Using collaboration platforms for management control processes: new opportunities for integration

Literature have analyzed the relationship between Management Control Systems (MCSs) and Information and Communication Technology (ICTs), with a particular focus on information integrated systems (transaction-oriented information systems as Enterprise Resource Planning software, analysis-oriented information tools as Business Intelligence software). During the latest decades, ICT has generated collaboration platforms, i.e. hardware/software solutions able to connect people in a 'social' and safe environment and to provide tools useful to create, organize, search, and share documents, information, ideas, calendars, and so on. Several studies have investigated the organizational implications of such platforms, especially for workgroups, as well as their impacts on sharing knowledge and information, especially in inter-organizational context. But the contribution of collaboration platforms to MCS remains little explored. This study analyses the use of collaboration platforms in research institutions (RIs). Based upon one Italian case study, the article provides a qualitative assessment regarding the introduction of a collaboration platform to support communication flows in the RI. We highlight how this platform has become an important support device for management control processes. We focus on the role of the collaboration platform in each control component and on the way in which it represents an opportunity for a more sophisticated level of integration among those components. The paper aims to contribute both to academia bridging the gap in studies regarding the relationship between MCSs and ICTs, and to practitioners by highlighting collaboration platform usage in a specific context.