New IT systems application and implementation

New it Systems Application in China

Analysis of New it Systems Deployments in China vs. North America

The key success factors for any Information Technologies (it) deployment center on change management and the many supporting aspects of getting those employees most affected by the system to use it. Often this involves change management programs that include top management support, project team definition and execution of strategies, in-depth process change and pervasive depth of education (Woo, 2007). These key success factors are critical for any it system, yet when evaluating the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), these factors are accentuated when comparing deployments between China and North America.

Analysis of Key Success Factors for Deploying a new ERP Application

When deploying an it application the most critical success factors begin with senior management supported, following by intensive change management strategies and expertise in ensuring system integration across legacy enterprise applications and databases (Chao, 2009). In rapidly emerging economies that have a wide variation in the quality of infrastructure, attaining each of these key success factors can be problematic. In China for example, gaining the necessary expertise to plan, execute and continually lead change management programs across the multiple dialects and cultures often make this the most expensive and time-consuming task of any it implementation (Zhang, Lee, Huang, Zhang, Huang, 2005). The development of educational and training materials for any it application and system, with the greater complexity of an ERP system, require expertise in each Chinese dialect in addition to insights into how processes may have to vary by production or company location in China (Zhang, Lee, Huang, Zhang, Huang, 2005). All of these factors need to be taken into account in creating just the change management and educational programs to support any it application, with ERP systems providing even greater challenges and complexities in China. Compared to North America where dialects are relatively consistent and the entire country is standardized on English, the task of creating change management and education for each Chinese province a company is operating in can be daunting (Xue, Liang, Boulton, Snyder, 2005).

In addition to these factors, the most challenging aspects of implementing a new it application in China include gaining the cooperation of government organizations for creating a distributed pricing and financial reporting system that spans across their provinces (Zhang, Lee, Huang, Zhang, Huang, 2005). It is common knowledge that American and western multinationals are often challenged by the Chinese government to provide a greater level of visibility into their financial data, especially when the it architectures they are using required a highly distributed architecture (Zhang, Lee, Huang, Zhang, Huang, 2005). Diverse, sophisticated and analytics-intensive enterprise systems that have the ability to manage pricing and financial data with greater agility than the Chinese government is a cause for concern of the ruling party there, as Wal-Mart has learned with the accusation leveled at them recently regarding price "fixing" when they created a distributed supply chain network. When creating a distributed network in China, the need for creating a strong, transparent yet distanced alliance with the Chinese government to ensure continued operation of the network and it enterprise application (Zhang, Lee, Huang, Zhang, Huang, 2005).