336 Part 4: Internal Design Elements CASE FOR ANALYSIS Century Medical Sam Nolan clicked the mouse for one more round of that would communicate jobs and marketing information solitaire on the computer in his den. He'd been at it for externally via Twitter, blogs, and other media. When Nolan more than an hour, and his wife had long ago given up had presented the idea to his boss, Executive Vice President trying to persuade him to join her for a movie or a rare Sandra Ivey, she had enthusiastically endorsed it, and Saturday night on the town. The mind-numbing game within a few weeks the team had authorization to proceed seemed to be all that calmed Sam enough to stop thinking with the web-based job-posting project. about work and how his job seemed to get worse every day. But everything began to change when Ivey resigned her Nolan was chief information officer at Century position six months later to take a plum job in New York Medical, a large medical products company based in Ivey's successor, Tom Carr, seemed to have little interest in the Connecticut. He had joined the company four years ago, project. During their first meeting, Carr had openly referred and since that time Century had made great progress to the project as a waste of time and money. He immediately integrating technology into its systems and processes. disapproved several new features suggested by the company's Nolan had already led projects to design and build two internal recruiters, even though the project team argued that highly successful systems for century. One was a benefits- the features could double internal hiring and save millions in administration system for the company's HR department training costs. "Just stick to the original plan and get it done. The other was a complex web-based purchasing system All this stuff needs to be handled on a personal basis anyway," that streamlined the process of purchasing supplies and Carr countered. “You can't learn more from a computer than capital goods. Although the system had been up and you can talking to real people and as for internal recruiting, running for only a few months, modest projections were it shouldn't be so hard to talk to people if they're already that it would save Century nearly $2 million annually. working right here in the company." Carr seemed to have Previously, Century's purchasing managers were bogged no understanding of how and why technology was being down with shuffling paper. The purchasing process would used. He became irritated when Ethel Moore referred to the begin when an employee filled out a materials request form. system as "web-based." He boasted that he had never visited Then the form would travel through various offices for Century's intranet site and suggested that social media is a approval and signatures before eventually being converted child's plaything that has no place in a hospital. Even Ethel's into a purchase order. The new web-based system allowed enthusiasm couldn't get through to him. She tried to show employees to fill out electronic request forms that were him some of the HR resources available on the intranet automatically e-mailed to everyone whose approval was and explain how it had benefited the department and the needed. The time for processing request forms was cut company, but he waved her away. "Technology is for those from weeks to days or even hours. When authorization was people in the IT department. My job is people, and yours complete, the system would automatically launch a purchase should be too." Ethel was crushed, and Nolan realized it order to the appropriate supplier. In addition, because would be like beating his head against a brick wall to try the new system had dramatically cut the time purchasing to persuade Carr to the team's point of view. Near the end managers spent shuffling paper, they now had more time to of the meeting, Carr even jokingly suggested that the project work collaboratively with key stakeholders to identify and team should just buy a couple of filing cabinets and save select the best suppliers and negotiate better deals. everyone some time and money. Nolan thought wearily of all the hours he had put Just when the team thought things couldn't get any in developing trust with people throughout the company worse, Carr dropped the other bomb. They would no longer and showing them how technology could not only save be allowed to gather data and feedback from users of the time and money but also support team-based work and new system. Nolan feared that without the input of potential give people more control over their own jobs. He smiled users, the system wouldn't meet their needs, or even that briefly as he recalled one long-term HR employee, 61-year-users would boycott the system because they hadn't been old Ethel Moore. She had been terrified when Nolan first allowed to participate. No doubt that would put a great big began showing her the company's intranet, but she was "I told you so smile right on Carr's face. now one of his biggest supporters. In fact, it had been Ethel Nolan sighed and leaned back in his chair. The project who had first approached him with an idea about a web- had begun to feel like a joke. The vibrant and innovative based job posting system. The two had pulled together a HR department his team had imagined and a social media team and developed an idea for linking Century managers, initiative now seemed like nothing more than a pipe dream. internal recruiters, and job applicants using artificial But despite his frustration, a new thought entered Nolan's intelligence software on top of an integrated web-based mind: "Is Carr just stubborn and narrow-minded or does system. Nolan's dream was to eventually integrate the he have a point that HR is a people business that doesn't job posting system into a social media command center need a high-tech job posting system?" Come All Rental Mi w we were pweden imewww
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