Characterization of Information Technology Capabilities: case study in an institution of higher education

Abstract

Information Technology capabilities are organizational skills that enable the IT function deliver value to activities of an organization. This article aims to identify the IT capabilities created by an institution of higher education during the design, development, implementation and dissemination of its integrated systems management between 2004 and 2014. This integrated system is currently being implemented in more than 30 institutions of direct and indirect administration of the federal government through technology transfer cooperation agreements. It was adopted as research strategy case study and semi-structured interviews, mainly with IT members of the university. As a result, the following relevant capabilities for this trajectory were identified: the technical capability or organizational ability to develop improvements and corrections in the systems; internal relationship capability, organizational skills to support the effective use of the systems by other organizational units of the institution; and external cooperation capability, organizational ability to transfer technological knowledge and business to the cooperative institutions. These were identified from the IT capabilities and characteristics of organizational capabilities found in literature, resulting in contributions to the advancement of capabilities definitions. It is hoped that future research can take this work as reference to identify strategically relevant capabilities in their organizational contexts and explore how these IT capabilities are built over time in organizations.

Keywords

• Capacidades Organizacionais
• Capacidades de Tecnologia da Informação
• Sistemas integrados de gestão