To print: Click here or Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

This story was printed from silicon.com, located at http://www.silicon.com/

Story URL: http://comment.silicon.com/0,39024711,11035178,00.htm

Devil's Advocate: How to make technology work
You've paid for the IT, now get some benefit from it...

By Martin Brampton

Published: Tuesday 20 August 2002

Just implementing a shiny new computer system? How do you make sure your organistion reaps the benefits? Martin Brampton this week turns to a favourite example of his...

The UK rail network is to get an asset management system to improve train safety. That ought to please me, by making my regular journeys between Yorkshire and London safer. But I am not sure that an IT system is the key to safe railways. There is more to it than that, don't you think?

Most weeks, I travel the East Coast mainline, usually the fastest railway line in the UK. Over the last few years, it has not always been running fast. Three major accidents have sapped confidence and led to speed limits. First, the cracked rails at Hatfield caused a derailment and a major scare for the whole rail network. Then there was the Land Rover that strayed on to the line near Selby with disastrous consequences. Most recently, a carriage was severely damaged in Potters Bar station. In all three cases, sadly, people died.

The Land Rover was not Railtrack's responsibility but the other two look very much like examples of poor maintenance of the railway track. Might I be safer on this route if Network Rail, the successor to Railtrack, spends a lot of money to implement an asset register so that it can know the state of the track?

Maybe, but let me tell you about another experience with Railtrack before we try to decide. My London flat is just next to the same East Coast mainline. It is handy for getting to Yorkshire. Recently, some Railtrack contractors took down the fence around our car park to get to the railway installations. Afterwards, they made a terrible botch of putting it back.

I complained to Railtrack and they promised they would deal with the matter. Weeks later, nothing had happened, so I had to contact them again. After failing with email and voicemail, I finally managed to get to speak to a live person. The upshot was that Railtrack claimed it had instructed the contractor to tidy up our fence and then assumed the work was done.

Quite apart from the aggravation of getting our fence fixed, it concerned me that Railtrack evidently had no mechanism for checking whether contractors actually did what was asked of them. And if Railtrack cannot be sure their contractors are putting people's fences back in decent order, why should I have any faith that Railtrack is sure contractors maintain the rails properly? The record of accidents rather suggests Railtrack was not sure at all.

An asset register might be the solution to this problem. Well, maybe I am unduly sceptical but my experience is that computer systems are only ever part of a solution. Presumably, Railtrack had some kind of a system for placing instructions with contractors to deal with fencing matters. Whether it involved computers is not really the point. The process, taken as a whole, evidently did not work.

People like doing things with computer systems and it is easy to buy a software package. It is easy to deploy the software package and put in some data. What is often done much less well is ensuring that the computer system is integrated into a complete process that will deliver the desired results. Sometimes, the new system merely automates the old process, and if that was not working the new system will make no difference.

The hard thing is always changing the way people work. It is possible to use a new computer system as a lever to achieve such a change. But it is much harder than just delivering software and hoping for the best. It takes commitment and enthusiasm from both the IT specialists and the people the system is supposed to serve.

I am reserving judgment on Network Rail's shiny new asset register. If they can demonstrate that it yields measurable improvements in processes that impinge on real world safety, then I will be more impressed.

Let silicon.com know your views on change within organisations - or even the rail system - by posting a reader comment below or email Martin directly with your thoughts.

** Martin Brampton is a director and founder of Black Sheep Research (www.black-sheep-research.co.uk ), an independent consultancy providing research, writing and speaking services on a wide range of business and technology subjects. Martin was previously a director at Bloor Research, and has worked with IT as a user and analyst for over 20 years. He is a frequent contributor to silicon.com's Behind the Headlines TV programme and can be contacted at silicon@black-sheep-research.co.uk .