Page 308 - Using MIS

276 Chapter 7 Processes, Organizations, and Information Systems
Transition Problems

Transitioning to a new enterprise system is also difficult. The organization must somehow
change from using isolated departmental systems to using the new enterprise system, while
continuing to run the business. It’s like having heart surgery while running a 100-yard dash.
Such transitions require careful planning and substantial training. Inevitably, problems will
develop. Knowing this will occur, senior management needs to communicate the need for the
change to the employees and then stand behind the new system as the kinks are worked out.
It is an incredibly stressful time for all involved. We will discuss development techniques and
implementation strategies further in Chapter 10.

Employee Resistance

People resist change. Change requires effort and engenders fear. Considerable research and
literature exist about the reasons for change resistance and how organizations can deal with it.
Here we will summarize the major principles.
First, senior-level management needs to communicate the need for the change to the
organization and reiterate this, as necessary, throughout the transition process. Second, em-
ployees fear change because it threatens self-efficacy, which is a person’s belief that he or she
can be successful at his or her job. To enhance confidence, employees need to be trained and
coached on the successful use of the new system. Word-of-mouth is a very powerful factor, and
in some cases key users are trained ahead of time to create positive buzz about the new system.
Video demonstrations of employees successfully using the new system are also effective.
Third, in many ways, the primary benefits of a new ERP system are felt by the accounting
and finance departments and the senior management. Many of the employees who are asked
to change their activities to implement ERP will not receive any direct benefit from it. Therefore,
employees may need to be given extra inducement to change to the new system. As one experi-
enced change consultant said, “Nothing succeeds like praise or cash, especially cash.” Straight-
out pay for change is bribery, but contests with cash prizes among employees or groups can be
very effective at inducing change.
Implementing new enterprise systems can solve many problems and bring great efficiency
and cost savings to an organization, but it is not for the faint of heart.

Q7 How Do Inter-enterprise IS Solve the Problems

of Enterprise Silos?

The discussion in Q4 illustrated the primary ways that enterprise systems solve the problems of
workgroup information silos. In this question we will use the PRIDE example to show you how
inter-enterprise systems can accomplish the same for enterprise silos. (The transition is shown
by the lower arrow leading to the bottom row in Figure 7-6, page 260.)
Figure 7-18 shows the information silos that exist among healthcare providers, health clubs,
and patients, the principal PRIDE users. Providers keep track of patient histories and maintain
records of exercise recommendations, which are called exercise prescriptions in the PRIDE
system. Health clubs maintain membership, class, personal trainer, and exercise performance
data. At the club, the latter is gathered automatically from exercise equipment and member heart
monitors and stored in a club database. At home, individuals generate exercise data on heart
monitors and equipment; those data are recorded in mobile devices using exercise watches.
The isolation of this exercise data causes problems. For example, doctors would like to
have reports on exercise data that is stored in patient devices and in health clubs. Patients