Designing an artifact for the integration of ubiquitous information systems in an enterprise context

Abstract

In the past most IT innovations were initially introduced inside organizations and it was there where individuals first came in contact with new technologies. Nowadays, also the private life has gained importance for the adoption of technologies. Not often, individuals acquire new IT innovations privately, before they realize their value for professional activities and start using them for work. Their employers, however, struggle to integrate those innovations into their already heterogeneous organizational landscapes. The result is often an overly insufficient and ineffective use of private IT in organizations. In fact, previous integration research has provided various concepts to abate such negative effects, integrating the data and functionality of a few more private systems seems not a big deal. However, if one looks closer, it becomes apparent that private IT is autonomous from organizational control, rendering many common approaches inapplicable. Our research addresses this problem. Using the scenario of self-employed insurance brokers, we identify several characteristics of private IT ecosystems, here conceptualized as ubiquitous information systems (UIS), which prevent its productive use for professional activities. Based on these findings we suggest and instantiate a solution design which solves many issues of heterogeneity, but also accounts for the autonomy and distribution of the private UIS and its sub-systems. We conclude our research with a discussion of six propositions about the expected impact of our solution on individual performance. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.