Computers—Step Carefully through the Minefield:. Part One
| Pages | 24-27 |
| Date | 01 March 1985 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb057398 |
| Published date | 01 March 1985 |
| Author | William Jacot |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Computers-
Step Carefully
through the
Minefield:
Part One
by William Jacot
Managing Director,
DBA Computer Consultants
Half the computer systems installed today are failures. By
this we mean that only half achieve the business objectives
set for them on time—which is after all what the buyer in-
tends.
This statistic is a sad reflection on the state of the
computer market place. There are many reasons for the
failures and this article, the first of a series, sets out to ex-
amine these reasons and, based on the hard experience of
others, to suggest what might be done to avoid such
disasters Case study material drawn from a cross-section
of the professions, industry and commerce is used to il-
lustrate both the pitfalls awaiting the unwary and the pro-
cedures by which a first-time computer user may at least
limit the risk.
Computer systems may fail because of problems with the
hardware—the equipment itself; the software, i.e. the in-
structions which make it work; the support provided by the
suppliers of equipment and/or software, and by a lack of
the essential disciplines in the user him/herself. A retrospec-
tive view based on a study of failed systems which have
reached the litigation stage suggests that a mix of these
problems usually complicates the complaint. This first
arti-
cle aims to describe the common problems involved in the
hardware failures and to suggest how they might have been
avoided before rather than after the event.
The scale of the potential disaster must be appreciated if
sufficient impetus is to be placed on its avoidance. A com-
pany buying say a microcomputer system for £10,000 might
not these days feel that such a sum represents a major in-
vestment affecting the viability of the company. In the days
when computer systems, incidentally costing perhaps ten
times as much, worked in isolation, usually in accounts,
such an appreciation would have been valid in that the main-
stream activities of a company would continue regardless
of a computer disaster. Frustrated, embarrassed, perhaps,
but not really a crunch matter. Paradoxically the very benefits
that microcomputers have brought to businesses also put
them at greater risk Integrated accounting systems linked
to database software now provide a central management
tool whose tentacles stretch out to all departments from
the central computer system. Computer delays or disasters
will affect all company operations which become increas-
ingly vulnerable as the older staff previously involved in the
manual operation retire
"It was not the cost of the hardware that worried us, but
the delay and disruption caused by its failure," said the
managing director of a small engineering company in South
London faced with a faulty disc storage drive. A delay of
only one month in getting the drive to work—and this was
only one small piece of the total system—had caused
con-
sequential damages involving administrative chaos, staff
time and disruption of customers. Such problems involving
the complete computer system over any length of time
might well affect the very viability of a company's opera-
tion leading possibly to bankruptcy.
The first problem of computer equipment is human.
Suitability for purpose is one of the prime areas for com-
plaint in the flood tide of litigation cases now looming before
the courts. Systems wrongly chosen or sold have little
chance of success. The match of specification of require-
ment and specification of equipment is vital and rarely
con-
sidered in sufficient detail by first-time computer users.
"My boss had been to one of these computer exhibitions
and he just dumped it on my desk and said I have brought
you a word processor," joked one of the staff of a company
located near Reading—part of Britain's own silicon valley.
"So far as I know it is still in its box."
Computer salesmen are not slow. The temptation to take
advantage of a customer's vagueness as to his requirements
may lead the avaricious salesman to under or over quote.
Usually based on commission, the sale can be more im-
portant than the success. Fearing competition, a salesman
may deliberately under configure the requirement in order
to obtain the contract, believing that he may later bluff the
deficiencies by claiming a customer's "increases in the
volumes" or "extra tasks".
"They first sold us their Mark I system and this was a com-
plete failure," complained a professional company in the
Midlands. "When we eventually got hold of the supplier's
management—and this took several months—they agreed
that the system was inadequate, our fault of course, and
they recommended that they installed their new bigger, bet-
24 IMDS • MARCH/APRIL • 1985
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