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52 Chapter 2 • Systems Integration

employees feel more empowered and be more productive members of the organization. Of course,
the organization has to change its business processes and policies to take advantage of better
information sharing facilitated with integrated systems, but the potential of increasing the
retention of employees exists; however, this is not a very obvious benefit when organizations
decide to integrate systems.
System integration has many challenges. Most research on this topic tends to focus on the
technological challenges of systems integration. There is considerable challenge and cost in
integrating heterogeneous systems, including replacing old hardware and software with newer
systems, working with IT consultants in developing middleware to facilitate seamless integra-
tion, or bottlenecks in data integration. The technical challenges are nothing, however, when
compared with the human challenges that organizations face when integrating systems. The first
challenge may be with people in the IT department who will have a major impact once the
systems are integrated in terms of supporting and maintaining the new system. Other human
challenges will come from the functional department heads who will lose control over the data
produced from their areas. Another challenge is curbing the rumors and fears on job layoffs that
accompany a systems integration project. Overcoming these fears and curbing the turf battles is
critical for the success of a systems integration project. Getting employee buy-in on the systems
integration project is very critical for the success of integrated systems.

Systems integration raises many new ethical issues. Systems integration raises several
ethical issues for management (e.g., what information should be shared and how it should be
shared). Integrated systems opens up new ways of sharing information, but it also brings the
possibility of some employees exploiting this information for their personal advantage as well
as illegal access of information that they can easily do from their desks. To avoid the unethical
use of information, management needs to develop a policy on ethical usage of information as
well as use proper security software and hardware (like firewalls) to prevent, track, and
monitor information access and usage. In addition, organizations must allocate resources for
training and educating of employees and external partners on how to access and use informa-
tion and be aware of the ethical and security breaches possible with the integrated systems.

Summary
•Functional silos categorize an organization’s tal goals rather than overall organizational
tasks and activities into groups to improve goals. This can create interdepartmental
efficiency and responsibility of work in the conflicts and loss of competitive edge for
organization. They are generally represented the organization because the focus is not on
as such departments as accounting or HR, the needs of the customers. Employees are
each having its own goals and responsi- valued and rewarded based on department
bilities. As organizations grow in size and achievements rather than organizational
complexity, they are divided into horizontal achievements.
functions and vertical layers. Horizontal •Information systems (IS) have always tried
grouping is called functional divisions, and to support the needs of the organization;
vertical grouping of management functions hence, in the early days, IS was developed
is called management hierarchy. to meet the needs of different functional
•Silos can improve productivity, but they areas of the organization. IS over the years
often lead employees to achieve departmen- have been divided horizontally by functions