Chapter 9

1. Chapter 9 Business Solutions, Change, and the Solution Professional: Challenges and Opportunities

2. Chapter Objectives • Explain the nature of integrated business solutions. • Explain the principles of managing change. • Describe the opportunities confronting today’s accounting and IT professionals.

3. The Nature of Business Solutions • Successful business solutions adhere to the following principles and characteristics: • First, solutions must integrate 5 key components: • Business processes and events • Business strategy • Organization structure and individual stewardship responsibilities • IT architecture • Measurements • Second, the solution must be aligned with the organization’s culture. • Third, solutions must constantly adapt to a complex, changing world in real-time.

4. Strategy People and Structures Information Technology Measurements Business Solution Framework Culture S1 Business Processes/ Events

5. Finance View Executive View Business Events Audit and Record Business Events Business Events Production View Marketing View IT Application Architecture: Record, Maintain and Report Business Information Warehouse

6. Organization Structure Based on Business Processes Multiple Process Owner Solution Support Professional Process Owner Process Owner Process Owner Business Event Owners Salesperson Shipping Clerk Customer Payment Clerk

7. Business Event System A Edit Audit Calculate Summarize Stored Data System B Edit Audit Calculate Summarize Stored Data System C Edit Audit Calculate Summarize Stored Data System D Edit Audit Calculate Summarize Stored Data Functional Views Functional Views Functional Views Functional Views Traditional View-Driven IT Application Architecture

8. IT Application Architecture: Record, Maintain, and Report Operating Events Reporting Facility (instructions for generating outputs) Business Event Processor Business Data Repository Useful Information Operating Event (and other decision support) Data Enterprise-wide Information Customers

9. Existing system details and limitations Planned application development projects Systems Planning Systems Analysis Systems Support Existing system details and limitations Production information system Systems Design Systems Implementation Technical design statement Systems Development Process Business requirements statement

10. Types of Organizational Change • Organizational change can be classified according to its scope and depth. • Developmental change is the improvement of an existing system • Transitional change is the implementation of a known new state • Transformational change is the emergence of a new state.

11. Types of Organizational Change • Some important questions to ask when determining the type of change best suited for an organization include: • How far do we want to go? Is it too far or not far enough? • What type of result do we want: short term or long term? • How much change can the organization absorb in on change and cumulatively? • Can the changes contemplated be presented positively? If not, why? • What happens if we don’t change?

12. Deciding When to Change • The decision about when to change is as important as what to change and how much to change. • Change when things are going well. • Change when results are mixed. • Change demanded by a full-fledged crisis.

13. Managing Change and Creating a Common Vision • Organization Culture • Participation • Performance Evaluation • Dysfunctional Human Behaviour

14. Organization Culture • Each organization has a unique culture that distinguishes it from all others. • Changes should support rather than challenge the organization’s culture.

15. Participation • Allowing people to participate in identifying the problem, the solution approach, and the final product is the most powerful technique for creating a common vision and the support to achieve it.

16. Performance Evaluation • Because changes often alter people’s responsibilities, organization and system changes often impact the way individual performance should be measured and evaluated. • Unless the performance evaluation process is updated, changes may obscure personal performance, thus creating disincentives for supporting the proposed changes.

17. Dysfunctional Human Behaviour • Most dysfunctional human behaviour is manifest in one, or more, of three ways: • Aggression involves any attempt by an individual or group to damage the organization or its information system. • Projection involves any effort to blame the system for problems that people face. • Avoidance involves any attempt to avoid using the system.

18. Culture IT architecture (technical/ application) Stewardships and structures Business processes Measurements Strategy IS Professionals Provide Integration and Structure Culture S3 Culture S2 Culture S1 Strategy People and structures Business processes/ events Information technology Measurements

19. Responsibilities for Managing Change • Management should: • Openly support efforts to continually improve all aspects of the organization. • Determine timing for enterprise-wide changes. • Approve suggestions for improvement. • Monitor progress of approved changes and insure that measurement systems are adjusted quickly. • Assist in resolving problems resulting from change.

20. Responsibilities for Managing Change • Employees should: • Commit to continual individual and organization improvement. • Actively participate in suggesting and implementing changes. • Demand creative solutions to business and information problems.

21. Responsibilities for Managing Change • Change agents (those who guide or develop the business solutions) should: • Understand the impact of IT as a change agent. • Deal with problems in a timely and effective manner.