Summary of the DrKW and Teva Case discussions
We began the week by stating our intent to break down the topics of discussion into three parts; surveying and evaluating our member's experience with collaborative applications, implementation strategies when organizations choose to adopt Web 2.0 technologies, and finally, identifying the goals and measures that an organization should use to evaluate whether the new applications are adding value, increasing efficiency or reducing operational costs.
The initial survey uncovered the limited experience that members of our group have with Web 2.0 applications. Some members use applications such as Salesforce.com, Sharepoint 2010 and GoToMeeting in their daily activities, some have tried older applications and have had minimal success because management and/or culture in their organizations have not realized any benefits while some are being introduced to the concept for the first time this week.
Andrew continued the discussion by challenging members of our group to use the two cases and their experiences to determine whether there are indicators management can use to determine if adoption will be successful and worth the added commitment of time and resources. Out of the discussions five (5) factors emerged. The first involved the characteristics of the employees. Older employees may be less adaptable to new technology while younger employees who grew up with tech as part of their educational curriculum adopt easily and have more technical aptitude. The second factor concerns the type of business and the regulatory environment Web 2.0 users exist in. A thread of medical professionals recognized the possibilities but the current Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system is likely not compatible and would require additional work. This leads to the third factor, integration of the new applications within an organization’s existing software or records management system. If the new applications are not compatible, there is...