Assignment 5

First of all, my adopted organization(s) are: Lapanday Foods Corporation located at Maryknoll Drive, Lanang, Davao City; Columbia Computer Center at C.M.Recto Street(Claveria), Davao City; and GH Office Office Depot, located at Monteverde St., Davao City. Both companies have their respective IT Departments in their establishments and they are using it to improve their work and all their transactions and other business-related activities.

IT/IS implementations in an organization is very important, especially now that we are in the technological age, and computers and fast rising new technology are needed to make a company prosper and for it to be successful.
A barrier is an obstacle which prevents a given policy instrument being implemented, or limits the way in which it can be implemented. So in this post, I will be discussing on the obstacles that hinder the implementation of IS/IT implementation in our adopted organization(s).

If I were talking about the barriers in the implementation of the IS/IT in these respective companies, I think it would be: money/budget, personnel and staff, management decisions.

Money/Budget:
Of course, in almost companies, organizations, institutions and the like, money is a very important thing to settle with. Almost all transactions and all events involve money. In a company, it would be very hard to implement Information Systems or putting up a Mnagement Information Systems(MIS) Department if there were no budget because putting these up would mean installation, maintenance and repair, delivery, purchase of specific software and so many other things to do. In order to do this, you have to have a considerable amount of budget in hand. That is why not all companies have their own information systems, because not all companies/organizations have the budget to put it up. For me, only those companies that are bigger and more successful have what it takes for IS/IT-related implementations.

In Columbia Computer, I think that they have no problems with their budget, because their company is an established one, which means that they have a long history ahead of them, and they also have a reputation which makes customers want to go back to them and consider their goods. The only problem is that, even though I think that they have the proper budget, they don’t really need it for the implementation of IS/IT in their office. This issue will be discussed later.

For GH Office Depot, budget is also not a problem, although I think it is. From what I saw in the IT Manager’s office, some of his hardware are old ones, and I think need to be upgraded for better performance. But again, I also think that they know what they’re doing and they are just purchasing what they need. Companies don’t need to buy high-end systems for basic business tasks like word-processing, order entry and other stuff like that.

And for Lapanday Foods Corporation, there’s no problem with their budget, because Lapanday is a big company, already exporting their products, although I don’t know if they had budget problems when they were first starting their Information System and other IT related practices. They even have their own server there, and that fact makes you think immediately that they have their own budget in their MIS Department to be able to purchase a midrange server.

Personnel and Staff:
In implementing IS/IT in your company, you usually need someone to oversee it and maintain it, as with other departments in your offices like Accounting, Human Resources, etc. If not too big, then your IT department shouldn’t really need many personnel and staff for the task, just enough.

In Columbia Computer Center, they utilize their IS/IT related practices very well, which I have discussed in the first assignment. But, they said that they really don’t need a MIS Dept., because all of them there are knowledgeable of what to do there. As they have said, all of them are “Daltans” or “Dala Tanan”. All of them are versatile; they know how to do this and that, even though it’s not the assigned task for him/her. All of them are trained when they start to work there, so everyone is fully functional. So not only do they know how to operate their systems, but they also know hardware support, marketing and selling and other things which they have to know.

For GH Office Depot, I think they have a problem with their personnel, although it’s not that big. According to their IT Manager, the one operating their IT Department is only him. If he needs help then he asks for help with other personnel, but those personnel do not belong to the IT Department. Only the IT Manager has the specific skills to do the jobs required. When their accounting section has problems with their software, or there is a problem with one of their computer hardware, he is the one who comes to the rescue. And also in networking problems, he is the one to manage. I think if he had some people under him which are really IT people, then it would lessen the burden (if there is).

As for Lapanday Foods Corporation, I think there is no problem with their workforce, because when we went to their MIS Department there, there was a whole room of people working in front of computers, and they were really very busy. I think they were working on Lapanday’s website because when you went to their website, it would tell you that it was under construction. But that’s just what I think, because they were so busy.

Management Decisions:
Under this topic, I really can’t elaborate much, because I don’t know what’s on the mind of a high position manager or somewhat like that. The only thing I can relate with this is the one we encountered at GH Office Depot. When they log in or log out, they have a Biometrics Scanner and they also have a Bundy Clock. When we asked why there were two ways of logging in and out, their IT Manager said that it was for regular and casual employees. When we asked why it was like that, he just said that it was the order of the other department, the accounting department, I think. In the long run, even if you have a stable and good-working system, it would always depend on the higher-ups’ decision of how to use it and how it would work. And it will also be up to them if they wanted to change it or not.

For me, if you want your company to be successful and you want to utilize your IS/IT related practices well, then you have to decide which barrier you will have to break. But you have to study first whether it would do good for your company or it would be the cause of its downfall. There are also many things to consider in a company’s success, but the IT field of a company is very important, because many data, transactions and other processes are happening here. That’s why you have to consider it and give it a little importance, because we are in the technological age, and tasks in a company that are connected with technology must be given importance

References:
http://www.konsult.leeds.ac.uk/public/level1/sec10/index.htm

most of the content here are of my own view, the reference is only for the definition of "barrier". So if you think my post isn't right or something like that, feel free to comment at
http://roycuevas.blogspot.com/