Creating value through IT-enabled integration in public organizations: A case study of a prefectural Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Providing a descriptive case of the evolution of immunization information systems.Documenting the values of IT in public health.Discussing IT-enabled data and process integration as a value-creation mechanism. Public organizations, such as governmental agencies, are often accused as laggards in leveraging information technologies (IT). Despite the abundance of research and anecdotal evidence on the business value of IT in general, we know little in particular about what the IT values are and how to realize them in public organizations that value power and control. This paper documents the evolution of immunization information systems at a prefectural branch of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and discusses lessons learned from this experience. The case reveals multiple types of IT values that surface in areas of managing immunization records, vaccine supply chain management, and public health crisis response. However, the values only fully materialize after our research site underwent an evolutional path and a properly architected information system finally emerged to allow IT-enabled data and process integration. We discuss the lessons learned and their implications to both academic scholars and practitioners in IT management in the public sector as well as in other organizations.