Adopting and Implementing IT infrastructure: A Case Study of the Transformation Process in a Government Agency

• Main Authors: Wang, Chi-Fen, 汪其芬
• Other Authors: Lee, Tsang Shiung
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/58673635683179029912

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 經營管理碩士學程 === 93 === Adopting and implementing Information Technology (IT) infrastructure , like the removing already-built premises for reconstruction, involves a comprehensive and massive conversion. Less than two years before the Y2K crisis, when the Microsoft platform had not been fully developed, there were only a few successful cases of domestic IT infrastructure adoption and implementation. Moreover, Internal personnel of organization was not proficient with the related technology, and IT department was not able to effectively handle the issues; however , top management adopted a strategy of IT infrastructure conversion by switching the mainframe to Local Area Network servers and then re-developing all the application information systems. How did they successfully implement this strategy amidst such a massive re-engineering, and with high-risk information technology ? In reality, IT infrastructure adoption and implementation involves extremely broad and complicated levels, including hardware, software, procedures, systems, personnel, and so on. Machines and equipment can be updated at once, but the core application information systems installed on new machines and equipment must be sequentially developed and adjusted. To achieve the desired effects, people especially, need to change their ways of thinking and learn constantly if they want their equipment, systems, and system standards to be aligned with the needs and business goals of the organization. However, results cannot be achieved in a short time. Therefore the IT infrastructure adoption and implementation process needs to be studied longitudinally. With respect to time, we can see the impact of IT infrastructure adaptation on organizational changes and its interactive association. This study uses the case study approach to observe how the Bureau of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan has successfully adopted and implemented IT infrastructure. This case is characterized by the following properties: (1) It is a government organization; (2) It encountered internal and external challenges and pressure to launch an “e-Government;” and (3) It used technological strategies, which are comprehensive and radical changes to organization, so that the technologies involved were unable to be accumulated and needed be relearned. As it is a very long and complicated process to adopt and implement IT infrastructure, this article uses a general research framework (consisting of contents, context, and processes), supplemented by “problem solving”, to systematically describe the IT infrastructure adoption and implementation process. Moreover, with the hope of properly controlling the information for this research, three major issues are described and analyzed: (1) How to formulate and implement strategies; (2) How to integrate and apply information; and (3) How to transform the information system department and its personnel. Additionally, the characteristics of a transformation process can be studied using the organizational process model derived by Chiang Chi-ku (1999), comprising of a planned model, an adaptive model, and an emergent model. This organizational process model studies the properties and differences of these three process models using the two components of “problem solving” —“goal setting for problem solving” and “status control and resource allocation.” Moreover, this article also studies the roles played by the problem solvers (i.e., top management, information manager, and the executive team) in these processes and their effects. According to the findings of this study, the process of adopting and implementing IT infrastructure can’t be described as a single process. Moreover, it involves solutions to a series of related problems. Generally speaking, most people only recognize the construction and implementation of hardware, but easily disregard the real difficulty in personnel’s conceptual change and constant learning. Due to these hidden problems, some unexpected conditions may appear throughout the transformation process. Hence, this research can be taken as a reference for the business sector in adopting and implementing of IT infrastructure, organizational change, and organizational innovation. Moreover, it can also provide the basis for future academic research of the data involving a seven-year-long adaptation process.