Reference no: EM133225853

From Ballpoints to Bits An organization can develop or purchase an IT solution with the intent of adding value, but even the best solutions can fall short if the users do not accept the system. Projects are planned organizational change, so preparing the people within an organization is important to the success of the project.

Pfizer Kolette is an epidemiologist at Pfizer who manages clinical trials for the treatment of metabolic diseases. She helped develop a data capture system called Investigator Net (I-Net) that automates data collection and analysis for drug development studies.

Pfizer recruited a university hospital to take part in a new study. Kolette met with the hospital's nursing coordinator to go over the program, but upon seeing the new computer being removed from the box the nursing coordinator exclaimed that computers were the "foot soldiers of the devil!" Chicago Police Department The Chicago Police Department is one of the largest police forces in the United States.

The department began development of a relational database system called Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (CLEAR) to help the police sift through massive amounts of data to f ight crime. Joe is a 50-year-old veteran cop who has been working the streets of Chicago for decades. For his entire career he has filled out five-ply carbon forms to process his arrests and casework. On his first day of training on a PC, he picks up the mouse, points it at the screen, and starts clicking away. He then asks why the darn thing isn't working when nothing happens on the screen. Even the detectives who are computer literate grumble about the system. They claim that it isn't user friendly and getting approval from supervisors is cumbersome.

Procter & Gamble Procter & Gamble encountered user resistance when it rolled out its Corporate Standards System (CSS)-a global, centralized system that manages all of the technical standards for each of the company's products to its 8,200 users. These technical standards are important in managing each product's life cycle and provide a communication link that connects R&D through the entire supply chain. For example, the beauty care group has an average of 125 standards for information regarding formulas, regulatory requirements, and packaging. Before CSS, people kept information about the technology standards in three-ring binders or on various computers. Most complaints from the users were that the system was too slow, but it was discovered that the real reason wasn't the technology but the process. For example, an employee may have been used to documenting last-minute change requests from a vendor on the back of an envelope, but now documenting those changes in CSS required more rigor and thus was more cumbersome for the employee.

Question 1. Which change management strategy do you think would be the best approach for each of the above situations?

Question 2. If you were a project manager, how would you implement your chosen strategy?