Clarion School for Boys, Inc., the Milwaukee Case Study

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Clarion School for Boys, Inc., the Milwaukee Division. Before looking into some of the issues that are described here and that Controller John Young faces, one needs to look a bit into the importance of information systems at Clarion. Information systems is seen at Clarion as a way to maximize workforce productivity and efficiency. However, improving the information system base required investments in software and hardware, something that the Clarion decision makers were reluctant to do unless these investments were associated to clear resulting revenues.

Nevertheless, a new computer and its software were purchased, in 1998, with the purpose to increase staff efficiency through electronic communications and storage of documents. Subsequently, 60 personal computers were added and several other changes were undertaken, including purchasing laptops and introducing the Internet. A formal evaluation was decided in 2005, to better understand needs and requirements, though questions that were addressed to the staff. This evaluation included both external consultants and interviews with the staff.

The conclusions were very interesting in terms of emphasizing some of the problems that the information system had at Clarion. First of all, there was a psychological lack of acceptance of the system by many on the staff. Even if some had understood the necessities of using the system, they were reluctant to do so. There were many reasons for this, but, primarily, they related to the fact that few were consulted when the initial decision to implement the system was made and, as a consequence, they felt left out of the new technological framework, with little will to adopt it. Another reason is that it is difficult to change the way some things are done: if the bookkeeper is used to keeping the books in a traditional manner, it will be hard to make him switch to a computer-based approach.

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This partly led to a training issue. Throughout the case study, there is no reference to a formal training that the staff may have received at any time. Some of the software, like accounting software, is very specialized: the user needs some sort of formal training to be able to use it, otherwise, he or she will just revert to the traditional way of keeping the books. This lack of training is reflected in other areas as well: for example, the dictating software is appreciated, but it requires a secretary that knows how to use it.

One problem that both the external consultants and the interviewed members of staff reported was the fact that the users sometimes overlapped, meaning that some could not reach a computer….....

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