1. What were some of the biggest challenges in implementing the new e-tendering system at the MCD?

The biggest challenges in implementing the new e-tendering system at the MCD was changing the work processes of the organization which had a staff of over 100000 working in 107 offices across 12 geographic zones. It was difficult to change paper form-driven system to online automation. The MCD went to great lengths to sell contractors and government staff on the way of doing business. It had to train hundreds of users and thousands of contractors. Moreover, some engineers (i.e. about 30%) were hesitant to use the system and cooperate to MCD in using the new system. 2. What benefits does the new system provide for the MCD and its contractors? Benefits of the new system to MCD and its contractors: The system eliminated the need for companies to physically send representatives to the MCD headquarters as e-tendering allowed contractors to download and upload tender documents. Help track status of tenders and receive e-mail alerts Provides bidders with privacy and the government with transparency. Removal of fear of intimidation from competitors since no one knows who is bidding. Bids are placed in anonymous fashion, freeing contracting decision makers from outside influences. Contracts are awarded on a bidders merit and bid, and not according to who knows whom. MCD increased the number of transactions it handles each week Reduced the time it takes to award a contract from 90 days to 30 days.

3. Compared to a business, what considerations might be different for a government agency designing an enterprise system? Compared to a business, considerations that might be different for a government agency in designing an enterprise system includes: The challenges of planned enterprise changes across large US government agencies involve a number of institutional factors unique to government bureaucracies. As, government agencies are not businesses, they do not reflect common patterns of organizational design (divisions by sales, marketing, manufacturing, etc.) that ERP systems are designed to accommodate. Instead each agency is uniquely designed according to its own mission, so that enterprise integration requires custom system engineering rather than tailoring a standard ERP package. Any intended consolidations of government agencies into enterprises also lack the motivation and regulatory feedback mechanism of bottom line profit and loss accounting that is common in business and industry.

Therefore, the grand challenge of designing enterprise systems with government agencies therefore involves not only an employee base with resistance to change, but also budgetary process incapable of agile response, and uniqueness that stresses essential communication across occupational communities, and also no clear bottom line to motivate or calibrate success of change. Consequently, the entrenched technology and political area simply continue to become further institutionalized and the stereotype of intransigent government bureaucracy deeply resistant to change is no exaggeration. However, whether the ERP system is for a business or a government agency usually ERP systems are implemented with a goal of operating more efficiently.

4. Why do you think some engineers were hesitant to cooperate with the MCD in using the new system? Some of the engineers were hesitant to cooperate with the MCD using the new system may be because of the following reason: Change is not easy and people do not like to change. So some of the engineers may be hesitant to change from a paper form driven system to online automation. Moreover, people are risk averse and have resistance to change. The engineers may have been unsure about the success of the online automation. They have thought that the new online system would create more problems than the benefits to MCD. The engineers may have thought that the change to an online system would not work out in a large government agency like MCD because of various reasons like size of the organization, training required to hundreds of users and thousands of contractors, volume of work etc.