Technology Failure in Business Problem Solution Essay

Exclusively available on Available only on IvyPanda® Made by Human No AI

Introduction

First Atlantic, a bank in Nigeria, was looking for a competitive edge. Technological innovation would allow it to avoid investing in an extensive branch network as a condition for matching competitive advantages of its peers. I am going to take a financial perspective when analyzing the technology failure at First Atlantic.

The bank was going to launch related electronic banking applications that would allow it to realize its objectives of increasing earnings. Therefore, success would be measured by growth in business after the launch of the technology (Huang, Makoju, Newell, & Galliers, 2003).

Problem

The choice of the technology framework was direct, with scaling in size and functionality being the key determinants that led to the purchase and installation of the Infosys’ solution called ‘Finacle’. The bank made ambitious choices. First, it bought a whole suite of services including an internet-banking platform.

Secondly, it set up a six-month target to go live. Being in a hurry would cost the bank time for proper analysis of its risk exposure to business success and technological failure. Limited time also affected change management processes at the bank. The bank hoped that it would be able to become competitive by providing internet banking.

Market data before and after product launch showed that, the uptake was very low to make it a meaningful source of income for the business. According to Venugopal and Rao (2008), critical success factors for project success include management support and good project management, as well as hybrid approach at integrating legacy systems and the new system introduced.

The key problem for the bank was a lack of an appropriate return on investment for its e-commerce venture. It arose because the new technology infrastructure did not properly tie with the legacy system at the bank. Thus, there was no alternative pathway to follow when the decision did not pay back.

Project management was also poor as stakeholders were left out of the process, and they included staffs and customers. They later on participated as end users of the electronic banking platform (Huang et al., 2003).

Analysis

This part looks at the bank’s technology investment decision according to the Valuable, Rare, imperfectly Imitable and Non-substitutable (VRIO) framework. The biggest input in the technology was the people doing the marketing and using it on a daily basis.

As a technology, “Finacle” presented the right promise, but it was not appropriate for the First Atlantic because it did not provide sufficient value and could easily be imitated by rival companies. After its deployment, the bank needed to train staffs and market the services launched on “Finacle”.

It still faced the same problem of trying to outdo its rivals yet it had already made the investment. If the technology proved to be outright successful, other companies would contract Infosys and buy its products, learn from the mistakes of First Atlantic and require incremental installations. The failure of the technology was due to a failure of management to set the right expectations and practice financial austerity.

The business was introducing a technology that is effective only when staffs are innovative, yet it did not consider ways of transferring innovative skills to workers to make full use of the technology. As a result, First Atlantic had to revert to norms of relying on tested applications that only provide threshold competitive attributes instead of VRIO matching advantages.

Alternatives

The first alternative is for the bank to continue with the project as it is and take it as a lesson while focusing in employee training. The second alternative is to come up with additional electronic banking implementations that attach the new technology with other existing bank systems. The third alternative is to modify the “Finacle” technology solution so that its success is not only dependent on internet banking.

Solutions

The first solution is for the bank to have internet banking as a facilitator of agent banking. Internet banking would create service kiosks, instead of a full branch network. The service kiosks would have bank workers to provide basic bank services on an internet-banking platform to a majority of customers who do not have the Internet.

The second solution is to abandon the internet banking and focus on enterprise resource aspects that improve efficiency in legacy operations.

The third solution is to have third party service provider handling the end user market application of the technology infrastructure for First Atlantic to limit its outright financial expenditure on the project.

Recommendations

The bank should proceed with the first and third solution options to ensure that it is limiting its financial exposure in the project, and at the same time is linking implementation to existing capabilities. This will allow it to achieve value from the implementation, as internal staffs will have meaningful integration with the new project, while technical aspects of the project would be availed by the third-party contractor.

Management will still be able to input on critical decisions and react to market information according to the organization’s culture such that the project becomes non-substitutable. Use of third party contractors can save the bank the need for outright full-scale implementation, and therefore make the project capable of expanding in reaction to competitive pressures facing the bank, thus making it both valuable and imperfectly imitable (Munteanu, 2015).

Conclusion

Deployment of “Finacle” as a technology infrastructure at First Atlantic was a failure because management did not prioritize returns on investments and project ownership. The bank will be reducing its outright capital expenditure, considering the recommendation of going with a third-party service provider; thus, it will be improving its prospects for a fair return on investment.

The service kiosks approach will bring up project ownership in present bank staffs and give room for an innovative practice that is critical in making the technology implementation unique and capable of using the existing marketing resources of the bank.

References

Huang, J., Makoju, E., Newell, S., & Galliers, R. D. (2003). Opportunities to learn from ‘failure’ with electronic commerce: A case study of electronic banking. Journal of Information Technology, 18(1), 17-26.

Munteanu, A. I. (2015). Exists a relationship between strategic human resources management, innovation and competitive advantage? Ecoforum, 4(1), 105-110.

Venugopal, C., & Rao, K. S. (2006). Learning from a failed ERP implementation: A case study research. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 4(4), 596-615.

More related papers Related Essay Examples
Cite This paper
You're welcome to use this sample in your assignment. Be sure to cite it correctly

Reference

IvyPanda. (2019, June 24). Technology Failure in Business. https://ivypanda.com/essays/technology-failure-in-business/

Work Cited

"Technology Failure in Business." IvyPanda, 24 June 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/technology-failure-in-business/.

References

IvyPanda. (2019) 'Technology Failure in Business'. 24 June.

References

IvyPanda. 2019. "Technology Failure in Business." June 24, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/technology-failure-in-business/.

1. IvyPanda. "Technology Failure in Business." June 24, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/technology-failure-in-business/.


Bibliography


IvyPanda. "Technology Failure in Business." June 24, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/technology-failure-in-business/.

If, for any reason, you believe that this content should not be published on our website, please request its removal.
Updated:
This academic paper example has been carefully picked, checked and refined by our editorial team.
No AI was involved: only quilified experts contributed.
You are free to use it for the following purposes:
  • To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
  • As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
  • As a template for you assignment
Privacy Settings

IvyPanda uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience, enabling functionalities such as:

  • Basic site functions
  • Ensuring secure, safe transactions
  • Secure account login
  • Remembering account, browser, and regional preferences
  • Remembering privacy and security settings
  • Analyzing site traffic and usage
  • Personalized search, content, and recommendations
  • Displaying relevant, targeted ads on and off IvyPanda

Please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy for detailed information.

Required Cookies & Technologies
Always active

Certain technologies we use are essential for critical functions such as security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and ensuring the site operates correctly for browsing and transactions.

Site Customization

Cookies and similar technologies are used to enhance your experience by:

  • Remembering general and regional preferences
  • Personalizing content, search, recommendations, and offers

Some functions, such as personalized recommendations, account preferences, or localization, may not work correctly without these technologies. For more details, please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy.

Personalized Advertising

To enable personalized advertising (such as interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. These partners may have their own information collected about you. Turning off the personalized advertising setting won't stop you from seeing IvyPanda ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive.

Personalized advertising may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" of the information under California and other state privacy laws, and you may have the right to opt out. Turning off personalized advertising allows you to exercise your right to opt out. Learn more in IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy.

1 / 1