Bringing the Enterprise System to the Front Line: Intertwining Computerised and Conventional Communication with BT Europe

Abstract

This paper draws on the need to understand how mobile technology is implemented and used at the organisational level. IT is a general-purpose technology and its use involves a high degree of uncertainty. Therefore, managers have trouble in identifying the real scope, the functionality, and the impact of new mobile applications. However, these three types of uncertainties need to be handled in change management projects where new information technology is involved. Gradual uncertainty reduction at these three different levels—that is, what technology can do, will technology work, and will users adopt it—is studied in this chapter. This is achieved through an analysis of the implementation process of an information system at BT Europe, a leading supplier of forklift trucks. The analysis shows how the computerised parts of the information system are complemented by mindful intertwining with the noncomputerised communication and manual data processing in order for the information system to work.