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ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.emerald.com/insight/2210-8327.htm\n\n# Why and how informatics and applied computing can still create structural changes and competitive advantage\n\n## Sarandis Mitropoulos\n### Regional Development, Ionian University, Lefkada, Greece, and\n## Christos Douligeris\n### Informatics, University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece\n\nAbstract\nPurpose – In the new digital age, enterprises are facing an increasing global competition. In this paper, we first\nexamine how Information Technology (IT) can play an important role in giving significant competitive\nadvantage in the modern enterprises. The business value of IT is examined, as well as the limitations and the\ntrade-offs that its applicability faces. Next, we present the basic principles for a successful IT strategy,\nconsidering the development of a long-term IT renovation plan, the strategic alignment of IT with the business\nstrategy, and the adoption of an integrated, distributed, and interoperable IT platform. Finally, we examine\nhow a highly functional and efficient IT organization can be developed.\nDesign/methodology/approach – Our methodological approach was based to the answers of the following\nquestions: 1. Does IT still matter? 2. What is the business value created by IT along with the corresponding\nlimitations and trade-offs? 3. How could a successful IT Strategy be build up? 4. How could an effective?\nT planning aligned with the business strategy be build up? 5. How could a homogenized and distributed\ncorporate IT platform be developed? and finally, 6. How could a high-performance IT-enabled enterprise be\nbuild up?\nFindings – The enterprises in order to succeed in the new digital area need to: 1. synchronize their IT strategy\nwith their business strategy, 2. formulate a long-term IT strategy, 3. adopt IT systems and solutions that are\nimplemented with elasticity, interoperability, distribution, and service-orientation. 4. keep a strategic direction\ntowards the creation of an exceptional organization based on IT.\nOriginality/value – This paper is original with respect to the integrated approach the overall problem is\nexamined. There is a prototype combined investigation of all perspectives for an effective enforcement of IT in\na way that causes acceleration in competitive advantage when conducting business.\nKeywords New technologies, IT strategy, Strategic alignment, Business value, SOA\nPaper type Research paper\n\n1. Introduction\nThe steadily increasing global market competition is significantly reducing the turnover time\nof innovation products. Information Technology (IT) can provide a significant competitive\nmarket advantage to an enterprise because it dynamically promotes relationships with its\ncustomers and suppliers, strengthens strategic alliances, promotes innovative products and\nservices, adapts existing solutions, and achieves lower operating costs, while it improves the\ninternal business processes. It is true that new technologies, such as the cloud, mobile\ncomputing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) have brought\n\n© Sarandis Mitropoulos and Christos Douligeris. Published in Applied Computing and Informatics.\nPublished by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons\nAttribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works\nof this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the\n[original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.](http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode)\n[org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode](http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode)\n\n\n## Informatics and applied computing\n\nReceived 7 June 2021\nRevised 19 July 2021\n16 September 2021\nAccepted 17 September 2021\n\nApplied Computing and\nInformatics\nEmerald Publishing Limited\ne-ISSN: 2210-8327\np-ISSN: 2634-1964\n[DOI 10.1108/ACI-06-2021-0149](https://doi.org/10.1108/ACI-06-2021-0149)\n\n\n-----\n\n## ACI\n\n\naround structural changes in the way businesses operate as well as in the way markets\nfunction. For example, the internet has created hyperarchies that influence the creation of\nnew business models [1], by replacing the traditional enterprise hierarchies, while on the other\nhand it has necessitated a comprehensive review of the traditional business strategies. This\nrevision of the companies’ business strategies, as well as the new supply value chain have\nsignificantly increased the productivity, the quality of services offered to customers and the\noverall value proposition of the enterprises.\nNevertheless, there are many enterprises, which, despite investing a significant amount of\nmoney and human resources in applied computing, as well as in relevant research, have failed\nin having the initially expected advantages. This happened because these enterprises failed\nto adopt and then successfully implement the new e-business and e-governance models [2]. In\nthe context of rapidly responding to market needs and to their fierce competition, many\nenterprises have only pursued short-term benefits from applied computing and informatics\nby trying only to accelerate the development of new services and products at the lowest\npossible operating costs. But ignoring the fundamentals of strategy formulation has led to a\nconvergence of business practices based on cost leadership [3], something we have seen\nhappening in the past with the dotcom enterprises. This problem still exists with the latest\ninformatics technologies, where we see that enterprises still do not incorporate the\ninformatics and computing applications in their processes in the right way [2, 4, 5]. The main\nfaults that enterprises make regarding the adoption of informatics are that they do not:\n\n(1) synchronize their IT strategy with the goals of their business strategy,\n\n(2) formulate a long-term IT strategy,\n\n(3) keep a strategic direction towards the creation of an exceptional organization based\non IT,\n\n(4) adopt effective IT systems, and integrated IΤ solutions; instead these are\nimplemented hastily, inelastically and without interoperability.\n\nThe exponential growth of ubiquitous computing drives the need for new business models,\nwhich must serve an effective IT-enabled business strategy directly related to the Digital\nTransformation. The problem space here is how the effective adoption of new IT technologies\ncan be achieved which in turn drives the requirements of renewed business strategy and\nprocesses, and of culture change [29]. The main problem which modern enterprises face\nconcerns the right IT implementation along with the adaptation of the right strategy, process,\nand culture. This paper tries to answer all these requirements in a consistent and\nmethodological way. Even though a considerable body of research towards this direction\nexists, there is still a gap for the development of a perfect alignment between the strategy the\nenterprises must follow and an intelligent and effective way the new technologies are\nimplemented so that they create a competitive advantage [5]. Internet, cloud computing,\nmobile computing, software-oriented architectures (SOA), Internet of things (IoT), blockchain,\nserver virtualization and other modern technologies provide the enterprises with the\nopportunity to migrate from the traditional business models to new ones [30, 31, 35, 36].\nAlthough there exist theoretical frameworks in the literature [2–5], there is still a lack of of\nframeworks that combine the characteristics of hybrid, both research and practical methods\napproaches. The outcomes of the existing approaches show that the use of IT has not been\nproven fully effective, except from some exceptional cases.\nTo achieve an effective IT incorporation, this paper proposes a framework with very\nspecific suggestions. This framework can be used as a roadmap for future readiness and\ngrowth. The evaluation discussion shows the effectiveness of the proposed framework and\nmethodology. This framework in short consists of the following steps:\n\n\n-----\n\n(1) Examination of the expected business value to be created by IT along with any\nexpected limitations and necessary trade-offs.\n\n(2) Formulation of an effective IT strategy aligned with the overall business strategy.\n\n(3) Development of an effective IT planning.\n\n(4) Development of a homogenized, interoperable, and distributed IT platform.\n\n(5) Development of a high IT-enabled organization in all its dimensions.\n\n(6) Establishment of an on-going evaluation system for the continuous improvement of\nthe IT strategy and the corresponding infrastructure.\n\nThe issues and steps mentioned above are thoroughly analysed and potential solutions are\nproposed. A thorough and comprehensive investigation of whether IT can still make\nstructural changes in the operation of businesses is performed. In addition, it is examined how\nthis can be achieved with respect to the creation of business value considering the\ncorresponding limitations and necessary trade-offs. But since creating value without\ndeveloping a rational strategy is impossible the principles of a sound IT strategy are\nexamined, as well as how this can be effectively developed. Finally, implementation issues\nand evaluation results are discussed, as well as potential future work.\n\n2. IT still does matter\nMany researchers argue that IΤ no longer offers any innovation over the competition and\nhave, therefore, IΤ has reached the stage of maturing as a service [6]. This viewpoint has been\nexpressed without considering its high and disruptive evolution. Τhere is obviously a part of\nIT that is common to almost all enterprises, making this utility approach workable.\nNevertheless, this is only one side of the coin because IT is creating new situations that\naccelerate the developments in the operation of markets and enterprises. The concept of\nubiquitous computing, for example, is a new trend which will surely cause structural changes,\nwhile new ideas in virtual communities can create significant changes in corporate\ncollaboration by forming on-demand virtual business partner hyperarchies. In addition, new\nintelligent algorithms for machine learning, artificial intelligence and biotechnology are being\ndeveloped, thus facilitating research into new products (e.g. drugs and crystal solid materials)\nand services (e.g. telemedicine) with significant business and social benefits [7]. Thus, the new\ninformation technologies can leverage the capacity for innovation. Enterprises through the\nsmart and targeted use of IT will be able to create growth, and innovative products and\nservices at the right time.\nIn addition, enterprises need to focus on another perspective of IT, that of the growing\nbusiness value through digital culture. A well-designed business strategy, synchronized\nwith that of IT, creates an innovation-oriented corporate culture. Such a culture is not easy\nto be copied from the competition, thus, giving the enterprises that adopt it a clear lead.\nThere are many important examples that prove this to be true, such as the ones of Toyota\nand Dell – their supply chain and production chain management practices make them\nstand out [6].\nThe innovative and smart use of IT (e.g. green informatics) can create an additional\ncompetitive advantage which, most of the times, is closely connected with a change of culture\n\n[8]. However, the technology is not a panacea. In practice, many enterprises do not effectively\nenforce the new IT-enabled business models because their adoption of IT has not been\ndirected to develop a highly IT-enabled corporate culture, they have not integrated their\ndigital strategy with the overall business strategy, or they have not adequately understood\nthe new technology trends while developing a corresponding strategy.\n\n\n## Informatics and applied computing\n\n\n-----\n\n## ACI\n\n\n3. Business value creation: limitations and trade-offs\nNowadays, the relationship between business strategy and IT-based innovation is a strongly\ninteracting one. A successful business strategy must define an IT infrastructure driven by\ninnovation. Obviously, all of the expected benefits offer improved business performance and\nare, therefore, critical to the business success [5, 9].\nIT enables an increased control of the operating costs as well as of productivity. Indeed,\nthe assembly of products e.g. through the Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) and the\nRobotics systems of the industry 4.0 era, increases productivity and quality, while reducing\ncosts. We also notice that information technology significantly increases the knowledge of\nthe business environment through monitoring systems, such as the ones used in the product\ndelivery status or in the stock levels of warehouses. IT systems can help develop staff skills\nthrough e-learning and on-the-job on-line assistance.\nNevertheless, there exist several criteria which need to be fulfilled for enterprises to be able\nto differentiate from competitors. Such criteria include among others the brand name visibility,\nthe quick-to-market response, and the service quality [10]. Despite these advantages, there are\nimportant limitations that need to be considered, such as the existence of isolated and\nproprietary software applications and databases. Outdated information (legacy) systems,\nwhich require high-cost adapters to bridge the newer applications, and the use of a wide range\nof different and heterogeneous technologies, are two other examples. The low utilization of\nthe existing IT resources is also a problem. All these limitations significantly reduce the\nefficiency of IT, the process support, the access and dissemination of information, the\nimplementation of new projects, and the staff adaptation to the new conditions, while they\nfurther increase the operating costs.\nThere are solutions to such problems, which enterprises are called upon to adopt, such as\ne.g. the Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), the rapid development of new applications,\nand the development of business process management systems By gradually adopting such\nsolutions an enterprise can in a reasonable time develop a much more integrated business\nenvironment, launch new services in a timely fashion, achieve world-wide access, improve its\nbusiness operations control, acquire resources on demand, work on a flexible infrastructure\nand lower costs [2, 10].\nMost of the times, the enforcement of these IT solutions requires the consideration of a\nvariety of trade-offs, while the main question is: “is there adequate capacity, qualities and\nstrategic direction for a change from the old economy environment to the new one?”. The\nanswer to this question includes: (1) the adoption of an innovation culture, which in turn\nrequires management of change and capability building up for the human resources, and (2)\nan elastic and interoperable infrastructure [11, 12].\nIn addition, the changing of an operational business model can drive the requirements\nfor higher adaptation in the application software portfolio creating another trade-off\namong efficiency, innovation, experimentation, and conformance to the relevant standards\n\n[11–13].\n\n4. The proposed methodological approach\nGiven that IT is still considered to be able to bring about significant structural changes and\nprovide a business competitive advantage in the modern markets along with all the related\noperational benefits, the question is how this goal can be achieved methodologically. This\ndevelopment can be considered to have the following four main dimensions:\n\n(1) Development of a successful IT strategy, whose goals should be synchronized with\nthe business strategy, e.g. there can be no strategy to penetrate global markets, while\nthe company’s information system cannot support the internationalization of the\ninformation it offers and manages.\n\n\n-----\n\n(2) The IT development plan which should consider the organizational structure of\nenterprise, the demanded quality of service to its customers, the firm’s human\nresources and the existing IT infrastructure and systems. Everything may need to be\nchanged partially or to a very large extent.\n\n(3) Development of the IT Infrastructure as a homogenized and distributed service\nplatform provided either to the internal customers of the company or to the external\nones.\n\n(4) Development of services and policies for management, research and innovation,\ntraining for the creation of a technologically high-performance enterprise,\n\nAll these key dimensions of development of innovation and IT solutions are shown in\nFigure 1 as phases.\n\n5. Building up a successful IT strategy\nA business strategy expresses the vision, the mission and the main business goals of a\nenterprise or organization. The business goals must be interpreted into subgoals that are\nenforced on specific high-level business domains, e.g. sales, customer relationships,\nproduction, and logistics. In fact, these domains, according to the balanced scorecard\n(BSC) approach [5], are influenced by the corporate strategy regarding the perspectives of the\nfuture readiness and the innovation, the internal process improvement, the customer\norientation, the cost control, and the financial goals. It is obvious that enterprises need to\neffectively approach these perspectives if they want to achieve a transition from the oldfashion business models to the new ones. Thus, the strategic components incorporated in\nthese perspectives, must be refined and improved.\nThese components, in fact, construct the high-level business domains upon which the\ngoals of the business strategy must be enforced. Of course, these domains must contain\nsubdomains or, in other words, lower-level domains that express the implementation\ncomponents of an enterprise or organization. Such components include among others\ntechnical processes, business data, operations, and informatics implementations. This topdown approach is very useful for the executives because it provides them with a tool for the\nsuccessful enforcement of a business strategy considering all its dimensions.\nThe IT potentiality in terms of new technologies and solutions, makes the IT strategy to be\nthe determinant while the business strategy to be the weak area which needs improvement\n\n[5]. This fact is expressed by the Strategic Alignment (SA) model [14] for the business and IT\nstrategies and the organisational and IT infrastructures.\nFor example, ubiquitous computing brings new capabilities to the enterprises and, thus, it\npushes for a revision of the corresponding business strategies. The goal is to achieve a\n\n\n## Informatics and applied computing\n\nFigure 1.\nThe basic dimensions\nof a high-performance\nenterprise based on\ninnovation and new\ntechnologies\n\n\n-----\n\n## ACI\n\n\ncompetitive advantage over the competition through the development of new products and\nthe appropriate modification of the business scope, the distinct competencies, and the\nbusiness governance, along with the improvement of the organizational infrastructure which\nconcerns the business processes, the human resource capability, and the administrative\nstructure. As mentioned, this approach helps enterprises to conform to the new requirements\nthat arise due to the new technological solutions and the potentialities created by them.\nTowards this direction, the following are proposed:\n\n(1) IT and business strategy alignment,\n\n(2) dimensioning of IT resource requirements,\n\n(3) adoption of new IT architectures and their management, based on innovation and\nadaptability, and\n\n(4) selection of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for evaluation reasons.\n\nThe first point imposes an IT strategic plan fully aligned with the business strategy. The next\npoint asks for an open, interoperable, scalable, and distributed IT infrastructure, while the\nthird point relates to a high-performance IT-enabled enterprise [4, 5, 15]. Key performance\nmetrics are always required so that the evaluation of the adopted overall approach to be\npossible.\n\n6. Developing an effective IT planning aligned with the business strategy\nIT planning must incorporate the current as well as the future enterprise needs and\ntechnological trends. Thus, it must cover long-term issues as well as whatever is necessary\nfor future readiness. A Strategic Alignment (SA) between the business and IT strategies\naddresses four main areas: business strategy, IT strategy, organizational infrastructure, and\nIT infrastructure [5, 16]. These areas need to be aligned with each other according to the\nbusiness requirements and the type of enterprises. Namely, the requirement for alignment\nvaries from enterprise to enterprise and while it is generally very helpful, it may, however,\nlimit the degrees of freedom in some business cases. In fact, trade-offs and equilibria between\nstrategic alignment and flexibility must be addressed successfully. For example, the\nproduction and other business operations, like the customer relationship management (CRM),\nare positively affected by the Strategic Alignment. On the other hand, the business planning,\nthe marketing, and the sales are less influenced by the SA. Specifically, enterprises, whose\ncritical operations do not focus on IT, do not require such a strict SA. The more supportive\nand functional the role of IT is, the more SA it requires. On the contrary, where IT moves\nwithin a strategic role, the need for a strict SA decreases [17–19]. The following perspectives\ncan be considered in an IT environment [20]:\n\n(1) IT infrastructure: emerging IT infrastructure technologies and solutions call for the\nreformulation of the IT strategy, while the business strategy is implicitly impacted.\n\n(2) IT organization infrastructure: emerging IT calls for the reformulation of the\norganizational infrastructure, while the business strategy is implicitly impacted.\n\n(3) competitive potentiality: emerging IT capabilities, as well as new IT governance\npatterns call for the reformulation of the business strategy, while the organizational\ninfrastructure is implicitly impacted.\n\n(4) service level: the IT resources use, as well as the orientation to the customer calls for\nthe reformulation of the IT infrastructure, while the organizational infrastructure is\nimplicitly impacted.\n\n\n-----\n\n7. Developing a homogenized and distributed corporate IT platform\nThe following services can be offered in an enterprise network in an open and interoperable\nmanner [21, 22]:\n\n(1) electronic services for channel-management, as far as all the involved parties, like\nenterprises, clients, and suppliers, are concerned,\n\n(2) security, that concerns the IT resources protection,\n\n(3) communication mechanisms needed for the communication and interworking\nbetween all the internal/external business entities,\n\n(4) database and file management services, for the purpose of making the required data\nand files available over the enterprise network,\n\n(5) application services, for the purpose of making the required applications, like EPR,\nSCM and HRM, available over the enterprise network, and\n\n(6) management of IT facilities, needed for integration and synchronization of the\ninfrastructure layers and for provision of servers and platforms.\n\nNew trends in IT technologies call for the distribution, homogenization, integration, and\ninteroperability of systems and services [23]. Open IT standards and SOA are among the\ncurrent information systems technologies that enterprises need to move towards because\nthey offer increased interoperability, transfer of application services to heterogeneous\nenvironments, enterprise application integration, service reusability, high operational control\nand monitoring, and flexible service configuration and measurability in service\nperformance [24].\nA SOA helps to create networks of services for the purpose of their common management.\nService orientation here is mentioned as an architectural approach of the new IT systems\nwithout restricting its implementation to specific offered solutions, as it is the Enterprise\nService Bus (ESB). In most cases, service orientation must be followed due to the benefits\nmentioned above. Figure 2 introduces the conceptual approach of a service grid, where\napplication services are interacting each other through several underlying platform services,\nlike routing, message exchange and message queuing, data and knowledge management,\ndistributed API’s, security, accounting, QoS assurance, system monitoring and control.\nIndeed, the adoption of IT service grids can prove to be a key factor for enterprises in their\nefforts to gain a significant competitive advantage. New informatics and applied services\nneed to be distributed, scalable, open, and reliable in a low cost and quick-to-market\n\n**_Services_**\n\n**_Services_** **_Services_**\n\n**_Protocols:_**\n**_Rest, XML/SOAP, WSDL, UDDI_** **_Transportation:_**\n\n**_Routing, Queuing, MOM_**\n\n**_Utilities:_**\n\n**_Services_**\n\n**_Services_** **_Accounting, Security_**\n\n**_Data and Knowledge Management:_**\n\n**_Management:_** **_Directories, Discovery, DBMS, NFS_**\n**_QoS, SLA, Monitoring_**\n\n**_Services_** **_Services_**\n\n**_Services_**\n\n\n## Informatics and applied computing\n\nFigure 2.\nThe conceptual\napproach of SOA and\nthe Service Grid\n\n\n**_Services_**\n\n**_Services_**\n\n**_Protocols:_**\n**_Rest, XML/SOAP, WSDL, UDDI_**\n\n**_Utilities:_**\n\n**_Services_** **_Accounting, Security_**\n\n**_Management:_**\n**_QoS, SLA, Monitoring_**\n\n\n**_Services_** **_Services_**\n\n**_Services_**\n\n\n-----\n\n## ACI\n\nFigure 3.\nThe supply chain\n\n\ndeployment fashion. Furthermore, this adoption will cause channel enhancements, like\ndisintermediation, mitigation of information asymmetry, world-wide access, virtualization,\ncost reduction and control, efficient management information, economies of scale, and\nimproved strategic positioning.\nService grids will be enhanced with the new ubiquitous computing capabilities. For\nexample, mobile computing can effectively leverage the quality of service, as well as the\ncollaboration between employers, employees, customers, strategic partners, and third parties\n\n[25]. Furthermore, smartphones can provide a variety of functionalities, like user interaction,\ntask management, user online help, blogging, wiki, chatting, and remote access from trusteed\nparties or customers through appropriate authentication and authorizations, that can\nsignificantly leverage the operational effectiveness of modern enterprises. The dissemination\nof notifications (e.g. Google Cloud Messages) in mobile apps is another example which can\nfacilitate business operations.\n\n8. Developing a high-performance IT-enabled enterprise\nThe IT services implemented with technologies like SOA and ubiquitous computing, must be\nsupplemented by IT management services. Towards this direction [21, 24], the following\nmanagement services can be identified:\n\n(1) IT administration services, for the platforms, the IT systems planning and the project\nmanagement, the SLAs, and the negotiations with the IT suppliers,\n\n(2) IT architecture services, which need the incorporation of system management policies\nfor the effective management of IT resources,\n\n(3) IT R&D services, concerning new products, services, processes, and operations using\nIT, and\n\n(4) training services in the use of IT, strongly needed for the capacity building of\nenterprise’s staff.\n\nAlong with the management, the overall business processes as well as any activity involved\nin a process need to be designed effectively. It has been well-documented that business\nprocesses which are supported by IT, along with the right organizational and management\nservices, are significantly more efficient than those of the old economy [26, 27]. The supply\nchain is a classic example that proves the truth of the matter. Figure 3 illustrates the process\nof supply chain. In brief, creating a performance-oriented IT organization requires process\ninnovation and efficiency, effective communication with the customers, the partners, and the\nsuppliers, inventory management, development of new products and services, and agile\nadaptation of the existing ones.\nIT-enabled enterprises need to be supported by several key functionalities and\ntechnologies [22, 28, 33, 34]. Bridges between the different information systems via\nappropriate interfaces by using e.g. web services (XML or json-based approaches), are also\nrequired. Of course, the adoption of these technologies may raise critical security and risk\nmanagement issues., All the vulnerabilities and security holes must be eliminated in an way.\n\n\n-----\n\n9. Analysis discussion and evaluation\nHereafter, some examples are provided regarding the right way to employ new technologies\nin modern enterprises. As mentioned in the Accenture report “Improving Business ROI with\nDigital Technologies”[1], “to become a more efficient finance organization, considerable\ninvestments must be made to improve processes and technology”. According to this survey, the\nreasons of fail are that (1) there is no clear strategy and vision, (2) they do not deal effectively\nwith the legacy systems, and (3) they do not understand adequately the existing digital\ncapabilities. The outcomes of this survey are fully aligned with the assumptions of our\nresearch presented above.\nIn the report entitled “The ROI of IoT: The 7 benefits it can bring to your business”[2], it is\nstated that “if you know how your key equipment and assets are behaving, and how people are\ninteracting with them, you can unlock the value of that data through an IoT software program\nthat delivers actionable insights and improves business processes in future”. This is a key issue\nfor the development of an improved long-term planning and strategy, which in turn it is\nnecessary for the success of an IT investment project, according to our research.\nAccording to [32], 88% of companies reported that they already use cloud services, while\n50% of companies expect to have all their data stored in the cloud for a period of two years.\nThe same survey revealed that most enterprises already have applications in production\nbased on cloud at a level of about 47%, while a significant percentage intend to develop such\napplications. However, these enterprises are almost entirely concerned with the security of\ntheir data, which requires a high-performance IT-enabled enterprise accordingto our research.\nFinally, according to the study conducted in [22], by adopting virtualization technology\nfor a computer centre, the cost of investing in it gradually yielded positive profits over the\nannual investment cost over a period of five years. Also, the return on investment (ROI)\nbecame positive after the second year, while during the fourth year, the total investment cost\nbecame significantly lower than the projected profits.\nItshould benotedthat fora continuousevaluation of theITstrategy and its implementation,\nit is necessary to define critical success factors of the organizational and the IT infrastructures\nthat are linked to certain KPIs. These indicators will assess not only the effectiveness of\ninternal processes, customer satisfaction or financial gains, but also the achievement of the\nstructural changes necessary to adapt the organization to an ever-evolving environment.\n\n10. Conclusions and future work\nThis paper presented in a concise and detailed way, the very important role that IT still plays\nnowadays in modern enterprises, giving them a competitive advantage in modern globalized\nmarkets. It was posited that enterprises that adopt IT in a smart and innovative way have a\nsignificant capacity building capability, improved future readiness, and better strategic\npositioning.\nIn the future, we intend to evaluate our approach in an enterprise. The process of analysis\nwill include the business strategy, processes and practices, organizational structures, IT\ninfrastructure, etc. The whole task faces the restrictions of the confidentiality of business\ninformation making access to all this information rather difficult, especially when this\ninformation may be made public. An organization before the application of our methodology\nrequires an adequate mapping (a master plan), while then a road map should be developed\nwith all the technical details of integration of practices, plans, technological solutions,\nevaluations, etc. Evaluations could be based among others in the implementation of a\nbalanced scorecard, where the results will be expressed via Key Performance Indicators\nconcerning crucial success factors (CSF) in all, the internal processes, the quality of services to\nthe customers, and the financial profit which is essentially the main motivation of every\nenterprise.\n\n\n## Informatics and applied computing\n\n\n-----\n\n## ACI\n\n\nNotes\n[1. https://www.accenture.com/nl-en/blogs/insights/how-digital-technologies-improve-business-roi](https://www.accenture.com/nl-en/blogs/insights/how-digital-technologies-improve-business-roi)\n\n(last access: 14/7/2021).\n\n[2. https://blog.worldsensing.com/critical-infrastructure/roi-iot/ (last access 14/7/2021).](https://blog.worldsensing.com/critical-infrastructure/roi-iot/)\n\nReferences\n\n1. 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IEEE Internet Things J. 2021; 8(7): 5744-5761.\n\nCorresponding author\n[Sarandis Mitropoulos can be contacted at: smitropoulos@ionio.gr](mailto:smitropoulos@ionio.gr)\n\nFor instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:\nwww.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm\nOr contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com\n\n\n## Informatics and applied computing\n\n\n-----\n\n"