The City of Pittsburgh goes to the Cloud: A Case Study of Cloud Solution Strategic Selection and Deployment. Issue 2 (January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mu, Enrique; Stern, Howard A
• Is Part Of: Journal of information technology teaching cases. Volume 4:Issue 2(2014)
• Page Start: 70
• Page End: 85
• Publication Date: 2015-01
• Subjects: IT alignment -- IT strategic decisions -- IT stakeholder management -- cloud selection -- software as a service -- analytic hierarchy process -- AHP; Information technology -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Information resources management -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Information resources management -- Study and teaching; Information technology -- Study and teaching; Periodicals; Electronic journals; E-journal; 371.33405
• DOI: 10.1057/jittc.2014.5
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2043-8869

Abstract

Faced with diminished resources and a need to provide enhanced employee email services, the City of Pittsburgh's Chief Information Officer (CIO) had to navigate a stubborn bureaucracy to achieve his objectives. Using an IT-business alignment strategic approach to decide on a suitable IT solution, the City was able to select and deploy a cloud-based system in an objective and uncontested way. The City employed an Analytic Hierarchy Process prioritization methodology, which used various criteria obtained from the stakeholders to develop a decision-making framework to select the most suitable cloud solution. The case allows a review of best practices in the cloud solution selection process, using theoretical lenses from the fields of IT alignment, decision-making, and stakeholder management. This case study is particularly useful for learning how strategic decisions to adopt IT are made in public organizations.