What do you think accounted for Rich-Con’s difficulties in implementing its new information systems?

What were the principal causes of the problems Sawyer encountered?

Answer: Rich-Con's difficulties in implementing the new software were

 Inadequate training resources provided by the vendor

 Vendor inexperience with Rich-Con's business

 Vendor personal were not very helpful and were not forthcoming in explaining the details of the
software

 Marty Sawyer, herself was deeply involved in the implementation phase, instead she should
have appointed an IT manager to lead with cross-functional team

 Pressure of getting the system live versus truly measuring the capability of the people to identify
if it is ready for implementation.

 Other distracting issues. e.g.; union problem, new equipment setup (Roundo)

 New management performance issue

The principal cause of the problem was that Sawyer did not have an experienced IT project lead. There
was no team formed to oversee the implementation. There was no upfront planning that would have
included testing and training before implementation. The back plan was also not identified in case the
software does not work.

2. If Rich-Con’s computer hardware had not become obsolete, would they have had to implement a
new information system?

Answer : Yes, if the computer hardware had not been obsolete she had to consider the idea f
implementing new information system as the old system didn’t have the capacity to handle Customer
order, Purchase orders and Work orders for these they are still relying on manual process unlike other
companies which is not reliable. Also it is very hard to get access son the historical data of the
organization for analysis.

So, these are the reasons why they desperately need a change in information system irrespective of the
obsolete computer hardware

3. Why was it difficult for Sawyer to find software that would meet Rich-Con’s needs?

Answer: As there are specific needs she required in software that can handle the unique requirement of
steel service center like Rich-Con. The software should handle requirements like
  Multiple units or measure: as steel can be measured length, breadth and height wise and cost
can be calculated on basis of that
 Remnants: As may be customer want a piece only from complete sheet or pillar of steel. She
wants to track the inventory for remaining parts.
 Certification: Each steel has different certification based on its composition of chemical and
material so that also need to be tracked.

Another issue is she wanted a solution that will work on Unix based system as in that way she need not
to spend money on it as they just bought the same from AT&T recently. She verified almost a dozen
products but none is having the same as out off shelf and no one is providing the customization for same
needs.

Finally she found a solution that caters all her needs and also has a service contract and option for
customization to fulfill other needs

4. What should Sawyer do about the poorly functioning new system? Should she “pull the plug” on it
or continue to use it?

Answer: She should have identified the actual cause for failure as every new system has issues at
beginning and she need to take decision on basis of the below factors

 If the system is actually faulty?

 Adaptability of new system among existing employees as they are familiar with current process
and rigid to work on new system.
 Some people may use the system completely or partial and that leads to inconsistency due to
that she had lost the orders

So she has to decide on the factors and on basis of analysis she should take the decision.

As per my opinion she should not pull the plug on it and continue to use it as this will give the
organization a managed way to perform the daily activities and also give data for analysis to improve the
business and can valuable decisions based on previous experiences.

5. What are the characteristics of an IT project failure? How do you recognize a failure?

Answer: A common reason why projects fail is related to visibility. All three tiers of the project team,
executive management, project managers and team members, need access to the right level of
information at the right time. Following are the characteristics of it project failure
  Vendor doesn't meet expectations
 Lack or focus from management.
 Insufficient resources - less it experience in organisation
 Team doesn't report or escalate critical problems quickly
 No risk planning
 Low morale in employees is a problem

To recognize a failure we should have our cases ready to test and we need to perform dummy test
operations before actual go live and try to handle each and every scenarios at the beginning.

6. Is the Rich-Con case typically of troubled IT projects? What are the main reasons that IT
implementations fail

Answer: Yes, it is the typical case of troubled IT Project and the main reasons for same are as

 The implementation of the project is not tested well and also the employees were not well
trained and no training session was conducted for them.
 They are going around the system and not all departments are using it effectively.
 Requirement is complex and lack of testing is also a reason.
 Lack of IT experience inside company.
 Overlooked the product deployment due to other ongoing issues leads to the failure.
 Focus of vendor on its product not the customer solution that was the core issue of Rich-con