Case study 1

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Case Study 1

After Stephen Walsh was appointed the CEO of Providian Trust he was confronted with a rare corporate conflict that required his intervention. According to McFarlan and Dailey (1997), the company's trust division was on the brink of operational paralysis due to the difference in opinion between the leaders of information technology (IT) project and the internal auditor, Peter Storey. By 1995, the conflict had reached its optimal point as depicted by the request of the committee members to have internal auditor removed from his position. The purpose of this essay is to use this case study on the Providian Trust to answer the following questions.

Question 1

            The Trust Division at Providian Trust Company was facing the challenge of operational inefficiency due to the use of outdated information system. Before, being dismissed the former CEO felt it was imperative that the company improved its information management systems by acquiring a more reliable and efficient system using the Access Plus. McFarlan and Dailey (1997) determined that these critical issues and challenges prompted the top executives at Providian Trust Company to set aside an $18 million budget for the implementation of a new IT project. The company believed that the acquisition of an up-to-date IT system would improve service delivery. 

            By 1993, Providian Trust was among the largest provider that was managing over $45 billion in trust assets with a network of 216 offices; even so, the company was not profitable. This situation was credited to the inability of Providian Trust to keep up with the improvement in technology and other services. The increased competitive pressures and customer demands force companies to initiate drives that would result in the improved provision of quality trust services (Hirschheim & Sabherwal, 2001). The company felt to gain profitability then it was imperative that it redesigned the business processes in the trust division through the implementation of new software.

Question 2

The success of the implementation of the Access Plus project at Providian Trust was affected by the failure to consider certain organizational factors. For example, the project leader Michael LeBlanc, as well as other project leaders, did not possess adequate fundamental skills in project management. The implementation of a new information system was an initiative project of change. Due to the lack of sufficient experience in project management, Michael LeBlanc failed to evaluate the problem at hand before the onset of the implementation process (McFarlan & Dailey, 1997). This led to his failure to create a sense of urgency concerning the usefulness and the need for the new IT system at Providian Trust.

Besides, during the formulation of the change initiative team, the steering committee failed to incorporate the services and the input of the 240 IT specialists at the company (McFarlan & Dailey, 1997). This situation probed the standing of the change initiative team considering the team was already missing the services and input of the IT personnel from the company. The failure of Michael LeBlanc to communicate how the company stood to gain from the implementation of the new system resulted in the staff failing to invest their efforts into the process.

Question 3

The biggest...