LIGHTWEIGHT IT AS A NEW ANALYTICAL LENS FOR DIGITALIZATION OF NGOS

While digitalization remains high on the agenda of most private sector organizations, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) still struggle, due to budget constraints (Merkel et al. 2007). A concept that might be helpful in this context is lightweight IT. It describes "a socio-technical knowledge regime, driven by competent users' need for solutions, enabled by the consumerization of digital technology, and realized through innovation processes" (Bygstad 2017). By building on existing solutions and focusing on the user, NGOs might circumvent high IT spending and sub-optimal IT solutions that do not fit users' needs. A use case analysis along the NGO value chain shows that ~1/3 of the use cases identified from literature already represent lightweight IT examples. Nonetheless, certain lightweight IT solutions successfully deployed in the private sector like RPA do not appear at all, leaving room for future exploration and improvement.