Managing Information Systems Change - Essay Example

Year of Study/Semester: Submitted: Managing Information Systems Change Assessment Introduction With the increased demand for quality in organisations with regard to information requirements, the traditional relationship that follows as witnessed between information behaviour assessment and the structural approach to its requirements analysis comes about as remote. As corporate companies endear there efforts towards prosperity in a complex and dynamic environment, it calls for tools that are both sophisticated and efficient for design and analysis. In most U. K. companies, currently, tools for system analysis, act well for pin-pointing hardware as well as software needs, which primarily are the core principle components of the system. Despite their efficiency in tactful problem solving in the technical perspective of the system, these two critical aspects lack significantly in troubleshooting troublesome eventualities that often characterise the human component. As Loughman Fleck and Snipes, R. (2005) postulate an understanding of this aspect within the entire system is absolutely critical to successful corporate analysis as well as design. Even the most complex system, which lacks to address the human component, is bound to fail. As such, most proponents of system requirements bear evidence of the fact that integrating systems assessment as with information requirement techniques can maximise both technical as well as social components of corporate companies in redesign and re-engineering. Approaches There is a list of approaches for integrating information systems technology in an organisation. These methodologies range from Ends/Means Analysis to Critical Success Factors (CSF) as well as Andersen’s Consulting (M-1), Nolan’s Stage Analysis and Business Systems Planning (BSP-IBM). In this study, the approach that is favoured is Critical Success Factors (CSF). This approach has a central place in the development of information systems. It is highly dependent on the host organisation for immense strategic implications. This approach of integrating Information systems within the organisation hires a process that attempts to explicitly exemplify the principle areas that define both the managements as well as the organisations success. It calls upon the analyst as Rockart (1979) observes, to have a deep understanding of the entrepreneurial environment. This understanding will be the basis upon which the study will refer in motivating information from the organisations under study with regard to the important factors of success of the corporate companies in the U.K. The Critical Success Factors will also be the basis upon which the study will base its proposals for organisational re-engineering and ultimately issue forth future strategic plans. In the same spirit Critical Success Factors approach will be used to simultaneously interpret information requirements capabilities of the organisations and ultimately connect the company with its information requirements. A whole range of approaches are attributed to the current comprehension of the role played by information systems in corporate companies. The first major approach is the fact that information is at the core of corporate success constituting its survival as well as productivity. Ideally, this aspect has been far much pronounced in light of the inherent competition that characterises corporate business environments both at home and overseas. Additionally, the situation has been further aggravated by the highly accelerating rate of change witnessed in technology especially IT (information technology). Moreover the characteristic of the current business environment where decisions are expected to be made with speedy correspondence between the management and the affected parties at the lower level of the organisation has put information at the centre of business practice. Another approach that enables understanding of information and places it at the centre of business practice is the realisation of organisational management of the need to train its personnel well and cultivate their commitment. This is absolutely critical basing on the fact that hiring new staff for the company is both an expensive process and moreover, such a process consumes a significant portion of organisation time which would otherwise have been allotted to other productive sectors of the organisation. The third approach that places information at the core of companies in the U.K. is as a result of continued studies which have maintained supply of information that ideally enabled corporate companies in the U.K to grasp the complexity as well as necessity for integration of human beings, primarily company employees, with technology. This effort has been primarily endeared towards meeting prior defined organisational objectives in the U.K. To simply put it, in the current business environment, its no longer appealing neither physically, socially, psychologically nor economically to engorge the technical technological component of business and then later on set forth on encapsulating the organisational personnel within an already described technology. The fourth major important factor is the inherent tendency that characterises corporate organisations when perceived under the lens of the systems theory. This theory purports that changes that are made at one point within the organisation have implications on other varied components of the same system. As such, it is absolutely critical for U.K organisations to employ a total systems approach to corporate organisational assessment so as to establish the working knowledge behind the systems performance. The fifth approach is based on the assumption that primarily, technology and people, relate in a symbiotic relationship ultimately resulting into development of each partner in the said relationship. Additionally, this symbiotic relationship between people and technology also leads to the development of intricate understanding of the entire requirements of the corporate organisational system through assessment of corporate staff’s interactive process with the system. Studies that engage only a given component selected amongst an array of components from the system can not thus succeed in enhancing organisational improvement as their end results are inconclusive and reflect a distorted view of the corporate company. Bostrom and Heinen (1977) postulate socio-technical design as an approach to grasping the nature of interaction between humans and technology. Case studies Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer as part of a project design to redefine the corporation by the year 2020, has embarked on massive investments in enhancing its information technology in its stores. As such, the company wants to be in tandem with the delineation that has been set forth as the trait of twenty first century IT. The benefit of this endeavour is that, it will bring the company in line with its competitors and as such the derived productivity will be the backdrop against which future growth will be rested. This enhancement of the company’s service rendering will be enabled through a proposed SMART technology initiative. This initiative calls for launching of fresh tills as well as HHts in addition to investment in new personnel systems which range from payroll, attendance and time and human resource management systems which will ideally substitute PeopleSoft and PIMS. The major benefit that is likely to be derived from this is accurate pay for staff because in the present Salford Quays is subjected to more than seven thousand queries in a month, moreover the human resource administration teams answer more of these queries. The opportunity that is presented for Marks and Spencer is the elimination of these queries and as such the time spent by employees querying salaries which will consequently result in more time spent on the job. It also presents an opportunity for employee satisfaction as trouble free salary processing is likely to motivate the employees as the company will have fostered an environment that is ideal and stress free. The major threat from the process is the financial expenditure that the company is obliged to incur in the process of installing the new information systems. Phoenix Hydraulics In nineteen eighty nine, Highway Reliable Electronic Product Group of Phoenix Hydraulics attempted implementation of the elements of total quality management as proposed by Hodgetts, Luthans and Lee (1992). After studying the company’s process in business, Phoenix Hydraulics opted to reformulate the business process prior to total quality management implementation. The point of start for the process ideally would be with a process that impacted mainly on a significant number of business process, which was procurement. The procurement process that was used previously was characterised with bureaucracies that gave the customer little power to make decisions and moreover wasted a lot of time. The entire process was based on out of date purchasing systems that used twenty three different databases for securing information for purchases. The opportunity that the redesigned project presented was the pushing of the decision making power to the customer of the order through a LAN and Software for work-flow which automatically assessed contracts as well as their prices and generated orders that had been purchased through a single interface for the user. The benefit primarily was that the company was able to cut down on the time that was prior spent on creating orders of purchases from a hundred and sixteen days to twenty eight days. The company was also able to reduce its secretarial staff to five from twelve. The major weakness of this endeavour was the fact that it led to employee negative sentiment as a result of the jobs lost. The new system also cost the company a lot of money to install as a result of its sophistication. James Fisher and Sons The purchasing information system of James Fisher and Sons makes available information to buyers about suppliers as well as the items they need. The results of using the said system (purchasing information system) are numerous. James Fisher and Sons hoped to realise cost savings of up to four percent of the purchased leverage volumes as well as non-important items on an annual basis through the implementation of the system. This was realised through connecting the purchasing systems of information of the decentralised purchases departments which ideally enabled a diminished supply base and thus of the complexities that characterised administration in addition to packaging of purchased volumes. The major weakness of the process was its financial cost to the company. This resulted into high expenditures of which the justification would only be realised only in the long term. The costs were also incurred upon publicising the process to enable the affected stakeholders including potential customers as well as suppliers to be aware of its existence. References Alter, S. (1993). “Proceedings of the Tenth Information Systems Education Conference", Phoenix, AZ, No. November, pp.127. Bostrom, R. P, Heinen, J. S. (1977). "MIS problems and failures: a socio-technical perspective; part II: the application of socio-technical theory", MIS Quarterly, Vol. 1 pp.11-28. Freeman, K. (1993). "Business process redesign: a Corning perspective", SIM Executive Brief, Chicago, IL, Vol. IV No.2, pp. 1. Hoffman, G. (1991). "Coping with information megalomania", Information Management Forum, AMA, No. September. Hayes, R. H., Pisano, G. P. (1994). 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