Building an information system that works is an activity that is far from certain. Even experts sometimes run afoul of the technical and project management challenges in system development — a fact underscored by American Airlines and its partners’ recent failure to deliver the Confirm travel reservation system. Failures like these are surely regrettable, but much more disturbing are failures that occur when people do not use systems that work well technically.
Our belief is that technically successful, but unused or underused, systems cost U.S. businesses millions of dollars each year. A company that has paid for an unused information system has made a very bad investment: it has not solved the problem or exploited the opportunity for which the information system was intended; it has wasted all the resources that went into developing or acquiring the system; and it has forgone the benefits from alternative uses of these resources. Thus, preventing unused systems can make a crucial difference in whether firms achieve real payoffs from their investments in information technology.
Many potential causes of systems that are not used are preventable. Unused systems are generally attributed to one of two factors: “software usability” — often called user-friendliness — and “implementation” — the efforts of line managers to ensure that the system is used. While software usability and line managers’ behavior in implementing it are very... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.
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