Critical Success Factors in Diffusing a Campus Wide Information System

Introduction

During the last three years, the University of Melbourne has invested in an extensive network infrastructure that interconnects all campus mainframe computers, super computers, workstations on individual desks and student laboratories. The University is also host to both the regional and national hubs of the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet) which is connected to the Internet thus providing access to national and international computer resources.

Although there were powerful computers and local and wide area networks in place, communication among these most advanced and powerful computers was often limited as they did not conform to one kind of operating system with one set of applications.

In an attempt to capitalise on the expensive computer and network infrastructure, and making the benefits of those facilities universally available, the University embarked on the introduction of a Campus Wide Information System (CWIS) based on World Wide Web (WWW) technology. A CWIS integrates all information services on a campus through a common user interface. It provides staff and students easy access to information that resides on computers on campus and computers throughout the world. There was already a large body of WWW knowledge available on the Internet at other institutions that would become available to users of this technology.

A Model for CWIS Diffusion

A diffusion model model was developed, derived from the CWIS diffusion at other universities and general innovations literature. The model was based mainly on the Rogers (1983) framework for determining "rate of adoption" of innovations. The dependent variable in the model is cumulative adoption at a point in time. This measure expressed as percentage, indicates a market share of adopters at a given time.

Figure 1: A Model for the Diffusion of CWIS

The model shows "cumulative adoption", which represents the cumulative frequency or total number of adopters over the study period May to December 1994, as a dependent variable in the diffusion process. The diffusion is defined as a process by which an innovation is communicated, through certain communication channels over time, among the members of a social system (Rogers, 1983). The five key elements of the diffusion process are: the innovation, communication channels, time, the social system and special roles. The key elements in the context of the study are:

Generic Elements           Study Context                                         
Innovation                 The Campus Wide Information System based on World     
                           Wide Web technology for accessing and publishing      
                           electronic information.                               
Communication Channels     Support offered such as on-line help,                 
                           documentation, courses and newsletters.               
Time                       The time period of CWIS adoption under study was      
                           May to December 1994.                                 
Social System              The University of Melbourne campus.                   
Special Roles              Lead users and product champions in University        
                           departments.                                          

A research project that looked closely at the first ten departments adopting the use of CWIS, set out to test if Critical Success Factors in diffusing innovations, identified in the literature and at other universities played key roles in diffusing the CWIS in this University. It also set out to identify Critical Success Factors that were unique to this institution.

The research project provided answers to the following questions based on the research findings in the ten departents:

• How is the CWIS technology diffused at the University?
• What factors contributed to successful adoption at the University?
• What recommendations would enhance the diffusion strategy?
• What are the benefits obtained from the CWIS?

How is the CWIS Technology Diffused at this University?

The Innovation

The CWIS project started by setting up a Steering Committee with representatives from four of the twelve academic faculties in the University, the Library and Information Technology staff. Those invited to participate were mainly lead users, who had already some relevant expertise, or were recognised as stakeholders who could benefit largely from the use of the new technology.

After a three month pilot, that trialed the various hardware and software options for both clients and servers, the central project implementation group established a set of guidelines for using CWIS in this institution, compatible with other systems and the University network.

The project group recommended a distributed model, in which each department was encouraged to setup their own server and take full responsibility for its continuos maintenance and update. A central home page directory was setup, pointing at all individual departmental servers. Alternatively, departments could setup their server on a central mainframe computer, thus saving the hardware costs associated with dedicating a workstation to the CWIS project.

The relative advantage attribute of the innovation, emerged as the most important of the Critical Success Factors associated with the characteristic of the innovation. Although some departments identified the low IT skills of some academic staff as a barrier for adoption, and therefore a degree of complexity in the new technology, in the long run they managed to overcome this difficulty. In the final analysis of departments against criteria measures for successful adoption, the departments that recognised the low skills as barrier found solutions to this problem and rated highly in the ranking order. On the other hand, the department that had very high IT skills but did not see a clear advantage in adopting, ranked last.

The department that did not see a clear relative advantage, didn't have full commitment from the head of the department. Many other departments reported success in obtaining commitment from the leader, when clear benefits were demonstrated in trial/pilot projects.

It is interesting to note that the relative advantage perceived, varied between the ten departments, as they were using the new technology for different purposes. Some used CWIS to communicate with their existing students. Others used it to project a high research profile to other institutions and industry. Service departments used it to provide information to their staff and student customers. One department concentrated on accessing the existing knowledge base at other sites. Most academic departments were trying to reach potential students in Australia and overseas.

Communication Channels

The interpersonal communication channels were most effective in this University. In response to newsletter articles, some people requested more information. However, most departments adopted following interpersonal contact with the central CWIS implementation group.

This group approached each of the twelve faculties individually through their Local IT Experts and Local Area Network Administrators and offered help, in setting up a CWIS server and publishing the first document. When a local publication was completed, the central CWIS group offered a demonstration to the faculty and all stakeholders in the faculty were invited.

Continuous support was offered via CWIS publications and short courses. Generic templates were developed for common publications to many departments. This was an efficient way to provide support to many and reduce duplication of effort. Ongoing individual support was not encouraged, but all individual questions were answered promptly, provided they were directed to the group via one person in the faculty. Those trained by the central group, were expected to support other people in their departments.

Non of the interviewees admitted that imitation played a role. However, they were all monitoring each others servers and occasionally admitted to trying to produce a superior product to some of their peers. Some of the adopters were also closely monitoring servers in their discipline at other sites.

Special Roles

All ten departments had lead users who could see the benefits the new technology offered. Most of these lead users turned product champions and became the driving force behind the CWIS project in their departments. In all ten departments, the leader supported the project, after lead users demonstrated clear benefits of the new technology. The low cost involved in adopting, since the software was free, helped obtaining quick support from leaders.

The level of success of these product champions in the implementation of CWIS, varied with the amount of time they had to dedicate to the project, and their power and influence, in the department. Those who had more power and influence, managed to delegate the implementation work. Other champions, had to do all the implementation work on their own and the outcome depended on their other work commitments.

The only product champion that was fully dedicated to the project was in department J, which ranked highest on the criteria measures for successful adoption. Department B, who ranked second, outsourced the task by employing a postgraduate student, who was dedicated to the project for a few months. When the structure was established in department B and the required skills were acquired and documented, the department moved to a distributed model of responsibilities among staff members. In department A, ranking third, the product champion developed a special program that allowed all academics to publish, without having to learn electronic publishing skills. In department D, which ranked last, the product champion had many other technical tasks and commitments. He had low positional power in the department, being a technical staff member in an academic department and therefore could not delegate tasks to others.

In summary, the product champions success depended on:

• the time they had to work directly on the project or
• the power and influence they had in the department to delegate

Responsibility For Publishing

In the departments that ranked highly, the product champion was responsible for publishing. In the three highest ranking departments, the initial publishing while mastering the learning curve, was done by one person. This reliance on one individual was unsustainable. Departments that relied totally on one person for the project development, often learned the hard way that loosing that person meant a major set-back to the project. In most cases, departments could not afford a position that was totally dedicated to publishing. They also found that the wide range of documents that needed publishing, required a wide range of expertise that was hard to find in one person. A team with cross functional expertise, seemed to provide a good balanced solution for the publication role.

What Factors Contributed to Successful Adoption?

When departments were asked to identify what was critical to their adoption of CWIS, all ten departments nominated their product champion, who drove the project through all the critical steps of the implementation process. Seven of the ten departments, identified the support of their leader as having played a major role.

The common success factors in adopting, in the three most successful departments were:

• Having lead users that perceived a major benefit in adopting who turned product champions, that were driving the project.
• Recognising that those with limited IT skills may find publishing complex and address the problem.
• Product champions that mastered the publishing skills initially or outsourced publishing until the learning curve was mastered and the project was institutionalised.
• Leader's support and long term commitment to the project was obtained, by demonstrating the benefits it offered through pilot publications.

Top-Down Approach

Additional success factors not identified by the ten departments but played a major role in the diffusion process were the proactive support of the head of the department of Information Technology, central publication of important University documents and templates of generic solutions to common documents in departments.

The head of Information Technology demonstrated some early achievements to the Vice Chancellor and his deputies. Their awareness and interest in the project provided the top-down pressure on heads of departments to support the project. This gave the project the legitimacy and full acceptance into the everyday operation of the institution.

Central CWIS Implementation Group

Important University documents were initially published by the central CWIS implementation group in Information Technology. Documents such as all Faculty Handbooks, Council Minutes, the Finance and Accounting Procedure Guide, the Personnel Procedure Guide, examination time tables for students, the Research Report of the University and others. These documents were published centrally with the view of demonstrating the product benefits to a wide cross section of stakeholders. Continuous update and maintenance responsibilities were passed on the departments responsible for generating these documents and through this process these departments adopted CWIS.

Where possible generic publishing solutions were developed for documents of common interest to many departments. This process was very effective in eliminating duplication of effort and creating documents that had a similar look and feel to the customers, making them easier to use. These generic solutions helped some of the slower departments to adopt. Successful adopters also appreciated the generic solutions. Some of the published products of advanced departments were the basis for generic structures and were offered to all other departments. This collaborative effort, if co-ordinated effectively can become a major key to the success of the institution as a whole.

4.3 Barriers to Success

Some of the barriers for success were:

• Departments that relied on the product champion alone for too long and lost the product champion, suffered a setback in the project development. The project has to be institutionalised as early as possible.
• Although low IT skill levels may be a barrier for adoption, if the problem is identified, it can be overcome and the department can become a successful adopter.
• The department that had the highest level of IT skills ranked last. The relative advantage to this department was low. A busy and not very powerful product champion could not delegate the work. Since the head of the department did not make a long term commitment to the project, nobody perceived it as high priority and very little work was done.

Implementation Plan for Diffusing a CWIS

Based on the Critical success factors identified a proposed CWIS implementation plan follows:

What Recommendations Would Enhance the Diffusion Strategy?

Some of the difficulties encountered during the CWIS implementation, need addressing, in order to enhance future strategies for diffusing innovations in this University.

• Improving the general IT skill level of academic staff
  The University has a very successful IT Training program. Since 1991, over 8,000 staff and postgraduate students attended these courses. However, as some of the ten departments in this research project found, some academics have very limited IT skills limited to basic use of word processing and electronic mail. Since generating electronic documents is easier if word processed documents are well structured and styled, advanced word processing skills would be very useful and desirable for all academics.
  According to some of the people interviewed many academics prefer learning new IT skills at their desk, rather than attending additional courses. To try and address this problem, the University purchased a suite of Computer Based Training (CBT) programs and made them available on the network. Staff members can take these programs home and run them on their own computers as well.
• A dedicated implementation group to each new innovation
  An institution that values innovation and wants to encourage creativity, has to provide the resources to support innovative projects. Although, all heads of departments supported the CWIS project in principle, very few made funds available for additional staff.
  The central CWIS implementation group have taken on CWIS in addition to a very busy schedule of other responsibilities, having to work on the project in their own time. Only six months after the project commenced and had some demonstrated achievements, two staff members were hired to complement the project group. Many individual departments adopting experienced similar difficulties. It is mainly due to the commitment and diligence of the product champions that were willing to contribute their own time, that many departmental servers were set up.
  To encourage innovation an organisation must allow some slack resources or be willing to take some risks and allocate resources to new ideas at an early stage. Espoused support that is not backed up by allocation of resources is not enough incentive to adopt, except for those that are most enthusiastic or those who tend to gain major benefits.
• Electronic discussion group
  Judy Hallman from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that an electronic discussion group for discussing the creation and implementation of CWIS with colleagues worldwide has been invaluable.
  A similar facility would be useful in this University to allow departments adopting discussing their local problems and helping each other providing insights from their own experience. Such a facility could ease the load of the central CWIS implementation group. They could respond to those questions that have not been answered by other adopters. It can also eliminate duplication so that each question has to only be addressed once and all other adopters can benefit from the answer.
• Departments can monitor user satisfaction through usage statistics
  Special accounting programs on the Web allow publishers to monitor users statistics. Continuous collection of data will indicate if users are satisfied. The assumption is that users will revisit the server only if they are interested in the information served.
• Generic solutions can benefit all departments
  Departmental publications that have similar structures in all or many departments, can be published by generating a generic structure where each department can fill in their specific relevant information. This process reduces redundancy and duplication of effort and ensures that all publications of the same kind have similar look and feel, which makes it easier for customers to use.
  This process can also help departments that are usually slow in adopting new technologies to become earlier adopters without the major effort required to create something original.
• Participation from Library, External Relations and academic faculties including student representatives
  Robin Suits of Wright State University quotes a definition of the ideal CWIS from a paper titled 'University Wide General Interest On-Line Information Systems That Work' (Strauss). According to the paper to be successful a CWIS must:
  1. Be accessible from anywhere at anytime (on-line via network workstations or modem);
  2. Be useable by anyone who wants to use it. Designed in such a way that users are not even aware of the software involved, with an intuitive, user-friendly interface for a variety of platforms;
  3. Be easy to update and maintain and handing over responsibility for updating information to information providers;
  4. Have menus that are structured logically and intuitively so that users can easily find what they want;
  5. Contain a heterogeneous mix of data drawn from across the University; from the community in which faculty, staff and students live; and from global sources; and
  6. Contain enough information that is compelling and entertaining to invite people to explore and use the system.
  The first three of these criteria have to do with software development and hardware capabilities which are the logical responsibilities of computer programmers.
  The fourth point has to do with the organisation and delivery of information, an area in which librarians excel.
  But , Strauss argues that the most important of these criteria for success are the last two points. The content of the CWIS will determine its success. Users may use a badly designed system if the information is compelling, entertaining and enlightening. But no system will be used if it has boring, out of date or irrelevant data. Designing content that is compelling is a job best done by Public Relations professionals.
  On the question who should run a CWIS, Public Relations staff at John Hopkins University also believe that a CWIS needs to be a joint effort between experts from Computer Centres, Libraries, Public Relations and other information providers. Judy Hallman from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also believes that Librarians should have central roles in organising information on CWIS. Computer Centre staff from Michigan State University, Kalamazoo College and Public Relations staff from Wheaton College all believe that the PR office should be involved.
  At this University The Library was represented on the steering committee of the CWIS project which was active at the earlier part of the project, the PR office was not. So far Information Technology played a major role in the CWIS development in this University. Now a year since the project commenced and with 33.6% of University departments running their own servers, it is recommended to accept the advice of these other Universities running a CWIS and invite the Library and PR office to assume a major role in organising the look and feel of the information served on CWIS.
  According to Hallman, in an interesting discussion of the CWIS LISTSERVER, Strauss said that 'Developing a system is often the easy part, getting anyone to use it or support it can be orders of magnitude more difficult.' Now that CWIS in this University is developed, we need to enlist all the cross functional experts to ensure that we provide quality content and our customers use it.

Benefits Obtained

The CWIS provided a wide range of benefits, including the following:

• The CWIS provided a one-stop shopping for accessing most information services on campus. In time, when the diffusion process is complete, it is hoped that it will incorporate all information systems.
• Online information may be more current. Information can be updated frequently, while paper copies may only be printed once a year. Faculty handbooks are a good example.
• Expanded audience for newsletters, course brochures, guides and manuals and special event schedules. With 4,000 staff and 26,000 students, the University faces major information dissemination problems when trying to reach whole target markets. Through CWIS, people who are not on the circulation list for paper copies can access the information. In time it is planned to eliminate some paper copies and rely on the electronic copy on CWIS.
• Having support information on CWIS can reduce phone calls and save personnel time in a wide range of support and services areas to staff and students.
• Information can be accessed from remote sites by a wide range of customers. Marketing information produced by the University can reach potential students in Australia and overseas, people in industry and the community at large.
• Remote course delivery. In the next semester, the University will be delivering its first online multimedia based course in science to high achieving students in selected high schools. If the project is successful this program could expand to other disciplines and other markets.
• CWIS can have educational benefits. It is easy to browse and access a variety of publications and information served on the local servers and other sites. Staff and students at this University can be better informed in their discipline and other areas of interest.
• Increasing capacity is easy. The distributed model of departmental servers, allows addition of capacity incrementally with no visible changes to users.
• Reduced cost for accessing popular information from far sites. Through proxy serving technology, information from far sites accessed by multiple people on campus, within a short period of time, is only transferred from the remote site once. It then remains in the local cache and is accessed by additional users at no additional transfer costs.

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