Read the case scenario on Ring Experts and answer the questions that follow.

SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION @ RING EXPERTS INC.

Alan Trimble is the Business Manager at Ring Experts Inc, a company that manufactures and sells telecommunications equipment to leading telecom companies in Australia. The firm initially did not have any system in place for managing the relationship with their customers and clients. As this aspect of business was given serious consideration, the organization decided to implement a new Client Management System, but had very little time for implementation.

The firm introduced a new client management system (CMS) last year to record their business dealings with leading clients such as Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. As the organization lacked time, the implementation was carried out in a hurry. As a result, the system could not be properly integrated with the existing accounting system (MYOB) and so client details were entered separately in each system. Whenever the sales consultants needed to investigate the products purchased by clients they had to consult the accounting program. Many clients complained about late or non-delivery of orders and it soon became apparent that quite a few orders seemed to disappear owing to different client details in each, system.

Alan conducted a review and found an urgent need to integrate the two systems. He held a meeting and discussed possible changes with the business and sales staff, who rarely interacted. The sales staff feared loss of control and did not want to change their way of dealing with clients. Business support staff liked the way they entered client orders and did not want to go to any more effort than was required by the account system.

Alan told the sales staff that the technical specialist at Ring Experts had found a way to customize the accounting package to include extra fields so sales staff could input relevant sales data. He gave them a group training session explaining where to enter their sales details and print out the relevant information and reports. The sales staff refused to use the system on the grounds that it did not contain the required number of identification codes. Business support staff complained that it took them longer to enter invoice details owing to the way that the new fields had been set up. The problems continued...

Questions:

1. Assess Alan's method of implementing the new Administration system (CMS) in the above scenario? Explain the benefits and drawbacks of Alan's implementation strategy.

2. What type of implementation strategy or style would have been most suitable in this situation? Give reasons.

3. How could Alan have benefited by identifying a proper implementation strategy before going ahead with his implementation of the new Client Management System?

4. What Change management style did Alan's adopt to implement the new system? What factors should Alan consider to ensure that new systems are in accordance with the organization's requirements? How did he encourage staff members to take part in the implementation process?

5. Identify the major issues faced by Alan during the change and suggest the ways by which he could have overcome these issues. [Your discussion must be based on resistance to change and people's attitude and other HR issues etc]

6. As a responsible manager, what should Alan have done to ensure a more positive attitude towards the system by the Sales and Business staff? [Your discussion should focus on role of communication, consultation and teambuilding etc.]

7. Identify the different modes adopted by Alan to communicate during the implementation. Identify the other modes that could have been adopted by Alan to make the implementation more effective [team meeting etc].

8. Identify different Training Methods that would have been suitable in this case. List the importance, considerations and benefits of Training?

9. Identify the contingency faced by Ring Experts Inc at the time of implementation?

10. Identify other contingencies that the organization could face in future and mention their management (how to deal with). You may use a table to demonstrate this.