My computer is an information technology company. We have been in existence for a decade. Over this time, databases have been developed by individual departments to track, record, do things to information. These include Navision, Filmmaker, MySQL. These systems are not integrated and to get information from one system to another requires being a dab hand at MS Excel. Essentially different departments created systems and databases out of necessity in isolation from the rest of the company.

The company is getting large now (across different countries), that while the current systems work with the help of MS Excel, generally it is agreed that at some point in time the systems and MS Excel will fail. In its present form while the systems and system is adequate to ensure the company ticks over, it merely ensures the existence of the company and does not develop with the company or help the company’s development

There have been a number of attempts to fill the gaps, bring in a new system, or fix the current system. Unfortunately different elements of the entire system (and the databases) are under the control of various departments and persons, who either like their empires or are into expansion, else like the current situation because it is not transparent.

Asking any of these people on their ideas for the system as a whole, ends up with a sales pitch on implementing their own system further or an avoidance of the subject. It seems at this point the beast has gotten so big that nobody wants to try and handle it, and instead feel secure in controlling their own empire or pushing an agenda that will expand it.:frust:

When you get two people to discuss it, it ends up in a heated debate or argument. Even if some agreement is reached, people agree to agree, but no action items are agreed upon. Its like going around in circles. People have tried on several occasions to get the ball rolling on this. They seek support from people (sometimes not the right people) to go at the whole thing, but usually after a month or two, they either run out of steam or realize the enormity of the task and the motivation sinks fast

On the actual database system itself:
The company management is distrustful of buying an off-the-shelf, fix all your problems for you systems (that usually takes a lot of customization) including SAP, ORACLE etc. They would prefer to do it via open source. Actually this really is a secondary argument that people drag into the whole discussion. Without agreeing first to all pull together company-wide to create a specification and a system, then it is pointless discussing purchase of software/ERP systems

My thoughts on how to tackle this problem include

1) Find an independent company to assess the company’s requirements and current situation
2)Get key people on my side to support this (MIS and GM)

I kinda know what to do but have have some questions
1) IS AN INDEPEDANT AUIDT A GOOD IDEA?
2) HOW TO FIND REPUTABLE COMPANY TO DO THIS?

My computer is an information technology company. We have been in existence for a decade. Over this time, databases have been developed by individual departments to track, record, do things to information. These include Navision, Filmmaker, MySQL. These systems are not integrated and to get information from one system to another requires being a dab hand at MS Excel. Essentially different departments created systems and databases out of necessity in isolation from the rest of the company.

...There have been a number of attempts to fill the gaps, bring in a new system, or fix the current system. Unfortunately different elements of the entire system (and the databases) are under the control of various departments and persons, who either like their empires or are into expansion, else like the current situation because it is not transparent....



You make some very good points. This problem is very common in many companies. The other problem is the opposite, where skills are not adequate to develop such systems, and people make do with inadequate systems.

Either way, this is one of the reasons I advocate that IT Support should be defined as a support process in our QMS systems. They should do far more than just make sure the server is running.

I kinda know what to do but have have some questions
1) IS AN INDEPEDANT AUIDT A GOOD IDEA?
2) HOW TO FIND REPUTABLE COMPANY TO DO THIS?

1) Yes.

2) I do not know what country you are writing from. One starting point is to ask your friends and business relationships if they have a suggestion or can refer you. Look at articles and ads in magazines published for your industry.

It is important that you (and your comapny) define and agree with the auditing company what the objectives and the deliverables are. Get regular updates and interim reports.

1) Yes.

2) I do not know what country you are writing from. One starting point is to ask your friends and business relationships if they have a suggestion or can refer you. Look at articles and ads in magazines published for your industry.

It is important that you (and your comapny) define and agree with the auditing company what the objectives and the deliverables are. Get regular updates and interim reports.


I think these would eb good things to do. But, I think the first thing I would do, is have a multi-department team of higher level people discuss the problem. Do they believe there is a problem? You have to build a consensus. You want them to be in agreement with a plan of action or they will resist any direction you want to move in.

FWIW, the company I am at was in pretty much the same boat a few years ago. I was one of the "owners" of a data base (lab info sys), but saw where our systems were not "talking" to each other, i.e. lab system to shipping documentation (COAs).

Ww hired a guy who was familiar with what's out there (not as an IT guy, go figure) and he started the ball rolling. We brought in a consultant to help us see where we were, what was needed, and helped us prioritize. We have a ways to go, but I think the changes made over the last 3 -4 years have resulted in a quantum leap. If you are in the US and want a contact, click my name above and send me a message.

Be prepared though. Remember the addage that a computer is required to "really foul things up". The underlying data hand offs, formatting, etc. MUST be defined early in the process, else there is going to be a lot of time consuming pain to be had by all. In a system like yours (like ours was) there will be places where one process does not "agree" with another.

Thanks for the replies and support

Craig H,
we actually do have one guy who is motivated, familiar with all, but not too familiar with a particular system be it Oracle, SAP. He has been given the task by his department to investigate the possibility of creating a system in their department (kinda black ops it seems), then rolling it out a cross the company. He supposedly has the blessing of the CEO. This is good because the guy is very open-minded and dynamic. I just hope the scale of the project will not burn him out

Helmet
The company management is very aware of the whole “mess”. But since it is a very patriarchic type of company, and the CEO is the daddy, everyone expects him to do something or tell somebody to do something or take the lead. He is very busy and he expects the people he pays to do these sort of initiatives, to initiate it themselves
We have a very strange culture in our company. Perhaps strange is not the correct word. Maybe unique culture to a unique company.

I am located in the Far East. I do know of companies that we can bring in to audit our entire system. When I casually dropped the idea to a VP (further up the food chain than I), I got a snappy reply of “we can do this ourselves, we don’t need outside help”. See the problem is we can do it ourselves, but nobody wants to sit down, think about how to do it, and then take the first step
:frust:

Just a quick word of warning. Ensure you consider not only the technological aspect of this, but the two other critical factors of an information system, People and Processes.

People have to be prepared to change and in your case it sounds like a real challenge to get them to understand the need to change and how this will make a difference to your organisation. However, an independent audit is unlikely to change attitudes, this must be done with education (this is more than just training, they must understand the fundamental reason for changing). This education and involvement, must be at every user level, right up to you MD.

The involvement and education must include you MD and his upper management team. An information system enables people to do their jobs and ultimately meet the needs of the organisation. This includes management, don't they decide on the direction of the organisation? They must be involved and they must also support this and be seen to support it.

You must also consider your processes. If they are operating in functional isolation (I.e. Silo style...) then the implementation of technology may make them more efficient but perhaps not more effective. You should also look to optimise your processes as part of the systems development. An integrated information system working on a disjointed set of processes is unlikely to reap much benefits.

I understand your apprehension about a "off the shelf" package, but some of the more generic processes could benefit hugely from this, simply because they have been developed as the most effective ways of doing things. Customisation, could lead to problems with maintenance, upgrades and a dependence on the vendor for a very long time. However, this is dependant upon your situation. Another word of caution on customising a solution, is that you may just get the independent units you have talked about, developing their own modules and add ons, which defeats the object of the whole exercise!

So to summarise:

1. Involve and educate users at all levels
2. Ensure your processes are optimised and in some cases re-engineered as part of the process.
3. Review as many vendors as possible and perhaps choose the option that requires the least amount of customisation.
4. Remember that vendors of software or management consultants, won't sort out fundamental cultural issues within your org, they may identify them, but it is up to you to sort them out.
5. Make the most of your system and never forget the customers role in all this!!

Just a quick note to the moderators, should this not be in a technological/IT based forum?