This study found some support for Hypothesis 1, which proposed an association between AIS alignment and aspects of both technological sophistication and informational sophistication. The results showed support for the association between informational sophistication and AIS alignment but not between technological
sophistication and AIS alignment. The evidence suggests that informational sophistication (which relates to the number and types of applications portfolio adopted) is more important than technological sophistication (which relates to the number and diversity of technologies used) for SMEs to achieve AIS alignment. The significant differences between the two alignment groups relating to the adoption of external network and analytical-based
applications (such as financial analysis, project management, production variances, modelling and personnel management) also provided evidence that the aligned firms have greater IT maturity. Importantly, this maturity supports Fuller’s (1996) argument that SMEs undergo organisational learning related to the utilisation of IT