Appropriate technology has become a well understood concept within disciplines such as building construction and agriculture, but it is still given little more than lip service within the general ICT arena. Appropriate IT (AIT) primarily affects two areas of business - 'appropriate' as it relates to use within a company, and 'appropriate' as it relates to a company's offerings.
Although the underlying aim of this series of Industry Insights is to highlight issues of taking IT services and offerings into Africa as a whole, it would be appropriate in this first Industry Insight to look inwards, to how AIT can internally benefit the company.
Internally, a lack of understanding of AIT leads to overspending or miss-spending on IT and to waste resulting from underutilisation of systems. Acquisition is often driven by a desire to use only the latest and best IT, based either on a perception that this automatically leads to business efficiencies, or because of persuasion by a well-meaning IT department or good salespeople that this is an entirely necessary acquisition or upgrade.
Look before you leap
Before taking the plunge, one should take the time to really understand the actual requirements of the company, and then to have a clear vision of where this IT will take it and what will be needed a few years down the line.
Appropriateness is not an easily defined, out-of-the-box concept, list or model, but is very specific to every situation or environment. Within a company, it needs careful consideration if its application is to have the desired effect of improving workplace efficiency and eliminating IT miss-spend. Too often (and this seems to be a trend in large or bureaucratic organisations), systems are acquired and implemented only to meet with huge user resistance or underutilisation. The former may lead to a need to 'enforce' system use at the expense of harmony in the workplace - the latter will simply mean a lot of money wasted.
Very often, the defined new IT is optimal, but the change management fails. AIT should actually start with asking users at all levels: "What can make your life easier?" and then discussing with them the implications of implementing an IT solution to achieve this improvement.
Too frequently, the change has a serious impact on embedded working procedures, and requires the capture of large amounts of data, and the current staff - who are most impacted by the change - are expected to still keep up with the day-to-day workload.
Rip and replace
Perception management is often downplayed as a component of change management - people think they are being replaced or monitored by these systems and so set out to prove that the system cannot work, and often actively make sure it doesn't. What is needed is close interaction with the end-user, a spelling out of the benefits to the user (not just to the company), and honesty in cases where there will be no short-term benefits to the user. This should be common sense for any implementation.
AIT says a company should ensure that what is decided on is appropriate, as this has a greater chance of successful implementation. A company must not chase the better IT at the expense of good enough, if the downside in the overall business environment is greater than the perceived upside.
There are some keys to getting this good enough balance right, and I will highlight these in subsequent articles. At this stage, I would like to emphasise that in my own experience, and this has mainly - but not entirely - been with implementations in government environments, the greatest waste has resulted from not taking end-user perspectives into account.
Appropriateness, in my book, is more about what will work for the user than what is the best technology.
This does not mean the best or better is of necessity or not appropriate, because it may well be, but then better IT is also not always more appropriate or cost-effective. It also does not mean that appropriate always has a lower initial outlay, but, properly done, it should result in maximum bang for your buck, because it meets actual needs and so will be fully utilised.
IT companies know (or should know) all of this, yet I am confronted by the reality that the IT industry tends to push the 'better' or 'has more functions', rather than focusing on what will actually work for the company.
In the next Industry Insight, I will shift the focus outward to the company's product offering, and specifically focus on the dimensions of AIT in the context of the expanding and very diverse African market.
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