to the
success or failure of such projects. The following section will cover the
dimensions concluded from the literature that would relate to case under
consideration. Finally, the paper will end up with conclusion and future work.
Literature Review
The employed criteria for IT investment justification can be
grouped into the following categories: Strategic impact, tactical
considerations, and operational performance, tangible and intangible financial
and non-financial indicators. Different approaches are adopted for the purpose
of evaluating IT projects and their influence on organizational performance.
The reported approaches in the literature are the following: economic,
strategic, operational, and analytic approaches.5
Justification of IT investment
Quantifying the benefits of IT investment is difficult because of the high uncertainty of the factors considered in the process. The following factors contribute to the level uncertainty: global competition among companies in improving their performance and gaining competitive advantages, increasing economic pressures, radical changes in business environment, and business process reengineering.6 The information technology nature does clearly create challenges for the scientific measurement of IT investments returns. Challenges are less present in traditional long-term investments that result in competitive advantage.7 Furthermore, IT investments are costly and make the organizations more skeptical regarding the profits and returns. IT specialists (directors and managers in charge of such investments), should analyze and explore the main factors that lead to expected returns on investment and not only the ones related to the financial results. They should also take into account the strategic advantage of the organization and creative technologies connected to IT investment with business process reengineering and organizational redesign. On the other hand, decision makers should set the main reasons that prompted the organization to invest in IT.8
There is an agreement that IT actually contributes to business value, but how it contributes to business value is uncertain. Also, understanding the nature of IT investment benefits is significant in evaluating how IT contributes to the value of the business.9 The lack of awareness of ICT nature coupled with the cash flow importance contributes to making the processes of evaluating its benefits burdensome and requires considerable resources.10
IT investments can comprise a tangible resource like IT
assets or intangible capabilities needed.7 Such investments can
influence organization’s strategy by influencing both its effectiveness and efficiency.
IT investment provides critical information that would either increase the investments
value on other capabilities or resources, or force management toward more effective
and efficient decision making.
It seems clear in the examples reported previously6 that if the evaluation is related to IT/IS services, it might need to specify more weight to “intangibles”. On the other hand, we might need to specify higher weight to “tangibles” if it is in manufacturing. Such understanding means that different situations require different weights to be assigned to tangible, intangible, financial and non-financial criteria. As an example and when evaluating IT/IS marketing projects, more weight might be assigned to financial performance and intangibles such as customer satisfaction. On the other hand, the IT/IS manufacturing projects might require more weight given to non-financial performance measures such as capacity utilization, and intangibles such as flexibility. An appreciation and understanding of the intangible benefit in IT is important for IT investment continuity.9 Flexible IT infrastructure existence will enable the development and identification of key programs and applications in the organization. Such step will then improve production processes.11
IT project importance (success and failure)
Many variables have been investigated as influencers on IT
success such as outsourcing, strategic planning, and IT strategic alignment. Outsourcing
focuses on some of the most important issues such as IT as a competitive
advantage, IT as a core competency, and company size.12 Certain
application also fits with specific strategic and tactical situations.13
The evaluation of every investment (before and after being
made) is very significant in determining the successful decision that the
organization took.14 The major barrier to justifying IT investments is
having no strategic vision10 where critical issues were faced with
respect to the gained strategic benefit. Also, projects budget overrun is
reported as one of the many problems caused by management lack of understanding
of IT costs. Such estimation uncertainty is becoming more and more important.
Sweis15 classified the factors that may lead to IS
project failure into two types: managerial and technical. Poor communication,
poor leadership, poor methodology and meager competencies, are the main
managerial factors. Managerial factors related to the management of information
system (MIS) are the most crucial factors that lead to its failure. Factors
reported in the literature are the following: the organization complexity and
management support. The author concludes that the high degree of customization
involvement in the application, the underestimation of project schedule, and the
changes in design specifications, are the three main factors that contribute to
the failure of IS projects in Jordanian companies. A similar study of 105 IT
firms in Jordan concluded that the most important factors influencing the
success of IT projects are: poor planning, unclear goals and objectives, and
changing project objectives during the execution.16
IT project success is assessed by using simple measures such
as delivering a working system on budget, on time and to the specifications
required. Such criteria are perceived as rational, objective and fact-based. However
such assessment, in predicting and determining the budget needed and the time
required for the system development defined by its specifications, ignores the
unavoidable uncertainty.17
Reference18 examined successful system
development and compared the associated factors with system success to the most
associated factors with system failure. The authors concluded that the most
influential factors in system success are the following: top management
commitment, effective project management, project personnel knowledge/skills
and user acceptance. Such factors are directly related to the factors
associated with IS failure (lack of top-management commitment to the project, lack
of effective project management, lack of required knowledge/skills of project
personnel, and users resistance).
Research reported many factors that are related to the
success and failure of IT/IS projects. A study related to e-government projects
concluded that three major categories are proposed for e-government systems
success and they are: infrastructure, human, and governmental factors.19
Other researchers asserted that success or failure depends on the system type,
data, size, users or certainty. It is difficult to define failure or success in
general terms because it is dependent on criteria used and the stakeholders
view.20 One person’s failure may be another one’s success.18
Research Method
This study followed a case study approach, where a case was
selected to apply a framework that guides the analysis done. The framework
adopted a five dimensions typology and they are: strategic impact, tactical
impact, operational impact, intangible benefits, and cost related issues.5
The framework is a good tool for investment justification of IT projects.
The selected case was utilized to investigate the
implications of adopting IT and its importance to the firms by using the
framework. The following sections will analyze the case in details. The case is
the Japan Tobacco International (JTI). This case study utilized reports
published on the JTI’s website and the content of the website itself, and
partially for the Jordanian market. The questions addressed in this study are
adopted from the framework proposed by Gunasekaran et al.,5 Qualitative analyses on responses were applied
to better understand the environment of investment in IT projects and conclude
to the research objectives and goals. The main objective of this work is to better
understand the investment justification in IT projects followed by a Jordanian
firm. The following sections will depict the qualitative data collected and
conclusions of this research.
Japan Tobacco
International
Japan Tobacco International (JTI) founded as a partnership between
Japan Tobacco and RJ Reynolds, where they form a group of private companies
operating in 120 countries in the world and Jordan is one of them.21
The goal of JTI is to be the most successful and respected tobacco company in
the world. JTI has a corporate strategy to increase profit through establishing
outstanding brands, enhancing productivity and focusing on continuous
improvement.
JTI realizes the downside of smoking; it does not offer its
products to encourage people to smoke. JTI is interested in developing low-risk
products, and it has identified its position toward smoking through six
principles: openness about the risks of smoking, transparency about products,
commitment to the development of reduced-risk products, prevention of youth
smoking, accommodation between smokers and non-smokers, and respect for local
norms and cultures.22
Discussion
In this section, we will discuss and analyze the status of
JTI as a case of a study based on the main themes of our model including
strategic impact, tactical impact, operational impact, intangible benefits and
cost related.
Strategic Impact
The best way to ensure the effectiveness of IT investment
can be achieved by looking at the technology as an essential element in
achieving the company’s strategy. Strategy should be clear in direction,
boundaries, parameters, nature of environments, and connected with the
objectives of the organization.5 IT/IS strategic significance in organizational
performance acts a key role in determining if a particular IT/IS is needed in
the organization and how it should be implemented. The strategic choices have
long-term impact on IT/IS planning and implementation as well as IT/IS
contribution to organizational performance.6
JTI considers technology as an important resource for achieving
its strategy that is seeking to build outstanding brands, continue to enhance
productivity, develop human resources as a cornerstone of growth, and sharpen the
focus on responsibility and credibility of its products.21 On the
other hand, the strategy of JTI is to gain a leading position in the global e-cigarette
market. In 2014, JTI was successful in acquiring e-cigarette under its E-lites umbrella
which was defined as “consumer products that provide an inhalable vapor by
direct electrical heating of a liquid contained within the device or a
replaceable cartridge”.22
One of the most strategic challenges facing JTI is the
illegal trade of tobacco, which is considered a global issue. Such issue
influences the company’s ability to control the activities such as production,
import, export, purchase, and sales of its products and services. Other issues
(related to legislations and the illegal trade) are the following: the high
rate in taxes, difficulties facing law enforcement, difficulty to control
borders, the growth of complexity in organized crime, absence of government
support to eradicate this growing issue, and the adequacy of law enforcement
officers’ knowledge. This issue has a negative impact on both businesses and the
society, where governments are challenged in overcoming the illegal trade of
tobacco products. JTI succeeded in utilizing information technology as an
effective solution to eliminate the illegal trade through developing a set of
extensive Anti-Illicit Trade (AIT) programs in house, which represented its
internal control to fight this issue.23
The main reasons that prompted the enterprise to invest in
information technology are: sustaining its survival, growing in a global
competitive environment, increasing its market share, and sustaining its
competitive advantage. Strategic information system planning is one of the
major reasons for gaining a competitive advantage.24,25 According to
research related to evaluating the success of strategic information system
planning in Jordan,26 JTI’s success in the implementation of
strategic information system planning in its strategic activities relies on a
set of factors like: the clarity of strategy, the stakeholders influence and
nature of social behavior, and the competitive environment. Their study
utilized two case studies and they are Japan Tobacco International (JTI) and Irbid
Electricity Company (IDECO).
Tactical Impact
This dimension focuses on identifying the critical success
factors that will lead the company to attain its strategic objectives and goals.
Tactical considerations are the following: tangible vs. intangible, performance
indicators, generating data, evaluation methods, security, and involvement of
senior managers.5
One of the critical success factors of JTI is the diversity
of its workforce culture. The company has more than 26,000 employees from 100
different nationalities. To achieve its business objectives with high level of
integrity, JTI developed a code of conduct for its employees and other
stakeholders over the world. The code of conduct is presented as an integral
statement regarding the organizational values, believes, roles, and
responsibilities toward conducting business in compliance with corporate
governance and laws.27 By enforcing such code of conduct, JTI
ensures that all of its employees have the right to work in a fair environment
and they have equal opportunities. They also have the needed level of commitment
to establish/maintain such environment and succeed in protecting intellectual
capital and personal information.28
Thomas McCoy (CEO of JTI) said that “Our goal is to be the
most successful and respected tobacco company in the world. The Code of Conduct
is essential to achieving this.” Bruno Duguay (the Chief Compliance Officer of
JTI (CCO)) made the following statements: “We have made the Code as user
friendly as possible by providing practical guidance and information to help
you maintain the high standards JTI expects from us.”
A code of conduct mechanism is a confidential reporting
concerns mechanism (RCM) that implements a robust process (like the “whistle
blowing” act ) to determine any behavior or violation of JTI’s compliance
regulations and laws related to illicit trade internally and externally. RCM
mechanism can be accessed via the company’s intranet to find out the details
related to illicit trade. JTI focuses on increasing awareness for its employees
regarding the illicit trade issue through providing a training program for them
to help minimize threats of this issue. This indicates that JTI succeeded in utilizing
information technology to decrease the rate of turnover for employees.29
JTI is keen on improving and developing new products to meet
customers’ expectations as well as to achieve their strategic objectives. In
December 2011, JTI signed agreement with Ploom Company to develop pocket-sized
smoking devices which they called “Pax”. These devices are portable vaporizers
including silicon mouthpieces that can be connected with superior lip-sensing
technology. Pax devices are composed of intelligent and cooling system that automatically
adjust the temperature of users to optimize heat and vapor production without
heating the material or producing smoke.30,31
By integrating IT with intellectual property, JTI teams utilized
email tools to receive new ideas or suggestions related to new product
development from persons not belonging to JTI group. Such technique is protecting
the company as well as its intellectual property for talented people.32
Operational Impact
When exploring the operational considerations, the
enterprise should identify the operational critical success factors to perform
the daily operations. Such dimensions mean that the firm needs to measure the
role of IT infrastructure in achieving business goals for each department. The
process includes measuring the system and data integration, users’ perceptions,
servers, existing operations system, data migration, existing IT systems, and
software.5
JTI tries to fight illicit trade and deter criminals from
converting genuine products from the judicial supply chain. JTI has 22
factories, 5 tobacco processing facilities, 8 global flagship brands and
hundreds of different products sold in millions of selling points by tens of thousands
of distributors and suppliers over the world.33 This makes illegal
trade a big threat and global issue to the company. In 2013, Euromonitor reported
that the size of illicit tobacco trade is approximately 392 billion cigarettes
per year.23 Based on that, the company has worked hard to invest in
IT to protect its supply chain from illicit trade. JTI implemented the “track
and trace” system, which aims at delivering its products to the intended
markets. The process includes putting unique signs on the products at the
master case and carton level, which enables the company to monitor the route of
its products within the legitimate supply chain.
In addition to that, JTI implemented a set of integrated programs
as solutions to fight illicit trade. One of these programs is “know your
customer” (KYC) program which focuses on those global customers. The system is
integrated with the track and trace system to form a solid base to trace the
products and where they were sold. In addition to more control on operation and
the fight against illicit trade, these programs are fostering customer
relationship management. Other programs adopted by JTI is the “market and
volume monitoring program”, which investigates the market position and
determine the quantity of its products that will be sold in intended markets.
JTI also has focused on programs related to its suppliers to
minimize illicit trade which is known as “know your supplier program” (KYS),
which helps in conducting business with all suppliers in the manufacturing,
transportation, and storage activities. JTI also has implemented the “product
authentication system” which provides authentication for its products; it is
defined as a digital tax verification system that allows customers to check if
the package is realistic or not by an SMS or telephone call. JTI employed
tagging on its products (especially chemical products) by using a reader to
vitrify them. JTI also implemented some security programs to monitor its
products from theft during transportation and track the finished products at
factories and warehouses.29
Intangible Benefits
JTI sees technology as an important tool to achieve its
strategy and to conduct business effectively and efficiently.26 IT played
a vital role in making the company a leading international tobacco product
manufacturer. JTI utilized diverse IT tools and technical solutions to enable
employees to establish its business goals in a legitimate framework through
four core centers that will lead the company to gain its competitive advantage.
The first is the Center of Excellence (CoE), which is responsible
for understanding its business goals and incorporate them into other processes
and systems. The second is the Global Development Center (GDC), which is responsible
for defining the strategic direction, developing and training personnel on different
global business applications, and ensuring the secure access to information in
compliance with laws and regulations. The third is the Global Technical Center
(GTC) that assists in providing the IT infrastructure solutions to all
employees, factories and markets, such as the networks, communication and
collaboration tools, and workplace computing techniques. Finally, the
Information Security and Risk Management (ISRM) which provides the protection
for the information resources of JTI based on three words: confidentiality,
integrity, and availability.
In 2002, JTI implemented its enterprise resource planning
system (ERP) as one of the most significant IT projects in its history. It provides
a significant contribution for the company by acquiring and integrating
different business activities from all over the world into its wide system.
Examples for such application are: Gallaher, acquired in 2007 to establish JTI position
in UK; and Leaf Tobacco Supplier Group acquired in 2009 to create a New Leaf
Tobacco Sourcing Company with US Leaf Tobacco Supplier. On the other hand, it enhanced
the human resources operations such as recruitment, selection, training and
development, motivation, maintenance, and assigning and retaining a team that
shares aspiring goals of the company.34 Research in Jordan indicated
that ERP systems are vital applications that are associated with operational
improvements, and information quality.4
JTI utilized its website to improve the quality of its
products and services to the public by providing specific tools that enable
customers and suppliers to submit and share their suggestions and ideas. Such
venue improved JTI’s position in relation to product feedback, media relations,
business ethics, career and investor contacts, and corporate social responsibility.
Some of these tools have positive impact on JTI’s stakeholders in understanding
their users and legal requirements.32 On the other hand, JTI
utilized social media tools such as Facebook and LinkedIn for getting people
within a company to communicate, collaborate, and share their ideas and
experiences that can lead to problem solving and create new ways of doing
business.
JTI also developed an internal communication tool (called
Engage) that enables employees to create a specific profile, where they can share
their opinions, documents, and ideas on specific projects based on their role
and expertise. Blanca Garcia, the project manager of Engage platform, declares
that: “If traditional communication was a flat sheet of paper, a collaboration
platform would be more like origami. There is overlap, different levels, it is
multi-dimensional. With more traditional communication, such as email, two
people can share ideas. With a platform like Engage, there are no limits on how
many people participate in that conversation”.35
JTI developed enterprise portals to make sure its business
processes are completed according to standards. Such portals consisted of content
management, business intelligent, data warehouse, and data management. Such
tools assist the company in meeting its business needs with more security. For
example, JTI developed a certification program for its suppliers who are
willing to work with JTI. Suppliers are requested to provide the required
information about their products and services through a dedicated portal during
the bidding process. If the products and services offered by suppliers meet the
certification program specifications and standards, the company may conduct the
transaction. The online portals help the company in providing high quality
products with lower cost, improve the relationship with suppliers, and minimize
illicit trade.23
Cost Related
Measuring the benefits of IT is one of the challenges facing
most companies. Reference36 examined the factors that enable
companies to predict the benefits of intangible assets and found that research
and development are the most important factor followed by advertising expenses.
On the other hand, they found that company size, growth, trading volume, equity
issuance, and perceived mispricing have a positive impact on predicting
intangible benefits.
Return on investment (ROI) is not an adequate tool for
measuring intangible benefits of IT.5 In JTI, intangible assets are calculated
by using a cost model and are stated at cost less accumulated amortization and
accumulated impairment losses. Intangible assets are treated separately, and measured
at cost at the initial recognition and the costs of intangible assets acquired
through business combinations with value at the acquisition date. Expenditures
on internally generated intangible assets are estimated as expense in the
period when incurred. An exception is the development expenses that satisfy the
capitalization criteria mentioned.
Intangible assets with finite productive life cycle are
amortized using a straight-line method over their estimated useful life and are
tested for impairment whenever there is any indication of impairment. The
estimated useful life and amortization method of intangible assets with finite
useful life are reviewed at the end of each fiscal year, and any changes in
estimate would be accounted for future estimation. The estimated useful life of
major intangible assets with finite useful life as follows: Trademarks for 20
years and Software for 5 years.
Intangible assets
with indefinite useful life and intangible assets that are not ready to use are
not amortized. Still, they are tested individually for impairment or annually by
cash-generating unit or whenever there is any indication of impairment.37
Since 2014, JTI has developed a formula which is known as the
“Adjusted Operating Profit”. The formula is considered a key performance
indicator to improve business investment management and its revenue and
facilitate the process of benchmarking performance with other industry players.
Adjusted Operating Profit (AOP) includes the following calculations38:
AOP = Operating profit + amortization cost of acquired
intangibles + adjustment items
The previous formula estimates the “Adjustment Items”
(income and costs) in the following manner
AI = impairment losses on goodwill ± restructuring income
and costs ± others
Conclusion and Future
Work
It is vital for businesses to better understand the factors
that influence IT projects success and failure. Still businesses are not always
keen on success or failure as they try to benefit from their investment in IT
ventures in the best manner. Such direction requires a solid ground for
measuring the benefits of implementing IT projects and investing in ICT.
This work aimed at exploring the importance of investing in
IT projects. This research adopted a case study method focusing on Japan
Tobacco International (JTI). Also, this study utilized a framework guided be
previous work [5]. The decision of investing in IT must be aligned to the organizational
strategy and senior management should be committed to supporting the project by
providing the necessary resources. On the other hand, the tactical and operational
areas are considered as the most effective key performance indicators (KPI) in measuring
the intangible benefits and to evaluate the success of investment of IT
projects as well as to ensure that the project is implemented in consistency
with firm’s strategy and objectives.
Based on our deep analysis of the case and the available
models and concepts in the literature, we proposed two models to help
practitioners and researchers formulate a case for ICT investment. The first
model (shown in Figure 1) reflects a process-based justification of IT
investment. The process is founded by business strategy, where firms need to
understand their direction, and their competitive situation. ICT should reflect
what needs to be done to improve firm’s market position and gain a sustained competitive
advantage. Based on such analysis, ICT needs are formulated in alignment with
firm’s business strategy.
The final step in the process is the evaluation of the ICT
content, where financial factors are dominating such step. We propose, based on
our understanding of the topic, operational and marketing factors. It is
important to understand that financial measures are not the only determining
factor in the acquisition of ICT, even though they are the one to be discussed
at the board of directors meeting.
The second proposed model holds a different perspective.
Managers need to keep in mind the balance between value and fit during all the
steps of ICT acquisition. The Proposed figure benefits from Gunasekaran et al.,5 & 6 work and
formulates a balance between tangible and intangible factors. Businesses need
to keep in mind the two balances shown, where intangible factors embed more
risk that tangible factors. On the same line, some decision are automated when
they carry a tangible factor and less strategic influence. Figure 2 depicts the
model.
Case study research adds value to our knowledge as it focuses on the details of the case. Benefiting from the joint picture of the firm by analyzing its website and reports, conduct interviews, and collect data through surveys, will enrich our understanding of a topic. Still, this study reflects our understanding of the survey responses and documents available from JTI’s portals. Such work lacks the necessary generalizability of research and requires more cases to better understand the challenges faced by companies in justifying their investment in IT. Future work is required to support our understanding using other case studies. Also, it is useful to use other models or frameworks in exploring such dilemma, and better support the role of IT in sustaining organizational competitive advantage. Looking deeply into the two proposed models and previous literature will contribute to improved understanding of the area and improved decision making.
Acknowledgments
I wish to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to all of the people that have contributed to the completion of this work. First of all, I had the great fortune to study under the supervision of Associate Professor Emad Abu-Shanab. I’m very grateful for his guidance, advice and encouragement.
Secondly, I would like to thank both IT Department and Marketing Department in Japan Tobacco International Company for their support and guidance helped me to overcome numerous difficulties along the way.
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