Barriers in IT Implementation

[Note: This is a reply to Mr. G.'s thread in USEP-IC forum - Assignment 5: Based on your adopted organization(s), identify and discuss barriers in their IS/IT implementation...]

As I was beginning to recall our interview with the company we once had a conversation with regarding the risks associated with business and IS/IT change (you may check my previous post about the topic ), I was looking for some points where the company found some difficulties or obstacles in management and its implementation with regards to information system / technology.

Davao Light and Power Company started its business as early as 1973. And from that time on, there were remarkable changes in the aspects of office equipments (hardware and software components), human resources (workforce), and management system, to name a few. I could say that their company is able to address problems right away if there were any that may delay their operation. In their long years of service, I could say that the IT Services Group is really very observant on the various changes of IS components and its effects on the company processes. I could only notice some few barriers in Davao Light’s IS/IT implementation. Some of these are on the succeeding sections…

Primary on the list is the gradual increase of data being stored in the database(s) and/or the server(s). I think this is the most essential concern of the IT personnel in the company. As years go by, more and more customers are being served by Davao Light and this means that the data being processed by the servers is also increasing. Aside from that, the company is now developing each year and more departments are being added. That is why the company undergone many changes in hardware aspects to cater the needs of their clients and their employees as well. Their current back-end now is Oracle in place of the previous Clipper. The latter has been tested by years and it was a good programming language and database, yet it is not robust. I could still remember that our interviewee mentioned that as technology evolves, one thing the management is coping with is the business processes. “Your system must always be compatible with your business process,” our interviewee stressed. The system has to be adaptable.

But of course, changing and choosing the hardware and / or software component is not that easy and fast. Sometimes your system has only limited access to those who primarily operates on it. In this case, it is too secured that not most employees who need to obtain data from the database. There are instances that if your database system can hold as much data as you want to load yet it has low security. On the other side, one particular database has high security but has lesser memory capacity. Our interviewee stressed that in changing a system, one has to look for these points. The programmer has to weigh whether the company needs a system in which it has highly secured data but eventually would look for another database system or server after it reached its maximum limit in data storage since it is not that large, only few people can access to it; or, choose the system which can hold much larger data for many years but is not very robust. Security and convenience are the two main points to be looked after. Your current situation using the present system could be a barrier in IT implementation when it comes to the limit. The management could have started planning out some developments in the employees and clients’ side but cannot proceed directly into carrying out these operations since the system is compromised. Other potential barriers here come during the introduction and implementation of the new system. Of course with new environment and usage, some trainings and orientation has to be done for those employees (lower organizational level) who will be using the data stored on the database. Moreover, in spite of how big or small the changes are, the clients (e.g. customers) also have to be informed especially those who are patronizing the services of the company.

The second main point here is the issue of ‘piracy’ of the company’s IT personnel. Even before, there has been some depreciation in the number of top IT employees focusing on the IS department. A number of system developers and engineers would give in to personal extra business from the outside. As time goes by, these employees would decide to leave the company for good so to seek greener pasture in other organizations. If there would be any current activity or system being developed by a certain programmer and/or developer, it will halt and another personnel has to be trained so to be in place of the programmer who left and continue his work. Instead of chances of rapid improvement of the system, the process may break-off or paused.

Another thing is the company’s Change Management System in which requests (for changes) being passed will be redirected first to it for evaluation. I must admit that this is beneficial to the company since whatever requests for changes will be assessed over and over to be sure of its future effects. But what I was thinking is, what about emergency matters requiring immediate attention? Will it be evaluated over and over again until the desired outcome is concluded? As we all know, time is very essential in IS/IT progress. The barrier here is that if there is urgent need for some amendments or modification of the system for emergency purposes, it will take time in assessment before it will be implemented.

In the other organization that my group had visited and interviewed previously, barriers in IT implementation has something to do with the fear of some disadvantages brought by the system’s components. Just like DC Tech Micro Services, our company from which we had our industry analysis of the role of internet in e-commerce and e-business, their payment system is not yet electronic or done online. Some establishments are now accepting online payments or using electronic payment systems (customers and clients can process their money payments through the internet and website of the company) in their sales. Internet, for the company, is the channel of distribution where they could advertise their company business, the operational side, and a means of communication by clients and customers. Their website helps in the promotion of their products and so customers can browse through it. But when asked about e-payment system, our interviewees said that they are still following the old and manual system of collection. I wonder why and just as I was about to ask, they stated a major disadvantage and that is in terms of security. In banking over the internet, you can not be sure of whether your customer is a real human anyhow. Although most online transactions in the present are happening widely, where a person’s credit card may be used, the customer’s basic information about his bank account is encrypted in the card as it traverses along the net. But even if this pertinent information about a person is encrypted, there are still wide cases where it is hacked. This major drawback, I should say, restrains the company from having this sort of online payment system.

The company follows the traditional way of collecting payments from its clients and customers. They still have sales personnel to do the jobs, and if their clients do not like to pay to sales collectors, they have the option to have it bank-to-bank. In e-commerce, as our interviewee would say, its disadvantage is, you can not trace a person’s income thus no idea of his capability to pay. Additionally, e-payments are prone to scam. Some widely used online ordering and cash-delivery systems always have glitches.

These opinions made me wonder of the company’s status in terms of information technology / system. I am also considering their reasons and I respect that. But it made me think too, that in the near future, more and more organizations would eventually venture into something like that (online payments) and being one of the pioneers in the industry they belong to, I think they should be on their way to weighing the circumstances and consider planning to have the said system implemented.

I think the barrier here is the fear of the disadvantages that they do not want to implement it – resistance to change. Maybe they are just focusing on the drawbacks that they still choose to have the old way. I have nothing against the old system, though. It’s just that I think we should try something different and new. I do not really mean we should try everything that is modern and unusual. But taking into account the competitiveness of the company in the industry, the above-mentioned demerits can be deliberately studied and simulated so to prevent from its possible security drawbacks. Glitches and weaknesses are just normal, but they can be avoided to have lesser unwanted outcomes. Besides, what is the use of the technology we are developing, using, and applying nowadays, right? Problems are dealt, and not to be avoided. Essential steps that should be taken are defining the effective system changes and interventions and establish procedural guidelines.

Oh, and by the way, if and then, they would be having this so-called online payment system, their sales personnel who will be doing the collection would find no more clients to collect for since customers will be paying online or bank-to-bank. Human resources will be affected. Of course, there would be lesser people needed to take charge of the payments especially the collection. Does that mean that these collecting agents would find no more jobs to do? Well…

I am sure that if not now, in the near future, companies would consider into having new applications to their systems. There may be some hindrance to its implementations and this may be due to its impact on the company’s human resources, the cost that may be cutting a large slice of the budget, and its possible disadvantages (since all have trial-and-error methods) along the way, but any organization can overcome it. As they say, ways to success, whether in business or not, is not only to find the key and keep it, but learning how to break the barriers in case somebody changes the lock. Chill!


Resources that may help:

The TriCentral Palliative Care Toolkit: Chapter 3: Building a Palliative Care Program: Identify barriers to implementation – and strategies to overcome them

http://www.mywhatever.com/cifwriter/content/22/4481.html

Legal Barriers to eGovernment by Florence de Villenfagne, CRID, University of Namur (Belgium)

Hacking: Ethical or Unethical? You Decide...

When the term ‘hacker’ reaches to the ears of many people, it is usually associated to as a ‘criminal’, that is, because of the bad views related to the acts of crawling into and stealing information from websites. But that is what we perceived of in general since hacking is mainly related to doing bad acts electronically as what we’ve mostly taken notice of. What we do not know is the real side of it.


The computer term ‘hacker’ is being described by Microsoft Encarta as a computerphile or a person totally engrossed in computer programming and computer technology. In the advent of microcomputers and dial-up networking, hacker became a disapproving term as if often refers to someone who secretively invades others’ computers, inspecting or tampering with the programs or data stored on them.

But hacking can also be ethical. There are just some reasons why this should be considered as not purely illegal or unacceptable. NC State University gave a list of four justifications sometimes given for hacking:

1. All information should be free, and if it were free, there would be no need for intellectual property and security. I guess this is just one thing to think of especially to those who include proprietorship in their works. Information is streaming to and from all directions in the world. We give information because we gain information. And thus, I believe, that all information should be free, so we would not need to worry about copyright issues. This is one reason why ‘hackers’ try to steal information along the net because a lot of resources pose secured data that is supposed to be shared anyway.

2. Break-ins illustrate security problems and cause them to be fixed. Well, this is certainly one main point why several third parties could penetrate in to a system. It is because a certain company or organization did not have enough strong walls for the safety of its confidential data. That is, the system is vulnerable to other people’s curiosity and interest to the company’s information.

3. Hackers are doing no harm; they are just learning about how computer systems operate. And just we thought the idea is somewhat ridiculous, it is fairly valid.  Hackers, accordingly, are just ‘viewing’ information from sources. They don’t modify it. And if they do, they are termed ‘crackers’. Hacker also means someone who, beyond mere programming, likes to take apart operating systems and programs to see what makes them tick. Definitely, when you ‘explore’ the ‘world’ of a certain system or site, you can eventually learn. There may be times that we are already hacking but we don’t know it. It’s just that we may not know if we are already beyond the limits of exploring that we tend to touch some restricted spots. We don’t really know much but the exploits of hackers are being used by investigators in some parts of the country to solve cases.

4. Hackers break into systems to watch for abuse and hold “Big Brother” at bay. Hmm.. This is, I believe, a useful possibility of hacking. You see, it could be beneficial. I’ve surfed the net for this topic and have gotten into a forum where a certain author confessed that he was doing hacking even at a young age and it actually helped others. He helped add security by testing security. One could think of hacking the system being developed by his own company by checking the vulnerability of its system. In this way the computer system will have a chance for improvement in its weak areas. There was a guy in the states who posted child porn infected with a trojan so that anyone who downloaded the pictures would get infected and enable access to the hacker who would then go about gathering information for the cops.

In general, I should say, it is not only in the mere act of stepping into one’s private property but also in the intention of the one who does it. An ethical hacker may penetrate one’s email, hack the owner’s password just to access the files being kept confidentially by the company that the latter forgot to turn over or selfishly kept it or whatever thousand reasons he may have.

Well I guess most people tend to band together these types of people into one category. As far as I’ve researched, there are three kinds of hackers (I’m just not so sure if these are lay terms made by hackers themselves):

Black hat (crackers) – the bad guys who do evil things like writing viruses, breaking in to computer systems to steal credit card info and some stuff like that…

White hat – the so-called ethical hackers; the ones who do system penetration for companies and generally don’t go around for places where they shouldn’t be…

Grey hat – this is a mixture of the two; ethical in the sense, doing honorable means, unethical in the sense, by illegal acts. The previous example I gave (the guy who posted child porn…) is just one instance of this type of hacker.

Some would say it is not right to call the hackers the term in general for it would classify all the types into one and as we all know, hackers can be both good and bad. According to one of my references it is like calling a locksmith a burglar just because he has all the tools to he needs to break into your house although it does not necessarily he would really do it.

And as to the key question, is hacking ethical or unethical, for me, it can be both. I should say hacking can be justified. Just like anything else, whether good or bad. It all depends on the ‘purity’ of intention of the user.

A Yellow Ribbon for Cory

"If it weren't for Former President Corazon C. Aquino, we wouldn't be living the way we are today..."

This is just my simple thought of reflections as the whole country mourns for her death. I never knew her deeply, I never met her personally, and I don't have the slightest memory of her or me connected to one another. But I feel the emptiness perhaps just like what the many people feel especially on this very day when Pres. Cory is being laid to rest with our Lord in heaven.

I was not there when the People Power Revolution on 1986 happened that made the Filipinos heroes in the eyes of the world. I only heard the stories about it. But as many would recall, Madam Cory Aquino became one great person indeed, for bringing back the democracy that we have right now. She is a very good leader and example for the Filipino leaders and the people as well. I have heard parts of her speech when she was still on the seat of presidency. And I must admit I admire her sincerity and purity of good intention. She chose not to extend her term as president, yet she never stopped serving the country and the people.

I could say she is an icon of democracy, of faith, of hope, of love. More than the example she led in the leadership of the country, she instills in the hearts and minds of the people the values she imparts to her family.

As a student of the institution that I belong, in behalf of myself and the local youth that I'm representing, I am in deep gratitude for the significant things that Pres. Cory has done for all of us. There is little I can do but to offer my prayer and salute to the mother of democracy. Because if it were not for the people who chose to make the first steps to change the history of dictatorship, if it were not for the will of steel and the sincerest prayers, if it were not for the love of country and fellowmen, then we will not be living the way we are right now. History might be changed. I believe all happened for some reasons. Reasons that we may not be able to know, but continue to live the legacy left by our former president, Cory Aquino.

Thank you, Madam Cory!