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Dr. Peter B. Seddon

BSc(Honours), BCom, Grad Dip in CompStud., PhD (University of Melbourne)

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Associate Professor

1. Contact Details

• Postal:
  Department of Information Systems
  The University of Melbourne
  Victoria 3010, Australia
• Email: p.seddon@unimelb.edu.au
• Phone: +61 3 8344 1576
• Fax:     +61 3 9349 4596
• Mobile: +61 (0)407 98 4453
• Office: Room 3.49, 111 Barry St. (ICT Building), Carlton Vic 3053, Australia (please use this address for courier deliveries)

2. Research Interests

My research interests revolve around::

• The measurement of success of IT investments, particularly at the organizational level (sometimes called the Business Value of IT)
• The identification of factors contributing to the usefulness and success of information systems
• Enterprise Systems/Packaged Enterprise Application Software (PEAS), including ERP, CRM, SCM, EAI.
• IT Outsourcing
• IT Management including (a) IT capabilities for the IT Function, (b) the role of the CIO, and (c) enterprise architecture
• Business analytics
• Business processes (including TQM, BPR, and the importance of process in organizations))
• Accounting information systems

(Potential PhD students: Please take note of the above topics.)  

Key current projects:

Managing the IT Function in large Australian Organizations, 2010-19

The goal of this project is to understand how IT functions in large organizations in Australia should be structured and managed in the second decade of the twenty-first century (2010-2019). This topic is important because commoditization of IT and globalization of IT service provision are rapidly and dramatically changing the way IT is sourced and how IT functions around the developed world are structured; considerable numbers of IT jobs seem destined to be “offshored” to the low-wage economies. By studying a number of large Australian organizations over three years, we hope to be able to offer sound advice to Australian Chief Information Officers (CIOs) on the best ways to structure and manage their IT functions during the next decade.

3. Publications

4. Teaching Responsibilities

Current Research Students

• Shawn Alborz (PhD student, cosupervisor Rens Scheepers): The importance of the Relationship in IT Outsourcing
• Cheryl Calvert (PhD student, cosupervisor Jennie Carroll): Channels and mechanisms to increase user knowledge of packaged-software-based systems
• Phil Freeman (PhD student, cosupervisor Rens Scheepers): Explaining the drivers of successful CRM systems.
• Felicity Murphy (PhD student, cosupervisor Martin Gibbs): The role of lead customers in the on-going development of packaged software.
• Graeme Thomas (PhD student, ANU, co-supervisor Walter Fernandez): IT Project Evaluation: Is More Formal Evaluation Necessarily Better?

• Lee Chia Yao (PhD student, cosupervisor Brian Corbitt):  Strategic sources of value from e-markets

Current Class-room Teaching

2008:

• Lecturer-in-charge: 615-686 ICT Outsourcing Fundamentals (31 Masters students, semester 1) Subject website
• Lecturer-in-charge: 615-657 Enterprise Systems (Masters students, semester 2)

• Lecturer-in-charge: 615-260 Enterprise Systems (Undergraduate students, semester 2)

2007:

• Lecturer-in-charge: 615-657 Enterprise Systems (35 Masters students, semester 2) Subject website

• Lecturer-in-charge: 615-260 Enterprise Systems (55 undergraduate students, semester 2) Subject website
  

2006:

• Lecturer-in-charge: 615-657 Enterprise Systems (34 Masters students, semester 2) Subject website

• Lecturer-in-charge: 615-260 Enterprise Systems (65 undergraduate students, semester 2) Subject website

Completed Research Students

PhD

• Shari Shang (2002): Maximizing the Benefits from Enterprise Systems.  Dr Shang is now at National Chengchi University (NCU), Taiwan
• Sara Cullen (PhD cosupervisor Leslie Willcocks): Explaining the drivers of successful IT Outsourcing
• Lorraine Staehr (PhD cosupervisor Graeme Shanks): Understanding the Business Benefits from ERP System Use
• Jayantha Rajapakse (PhD student, cosupervisor Rens Scheepers): Explaining difficulties in realization of benefits from ERP systems in developing countries

Masters

• Wong Ming Kheng (2002): A Framework for Maximising the Benefits of PC/LAN Infrastructure Investment

Honours

• Meera Kesari (2002), Co-supervisor Shanton Chang: Usefulness of process modelling in application software implementations
• Richard Hong (2002), Co-supervisor Darren Skidmore: Web Services
• Justin Shuen (2002), Co-supervisor Shanton Chang: Critical Success and Failure Factors in Outsourcing of IT
• Danny Wang (2001): Logistics and the successfulness of Internet businesses
• Colin Reilly (2000): Benchmarking and Information Technology Outsourcing Outcomes
• Naomi Benjamin (1998): Data Warehousing Success: Measurement and Causes

Masters by Coursework

• Song Yang (2003): Benefits and Key Project Success Factors from Enterprise Systems Implementations: Lessons from Sapphire 2003
• Ann (Zhong) Liu (2007): How Do Key Project Success Factors Affect Organizational Benefits From Enterprise Systems Projects?
• Toomas Tamm (2008): A Critique of the Feeny and Willcocks (Sloan 1998) Core IS Capabilities Model

5. Professional Responsibilities

• Senior Editor, Management Information Systems Quarterly (2005-2007, emeritus 2008)

Previously:

• Asia-Pacific Regional Editor, Journal of Information Technology (2004)
• Associate Editor, Journal of Information Technology (2000-2003)
• Associate Editor, Communications of the Association for Information Systems (CAIS) (2001-2004)
• Research Coordinator, Department of Information Systems, The University of Melbourne (2002-2004)
• Co-chair (with Jennie Carroll and Rens Scheepers) OASIS research group, Department of Information Systems, 2004
• Associate Editor, Management Information Systems Quarterly (2000-2003)

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Peter Seddon
Updated: June 2008