Time to Take Control: The Impact of Change on Corporate Computer Systems

Changes in the world's business climate are forcing companies in all sectors to re-examine their goals and ambitions - as well as reviewing how they produce goods and deliver services to their customers. Not only is this rate of change accelerating but technological innovations, in particular, The Internet, catalyze this rate and also redefine many markets and business methods. Companies who recognise the need to change make sweeping transfomations, reinventing themselves in order to challenge their competitiors. By doing so they are investing substantial intellectual capital and time in methods such as TQM and Business Process Re-engineering. However whilst computers are continually seen as a tool of change - they are often an integral part of the problem of change intiatives. Far from supporting change, corporate computer systems are in many cases, a prime cause for the failure of the change process. This book: * explores the role of computers in corporate change * provides guidelines for those wishing to realign corporate computer systems to a new level of flexibility as change becomes a way of life * shows how these guidelines are pragmatic and proven * suggests a communications-based infrastructure which enables people to: solve problems, provide information visibility and work together in teams * shows how communications based thinking re-invents the team spirit which is often lost as corporations grow * adresses the need for developing solutions in-house which are: inexpensive, can rapidly respond to change or be thrown away to make room for new solutions - developed as and when required and deliver the required productivity to produce a return on investment