Change Management Frameworks of Dell Computer Corporation - Case Study Example

AN INVESTIGATIVE STUDY OF AUSTRALAIN COMPANY THAT HAS A CHANGE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK IMPLEMENTED: Name of Student: Student ID: Lecturer: Course: Assignment: Date of submission: INVESTIGATIVATIVE STUDY OF AN AUSTRALIAN COMPANY THAT HAS A CHANGE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK IMPLEMENTED. Abstract. This work reviews the results of a study on how change management frameworks have been implemented by various organizations in Australia. The study indentified unique stages of growth with various sets of problems and challenges at each stage. A case analysis of the initial B2B e-business implementation with Dell Computer Corporation and its huge corporate market customers are examined in this study. The study reveals the integration of non ERP and ERP systems, via web-based technologies to completely make use of the general B2B value chain. Lastly the paper explains the task for change management and cultural preparedness when implementing the e-business solution. Introduction. Many study works have been done; papers written on how change management frameworks will transform the way organizations interact and speedy exchange of information between the suppliers and customers via the virtual networks to enhance efficiency and bring value-added process. Case background, Society is an Australian Company established in 1987. I t offers services to its members with wine and wine products and other related services. The company number one priority is to strive to make the society very relevant to their members and to completely change the business processes starting with sales order then to inventory and finally the delivery. The SAP R/3 is what they intend to use in the e-business project that is integrated with internet and is redeveloped and designed to obtain the goals of the management goals such as internet mailing, and placing orders through leveraging R/3, making it possible to use the membership data in identifying and marketing of the products and finally to scale up the accuracy level in their inventories to sustain a competitive advantage with average overall company profitability at a minimum of 50%. Investigations of domestic SAP. During the study, ten SAP based West Australian Companies were contacted with the sole purpose of obtaining information about the developments in their e-business markets with the view of knowing just how they are implementing a change management frame work. A well framed interview approach was used, and the questions were open-ended. These questions were used to grasp the current information and future application of the strategy. In framing questionnaire to be used in the interview exercise, the subject of benefit maximization for conspicuous and its strategy was geared to supply chain automation platform focusing of B2B models. In summary, the IT managers that were interviewed laid out their opinions views and what they are expecting in future development and most of their sentiments were similar to the findings that were collected by Norton Institute of Australia and the Nolan during their recent studies in the same discipline. (NNI Report, 2008). The major reasons for implementing a change management framework are: 1. Integration across the whole organization set up is fundamental to big scale efficiency gains. 2. Implementation should be transparent and change process is vital, by way of accepting the change in itself and obtaining the desired expected efficiency goals. 3. Differentiating achieving cost efficiencies and trying to acquire new markets and customers. 4. Prepare a benefit register and measure results against it. The information that was got from the first interview, when plotted on the graph showed the IT strategy been favored compared to other strategies. The graph reveals perceived benefits on the plan .and R/3 implementation. Research Findings When analyzing the raw data that was obtained from the interviews, a summary table was established to facilitate me concentrate on the core components of the business framework. For every case, the rating was done in terms of the component contribution towards the success of the business project. A 3-point scale was adopted, ‘high or medium or low’. The analysis method deployed here looks at the positive and negative contributions. The table reveals that Dell and customer, Bank, Engineering and Biotech achieved success in their change management implementation projects. While Comptec success were only rated to be moderate and the Society completely failed to obtain any significant success. S Summary of findings. Components & constructs Bank Biotech Dell customer Engineering Society Comptec Environment Strategic initiatives High High high High and low low Medium Cultural Readiness High High high high low Low IT leveragability High High medium High medium high High Knowledge capability High High high medium high high Relationship building medium High high High low Medium Performance gains High Medium high medium low Low Management High High high high low low Significance of the project medium Very high innovative high High Very high Learning capacity High High Very high high medium medium Success scale: low medium high A Actually when the comparisons are made they do not appear very valid or relevant. The table above highlights three major areas that have come out to be critical and are the once to be further discussed namely; change management from management, the three perspectives f performance gains and the cultural preparedness from the business environment. The one case that stands out and worth giving appropriate attention is the Dell partnership with one of their preferred customer. (customer.com) Discussion B2B Integration. In 2002 Dell developed their first business to business e- business integration with an already well established company. The reason why I choose this case is because it provides a comprehensive insight on of the approach to inter-business computing. This is an illustration of a sophisticated architecture is made to work through an array of backend systems and systems for procurement. How does it work! Costomer.com is Dells customer and is leveraging its current SAP enterprise connector driven by webMethods technology in order to communicate directly with e-business system of Dell. The integration between SAP B2B and customer.com ERP in its procurement procedures to its customer makes the procurement system works automatically over the internet when ordering dell products. Technology fit. When implementing an enterprise information system, technology is only half of the real work. Company’s general view and perspective are similarly important. Normally it gives a clear picture on how enterprise information systems or business issues fits against the company’s performance. Customer .com implemented SAP to for it as their business enterprise system. Dell being operating within highly dynamic markets and in an environment where technology changes rapidly, therefore Dell decided to drop their initial developments in SAP and in 2004 adopted COM in the development of the enterprise based solution components. The company strongly believes that this was the right decision by implementing the most flexible approach with the aim of fitting the IT to its general operation and cooperate strategy and integrate with customers. The integration elements that were emphasized during the interview are related to the change management steps and cultural processes that are needed in order to successfully implement the strategic initiative. Analysis of findings The materials which here represent the information was collected by the use of well formulated response sheet, it was further broken down to three levels of details. The strategic components, a selection of corresponding category and the construct encompasses the very components in subject. The managers who were being interviewed chose a category that highly describes their business experience. By analysis comments and the data obtained from the interview a rating that is qualitative was achieved. The comments assist concentrate on the contributions of each particular component. Every component was rated as either having negative or positive contribution in regards to the e-business project that was implemented as a change management strategy. The table indicates a high success level in overall. And from the results, it can be seen that over ally success level was attained. The column of rating brings attention on the significance of possessing a contribution which is positive from all the components for business project to achieve its goals. To shed more light on this findings, a detailed discussion of the three main perspectives of e-business change-the change environment, the outcome and the performance attainment or gains and the management of change. Strategic initiatives. This Information Technology creativity came from the insights of IT professional who was a Dell employee and he was like the idea champion. The champion had the energy and the drive to make the project possible at the same time she was getting administrative backup support from the top decision makers of the organization. She had unstoppable motivation to communicate market and sell the goals of the project to the rest within the organization and this move prompted ever one at the organization to give her support. Though this was viewed as a normal passive change in Dell, the customer organization deemed it as a revolutionary and it took both the management and the general staff members enough time to accept this move. The additional time that was saved the newly integrated system allowed the IT manager to allocate extra time to quality decision making structures other than the fire fighting the job. Culture of readiness During the projected all the members of the staff demonstrated the willingness to be part of change. Though this did not happen within a twinkle of an eye in customer.com, a significant time was allocated for gradual development and meeting for sharing best practices to adopt the change. Conclusion. Implications for practice. The results confirm the findings of the initial studies in the field of business process (Sarkar and Lee, 200; Bhattacherjee; 2000). The successful implementation of ERP needs focus and attention to both social and technical perspectives and their involvement with the setting environment of managed change. In this study carried out , the most recommendable ERP projects that have been successful can be attributed to have be having facilitators from all the corners and the components of the framework of the business project, composing of the technological infrastructure , enterprise project management and the organizations change management. Further studies reveal that there are setbacks to the least successful ERP projects that will hinder the implementation process. These inhibitors are mostly observed in the areas of cultural readiness and change management. The Customer.com and Dell study shows that employee satisfaction was obtained from the whole concept of accepting change from both the administrative roles and the processes that touched on their duties but also the raised level of dependency on the IT and its key support role. This emphasizes the need to promote the balancing of conflicting organizational, technological and the needs of the people. As the adoption of the change management frameworks is becoming a common strategy to most organizations, corporate portals for equipping employees will be given priority as an economic necessity, providing tools such as e-procurement for staffs. The coming wave of economic advantage depends on the revenue generation for fresh business opportunities in B2B business models (Carlson 1995). These problems are complex that just having technology alone to solve them cannot work. They need commitment from the executive wing, leadership with the right and accurate problems solving skills and staff friendly communication to create the foundation for the development of the business strategy. . . References : 1.D, Bunker., 2003. Enterprise Resource Planning System Tools Systems, AMCIS, Long Beach, USA. 2. J,Burn .M., Ash., 2006. Knowledge Management Strategies for Virtual Organisations. Information Resources Management Journal 16 (1), 15–26 3. Carlson, D.A., 2000. Harnessing Flow of Knowledge, RETRIVED (http://www.dimensional.com/_dcarlson/papers/Know- Flow.htm). 4. T. Davenport, T., 1998. Putting the Enterprise into the EnterpriseSystem. Harvard Business Review (Jul–Aug), 121–131. 5.Dell, 2003. B2B E-Commerce Integration with Dell Computer Corporation, Facts Sheet, , Las Vegas, June 2000. 6.Fred. M. Dell. C., 2001. Direct from Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry. Harper Business, New York, Chapter 21. Read More