Costis Toregas Business Process Reengineering Subscribe to Newsletter Tell a Friend Print this Page 06/19/2007 Orgware and Its Role in ReEngineering Orgware as a term entered the governmental management vocabulary in the late 70’s when it became obvious that buying a computer and installing software did not guarantee success for a government IT project… In my own experience over the decades, technology projects are remarkably stable in terms of their cost components. Once all costs are truthfully accounted for, about 5% of any effort is directly tied to hardware, and about 15% to software. The surprisingly high remainder of 80% of total overall costs can be attributed to a whole host of organizational issues- hence the term Orgware!. Here is a partial list I have seen in the many technology deployment projects I have overseen or assisted- I am sure you can add many more! Ø A sense of insecurity with change that can lead to an explicit or covert delay strategy. Ø A desire to "stay in control" fans a refusal to collaborate in project team meetings, leading to costly change orders to accommodate needs previously not articulated. Ø A desire to keep information within a single department creates an artificial technology barrier and prohibits interoperability solutions based on simple “I don’t want to!” implicit policies. Ø Lack of training resources leads to staff who are confused and unable to use new systems while clinging to old systems causing confusion, duplication of effort and increased costs. Ø Vision of project success is not shared by all, creating multiple sub-projects each leading to different outcomes; this may be encouraged by external technology vendors as it provides direct customer satisfaction in each sub agency of the government. Ø … and on and on. Compounding this organizational upheaval during re-engineering projects is the fact that such projects are usually led by technology staff who may understand the hardware and software challenges, but may not have the skill sets required to mediate and find good solutions in the emotional and psychological mine field of the users and their fears and concerns. Collaboration, creating a unified vision, communicating impact and offering alternate paths to an objective are all tools which can be immensely helpful to a governmental manager during re-engineering time.   The 80% Orgware cost ratio is an eye opener for many people, but once fully described, most find it accurate and appropriate. What does Orgware ultimately mean? Government leaders who are interested in effectively applying the power of technologies such as broadband wireless and varied software applications should spend 4 times as much time looking at the personnel issues, emotional upheavals and process change difficulties inherent in Orgware costs rather than the Hardware and Software specifications and negotiations which currently occupy the vast majority of their agendas. Instead of turning over projects to the technical experts, they should look to people with strong interpersonal skills and those who understand the power of tradition and the promise of change.     How do you stack on this time investment scale, oh reader? Let’s hear from you, and let me hear of projects which reflect this overwhelming importance of Orgware! Conversely, if your experiences are different, it would be useful to hear them as well, and to balance the perspective of organizational imperative with that of technological know how and predictable progress.   In my next column, I will dig deeper in this arena and see how we can tie new, creative strategies to the efforts to re-engineer processes and let technology effectively help our governments strengthen their programs and services.   Costis Toregas is President Emeritus, Public Technology Institute, and a lecturer at George Washington University. He chairs the Business Processes reengineering Roundtable at the W2i Digital Cities Convention. back Related Items: • Groningen • W2i Finalizes Program Agenda for Digital Cities Convention in Washington, DC • City Services Drive Network in St. Louis • New-Technology Rollouts: Avoid Putting Lipstick on the Pig! • Doug Townsend, IT Director, Medford (OR) - Part 2 Comments No records were found. Post new comment: Only registered users can add comments. Please Log-in

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