Developing and Implementing Is: A Case Study Analysis in Social Services

Abstract

Many organizations fail to implement or reap the benefits of information systems (IS) projects. The social care sector is not yet a great user of information technology (IT) and the thinking about IS is generally less well-developed than, for instance, in the health care sector. Research in health informatics indicates that there are special problems in creating integrated solutions and achieving the uptake of systems. This project was therefore undertaken with the benefit of experience of previous projects in health and social services and in the expectation that attention to participative design and people factors would be the key determinants of success. The paper describes the outcomes and draws conclusions about the special characteristics of IS projects in social services.

IT adoption in social care: A study of the factors that mediate technology adoption

“…Riley and Smith’s ( ) study of IS development and implementation in social services is the first of few studies relating to the use of technology in the social care sector in England. Later studies examined the impact of technology on unskilled work (Munro & Rainbird, ) and the relationship between technology and medical practice (Heath et al, ) and managing mobile provision for community healthcare support (Fitch & Adams, ).…”

“…Pelletier ( ) identified a lack of IT literacy as a barrier to technology use and Barnard and Gerber ( ) recognized that different skills are required by professionals to use technology. Rhodes ( ) noted that recruitment practice and documentation in the social care did not reflect the importance of IT and information management skills and this may partially explain why Riley and Smith ( ) found that there was a general lack of enthusiasm to use computers within this sector.

H3 : Effort Expectancy will have a significant influence on intention .

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“…The few examples include the Brandon Trust reviewing and evaluating its business IS (Stair & Reynolds, 2006). Riley and Smith (1997) commented that the social care sector had not been a great user of IT and its application was generally less well developed than in the rest of the health care sector. They state that social care organizations did not start to use IT until fairly late and that this change was largely due to the recommendations of the Griffiths (1988) report on Community Care that opened up the provision of social care to the free market and therefore to more technologically mature care providers.…”

“…Gaining and sustaining commitment to new methods of working are problems that are often associated with the introduction of IS (Chaffey & White, 2010;Riley & Smith, 1997). These problems are particularly evident in health and social care environments due to a lack of enthusiasm to use computers, a perception that investment in IT removes resources from service users and the purpose for introducing systems not being communicated effectively (Riley & Smith, 1997).…”

“…Gaining and sustaining commitment to new methods of working are problems that are often associated with the introduction of IS (Chaffey & White, 2010;Riley & Smith, 1997). These problems are particularly evident in health and social care environments due to a lack of enthusiasm to use computers, a perception that investment in IT removes resources from service users and the purpose for introducing systems not being communicated effectively (Riley & Smith, 1997). IT deployment and usage are often regarded as a burden that interferes with their core missions and diverts precious resources from those in need in order to satisfy bureaucratic requirements (Petrakaki et al, 2012;Zhang & Gutierrez, 2007).…”