FOXMEYER & NIBCO - Essay Example

The Management of FoxMeyer did not really have a clear-cut and explicit plan that put them at the forefront of management and control of the change in an information system. On the other hand, the management of TIBCO refused the advice of their consultants to go with a step-by-step process and opted for the big-bang approach. This automatically put the management of TIBCO in full responsibility for the success and failure of the change process. This, therefore, made them more committed to the process. FoxMeyer rather delegated all the responsibility to their IT consultants and this led to failure.

Secondly, the failure of the management of FoxMeyer to take a keen interest in the process led to the creation of a grey area in that the IT consultants did not do a comprehensive risk analysis. They failed to identify the risks inherent in the project. This created a situation where user interests were not assessed realistically. There was no comparison of the existing system in relation to the new system that was being installed. Thus the fact that the old system could process over 420,000 transactions a day and the new one was to process just 10,000 a day was not identified. This led to an inherent backlog problem with the new system before it was set up.

However, with the position the management of TIBCO took, they committed resources to the process and ensured that the risks and limitations of the system were identified and dealt with. The management of TIBCO committed a quarter of the management team to dedicate their full attention to the change process. This included three key managers with immense experience in Technology, Business Co-ordination, and Change Management. These three key areas became known as the Tiger Management team and they had full executive support from the top-level managers. They set milestones in risk management, design, and analysis for the project. With the full support of management, they were able to select an appropriate vendor, IBM, and monitored IBM closely to ensure that all the activities they indulged in were covered from a risk management perspective.