Paint and surface coatings company Wattyl Ltd.'s Chief
Information Officer John Croker has labeled a federal government
study into B2B e-business projects as "dumb."
The nine-month study, which was released Tuesday, said IT
managers are a key barrier to the success of B2B e-business
projects
This is because one of the main obstacles to e-business project
success is engaging trading partners and getting them to connect to
the new system.
However, Croker said organizations involved in B2B trading would
only avoid IT if they want the project to fail.
"If you don't want the system to work then avoid IT; I think
this suggestion is dumb," Croker said.
"IT doesn't hinder these projects, they make it happen and it is
critical to get IT involved from the very beginning rather than
later."
"We are actively involved in B2B trading and when we approached
partners we always included IT because it is a team endeavor and
their involvement is critical to ensuring things happen and
timelines are met," he said.
To encourage adoption, the report recommends targeting business
and operational executives, not IT, because they were most likely
to put up barriers.
Commissioned by the Department of IT, Communications and the
Arts (DCITA), the report said to: "Package systems so IT
involvement in the decision making process is minimized, or
eliminated altogether, as a significant enabler."
Undertaken by S2 Intelligence, the research involved 54
organizations and 12 e-business systems covering building and
construction, telecommunications, manufacturing, agriculture,
business services, insurance and financial services.
Bruce McCabe, S2 Intelligence managing director, said that while
IT staff do raise legitimate issues such as security, in most IT
projects, they actually created more problems when it came to B2B
trading systems.
"The barriers are political, not technical and are around issues
of ownership. When technology is being developed by another company
and introduced to them they want to know where it came from rather
than asking if it's good for the business," McCabe said.
"It is best to interact with operational or business staff to
avoid resistance from IT."
The research has been translated into a 56-point checklist for
managers implementing these systems and copies will be available
for download in coming weeks at www.dcita.gov.au.
icon.
