The Work System Framework - Computer Information Systems

Chapter 1: Why Are So Many Systems Such a Mess? . A System Gone Awry . Common Disappointments . Seven Common Temptations . Overcoming the Seven Temptations Today's technology has had a huge impact on business and society. Current
business practices would be impossible without IT. A seemingly endless
stream of innovations brings images of boundless opportunity and change.
The progress of IT over the last five decades is an incredible
accomplishment, yet IT is often under-utilized and misused. Its adoption
has too many unanticipated consequences and sometimes causes many new
problems. Unreliability and internal complexity often inhibit change
instead of fostering it, converting a dream of flexibility into a maze of
electronic concrete. A System Gone Awry
Consider the following story[i] reported in CIO Magazine in 2005. "Global
Giant," a global telecommunications company, installed a new "CRM
system"[ii] for customer-facing activities such as entering orders and
providing customer service. From a purely IT viewpoint, the project went
well. Even though the software vendor made significant modifications to its
software package, the project was completed on time and within budget.
However, the project was allowed to proceed without full agreement by
Global Giant's sales, marketing, customer service, and channel management
departments about how the new CRM system would affect their work practices.
"They argued they couldn't realistically assess the business impact of a
major system they'd never used before. They would work out their
differences in the rollout."
"Unfortunately, no one-except IT-used the CRM the way it was supposed to
be used, including the customers and the channels." Contrary to
expectations, certain sales people figured out how to offer better prices
and terms to their customers. Other customers complained and received
rebates. The new system was supposed to help customer service
representatives with cross-selling and up-selling, but it complicated their
jobs so much that customer satisfaction suffered. Some customers would not
use the new web-based order entry capabilities and phoned instead, causing
inbound calls to surge. By the end of the story, a corporate innovation
went down in flames, interdepartmental relationships turned sour, key
customers complained, and the sales vice president was fired.
How could a seemingly successful project at a major company turn into an
unmitigated disaster? According to the story's lead-in, "Getting people to
use a new system correctly is much harder than getting it up and running."
That partial explanation sounds reasonable, but it ignores a basic
distinction about the nature of the system. Ask yourself which best
describes the system in this story:
. The system is the software acquired from the software vendor, as modified
and installed on the Global Giant's computers. . The current system is the way Global Giant currently performs its
customer-facing work, such as entering orders and providing customer
service. The intended system is the new way Global Giant will do that
work in the future. . The system can be described in either of the two ways, depending on who
happens to be talking and what they are talking about. The people in the story acted as though they used the first definition.
According to the story, the IT group acquired and installed the software;
the sales, marketing, customer service, and channel management departments
believed they would figure out how to use it once it was available. In
other words, they believed system is a computerized tool that people use.
Things might have happened differently if the people in the story used the
second definition and acted as though the system is the way Global Giant
performs specific work. From that viewpoint, modification of the software
was only part of a project that was never completed. The full project was
not about acquiring and installing software. Rather, it was about changing
the way work is performed. It may seem a bit crazy for an organization to
make a major software investment based on the assumption it will figure out
how to use the software. It seems even crazier for an organization to
invest in major changes in work systems without knowing what the changes
will be.
On the other hand, what would have happened if the people in the story
chose the third possibility and believed that the system is either the
software or the work system that uses the software, depending on who is
talking and what they are saying? Accepting two different definitions for
the same thing might seem crazy as well, except that it happens frequently.
When you hear someone in your organization say, "we improved our sales
system" how do you know whether they are referring to the software used in
sales or the system of doing sales?
Part of a larger problem. The Global Giant story illustrates a larger
problem, the lack of a practical, organized method that business
professionals can use for thinking about business systems (not just
software) from a business viewpoint. Viewing a system as an IT-based tool
that people use is limited, techno-centric, and ultimately misleading. This
view also puts business professionals at a disadvantage due to the many
technical aspects of IT-based tools that they cannot appreciate fully
because they lack the required technical background and interest. This book provides a practical, but in-depth method for thinking about
systems in organizations whether or not IT is involved. The method assumes
that a system includes work practices, human participants, information, and
technology, and that it exists to produce products and services for
internal or external customers. Such a system is called a work system.[iii]
That idea is the basis of the work system method. The remainder of this
chapter says more about issues that the work system method addresses. The
second chapter begins the discussion of work system concepts. Common Disappointments
The Global Giant story is a dramatic example of a widespread problem. Too
many systems in organizations are disappointments or failures. Despite good
intentions and hard work, the planned improvements and benefits are often
elusive. Despite all the talk about process excellence, total quality, and
agility, stories such as the following are commonplace in our personal
lives:
. After switching to my local phone company's new service plan, it took
three months and over four hours on the phone to correct the incorrect
bills that we received. . When I called a pharmacy to ask whether my prescription was ready, the
pharmacist said that my insurance policy probably would not cover that
medicine, but he couldn't be sure because the computer system linking the
pharmacy to insurance companies had been down most of the day. The
insurance company's call center agent gave the same answer. I was to
leave on a trip the next morning and had to decide whether to pay the
full price and try to obtain reimbursement later. . My wife's former employer implemented ERP, a software package supporting
business operations across multiple departments by means of an integrated
database. Two weeks after the "go live" date, she was still unable to
generate a simple invoice for an important client. Ironically, her
employer was in the business of providing ERP training. . After my wife's purse was stolen, her bank gave her a new account number
and switched her account balance into the new account. When she deposited
a check from my account into her account to pay bills, the bank put a
hold on the funds until the check cleared because hers was a new account.
She complained that she had been a customer for 14 years and that we had
done this type of transfer before, but the teller said that the computer
system would not let her remove that hold because it was a new account.
Similar stories from the everyday corporate world include:
. "Our customer service people are going crazy. They claim that the
computer system is so complicated that they can't avoid making a lot of
mistakes." . "We installed great technology for sharing information but people are
mostly using it as a personal tool and very little sharing is happening." . "We installed a new enterprise system but almost everyone insists on
receiving the same information they always had. What was the point?" . "They called it sales force automation, but it doesn't help me and forces
me to do clerical work so headquarters can monitor what I do." . "The software sounded great, but after we bought it we realized we would
have to make major changes in our processes." Problems with IT-related projects and systems sometimes become visible to
customers and stockholders despite typical efforts to avoid adverse
publicity: . Foxmeyer Drug Corporation, a successful wholesale pharmaceutical
distributor, went bankrupt after a failed implementation of an enterprise
software system that was supposed to save money and foster growth.[iv] . Cigna intended to create an integrated system for enrollment,
eligibility, and claims processing. Ideally, the new system would improve
customer service through an upgrade that would consolidate customer
bills, process medical claims rapidly and effic