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What are likely to be the biggest difficulties involved in implementing a major new IT system?

How can they best be overcome? Introduction The integration of a new information technology system to assist and develop a firms commercial capability could be considered a significant undertaking. The acquisition and development of new technological hardware and software can affect the firms long term objectives, scope, management control systems and infrastructure. Such an endeavour is often an expensive process and therefore the implementation requires an effective strategic plan to ensure an efficient future for the firm. However it should be noted that adopting an entirely new information technology system involves a certain amount of inherent risk and will undoubtedly experience problems. Service and development teams build isolated or disconnected information technology infrastructures which are unable to achieve the objectives or achieve the desired levels of efficiency they were designed to meet. Such an occurrence can come about through the deployment of a centralized team that designs and creates an infrastructure which they believe should be implemented, contrary to the specified design that is appropriate and effective for the firms operational strategy and internal processes . Such development teams create software and hardware packages that lack a clear understanding of what such software/hardware is designed to deliver. To be successful, the information technology initiatives should have the objective of enabling a cross-functional integration of business processes to support a value-generating activity chain. Furthermore, such information technology initiatives which cannot be directly correlated to a firm's strategic goals and objectives will not encourage the development of a strategic fit. Information technology services often focus on a specific application to solve a wide ranging amount of problems or satisfy the needs of a particular strategic business unit. This is not conducive to achieving the objectives of maintaining an infrastructure which provides a level of horizontal integration throughout all the business processes of the organisation. To this end, it is essential that the information technology infrastructure seeks to align the objectives of the employee, the internal processes and all associated technology. With regard to the correct utilisation of a new information technology system, it is necessary for the organisation to create a governance model which issues clear standards, guidelines of use and define concise principles of operation to its users. Such directives must be readily identifiable, appropriate, manageable and reusable for the effective facilitation, management and assessment of information technology system. In conclusion, new technology cannot and should not be implemented as an easy fix to solve a firms entire problem or to make it more competitive in the market. It is a complex strategic tool containing many sophisticated processes which can enable a firm to improve service to business users and speed delivery time to market. An effectively installed, implemented and utilised information technology system promotes a more streamlined and adaptive organisational processes. However many organisations are not structured to easily adopt to new forms of technology resulting in inefficiency. To prevent this from occurring, an effective governance model is essential and a successful governance model depends on an integrated management to join strategic business units and IT together. References

Slack, N. & Lewis, M. (2008) Operations strategy. 2nd ed. Harlow: Financial Times and PrenticeHall Chopra, S., and Meindl, P., 2010. Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning and Operation. 4th Edition. Pearson.

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