Performance measurement of information systems in small and medium sized enterprises: a strategic perspective

In today's era of globalisation, managing information systems (IS) for operations management has become one of the key strategic issues for increasing organisational effectiveness and optimal achievement of goals. The globalised competition and business supply chain management has forced many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India to adopt IS practices to manage their day-to-day business operations. Most of the SMEs realised the need of an efficient and effective IS as a strategic weapon for competing in the globalised market. One of the important issues for SMEs is to follow the proficient practices for business operations and management of IS that can provide an efficient and effective IS performance. This article presents the findings of a survey study of leading SMEs operational in the three states of the western part of India. The survey focused on the prevalent practices for management of IS and their relationship with IS performance measurement. The study reduced these routine IS management practices of SMEs to a smaller set of constructs and then related these constructs to IS performance measurement. The results show that many constructs were correlated with the IS performance and that some constructs were found to adversely affect the IS performance. The correlated constructs can help SMEs to improve the IS performance by following proper IS management practices. Therefore, considering the importance of correlated constructs with IS performance, an attempt has been made to discuss the implications of IS practices on its performance. Finally, concluding remarks and directions for future research are presented.