| dc.description.abstract | Information systems play an increasingly important role for organizations in the 21st century as the amount of data and information available continues to grow rapidly. One type of information systems that has received much attention lately is business intelligence systems. Business intelligence is essentially a fact-based, rational approach to decision-making. While the potential benefits of BI are undisputable, a considerable amount of the efforts of implementing such systems end in failure. A common reason is that the systems are unenthusiastically received by the intended users. The aim of this thesis is therefore to identify critical success factors for acceptance of BI systems and offer suggestions for how management can intervene to promote acceptance. In this regard, the topics of organizational change, change process acceptance, technology acceptance and business intelligence are investigated.The thesis is based on a case study of a large Norwegian organization within the public sector that is currently implementing a BI system. The research methodology involves collecting empirical data through interviews with project management and systems users, as well as through a review of project documentation. A framework for identifying critical success factors for acceptance of a BI system is developed, where it is suggested that acceptance is determined by technology acceptance and change process acceptance, as well as factors related to the organizational context. The analysis of the empirical findings confirms the value of this multi-dimensional approach, leading to a general set of critical success factors for acceptance of BI systems. The findings suggest that the acceptance of BI is affected by three contextual factors, namely the organization s history, technology and culture. Furthermore, it is found that acceptance is also influenced by the scope and complexity of the BI system. Based on the critical success factors for acceptance and on existing theory within change management, we propose a set of management intervention measures for promoting acceptance. We suggest that these measures should be implemented through the three phases of initialization, piloting and rollout. | nb_NO |
