Software Technology in an Organization

The analysis in this chapter will be done in categories based on the interview scenario which will be narrated and also on responses corresponding with research questions. In other words, there will be a narrative of the interview process and also, the responses of the participants will be analyzed in relation to which of the research questions proposed in this study that they address. Next, the vendor description of the software and its capacity to work will be reflected on vis-a- vis the evaluation/assessment of the users about the technology.
Narrative Chronology

The interview started with the project manager who has been working with the organization since 2011. He explained that they use Skype and a communicator within the ‘continulink’ software currently in use. In his own statements he explains that the ‘continulink’ was tailored to the specific needs of the organization but they factored in cost management and return on investment before committing to purchasing the software technology. He also noted that one of the factors that encouraged them to adopt ‘continulink’ was because it is web-based and more reliable and flexible as long as there is internet connectivity.
On another note, the project manager claims that quality of service delivery plays a key role because of competition and also because the healthcare industry is a highly regulated industry and to avoid losing clients, quality of care becomes important. However, he adds that the return on investment is also very important because according to him “you need something to roll the wheel.” This gives the first impression that quality of service delivery is considered not because it is regarded as most important to the mission of the organization but because it is required to keep the clients coming for the sake of the organization’s survival. In terms of benefits, the project manager claims that it is beginning to reap its benefits and has reduced manpower a bit even though the CEO negates this claim in her own statements later.
In reference to the question of how the decision is made in adopting a software technology or not, the intake coordinator at first stated that she was not part of the decision. On second thought, the intake coordinator re-stated that though her opinion was sought and she told them what they needed for their job and what suited their purposes the most, the final decision was not made solely based on her opinions. From this point of view, it is obvious that though the opinions of stakeholders (actual users of the technology interface) were sought, their opinions did not ultimately matter because at the end the decision was made based on cost convenience.
The scheduling coordinator as well declined to speak straight on how the decision to finally adopt ‘continulink’ was made and she also tactfully disengaged herself from the question.
Next was the office manager who on her own part felt that the software technology in use, ‘continulink’, was perfect because as far as she was concerned, it fits for her own job. She stated however that she was not sure if fits perfectly for other employees’ jobs “whether it is good or bad” but it suits her own tasks perfectly. On the issue of how the decision to adopt the software was made, she declined making any statement and also claimed not to know if at all the use of ‘continulink’ has improved the profit margin of the organization yet. From her tone and decision to avoid some questions while she responded to other questions, it is evident that the office manager was simply trying to avoid making statements of fact that may be revealing.
Instead she chose to simply accept the technology since according to her it is at least better than the previous technology they had. But she made a contradicting statement when she said she gave the new technology ‘continulink’ a rating of 8 on a scale of 1–10. Why did she give an 8 rating when she initially said she considered ‘continulink’ perfect for her job? Why not a full rating of 10/10? To this question, she said it is because she believes there should be some improvement still. This brings us to infer that in every sense of the truth, the office manager as well would have preferred a better technology though the difference that ‘continulink’ makes compared to the previous technology they had seems to be a huge one. But one notable contradiction is that the CEO seems not to see any fault or shortcoming with ‘continulink’ in all her statements. And this does not substantiate the opinions of other employees who feel there are things to be improved. This suggests that the improvements ‘continulink’ needs are probably already integrated in the second but more expensive software that was not adopted. This is an assumption.
In the interview with the scheduling coordinator, she claimed she didn’t have a lot of problems with the software even though there are identified problems. In other words, there are certain problems. She explained that there are certain things that need to be tweaked with ‘continulink’. She started a statement which on second thought she left unfinished saying, “if I had my own company….” Apparently, she was going to make a statement to probably suggest that she would have preferred a better software (maybe the more expensive but more robust one) judging from the fact that she just stated that ‘continulink’ has some issues with it.
From her own end, the CEO stated that in terms of how the decision to adopt ‘continulink’ was made, they all listened to about 16 demos of different software technologies and after evaluations, they narrowed their selection down to two main ones. But ultimately the decision to eventually adopt ‘continulink’ instead of the second one was made by her and the CFO because ‘continulink’ was the cheaper alternative. Even though the other technology was more robust and preferred by the other employees whose opinions were sought, it was more expensive as well. We may understand that the decision to adopt a less expensive option was made on the premise of the desire for immediate yields and the long term benefits of the more robust though more expensive technology was not considered which I think would have turned out cheaper in the long run. I suppose that adopting the more expensive technology would have turned out cheaper in the long run because I believe that since it offers more in terms of capacity and flexibility, it would have enhanced the performance base of the organization and influenced the organization’s growth and customer base attraction as well. This might take some years before the results are evidently significant but it would have been worth the wait after all.
The CEO also claimed (contrary to the claims of the project manager) that they are not seeing any yields that the adoption of ‘continulink’ has brought so far because according to her, she anticipated that the adoption of ‘continulink’ will help to reduce manpower and costs (payroll costs). Instead, the adoption of ‘continulink’ propelled them to hire more people for the IT department to manage the software which according to her is not a plus. In fact, she regards the continued need for a project manager as not necessary if the technology was as robust as anticipated.