The Case of IT Adoption at South Australian Water Company

Case Background and Organizational Environment

South Australian Water Company is a publicly owned corporation supplying clean water to the
regions of Adelaide and the vineyards of the Borossa Valley. The main catchment of the
company is the Murray river, which has been shrinking and the company does most part of its
work testing through a laboratory the quality of the water supplied to the region. In a bid to
improve the company's efficiency and compliance practices, a statistical management process
was defined and the company went out sourcing and upgrading its IT support systems and
infrastructure. The government has been keen about water quality delivery and the company has
undergone through restructuring to be customer-focused corporation with a vision to supply
efficient quality water and delivery through enhanced testing and quality assurance practices.

Case Situation and Structure of the Organization

After many years of restructuring and focusing the organizational vision, the South Australian
Water Company modeled its core competencies about quality water testing and quality assurance
through established testing laboratories. Such a program would only be efficient when suitable
IT infrastructure is embedded on the operations to enhance efficiency in the monitoring of
operations. The CIO modeled elaborate programs of IT installation and outsourcing to retain a
lean and agile organizational structure fit for the company (Coelli & Walding, 2006). The
company had a history of poor IT performance and many of its affiliates did not recognize or
utilize the IT functions. Moreover, it lacked a suitable Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
and the new CIO did a good job to improve these systems through massive upgrade programs in
all IT functions.

Key Problems and Issues in the Case

The company witnessed massive restructuring to fully ratify the new IT support systems.
However, the PRINCE2 program initiated complexities at various stages and soon a massive
water pollution case was reported sparking a national outrage and political crisis. The new model
of hugely outsourcing services and failing to seamlessly integrate functions led to serious
management complications and poor coordination. Multiple outsourcing deals were solicited to
enhance the efficiency of the programs. At one point, the Fujitsu Consulting Business was
indulged to monitor the cost efficiency of the water quality testing programs but costs kept
rising. The company's massive investments in IT did not yield much and systems upgrades and
alterations were done routinely without any significant success.
Technology and Leadership Success and Failures

Many organizations seeking the ratification of successful IT systems installation should develop
a stable and consistent internal team and train its employees to deal with exigencies rather than
rely hugely on outsourced services going into the depths of the core business functions.
Outsourcing should target auxiliary services and maintenance work rather than critical
deployment and routine management functions of the organization. Moreover, the company
changed affiliated organizations frequently and changed managers often leading to a confusion
and lack of efficient scope with the management tasks and challenges. Moreover, critical
components like the Geographical Information Systems were not effectively installed in time
leading to a flawed program ratification. The only dint of success attained is that after massive
investments and delayed success, the company reformulated its approach to the IT installation
process to focus on development of internal talent.

Rationale for the Recommendation

Public corporations that deal in critical services like water resources have to value efficiency. In
this regard, they need to develop internal talent and competencies rather than rely heavily on
outsourcing. Moreover,. the stability in the leadership is vital because rapid changes tend to
deplete consistency and productivity as many employees hate change (Beal & Flynn, 2015). It is
also useful to have a lean and agile organizational design that can adjust effectively and rapidly
to both internal and external challenges.

Case Review and Conclusion

A major public corporation like South Australian Water Company ought to establish systems of
management and relevant infrastructure as a primary concern to deliver on the core
competencies. Massive outsourcing should be done with auxiliary support systems and services
while the core business process is managed by permanent employees in the organization. The
organization should only invest heavily in talent management and development.

References

Beal, C. D., & Flynn, J. (2015). Toward the digital water age: Survey and case studies of
Australian water utility smart-metering programs. Utilities Policy, 32, 29-37.

Coelli, T., & Walding, S. (2006). Performance measurement in the Australian water supply
industry: A preliminary analysis. Performance measurement and regulation of network utilities,
29-61.