Change Management Projects in Information Systems: The Impact of the Methodology Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

Introduction

The increasing automation of industry (Hammer & Champy, 1994) and services seeks to improve the competitive position of companies in each investment. This strategic objective, well evident in the current economic context, has led many companies to assume the centrality of their competitive development in Information Systems and Technologies (IS/IT). In fact, the IS/IT has been gradually supporting the processes of automation in most activities and the modernization of economic organizations. Although this modernization is related to the levels of innovation of the various economic sectors, in each innovation organizations challenge their operating dynamics and interactions with the market.

As in the past, the introduction of technological innovations in organizational functioning continues to require structural, organizational, functional, informational and decision-making adaptations. The systemic perspective, under which organizational functioning and dynamics are due, must make it possible to question, in each innovation and consequent need for adaptation, the existing status quo. This logic of approach must allow management to open up competitive opportunities for change. These competitive opportunities may be internally driven by the fact that innovations provide reductions in cost structure or efficiency gains in organizational dynamics. And on the external economic level, the differentiation of products or services or new dynamics of interface with customers. However, when addressing the issue of change management, it should be stressed that these benefits cannot be achieved if economic organizations fail to match the potential of innovation and the achieved by its competitors.

Change management includes, among other things, the identification and management of the gap between a given organizational context and the desired one. The latter, the desired context, must be seen in the possibility of introducing innovation in processes, in the integration of systems, in the development of new products and services, in cultural change, in the introduction of new models and instruments, etc. In the field of management, innovation must be assimilated at the strategic level and, at this level, the frequent need to rethink the logics and organizational dynamics towards improving economic performance, the adequacy of communication with the market, the differentiation of the commercial offer, among several other examples.

In the current economic and social context, management of change should not be framed by managers in a passive perspective, and only when there are clear signs of changes in organizational or market factors. The management of change must be framed in a perspective of continuous improvement, which justifies the development of capacities of economic and social vision associated with the sector in which they are positioned. It is this capacity of vision, above all the reflexes that innovations can have on the market, which allows managers to identify business opportunities and, simultaneously, action on organizational weaknesses and constraints. The information society and the impact that new IT technology has on the functioning of economic organizations and on the modus operandi of the market and the economy have been evident. The IT competitiveness potential of companies has attracted managers to the increasing inclusion of more technology in organizations, challenging them in managing the implicit changes. This technological attraction has often been justified by the illusion of immediate and automatic generation of benefits in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and competitiveness.

However, many companies are subsequently faced with more fragile workings and with increased functional and organizational complexity as, in view of the increasing dependence on technologies, there are several shortcomings in IS/IT, for example, lack of adequate architecture models, lack of contingency plans, lack of risk management models, lack of definition of policies and safety plans, among other examples.