Project management
One company that had a successful IT project is London government agencies. They undertook a project that would see future payment done online. This project, called BACSTELL-IP. Most of the financial processes of the government did not have any form of automation. They therefore undertook the project. Because they understood the requirements of the client and had the right strategy to undertake the project, it was deemed successful and all operations were successfully undertaken.
One project that took a great risk in information technology project and failed is Levi Strauss. This is a company that deals with dry goods and was founded in the 19th century. In the year 2003, it had grown to be a global company as it had operations in over 100 countries worldwide. The problem that this company had was that it had IT network that had incompatible systems and balkanized mix of networks and software. For this reason, the management decided to migrate their systems to one SAP system and so they hired a Deloitte consultant to oversee the process. Initially, the risks looked like small because the budget was a paltry 5 million USD. But after this, all was not well as one big customer, Wal-Mart, wanted that the system be made to interface with their supply chain management. this created a lot of problems which could not be managed. There were also insufficient procedures for reporting and internal controls. In the process of switching over, it was not possible to process orders and thus forcing it to close operations in three stores in the United States. At long last its CIO, David Bergen, had to resign.
I believe that apart from luck, it is important to have the right strategy and technology to undertake a project. It is therefore important not only to undertake a project because it will bring automation, but also to know the alignment that this project will bring to the company. It projects should be strategic.
References
Cadley, Y. (2004). Project management for information systems. London: Pearson Education.
Harrison, D., & Lock, J. (2004). Advanced project management: A structured approach (5 ed.). Illinois: Gower Publishing Ltd.
