Evaluate the Process

1. Evaluate the process that JCSS used to select its vendor and software. What did they do right, what did they do wrong? What worked and what didn't?

I think it is a great idea that JCSS set up a computer selection committee which is consisted of major users of the system. Carol Andrews and the committee also carefully selected the vendor. They not only sent vendors request for proposal, but also evaluated vendors from a comprehensive perspective. They considered factors such as vendor profile, vendor service, five year cost of ownership, etc. I would say they did a good job in vendor selection. However, I think JCSS did a poor job in communicating their specific user needs to the vendor they selected (DSI). Computer selection committee members are not quite involved in the project. They left most work to Carol, who was hired several months ago. Although Carol had 13 years of experience as applications programmer, she wasn’t familiar about education system. Committee member who work in education system all the time, however, didn’t communicate what they expect for the system in detail to the vendor, which makes the system implementation process more difficult than they thought. It is in vain that they selected the best vendor but didn’t tell the vendor what they want in detail.

2. Evaluate the implementation of the student management system at JCSS. How effective was their chosen approach? What should they have done to improve the outcome?

I think JCSS didn’t do well on the implementation of the new student management system. First, the training was not enough to make end users familiar with the new system. Some schools didn’t provide any training during the summer time because they tried to save payroll expense. Faculties barely knew how to use the new system two weeks before the new semester began, resulting a chaos when the new semester started. Second, JCSS didn’t have any in house programmer to bridge the gap when vendor support was not available. And DSI didn’t have much experience in training. Third, the approach JCSS used is too aggressive. They didn’t pilot a test run before implementing the new system in all schools. And they used direct conversion method to launch the new system. JCSS totally abandoned the old system before the new system started. In case of new system didn’t function as they expected, JCSS didn’t have an alternative system to work with.

In order to improve the outcome, I think JCSS should set up more training sessions before new semester begins to make sure users know how to interact with the system to get what they want. If some faculties can’t attend certain train sessions, alternative training time should be offered to make sure everyone gets trained. Also, JCSS should