Managing Organisation/ Business Readiness towards IT/IS Implementation: A Model Comparison

Phenomenal growth of the internet has revolutionized business processes, leading to the development of IT-based technologies such as e-commerce. Proven benefits of the applications of e- commerce tools in industries including construction had encouraged organizations to invest in IT/IS. However, there is also ample evidence that showed failure of IT/IS to deliver the expected return. The main attributes of the high percentage of IT/IS failure was found to be the 'soft issues' that involves people and their readiness prior to the implementation of IT/IS in an organization. As such, failure of IT/IS implementation in current evaluation models may be due to its focus on the 'hard issues' aspect such as speed and profit instead of on the 'soft issues' aspect. It is therefore important to assess the readiness level of the organization prior to planning and adopting IT/IS. Hence, this paper will review and comment on the current available readiness model highlighting their suitability to the construction industry. It is anticipated that review and recommendation from this research will create awareness among the construction industry players on the importance of assessing their readiness level in order to successfully implement IT/IS in their organizations. Differences between the models/tools discussed in this paper are expected to enrich knowledge, thus broadening the area of readiness research in construction industry.