How to assess ICT Capacity Requirements to Support Institutional Change?

Organizations world over consistently undergo institutional change for organizational strengthening. In recent times, ICT (Information Communication Technology) has become an integral part of organizations. Therefore, for planned institutional change (or complete institutional restructuring), the Change Managers need to perform an assessment of required change to existing ICT Capacity within any organization.    

Many Change Managers ask me to suggest a methodology to do assessment of ICT Capacity required for an Institutional Change. Now, organizations vary significantly from each other on strategic use of ICT and therefore, it is difficult to suggest a generic methodology. However, I believe, the following way I usually suggest to Change Managers (to an extent) works for them to do a brief initial analysis and to organize their thoughts towards conceptualizing an ICT change management synchronized with other aspects of organizational change.    

A broad assessment of IT Capacity for Institutional Change can be initiated on the basis of following four aspects of ICT implementation within organizations:-

1.       Institutional Support Capacity

2.       Electronic Service Delivery Capacity

3.       Organizational Automation

4.       Technology Infrastructure Capacity

 The broad outline for implementing above points are represented through following tables:-

Table -1: Matrix for assessing Institutional Support Capacity (customized using UNDP 1997 norms - see references section below for more details)

Level – 1 Dimensions of Environmental Capacity (IT)	Existing Capacity	Required Capacity	Estimated Capacity Gap	Possible Strategies
IT Policy framework
Legal and regulatory framework
Management accountability
Level – 2 Dimensions of Organization	Existing Capacity	Required Capacity	Estimated Capacity Gap	Possible Strategies
IT Strategic management
IT Organizational Structure
IT Processes
Human resources (IT)
Financial Resources (IT)
Level – 3 Dimensions of Individual Capacity (IT Human Resources)	Existing Capacity	Required Capacity	Estimated Capacity Gap	Possible Strategies
Job Skills and Needs
Professional Development
Access to Information
Performance/Incentives
Communication Skills

 _

Table -2: Matrix for assessing Electronic Delivery of Services Capacity

Electronic Delivery of Services	Existing Capacity	Required Capacity	Estimated Capacity Gap	Possible Strategies
Number of Services
Volume of Transactions
Application Performance -          Service Level Norms -          Availability -          Scalability -          Inter-operability -          Latent Capacity (Ability to Handle Peak Load)
Security -          User Level -          Network Level -           Infrastructure Level -          Application & Database Level
Ease of Use

_

Table -3: Matrix for Organizational Automation

Organizational Automation	Existing Capacity	Required Capacity	Estimated Capacity Gap	Possible Strategies
Project Tracking and Control
Finance Management
Human Resource Management
Procurement and Supply Chain Management
Other Auxiliary Operations (like social media, infrastructure management)
Data Analytic / Reporting

 _

Table -4: Matrix for Technology Infrastructure Capacity

IT Infrastructure	Existing Capacity	Required Capacity	Estimated Capacity Gap	Possible Strategies
Application Architecture and Design Application Upgradation Requirements
Application Support Systems (Auxiliary Supporting Software)
Networking
Hardware

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References:

Capacity needs assessment methodology and processes By Melvyn KAY, Consultant to IPTRID/FAO, Tom Franks, Senior Lecturer, Bradford Center for International Development and Sonia Tato, Technical Officer, IPTRID/FAO 

Link - ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/008/y5899e/y5899e01.pdf

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