Supporting the Information Technology Champion

The literature on strategic uses of information technology suggests that “champions” are often a key to successful implementation. This article describes a field study of 15 information technology (IT) champions and their needs for support from their information systems units. Innovation research is used to hypothesize that IT champions, like other champions, need information, technical resources, and political support from their information systems department units. Interview findings suggest that IT champions strongly value (1) assistance in developing information to help sell their IT vision, (2) a flexible implementation process, and (3) legitimation of their ideas for using information technology. Moreover, IT champions do not want bureaucratic process or arm’s length dealings with information systems departments. They way a firm should conduct its dealings with an IT champion depends in large part on a number of organizational factors, including the IS department’s mission.