Is Implementation Costs

IS implementation costs

Organizations expend considerable resources to successfully implement IS applications

(Table 1), in addition to the costs expended on acquiring and/or developing the application.

These resources include many which can be procured externally or from an internal

information services function, including trainers to develop end user skills, change management

consultants, technology consultants, work process analysts and software engineers

for software modifications and integration services. Estimates of the monetary

costs associated with such resources are typically obtained from the information service

providers (external or internal) and are readily available to organizations to consider them

in planning and evaluation decisions.

In addition to the costs on information services resources, organizations also expend

considerable internal resources on managing the changes associated with IS implementation.

1 These include, for example, the extensive engagement of top and middle managers in

efforts to mutually adapt an information system to its organizational context, in orchestrating

changes in organizational structures and processes, and in resolving the conflicts

that invariably arise (Markus, 2004; Sharma & Yetton, 2003); the deployment of ‘‘super

users'' to train other users (Carte, Schwarzkopf, Shaft, & Zmud, 2005); and the efforts

of end users to learn and adapt to the new technologies (Kang & Santhanam, 2003–04;

Sharma & Yetton, 2007). In addition, organizations experience considerable time lags in

achieving routinized use of IS, often experiencing performance declines during those periods

(Leonard-Barton, 1988). Frequently, organizations fail to account for the costs of

such internal resources expended on IS implementation in their IS investment decisions

and implementation planning (Ryan et al., 2002).

We thus define IS implementation costs as consisting of the costs borne by an organization

for both the external and internal resources expended to achieve routinized use of

new