Product details

This is the second of a two-case series (904-007-1 and 904-008-1). Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) has recently finished an implementation of finance and human resources IT, and is now working on two IT fronts: (a) more back office IT implementations, such as payroll; and (b) a shift of focus to the citizen-facing IT for e-government in collaboration with other government organisations in the county. What lessons can CCC draw from its past experience? What are the key issues it faces ahead and how can they handle them? The case recounts the successful in-house implementation of an enterprise resource planning system at CCC. It discusses the key implementation steps for this back office IT, and draws some success factors and best practices. Key managerial issues arising during large IT implementations within an organisation are discussed. Case (B) then focuses on IT that spans the organisational boundaries of CCC: this implementation requires the co-ordination of many government organisations. The case recounts the steps CCC is taking towards implementing a citizen-facing call centre and portal in collaboration with many other organisations in the county. The case can be used in MBA or executive education classes to discuss some or all of the following issues: (1) managerial issues during large IT implementations; (2) an example of how a local government tries to reach the e-government targets set by the central government; and (3) managerial issues during implementing IT that spans organisational boundaries and requires the co- ordination of many independent (and often competing) organisations.