AOSI-2010-CASOFINAL-A33.

doc

Caso Final: Alvalade XXI

Grupo CasoFinal33
57970 Joo Lima I.
During all the project of implementation of the payment system at Alvalade XXI Stadium there had several problems. Despite the attempts by both the CEO of Casa XXI and by the CEO of Meag to throw away the problems from themselves there had problems that are imputable to both. I will base my analysis in the systems development process [1, 515], in a way to focus the problems that occurred at each stage.

Systems Analysis
As happens in many unsuccessful information system projects, the Analysis phase of this project had not been done thoroughly. The system was initially imagined and designed by Jos Eduardo, Casa XXI CEO, which wanted to create a highly innovative system, without taking in count the risks that such innovation will bring for the firm, and all the variables he are dealing with. The innovation would require a great cultural change to the clients, since no one is accustomed to buy cards to pay for items, but to pay items with money. One of the facts that clearly show that they do not know the environment they are working with was the fact that Casa XXI had no idea of how the people massively go to the bar just after entering the stadium. Despite the big technical problems that will be focused later the fact that they do not know the organizational environment and all the influences that the whole Information Systems would suffer had compromised definitely the whole system development. But since Casa XXI was not a firm specialized in Information Systems Projects they have no way to know the problems they will probably facing. That conducts us to a second critical factor that was the choice of supplier, which had been as well Jos Eduardos fault. Meag was inexperienced with Information System Projects because it was an Office Supplies wholesaler who had started selling POS systems some time ago.

Systems Design
Based on the inexperience that Meag had, they based the system design in the design previously done by Jos Eduardo, without ever asking if it would be adequate to the application they want it to have, or if the short time line until the system be fully deployed was possible to a system with a big innovation factor. This is fully imputable to Jos Almeida, Meags CEO, because his consultancy role is supposed to give advice on the feasibility of the project. In this case, and at least on what is possible to see, he did not gave any advice about that, constantly saying to Eduardo that everything will be fine.

System Programming and Testing

Usually, in projects that several errors are committed during the earlier development stages, those errors are reflected in the later stages, like Systems Programming and Testing. But awkwardly the major problems that came from this phase had nothing to do with the problems from the earlier stages.

20-12-2010 13:47

AOSI-2010-CASOFINAL-A33.doc
One of the major problems in that phase was the apparent misunderstanding, and even the ignorance that Meag had about the technical details of the system they are implementing. The fact that only after the full load test executed after the system fail in the first game they known that the software had not been properly configured, and that there has even hardware that do not work shows that. Also the SQL licenses failure shows how Meags inexperience with the system, and the bad analysis done that have conditioned the success of the system. The effort with testing was small, conducting to the errors referred above only being discovered after the system failure in the first game.

System Conversion
The little time to system conversion had determined the success of the system too, which makes me think that even if the whole technical part of the system functioned well, the system would have failed in the same manner. The effort with users training was inexistent, and the users were unable to deal with the normal functioning of the system and even less able to deal with exceptional cases, like start accepting payments in cash. In that area despite Eduardo and Almeida constantly tried to pass responsibilities between one another they had been both responsible for the lack of training. Eduardos faults because even if the information about the system implementation were the best, he should had promoted training to the employees are able to deal with normal and exceptional situations. Almeidas fault because since supposedly the management of the project was his responsibility, he had the obligation of informing Eduardo of the need of training the employees to their new working methods.

Production and Maintenance

About the production and maintenance phase there has not very much I can say since the case does not illustrate how the problem had been solved, and how the system performed after the problem had been solved. But apparently Meag was trying to put them out of the problem, since they considered the problem had nothing to do with them, but with the problems that they called Organizational Problems.

____________________________________________________________________ II.
Being I the CEO of Casa XXI, and based on the problems enunciated on the question above, I would had done a lot of things in a different way, in order to avoid that those problems occur. The degree of innovation wanted by Jos Eduardo was impossible to carry in the time the system needs to be in production. I would have chosen to implement the same innovative system but in a very different way: Primarily I would have split the project in two phases: Implementation of the system with cash payments, and implementation of the payment system with Carto XXI. The division of the project in two will largely reduce the risk associated with it but anyway I would require Meag to do a thorough analysis and an action plan to the implementation of the whole system and present it to me. This will reduce the undefinition of the roles in the project, clarifying them in an earlier stage, as well as reduce the amount of things that are thought only when the system is already being implemented. In the first phase would be developed a system which is familiar to the employees, and which smaller degree of innovation enables Meag to do a more conservative, and consequently less risky, installation.

20-12-2010 13:47

AOSI-2010-CASOFINAL-A33.doc
Assuming that the employees that will work at Alvalade XXI are already experienced with traditional payment systems, the need for training is smaller in that phase, since there has not very much new to learn about, what gives some hours to test the system before the first game starts. Then with the first games passed, and with the system working solidly, I would start the conversion to the payment with Carto XXI. That conversion would require an extensive training to the employees to they adapt with the new working method, as well as a lot of publicity to the clients be aware that they need to acquire the cards prior to go to the bars, enabling the change of their cultural habits. By that time would be possible to have network working at kiosks too what will enable the cards to be activated in the buying act, and not at the bar in the first sell.

_____________________________________________________________________ III.
During the AOSI course there had a lot of things that we learned and that actively discussed that during a great part of our academic life we are discouraged, or not conducted to think about. I consider it a mistake since that type of concepts should be introduced earlier in our training process to we never forget about them. From my route in that course I have retained a lot of concepts that I think will be vital to my future work life like: Information Systems are not only about technology The technological part of information systems is an important part, but is by far not the only neither the most important one. Information systems are composed by Organizational aspects, like the Business Processes, the Culture and the environment of the Firms, by Management aspects, like what objectives and goals the organization should reach, and then by technical aspects that appear with the objective of helping solve the problems faced day-by-day by the Organization and its Management; Information Systems are an effective way of achieving competitive advantage In the complex environments that firms are facing that is needed to develop ways to gain advantage against the competitors. Information systems are one of the effective ways of achieving competitive advantage, since it can make possible a lot of things like: o Operational Excellence; o Customer and Supplier Intimacy; o Low-cost Leadership; o Focusing on Market Niches. With Information Systems firms are well prepared to react to the constantly changing environments that they are facing every day; Build new Information Systems is a way of achieving Organizational Change- In order to adopt to the constantly changing environments, organizations sometimes need to operate Organizational Changes. That could be done in several ways, like Rationalization, Automation, Business Processes Reengineering or Paradigm Shifts. Information Systems not only enable organizations to do that, but also enables Organizations to know where it could be improved and in which way it could be improved. Information Systems are all about people- For me this is one of the key learning of the course. Users are vital to the Organizations and to the building of Information Systems, since a great part of the knowledge existing in the Organization is possessed inside of their minds. They should actively participate in the building of Information Systems, since they are who will work in the system, and, in the last instance, who work in the Organization. Involve users

20-12-2010 13:47

AOSI-2010-CASOFINAL-A33.doc
in the building of new Information Systems are not only a way of overcoming Organizational Resistance, but also a way to assure that the system will bring the bigger benefits possible to the organization.

Information Systems enhance the Decision Making Process- Information Systems could concentrate a lot of Information about the overall performance of the whole Organization. That Information could be really useful to help Managers deciding, since they with it they have a broad vision of what is happening on the Organization, and they could foresee the consequences that their decisions will have on the Organization, reducing the risks their decision could bring.

_____________________________________________________________________

References
[1] Management Information Systems: Managing the digital Firm, Kenneth and Jane Laudon, Prentice Hall, 2009.

20-12-2010 13:47