Based on our interview and our personal observations in ouyr adopted compnay (PPA Philippine Port Authority) these are the barriers in the implementation of their system.
* Lack of personnel
*Lack or limited funds
*Outsourced system
*Lack of facilities
*Human resistance
*Gradual changes in system demands
I will explain each of them in the following paragraphs.
*Lack of personnel
In order to implement a system, a qualified owrkforce is a requirement. Especially in the hardware part of the system. In implementing it, numerous computer sets will be deployed and configured, a lot of networks will be established and the cables and wires must will be firmly and correctly be connected to their right positions. These steps will consume not only days but even months to ensure that the hardware part of the system is properly functioning. With regards to our adopted company, they extremely lack qualified personnels for this agenda. They only have 3 personnels that could handle advance IT related jobs. This is the reason why their system is not totally self operational. The system still requires them to be on guard on the possible errors and bugs. It took them a couple of months to establish the networks and other hardware requirements and it also took them more months to configure and debug their open source system for the software to adopt to the processes that their office have.
*Lack / limited funds
Their office is run by government funds. This is the sole reason why their funds are very hard to access. A personnel shared during our interview that in order to request even just a new keyboard it will take about a month of waiting. This is because the request will ne passed to numerous hands. First, in the head of their department, second, to the head of their office and third to the main office in Manila were a lot of personalities will eventually need to sign up or approve that request. This problem will eventually slow down the reaction of the system in terms of coorecting necessary bugs and errors. For example, if the system shuts down because of a hardware failure. And if the request for a new hardware will consume a lot of time, the backfire of the system being unoperational for the period of time for waiting for the new hardware will give their office a lot of problems.
*Outsourced System
What do I mean in an outsourced system?
Outsourcing is subcontracting a service such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of land, labor, capital, (information) technology and resources[citation needed]. Outsourcing became part of the business lexicon during the 1980s. It is essentially a division of labour. Outsourcing in the information technology field has two meanings. One is to commission the development of an application to another organization, usually a company that specializes in the development of this type of application. The other is to hire the services of another company to manage all or parts of the services that otherwise would be rendered by an IT unit of the organization. The latter concept might not include development of new applications.
Why did the company outsourced?
• Cost savings. The lowering of the overall cost of the service to the business. This will involve reducing the scope, defining quality levels, re-pricing, re-negotiation, cost re-structuring. Access to lower cost economies through offshoring called "labor arbitrage" generated by the wage gap between industrialized and developing nations.
• Focus on Core Business. Resources (for example investment, people, infrastructure) are focused on developing the core business. For example often organizations outsource their IT support to specilaised IT services companies.
• Cost restructuring. Operating leverage is a measure that compares fixed costs to variable costs. Outsourcing changes the balance of this ratio by offering a move from fixed to variable cost and also by making variable costs more predictable.
• Improve quality. Achieve a step change in quality through contracting out the service with a new service level agreement.
• Knowledge. Access to intellectual property and wider experience and knowledge.
• Contract. Services will be provided to a legally binding contract with financial penalties and legal redress. This is not the case with internal services.
• Operational expertise. Access to operational best practice that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house.
• Access to talent. Access to a larger talent pool and a sustainable source of skills, in particular in science and engineering.
• Capacity management. An improved method of capacity management of services and technology where the risk in providing the excess capacity is borne by the supplier.
• Catalyst for change. An organization can use an outsourcing agreement as a catalyst for major step change that can not be achieved alone. The outsourcer becomes a Change agent in the process.
• Enhance capacity for innovation. Companies increasingly use external knowledge service providers to supplement limited in-house capacity for product innovation.
• Reduce time to market. The acceleration of the development or production of a product through the additional capability brought by the supplier.
• Commodification. The trend of standardizing business processes, IT Services and application services enabling businesses to intelligently buy at the right price. Allows a wide range of businesses access to services previously only available to large corporations.
• Risk management. An approach to risk management for some types of risks is to partner with an outsourcer who is better able to provide the mitigation.
• Venture Capital. Some countries match government funds venture capital with private venture capital for startups that start businesses in their country.
• Tax Benefit. Countries offer tax incentives to move manufacturing operations to counter high corporate taxes within another country.
Why outsourcing became a problem?
The mere fact that the office lacks in personnel to tend to the different problems that the system may bump into, the system is also an outsourced one making it hard for the personnel to be familiar about the flow of the system in a short span of time. The developers of the system spent time to send an on-call representative to tend to the problem if the system especially on the early days of the implementation but this cannot go on forever. The personnel in-charge in the MIS department must be able to handle the problems because it is their job to do so. And it became a barrier in the implementation because currently the personnel are still studying the flow of the system and are not yet very confident in debugging it.
*Human Resistance
What are the possible reasons of resistance?
Most people don't like change because they don't like being changed. When change comes into view, fear and resistance to change follow – often despite its obvious benefits. People fight against change because they:
• fear to lose something they value, or
• don't understand the change and its implications, or
• don't think that the change makes sense, or
• find it difficult to cope with either the level or pace of the change.
Resistance emerges when there’s a threat to something the individual values. The threat may be real or it may be just a perception. It may arise from a genuine understanding of the change or from misunderstanding, or even almost total ignorance about it.
Why this concept did became a problem in system implementation?
Upon the order of their heads to convert their manual system into an automated one, even the IT personnel in their office have some doubts and resistance. They do not want the new system because they are confident with the old system. They resist the change because they do not want to be ignorant of something. They have some doubts whether the new system could benefit them more or just burden them by trying to learn something that is out of their skills. But they are slowly adopting the system. They are beginning to realize the importance of the system because of the good things that it is slowly becoming visible because of its implementation.
*Lack of Facilities
Like all other offices that are run by the government, their office facilities are very limited. They shared to us that the personnel are the ones coping due to this lack in facilities. They tend to use softwares that require lesser computer specifications. This is because they do not have the option to request for new equipments because they know that it will take a large amount of time to wait for their request to be granted.
*Lack of Trainings
Why training is important?
Having a formal IT training plan in place can be beneficial to the organization and offer benefits to employees that competitors may not offer. Although companies may risk losing employees that have just been trained, the benefit of training these employees far outweighs this risk. When IT staff is involved in a formal training plan, individual’s skill sets improve and they can contribute more to the organization.
Employees that feel that their company is investing in them may feel more job satisfaction and increased loyalty to their organization. The benefit of training employees is mutual and can be realized for quite some time. Organizations can also offer lesser skilled workers formal training in order to benefit from their new skills. This will also allow companies to save money on salaries for higher skilled workers.
Employee Training Programs Have Some Risks
Companies often have trouble finding skilled and trained technology staff and an even harder time retaining those employees. However, while this is an opportunity for most employees, it also presents a risk when so many organizations are competing for skilled workers. These newly trained workers can easily be lured away by other organizations offering more money, benefits, flexibility or just a new work environment.
Another risk to note in providing formal IT training is in making sure organizations get a return on investment for technology expenditures. If a company invests time and money in new technology, that company would certainly need employees with the right skill set to operate the new technology. If technology systems are underutilized because of improper training, the return on investment becomes minimal. Companies not investing in this type of training will not realize that return on investment.
The Importance of IT Training Programs
Employees that feel that their company is investing in them may feel more job satisfaction and increased loyalty to their organization. The benefit of training employees is mutual and can be realized for quite some time. Organizations can also offer lesser skilled workers formal training in order to benefit from their new skills. This will also allow companies to save money on salaries for higher skilled workers.
Employee Training Programs Have Some Risks
Companies often have trouble finding skilled and trained technology staff and an even harder time retaining those employees. However, while this is an opportunity for most employees, it also presents a risk when so many organizations are competing for skilled workers. These newly trained workers can easily be lured away by other organizations offering more money, benefits, flexibility or just a new work environment.
Another risk to note in providing formal IT training is in making sure organizations get a return on investment for technology expenditures. If a company invests time and money in new technology, that company would certainly need employees with the right skill set to operate the new technology. If technology systems are underutilized because of improper training, the return on investment becomes minimal. Companies not investing in this type of training will not realize that return on investment.
Formal IT training programs cannot be ignored because the benefits outweigh the risks. Most employees do want to enhance their skills. If companies offer training, employees may view this as an added benefit from their employer. Organizations that offer formalized training and keep employees’ salaries competitive mitigate the risk of losing employees to other organizations.
LINK: http://job-satisfaction.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_benefits_of_formal_it_training
Why lack of trainings became a barrier?
The old system that our adopted company used is a manual type of system. It does not require the end users to be knowledgeable in using a computer. Upon the implementation of the system, the end-users need to be trained in using the system in a computer. The problem arise because it will definitely take time for the first-timers to learn the basics f computing and to be able to master the basic computing functions will take even more. The longer it the time it takes for the employees to be oriented with basic computer knowledge, the longer it takes for the office to have the optimal performance of the system.
*Gradual change in system demand
As the system is implemented, the change in the demand of the system is still ongoing. This became a barrier because as the demand changes the system must respond to it and if the change in demand is gradual, there will come a point where the system will not be implemented perfectly because it will tend to change over and over depending on the change in demand. That is why it is a good idea to develop a system that is capable to cope on a case to case basis in terms of the situations that may occur in the work area.
