Managing Information Technology

Week TWO – Case Study:

CVS Pharmacy

1) Did you notice the changes to the information system in this process improvement? No? That is because there are no changes to the information system reported. What does that detail along with your own experience in process improvements tell you about the relationship between IS and process improvements? What about the role of IS in process improvements?

Process improvements and Information Systems are almost always inter-related. Typically, improvements are initiated because there is a need for better efficiency or some other improvement in the process. People get together, have meetings, brainstorm and try to identify methods to address the problem. Once a plausible solution is found the group will identify the action items needed to accomplish the implementation. This is the time many projects reach the IT department. A solution has been identified and there are a set of requirements passed off to IT to work within the limits set by people who probable know little about how information systems work.

Now the specific information system technicians will have to look at the requirements and then identify possible ways to accomplish the task working within the requirements given as well as the individual system requirements. They have effectively been removed an entire layer from the problems solving. They now have a more complex problem to solve with little or no contextual information about what is really needed and why. That is where the problem with this method of interaction lays.

The role IS must take is to be part of the initial problem solving phase. Once the problem or inefficiency is identified, all stakeholders (especially IS) need to make sure that they have identified the root cause of the problem then work through possible solutions (Nickols). By getting the input on the front end, organizations can make sure that any hurdles for implementation are dealt with before the final solution is made. The IT perspective may be able to show shortcuts to improvements that could accomplish the same tasks in a much more efficient manner. This early involvement should remove the added layer of solution finding and increase the contextual data to support a solution that fully encompasses the problem. Solutions can be more quickly implemented because with the improved methodology IT can help steer the final solutions to an information systems friendly end that takes fewer man-hours to resolve (Kemp, p83).

2) Sometimes an IS defines or is the process. Consider an online purchase at Amazon. It would be difficult to separate the process of purchasing from the IS (browser and Web pages) used to make the purchase. How might your thoughts and analysis of #1 above change when you consider the situations where the IS defines the process.

Much of what information systems are used for has been to reduce the manual labor needed to accomplish a specific task. For example the word processor that I am currently using was first developed to reduce the amount of “re-typing” work that needed to be done on documents. Now almost all activities that we participate in throughout our day have some IS involved with them. So for IS process improvements the reasoning is different than with other process improvements. When IS processes need to change it may be for many reasons like improved security, more (or less) integration, adding additional automation to processes or just updates.

When these improvements need to be made I would make the case for the inverse of my first argument. Get all stakeholders involved; that is anyone who is using the process. When changes are being devised is the time to find out what is really happening at the point of use. What is working well? What ideas are out there which can improve the process or even simplify it? How can this IT serve the organization and employees better? As mentioned before, early involvement in the planning stages can dramatically improve the effectiveness of the project and get excellent buy-in to support changes.

3) It might seem trivial to distinguish between #1 above (the IS is part of the process) and #2 above (the IS defines the process). However, this distinction is often overlooked in the workplace. Consider processes in which you have been involved and share examples of both types if possible. How does your experience impact your thoughts about the relationship between IS and process improvements and the role of IS in process improvements?

In manufacturing we are in a constant state of change. We are looking to find the most efficient process for turning raw materials (or parts) into products that customers are willing to purchase. Some of the process changes involve assembly sequence of products, now this change is discussed in detail and trials are run to ensure that there are no problems with making the change. Once it is proved out, the documentation (Information system) is modified to reflect the change in process. There are small things that can change the time required to modify documents from 10 minutes to 10 hours. When the specialist is left out of the loop we typically decide on the solution that takes 10 hours. However, if the specialist were included the entire documentation can be modified within 10 minutes and accomplish the same task.

The other example is one I am involved with currently. To speed the process of obtaining the correct documentations my company has decided to implement an additional step. This one step will have to be done once and take an additional 20 seconds. However it will save all production employees 20 minutes to 2 hours each day! In this case the solution was developed before IT had gotten to weigh in. Now the solution is being reviewed by IT and we will make some modifications. Now that the modifications have been identified we have found that there is a much simpler solution. IT came up with an operation that will accomplish the same task improve quality and ensure that the correct revision of the document is being used.

As you may have seen my experience has shown me and probably anyone who has tackled any Information Systems project, that integration with all stake holders to the lowest levels is absolutely instrumental to swift success and complete buy-in.

Kemp, Sid (2004). Project management demystified. New York: McGraw Hill.

Mcaffe, Andrew, F (2006). Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS (A) Harvard Business School.

Mcaffe, Andrew, F (2006). Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS (B) Harvard Business School.

Nickols, Fred (2006). Change management: a primer. Distance Consulting. Retrieved June 24, 2008 from: http://home.att.net/~nickols/change.htm

Robey, D., Ross, J.W., & Boudreau, M. (2002). Learning to implement enterprise systems: An exploratory study of the dialectics of change. Journal of Management Information Systems, 19(1), 17-46.