Mary Hodder

IS204 Abstract for Midterm

I plan to review the development, rollout and adoption of Form Courier, an electronic form submission system implemented to replace a paper system, used at company X. I will review the reasons for considering change, the process of looking at various options to replace the old system, the criteria for selection, the decision to build their own system, who the parties were in the decision making process, how the rollout and training were conducted, and what the results of the change were over the first six months, and the state of current use.

To examine the change, development and implementation of Form Courier, I will use the course readings and case studies to understand and assess how the workflow changed between the various departments involved and how the users of the forms and documentation process were affected. I will also discuss the move from a paper-based system to paperless and the results of this change. I plan to cover changes in personnel, power structure between departments and workload changes for different parties. Lastly, I will review the way implementing this change allowed company X to learn from the process enough to incorporate the experience into one of their products, and understand the importance of these workflows for future business development.

I will also attempt to relate company X’s experience to the marketplace as a whole, both for the development of their products for their customers, as well as what the rest of the marketplace offered for organizations wishing to change to a paperless form management system. Company X was leading the change from paper-based workflows to electronic, and used themselves as their own guinea pig. But their experiences and other marketplace providers products have shaped the direction of their industry in changing workflows for many different types of organizations including government, companies, and educational systems.