Viewpoint

IT change can be tough process

By Rick Bunt

Over the past several years we’ve made some large investments, both fiscal and emotional, in new IT systems to support core academic and business processes. Many people have worked very hard to deliver new functionality and new services, but for most of us this is much less about new hardware and software than it is about change.

Rick Bunt

The late folksinger, Phil Ochs, sang of “the circle time parade of changes” [Changes, 1966]. Many feel they’re in that parade now as they confront our new computer systems. They’re unfamiliar, even a bit frightening, and people are feeling overwhelmed.

The world’s spinning madly, it drifts in the dark / Swings through a hollow of haze, / A race around the stars, a journey through / The universe ablaze with changes.

How did we get here, how do we cope while we’re here, and, most importantly, how do we get past this?

This journey didn’t start yesterday, and it won’t end tomorrow. This is a long-term investment in business process improvement to meet contemporary requirements. The Integrated Plan identified system renewal as a strategic priority for the University:

“We are … committed to the renewal of our core administrative support systems ... and to the delivery of integrated, role-based, on-line services to our customers, both within and outside the University. These new systems will provide exciting new functions and services...”

Along with the excitement, though, is some scope for frustration as we confront the changes to the way we’ve become accustomed to doing things.

Let’s use our new student information system as an example. Work to replace our old system began in 2001. We all know we have business processes that need improvement in that area. Staff in administrative units and college and department offices, faculty and students participated in many fruitful discussions over the course of a year-long Needs and Options study. We set goals together, we established some guiding principles and we compiled a detailed list of institutional requirements. In June of 2003 we purchased Banner Student Solution from SunGard SCT and we’ve been working hard since then to configure this product to meet our needs. Community engagement continues to be important throughout implementation, through the project’s Steering Committee, our Academic and Administrative Advisory Boards, various Task Groups, many meetings with stakeholders and business process owners and some Open Forums. A key goal of this project from the outset was to ensure that our users are well prepared to make the most of the new system. We visited other universities who have implemented similar systems and we sought advice from user communities. We used this advice to develop a comprehensive plan for training and supporting our users, and hundreds have already been trained to this point. But users have found the time commitment onerous and so we all struggle to find the right balance between too much and not enough. Clearly this struggle continues. We know it’s not perfect but we’re working hard to make it perfect.

Changing technology always provides both opportunity and incentive to take a critical look at processes and practices—to explore how the new technology can support and enhance our effectiveness, to look closely at how we’ve operated in the past, to re-examine our assumptions and to re-align or transform some processes and practices. But change is difficult, even painful. We know there will be anxiety, inertia and even resistance, and we must be ever mindful of the impact this change has on our staff, many of whom have become very attached to legacy systems and associated processes. These are, after all, your processes. Promises of future efficiencies don’t make new systems any less difficult to get used to. It takes time and effort to learn new ways of doing things and we don’t have the luxury of pausing our business while we do.

I believe strongly in a participatory process. Through the design and implementation of the new student information system we’ve worked hard to get community involvement–in advisory board meetings, requirements definition, prototyping sessions, etc.–and we believe that we will have a better system because of this. We know it takes a lot of your time and we understand your stresses but we need you to help us manage the change process too. This year will be the worst. Things will get better eventually, but it’s a slower process than we’d all like. And we must never lose sight of our common goal to provide better service. Our students are very excited about the services offered through our new student information system.

So, bear with us. We’ll get there, and we’ll get there together. Phil Ochs assures us that our fears and anxieties will soon be gone.

When the morning breaks / they’re swept away by / golden drops of dawn, of changes.

Rick Bunt is U of S Associate Vice-President, Information and Communications Technology