Analysis of the Fit of Learning and Management Systems in Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are heavily investing in learning and management systems to
support and enhance the quality of services provided to key stakeholders; namely, the students. However, the degree
of fit of such systems with the needs of students varies significantly from one higher education institution to another.
Therefore, continuous assessment of this kind of fit has to be undertaken by HEIs to ensure that these systems are
continuously adding business value and maintaining appropriate level of return on investments. The problematic issue
is that there is a scarcity of business and Infromation Technology (IT) alignment evaluation research or tool that is
dedicated to this purpose in this sector. This motivates this ongoing research to be undertaken devising a theoretical
framework as an artefact that incorporates set of business analytics tools to facilitate the evaluation of the business
value from IT. The Design Science Research is adopted as the research methodology in this research to guide the
development process of this artefact. This paper, however, focuses mainly on providing background information about
the issue of business and IT alignment in general and in the higher education sector in particular. It then describes the
alignment influencing factors that impact on the alignment between business and IT. Through a real life case study
from a higher education institution in Saudi Arabia, the paper aims to present the IT alignment issue in this sector, and also discuss some of its influencing factors to illustrate how they influence the degree of fit between business and IT.