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Advanced
How To Guide
Formulating an IT/eBusiness strategy for SMEs
3.06
Reliability and Accuracy
No system is 100% reliable. More powerful systems, possibly
including redundant (essentially spare) hardware, will
reduce the level of breakdowns, but at a cost. This
has to be balanced against the costs associated with
ICT failures e.g. technical support, time wasted by
user staff, operational problems such as missed delivery
schedules and communication breakdowns with clients.
Once again, this trade-off ultimately requires a business
decision.
Other reliability and accuracy options now available
to a company include using an Application Service Provider
[ASP], where the ASP stores the system software and
data on a special hosting site. Because the ASP does
this for many companies, the hosting site would have
considerable redundancy and enhanced backup facilities.
The company tends to pay less in capital costs for a
system provided by an ASP but would tend to pay considerably
more in operating costs. The users normally connect
to the ASP using a web browser in the same way as the
user browses the Internet . Speed and continuity of
access are an issue with the ASP option.
Factors that tend to justify additional spending to
achieve higher reliability include high volumes of computer
usage and dependence on the computer system for time-critical
operational functions. For example, if you are using
your computer to produce management accounts from paper
records, it is merely a nuisance when the computer goes
down for a day. However, a days computer "outage"
could be disastrous for a company which relies on the
computer each day to plan and print out the delivery
schedule for its fleet of vans, or whose staff constantly
use the computer to check on stock availability, before
accepting orders.
As companies engage in a growing level of electronic
interaction with clients, system failures have an increasing
potential to damage credibility and goodwill. A customer
who emails in an urgent order will not be very happy
to discover, after the order fails to arrive when expected,
that your network has been down all day. A client who
cannot get your website to work, may try a competitor's
site.
Once you start providing data electronically to clients,
e.g. their order status, stock availability etc., it
is essential not only that the system does not breakdown,
but also that the data provided by it is accurate. Your
staff may be familiar with the foibles of your systems
and may know that certain types of information need
to be double-checked manually before acting on it or
passing it on to a client. However, that sort of safeguard
no longer applies when the client can access the data
directly.
3.07 Existing Physical Processes
An ICT project is not simply a question of buying hardware
and software or even of the technical tasks involved
in installing it. Computerised systems require that
you observe certain disciplines, for example, that you
handle the same type of transaction the same way each
time. If your existing way of working does not fit with
the system you are planning to buy, you have three broad
choices: modify/configure the new system to your way
of working, change the way you work or buy a different
system. Generally, companies adopt a mixture of modifying
the systems and changing their processes. The level
of software configuration or process changes required
can vary depending on the system selected and on the
way in which the company works or plans to work in the
future. Hence, existing processes will influence the
choice of new system and need to be fully understood
before you can make an informed choice.
As a first step, you need to clarify and document how
tasks are currently performed. It is essential to describe
how they are actually done, rather than how they are
supposed to be done. The next step is to consider whether
you want to continue doing the work the same way in
the future. Clarifying exactly how certain jobs are
really done, changing these processes or modifying the
software are all labour intensive tasks.
All of the above take a lot of time, both of consultants
and of staff. However, while this may be a major headache
at the time sound preparation will make the IT project
run more smoothly. After completing an IT project, many
companies subsequently acknowledge that the project,
in effect, forced them to make improvements to their
physical processes that they should have undertaken
long ago.
Some computer projects are part of an overall business
process reengineering exercise. These can involve substantial
changes in methods of working, requiring a vast amount
of work and leading to huge disruption. If successful,
and this is not always the case, such projects can achieve
huge benefits fully justifying the headaches involved
in implementing them.
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