Case Study of Libra Information System (IS) Implementation\
Introduction
Today’s era is characterized as he information age in which people depend greatly on the faculty of information management technologies in order o perform duties and responsibilities as well as communicate with each other beyond the boundaries of time and geographic locations. Information technology systems improved the functionality of organizations in order to efficiently deliver products as well as services to the people thus, resulting to the progressive development of daily operations through the more productive input of staff and employees. Information technology has been recognized as the major catalyst of change and innovation and served as the vital connection between the digital electronics systems and the communication technologies. Electronic transformation initiatives have been also acknowledged as the foundation of information technology systems as it connects data, users, software, organizations and the environment where they exist.
The advances in technology and the fast modernization has enable commercial industries in the private sector to keep up with the inevitable changes that has been revolutionizing the way people do things. Organizations in the public sector have been likewise initiating change in delivering services to the people as new management approaches were utilized to reform the traditional civil service practices. Change in both the private and public sectors made it possible to meet the expectations of end-users as well as clients of different organizations. At present, most commercial firms and companies have been long using information technology systems while a number of government organizations and public agencies are beginning to initiate similar electronic transformation through the implementation and use of the Internet and the computerization of transactions and other organizational operations.
In this light, the discussion that follows presents the case of Libra Project as the new electronic case management system for the judicial courts of United Kingdom. The Libra Information Technology (IT) project was designed for the administration of the forty-three court magistrate committees in which a single computer system facility will be installed for the common use of the courts as well as the police offices. The project was outsourced to Fujitsu who was contracted for the installation of the computers as well as the transfer of the casework system of the judiciary of UK. However, criticisms were addressed to the Lord Chancellor’s Department regarding the improper contract management process that transpired between the government officers involved and ICL’ representatives as Fujitsu’s subsidiary. The presented discussions below include the reasons for the IT systems change within the judicial courts in UK, justification of increasing cost of the project, and the predominant reasons for it failure.
The Reasons for Change
Organizations operate in environments that are directly and indirectly influenced by conflicting demands from all the parties they are involved in such as the customers, the suppliers, the forms of authorities and the members of the personnel within the organization. Contradictory forces and competing demands highlights the initiatives of organizations to implement change and innovation along with the set performance goals envisioned by the organization. (1994) emphasized that the reasons behind most organizations’ initiative towards change include factors and considerations brought about by trends of globalization and the performance evaluation of the innovative capacity of organizations. Change in this regard was made evident through structural reforms among organizations, business transformation plans for sustainable long-term success, implementation of technological systems and infrastructures, and new customer and employee management approaches ( 1994).
Meanwhile, other experts believe that it is expected among organizations to continuously reform is business practices as well as management approaches to reflect the organizational setting and culture that characterize its surroundings. Since bench marking processes are continuously presented to set standards, organizations are usually confronted with decisions to innovate. In this regard, change serves as a major determinant of the success and failure among organizations ( 19996). As a result, organizations expand in terms of depth and scope, job descriptions are more defined, measure and systems of standards improve, and professional functions become highly distinguished. However, integration and transition states are unfortunately never simple procedures particularly when it involves intensive reforms and restructuring and when it involves a large organization.
In the case of the Libra information systems transformation, among the main reasons in launching change within the business processes of the judicial system include the objectives to increase the efficiency of the public services delivery through better automation systems, more rational and systematic approach of performing tasks and responsibilities, and the drive towards improved and reengineered business processes. The Libra project is the realization of the efficient functioning of UK’s criminal justice system because it was designed to add speed to the existing information management and handling of documents between and among the courts of the country as well as the police force archives. Other organizations from the civil society sector as well as other private and publicly funded agencies will likewise be able to access the authorized documents from the offices of the magistrates. Employees and staff of the judiciary are will also benefit from the advance casework system since their workloads will be performed moiré efficiently. All these efforts are in line with the improvement and development initiative of the criminal justice system to deliver better public services to the masses.
Growing Cost of the Libra Project
The Libra system is a commercial initiative that benefits from the funding of the UK government. Since the system caters to the technological infrastructure development of one of the government’s division, the payments for the costs incurred by the project were directly paid by the people’s tax contributions. The project, however, is highly being criticized for its increasing cost along with issues on the system’s completion. The agreement between the Lord Chancellor’s Department and Fujitsu for the execution of the project was originally worth £183m when signed in 1998. But after two years, a renegotiation between judiciary and Fujitsu Company underwent extending the completion of the project from eight years to twelve years. More importantly, the new agreement contained changes regarding the expected expenditures of the government for the project amounting to £319m.
At present, the contract is being implemented by both parties. Computer units were installed recently to some of the courts. But new issues arise regarding the feasibility of fully transferring the casework system to the new computers. Employees of the judicial system are now suing two computer units: the long-existing units for the casework activities of the organization and the new units for the Internet connection and Office Tools software. The employees and members of the judiciary are expected to use two computers for their daily transactions and operations for the next fifteen to eighteen months until such time that the casework system is transferred to the new units. The public sector has been alarmed to the new cost of the contract as members of the criminal justice system fail to recoup the costs enumerated by the contract. Furthermore, the magistrates are seeking ways to finish the contract to immediately realize the transfer of the case files among 400 courts as well as police stations, prison houses, probation service agencies and other organizations.
The blame is now being pointed to the negotiating magistrates due to the insufficient and limited financial models of investment appraisal used before signing the agreement. The contract is further being criticized for its failure to enumerate and identify the risks associated to the Libra project particularly the lack of realistic financial budget. Despite the chaos on the funding of the project, the magistrates, involved have addresses that the contracted company has submitted realistic accounts for the implementation of the electronic improvement for the criminal justice system. This has been the statement when issues arise regarding the payment of the software. According to Fujitsu, the judiciary will be responsible for the costs of the software installation which allegedly beyond the contents of the contract. But with the additional budget allotted by the public sector for the project, the magistrates were quick to point out that the cost of the software installation is included in the contract. Failure of Fujitsu to deliver such service, however, still entitles the company to more than half of the negotiated cost of the contract.
It is therefore evident that the financial problems of the Libra project are directly associated to the insufficient cost and risk analyses undertaken prior to the signing of the contract of agreement between the criminal justice system and Fujitsu. All the issues relevant to the immediate and efficient electronic transformation and upgrade of the casework system among the 400 magistrate courts, police headquarters, probation services agencies, and prisons reflects the lack of initiative between the involved parties to objectively assess and evaluate the feasibility of the Libra project. According to (2000) among the useful approaches towards the implementation of change within an organization is by looking at the project as problem solving situation, in which problems are identified first along with the enumeration of the objectives to provide feasible and realistic solution (2000). Such systematic approach will enable the involved organizations to diagnose the problem at hand anchored towards the achievement of a common goal, that is, to improve the information system management of the criminal justice system in order to provide better public services to the people.
Predominant Reasons for the Failure of the Libra Project
There are evident factors that contributed to the failure of the Libra project. Generally, both the organizations involved fall short in terms of identifying relevant considerations when it comes to information system project management and the importance of utilizing change management approaches to ensure that the project will be successful. Since information technology infrastructures will be needed for the completion of the project, the relevant factors that are directly and indirectly influence associated to proper project management handling should have been enumerated. Meanwhile, initiating within an organization should take into account the implications of the project to the individual member of the organization and its entirety highlighting the reassessment and evaluation of both the internal and external environment.
It is unmistakable that the design of the Libra project does not meet the criteria for standard project management handling. The parties involved were not able to assess fully the feasibility of the project in detail. This resulted to unforeseen conflicts and challenges during the execution of the project thereby resulting to increase in cost and lengthen project timeline. The magistrates and Fujitsu should have conducted independent feasibility studies in order to appraise the material as well as the non-material factors that could prove detrimental to the successful implementation and completion of the project. Both the internal and external environment of the criminal justice system as well as the other government organizations and agencies should have likewise consulted since they are likewise directly affected by the changes that will happen in the casework improvisation of the judiciary. At present, the Libra project is being confronted with issues and problems regarding the exact means of transferring the casework system of the organization in the midst of criticisms regarding the lack of feasible factors of its completion.
When it comes to data necessary the comprehensive appraisal of the Libra project, both the involved organizations were unable to foreseen the failure of the project due to inaccurate information that are crucial to the development of the system. Transparency between the criminal justice system magistrates and the contracting company, Fujitsu, have been criticized for the lack of proper data presentation in terms of the project’s feasibility, financial accounts as well as the individuals that will be held liable to the project. When the first contract agreement was signed, the criminal justice system evidently did not make efforts to evaluate the presented project design. Consultations should have been conducted through impartial organizations that will not benefit to whatever the result the project will turn into. Such lack of appropriate led to the poor decision making procedures that were evidently exhibited by the negotiating magistrates. Such incapacity resulted to the failure of the Libra project.
Excessive expenditures likewise contributed to the Libra project’s failure. The contract between the criminal justice system and Fujitsu lack details regarding the financial obligations of the parties involved. The contract merely stated the worth of the entire project but did not include the detailed description and breakdown of the funds allotted for the transfer of the casework system of the judiciary as well as the cost, tangible and intangible, that will be required for the comprehensive networking of the criminal justice system’s business process to other organizations identified in the project plan. As such considerations fall short when it comes to issues outside the judicial organization. The contract should have enumerated the breakdown of expenditures that will be needed for the entire coverage of the project’s stages and completion. Post-project assessment should have been likewise included in order to measure and assess the functionality of the project once it is completed.
When being presented with project plans, the members of the criminal justice system should have inquired as to how the project will proceed. This will enable the magistrates to understand the requirements needed for the completion of the Libra project thus facilitating risk analysis efforts and inquiries. The design of the project should have been firstly presented to the concerned parties for the overall evaluation of its feasibility. The breakdown or the pertinent stages of the casework system transfer would have made it possible to identify the conflicts that may arise at its every stage. The people that will be needed for the casework transfer in terms of labour units are important to realistically appraise the success of the planned information system infrastructure.
The public should have been consulted as end users of the planned casework system should have been consulted regarding their openness to such information system along with the agencies and organizations that will have link to the Libra project archives. This is because the success of the project does not merely rely on the completion of the casework transfer but is likewise grounded on its usefulness to the clientele of the entire criminal justice system. Such effort would have identified the degree of management support for the implementation effort. The level of complexity and the risk of the project implementation should have been also identified and evaluated along with the quality of the implementation process. This would have contributed to the successful completion and functionality of the Libra project.
Conclusion & Recommendations
The success of organizations from both the private and public sectors are greatly dependent on the management capability to strategically handle the operations. Operations of a particular business organization meanwhile are grounded on the efficient business processes which consists the employees and the staff’s efficient attendance to their tasks and responsibilities. The current organization environment among is being challenged with the continuous innovation in information technologies and infrastructures in the hope of delivering products and services better to the people. In this light, organizations are regularly faced with developmental objectives in order to keep up with the rest of the world brought about by globalization trends.
The case of the Libra project serves as a precaution among organizations who wish to extend their operations through organizational development approaches realizable in the utilization of information systems. Despite the promise of the new innovations of systematic information management strategies that are available to organizations in both the public and private domain, projects that aim to foster improved business process should be taken in caution. As was presented in the case, the criminal justice system was unable to deliver the project as earlier designed and within the allotted budget due to shortcomings that could have been avoided if proper measures were undertaken by both the involved parties.
It is therefore recommended and highly advised that the entire Libra project be reviewed in order to come up with detailed assessment of its failure. Factors that contributed to its failure should be determined. The financial cost of the project should be audited and the contract with Fujitsu be terminated upon delivering the company’s accountabilities to the project. A new contract between the criminal justice system and another information and electronic service provider should be made after full evaluation of the feasibility of the electronic transfer of the casework system. Risk analyses should likewise be applied in order to foresee the possible conflicts that may arise during the completion of the project. All the involved members of the organizations that will be linked through the Libra project should be involved in the decision-making procedures that will be made. Moreover, the functionality and openness of the public to such technological innovation within the civil service domain should be assessed in order to determine if full cooperation is possible.
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