As innovative technology continues to change, businesses need to adapt at an increasingly fast rate, and must be able to successfully implement major IT projects to stay in the game. However, in every IS/IT implementation there are also barriers or resistance that accompany it. When we talk about “barrier” it is something that obstructs or hinders an action or movement. So I will discuss to you the barriers which prevents an IS/IT to be implemented based on our adopted organization.
Based on our adopted organization, here are some of the barriers in their IT implementation:
- The resistance of the people to the Technology
- Organizational Politics
- Project Implementation takes too Long
- Lack of skilled staff and IT Support
- Why change when everything is working fine
- Lack of Financial Support
The resistance of the people to the Technology
Resistance may develop out of missing knowledge or skills. Some people believe that the introduction of new technology is always accompanied by resistance. This may or may not be true, since new technology is often accompanied by curiosity for the new. The people's resistance is due to a lack of understanding, a missing will to accept the change and missing skills or resources to carry out the change.
Organizational Politics
The organizational structure may cause barriers by being inflexible towards a drastic change in operations. In particular large bureaucratic organizations tend to wither changes which potentially destroy the existing structure. The embedded culture of the organization is another reservoir for potential barriers, in that culture unconsciously influences the thinking, decisions and actions of people working in a given company. Thus culture may dictate inability to escape the past, and inability to invent the future.
People confront the project (resistance), or the project gradually loses commitment by upper management.
Project Implementation takes too Long
Another common obstacle to the IT implementaion is the perception that timelines for such projects are inordinately long. Of course, they are complex and require considerable planning and validation time, in addition to performing the actual upgrade work. However, as with any project, the longer the timeline,the more time it takes to realize the benefit – and the greater the likelihood that it will be interrupted, suspended, or even cancelled. IT organizations need to find ways to define an overall modernization roadmap, deliver in smaller, incremental steps, update the plans as business and IT needs change, and show progress along the way.
Lack of skilled staff and IT Support
In the section relating to Small and Medium Enterpirises (SMEs) and how they work with IT equipment, the results highlight that the majority of SMEs and self-employed workers currently function with little IT support and are left to tackle front end IT issues without consulting an IT expert. Subsequently the time spent by employees on fixing IT issues signifies a worryingly high cost to SMEs.
The system must be maintained and monitor from time to time and the people who will handle this transaction must be well trained and have an expertise on maintaining the system. Not having this kind of people inside the organization will add up to the barriers to the success of the system.
“You can have a perfect IT system running and no one is using it correctly. Companies invest a lot of money in IT and get no or negative business benefits,”
Why change when everything is working fine
There are, however, some disadvantages to the change management methodology that has more to do with not properly following its processes. If resistance from employees is not effectively dealt with through communication, it can derail any project.
Not understanding the culture of your company can allow the rumor mill leaders to circulate incorrect or corrupting information about the change. Also, stakeholders and customers need to be kept informed and brought in on the change. If not, they make also resist the change, and clients may choose to go through another company.
A bad change management plan can also negatively affect an organization. Change management is just that managing change. And, without a plan to deal with every step of the change (before, during and after), the strategy could fail at any point in time, possibly bringing down the entire company.
“It is about realising real and lasting change by recognising the human aspect impacting IT change,“
Lack of Financial Support
In the side of the investors, they may be hesitant to spend money for this project for will be very costly and requires ample time to complete the system yet the results or outcome is unsure. What I can say to the investors in this matter, if we want a changes or development we must take the risk, for business is a gamble, just makes sure that you have all the weapons not to lose in the game.
Reasons for problems in implementation and business change
Most companies find it difficult to implement new information systems and management solutions and to implement the benefit of business change. Business change is a mysterious unknown that is very difficult to manage.
There are several reasons for the problems in business change, mainly:
- The company does not organize and manage the actual entities that change
- The company does not have a good method to ensure beneficial business change
- We do what everybody else does and employ conventional wisdom, which ensures that we have the same problems as everybody else and that we make bad decisions
- We implement change on a rickety foundation of uninvolved management, resistant users, administrative objectives, consultant methodologies, no goals for return, etc.
Problems can be avoided by paying constant attention to the "three R's" of project management:
·1 Requirements,
·2 Resources
·3 and Recovery rates.
Still, as difficult as major IT implementations can be, they can be properly executed. The roadmap to success lies in successful planning and management of the overall project. Many problems can be avoided or at least mitigated by paying constant attention to the "three R's" of project management: requirements, resources and recovery rates.
These three R's comprise the foundation of effectively planning and implementing projects. Successful large-scale project managers measure each of these project components and continuously communicate their status to senior management and the project team.
Requirements:
The requirements of an IT implementation define the core reasons a business is investing time and resources in the project. The requirements of a project, often referred to as the project scope, must clearly set out what the project team is expected to deliver, and should be documented in detail.
By accurately documenting the work that needs to be done, the project manager can provide senior management with a better understanding of the time frames and resources that will be required to complete the project.
Prior to commissioning a major initiative, senior management should require the project team to complete a cost/benefit analysis. This analysis should outline high-level deliverables that will result from the project meeting its goals. The project team also should define metrics and benchmarks that can be used to measure the benefits of change and the progress and completion of each deliverable.
For example, if a new system is being deployed that reduces the time required to print, sort and attach hangtags, the current amount of time required to complete these activities must be accurately benchmarked. After the new system has been deployed, management can compare the new tagging time requirements against the historical benchmarks and quantify the amount of time saved.
Resources:
The second of the 3 R's -- resources -- includes all employees, consultants and vendors who are required to successfully complete the project. Resources also encompass the budgets, capital expenditures, equipment and infrastructure necessary to achieve the requirements of the project within the target time frame. Resources are the most important commodities of the project. Without them, none of the project requirements will be completed. They also can be the most difficult aspect of a project to accurately pinpoint.
In determining the amount of resources that will be required to complete a project, many base their calculations on the firm's number of full-time employees (FTEs). Deriving an accurate FTE count, however, can be a difficult task. Thousands of variables change the resource requirements of major projects on a daily basis. People become ill, quit, go on vacations and take maternity or paternity leave.
When establishing an estimate for a project, the project manager must consider the amount of work that needs to be completed and put a stake in the ground in terms of the resources that will be required to do the job. As the project progresses, it is important that the project manager revisit the original estimates with updated information, and adjust his or her team's size, budget projections, etc. accordingly.
Recovery Rates:
The recovery rate can be measured from the time any requirements of the project are completed through the time the business begins to recover its capital investment. A classic mistake of many project managers is to focus 100 percent on the end of the project. If project managers do not develop and manage interim milestones, they are unable to determine the rate at which they are achieving project requirements. As a result, they are not able to clearly determine whether the project is on time and if it will meet the deadline.
In the end, requirements, resources and recovery rates must all be carefully balanced to successfully realize the benefits of a large-scale project that is on time and meets budget. As changes occur, it is imperative that the project manager identifies which of the three R's each change affects. When a project is in balance, any change to one of the three R's will cause a compensatory change in another. For example, as requirements are added to a project, either additional resources or additional time must be added to the initiative.
Conclusion
While the barriers that are mention above are significant, business growth, and even survival, depends on overcoming all of them. Moreover, today’s patchwork of finely tuned, yet highly brittle, legacy applications prevents organizations from quickly capitalizing on new opportunities and winning in a global marketplace. Many organizations have been feeling the negative impact of inaction for years
– but have lacked the ability to make a compelling argument for change.
“Is it not the strongest of the species that survive,
not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive
to change.”
Charles Darwin
References:
http://informationr.net/tdw/publ/papers/1989ISstrat.html
http://www.mywhatever.com/cifwriter/content/22/4481.html
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