Developing Mobile-Commerce in Information Systems - Report Example

28 April 2008 Developing Mobile-commerce in Information Systems Developing business IT/strategies involves recognizing the relevance of planning process in fabricating, designing and evaluating IT/business strategies and the possible challenges that a firm may have to face while developing and implementing mobile-commerce strategies and changes in its organizational framework (Vaast and Levina 2006). This calls for a series of complementary and cooperative changes in the organizational structure. It do sometimes calls for organizing and soliciting the commitment and inputs from employees posted at various levels in an organizational framework to muster changes in business goals, strategies and technologies. One major part of such an endeavour is to evaluate an organization’s internal and external environments; forecast new developments; establish an organizations vision, mission, goals and objectives; develop strategies, tactics and polices to implement its goals; and articulating plans for an organization to act upon. This calls for the concerned personnel to have a thorough understanding of the concepts underlying the process of organizational change and renewal. Understanding organizations An effective mobile-commerce plan not only attempts to bring an organisation in tune with the latest technological developments so as to optimize efficiency, but is also an important step towards understanding an organization (Sachenko 2005). Most of the contemporary companies dealing in goods and services are expecting an augmenting pressure to improve performance and to adapt to technological changes in the business environment. In addition to this, they have to bear with the additional pressure of cutting costs by resorting to cost effective technology solutions. Though such a scenario brings out the best in an organization, still it is often quite difficult to meet such a challenge because of the shortage of IT workers and rising salaries. Under such special circumstances it becomes quite easy to see through an organizational design by simply observing that organizations transformation procedure, as it unfolds itself. Implementation activities here include managing the introduction and implementation of changes in business processes, organizational structure, job assignments and work relations resulting from e-business strategies. The business investment in such a context has to be aligned to take advantage of the latest developments in business technology with an eye on the company’s strategic goals such as reengineering business processes or gaining competitive advantages. The impact of such a task will have repercussions on a companies overall mobile-commerce strategies and technology architecture. Mobile-commerce and organisational structure Any meaningful attempt at reorganizing the IT structure in an organization affects the priorities of and relationship between co-workers and their interaction with business clients. It calls for a careful selection of clients and employees spread across an organizational framework to provide meaningful and supportive consultation, advice and ideas. It necessitates the need to look into all the back-and-forth interactions and linkages. If the overall organization of the concerned departments exhibits an unwavering commitment to clients and their interests, then the scenario becomes really positive. The choice of chief information officer (CIO) to be selected to work out such an important change demands ample deliberation and insight. Sometimes choosing a seasoned veteran though lacking a specialization in IT, but having ample experience could work wonders. Such an individual often not only commands the respect and allegiance of most of the employees, but also has a better understanding of the modes of working in the organization and of the personnel deployed in various support departments and operational departments. However, sometimes such a choice may backfire by encouraging the existing inertia within a setup. Contrary to this, choosing an outsider with appropriate IT background and experience may bring in a fresh perspective into an organization. Such a choice is sometimes bound to meet undesirable resistance and lack of wholehearted compliance with the designed strategy. Chain of suitable liaisons selected does play an important role in such a meaningful endeavour. Any organisational redesign has to take into consideration various aspects. It is much better if every department has a team structure with a defined role assigned to each and every member of the team. This stands to be more true in case of the already scarce IT resources of most of the existing businesses. Sometimes a standardized approach not only streamlines an organization, but also reduces certain costs and provides timely and relatively simple services. The choice of new technologies is also determined by a necessity to maintain a balance between sophistication and costs. Appropriate staff changes needs to be undertaken to accompany any creative redesign. In such a scenario, staff members with an IT degree and design experience will certainly command an advantage. Organizational culture Any authentic redesigning team also needs to keep an eye on the cultural setup in an organization. Each cultural setup gives way to a different set of questions and answers (Smirchic 1983). The power and limitations of a design concept are definitely influenced by the power and limitations of the cultural environment in an organisation. The content of any mobile-commerce redesigning plan in any organisation has to be culture sensitive. It has to show respect and consideration for cross cultural or co-operative management or comparative management, corporate culture and various conscious and unconscious processes in the organization under consideration. In comparative management studies, culture is considered to be a background factor, an explanatory variable, or a broad framework influencing the development and reinforcement of beliefs. It has to make way for the similarities and differences in the attitudes of managers of different cultures. Culture definitely happens to be an independent variable that influences the restructuring of any organisation. The CIO and the IT support staff needs to keep an eye on the difference amongst the cultures, locate cultural similarities and draw vital implications for vital organizational effectiveness. The IT research tem may decide to promote certain values and ideologies in a given organizational framework. Such a procedure is of definite relevance for multinational organisations, where global interdependence is one major factor. Still business organisations are not merely an offshoot of cultural values, but also themselves generate peculiar cultural values in the form of rituals, legends and ceremonies. Culture is basically the social or normative glue that holds an organization together. Thus IT designers should show concern for the adaptive mechanisms within an organisation. They should exhibit a healthy, critical approach to the values and norms under which people operate and interact. This makes the culture within an organisation more open to change, thus favouring a smooth reorganisation of the system. Organizational Politics Any possible attempt at structural reengineering in a mobile-commerce driven organization has to keep an eye on the active or passive, legitimate or clandestine centres of power within an organisation. It is a must that the CIO and the IT team constituted by absorbing employees from various departments have a full baking and support of the top management. This attribute to a great extent streamlines the engines of change within an organisation. The major legitimate power structures and centres of power within an organization need to be taken into confidence to ensure a healthy trust, compliance and optimization of resources. Timely feedback and inputs from all the departments and employee groups yields a sense of participation in the entire restructuring procedure and make the changes made within an organisation widely acceptable. It is imperative that all the employees get a direct insight into the benefits yielded by the changes unleashed. This brings in an optimum level of trust and faith in the structural changes made while reorganizing the setup to meet the requirements of the contemporary mobile-commerce doctrines. Despite the best efforts put in by any versatile IT team, some resistance from the disgruntled employees and customer groups will always be there. Genuine attempts should be made to alley the fears and doubts of all the segments in an organization, so as to make them tow the process with ample confidence and trust. Still a company may have to prove willing to pay the price for change in the form of laying-off some problematic staff members in the short run. A competitive mobile-commerce environment demands ample flexibility and know how on the part of a majority of participants. Any segment or pressure group intending to be tough and rigid may have to be dealt with tact and firmness. Positive results in the short run certainly imbue any such attempt with legitimacy. However, this mindset should not discourage any scope for constructive criticism and doubt. Resistance to change Any meaningful attempt towards change, necessities an effort to interact within an organizational environment, and to chalk out alternatives in the patterns of organizational behaviour to minimize any resistance (Macri, Tagliaventi and Bertolotti 2002). People often do not like to be changed, particularly when they happen to be the end users. Thus positive efforts should be made by using formal implementation programs which end users and IT consultants can develop to encourage user acceptance and productive use of reengineered business processes and new information technologies. This should address the need for proper user education, improved communication within organisation and involvement and commitment of top management and all the business stakeholders. The main point is to make end users assume a sense of ownership of a system. Conclusion There is no denying the fact that adjusting to mobile-commerce is a demanding process that not only demands ample IT resources, but a complete participation and support of the top management, stake holders and employees at all the levels in an organization. This calls for a due understanding and respect for the organizational politics and initial resistance to such an endeavour. Also it is imperative that such an effort is supported by meaningful results in the long and the short run. Infact it means a commitment to flexibility and communication on the part of the fabricators of such a process. References Macri, Tagleventi & Bertolotti, A grounded theory for Resisitance to change in a small organization, Journal of Organizational Change Management, , 2002, 15, pp.292. 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