A MANAGEMENT MODEL FOR THE SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF AN INTEGRATED REFINERY INFORMATION SYSTEM

Abstract

Information management plays an increasingly important role in businesses today. This role is to support the business objectives through optimised work processes and improved information availability to support faster decision-making. Information systems were initially developed as isolated applications focussed on a specific function or business process. New business needs however requires a more integrated approach. Integrating information systems can be a costly process requiring large amounts of capital. The process of information systems development and implementation has been studied by various researchers. Many companies however do not apply these research results and the development and implementation of information systems are often late and exceed the budgets allocated to these projects. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the process of information systems development and implementation, and to recommend a practical process for information systems development and implementation for relatively small organisations. A theoretical overview is presented of the strategic processes involved in information systems development. General project management and various theoretical models for information systems development are presented. The application of the principles from the theoretical overview are tested by means of a case study on an integrated refinery information system (IRIS) that was recently implemented at the Natref refinery in Sasolburg.This is done by means of an empirical study that focuses on the project execution and change management aspects during the development and implementation of the IRIS project. A questionnaire was developed for each of these focus areas. The response rate for the project execution questionnaire was 87.5% and the response rate for the change management questionnaire was 84.6%. The main conclusions from the dissertation (based on the literature study and the empirical study) are as follows: • A high level of strategic importance was given to information systems at Natref during 1997; • Information systems planning was done well in the beginning of the IRIS project; • There was a general lack of management support during the execution if the IRIS project;• The organisational design was not changed to support the implementation of the IRIS project or its associated changes in business processes; • End user participation were not sufficient, leading to possible end user resistance during the implementation of the IRIS project; • Sufficient effort went into the evaluation of hardware needed for the implementation of the IRIS project; • Software selected during the development and implementation of the IRIS project was well considered; and • Information systems services were considered fairly well during the IRIS project. Recommendations were made based on the conclusions. The main recommendation is an information systems development and implementation model that can be used in practise by relatively small businesses. Proposals were also made regarding the facilitation of the strategic management of information systems and the change management process. Large businesses could also benefit from some of the recommendations.