Systems Continuance and Discontinuance: the case of the Hellenic Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reconstruction

1. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
Systems Continuance and Discontinuance:
the case of the Hellenic Ministry of Interior
and Administrative Reconstruction
Antonios Stasis,
Eleni Chaniotaki,
Dimitrios Papadimitropoulos
Hellenic Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reconstruction,
Directorate General of Finance and Administrative Services/ Directorate of
Procurement, Infrastructure & Material Management,
Vassilisis Sofias 15, 10674, Athens, Greece

2. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
Contents
 Theoretical Background: The concept of Information
Systems Continuance and Discontinuance
 The context
 The initiation of the project
 Implementing the project
 Post implementation period
 Organization restructure and government change:
System use decline
 Conclusions
 Limitations and future research

3. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
The concept of Information Systems
Continuance and Discontinuance
 IS Continuance:
o behavioral patterns reflecting continuous usage of an Information System
o behavior that refer to the period past to the adoption of a system
o can be investigated either from an individual or at an organizational point of
view
o Is connected with the 3 latter phases of development (acceptance,
routinization and infusion)
 IS Discontinuance:
o the cessation of the use of an organizational information system
o can be viewed as a milestone following the stages of IS adoption and
continuity
o factors that affect system discontinuity: system performance shortcomings,
organizational initiative aiming at altering how and where an organization
operates and environmental change
o forces causing discontinuance inertia: system investment, system
embeddedness in organizational activity and institutional pressures (i.e. the
tendency of organizations to copy the actions of those perceived as having
high levels of legitimacy)

4. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
Contents
 Theoretical Background: The concept of Information
Systems Continuance and Discontinuance
 The context
 The initiation of the project
 Implementing the project
 Post implementation period
 Organization restructure and government change:
System use decline
 Conclusions
 Limitations and future research

5. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης The context
 Bureaucratic organization model of the Greek state
 Document-centric model: documents need to be signed consecutively in order to be valid
 Based on ‘decisions’: acts (documents) signed by all members of hierarchy, signifying common
decision on an issue
 Traditionally ‘decisions’ were printed and stored physically
 Slow pace of documents circulation
 Inconvenient filing and indexing system
 Inadequacy to follow the European Interoperability Strategy
 E-Gov Law (3979/2011) enacted in 2011 allowed Public Agencies to issue and circulate e-
documents
 Regulation of eIDAS (regulation No 910/2014 ) about e-signatures, e-stamps and e-delivery acted
as a facilitator
 Clarity project obliged issuers to upload their ‘decisions’ in a public portal (www.diavgeia.gov.gr)
 Presidential Decree 25/2014 regulated filing issues of e-docs

6. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
Contents
 Theoretical Background: The concept of Information
Systems Continuance and Discontinuance
 The context
 The initiation of the project
 Implementing the project
 Post implementation period
 Organization restructure and government change:
System use decline
 Conclusions
 Limitations and future research

7. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης The initiation of the project (1/2)
 When?
 Who?
 What?
• Summer of 2012
• Deputy Minister of Administrative Support and E-
Governance
• Internal processes for issuing public documents based only
on electronic means without any major IT investments
Main benefits:
1. Speeding up of circulation of documents and reduce time needed for the
completion of processes
2. Cost saving in terms of paper and printing consumables
Main challenges:
1. Definition of new internal processes and workflows
2. Integrity and non-repudiation of draft documents
3. Versioning of the draft documents
4. Filing of different versions of the document
5. Access of the employees to the different types of documents

8. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
The initiation of the project (2/2)
 Public agencies needed to obtain digital certificates to digitally sign
documents (ensuring their integrity and non-repudiation)
 The Directorate General of Administrative Support started discussing with
the other Directorate Generals about the definition of their internal
procedures
 Results of this discussion documented in the internal regulation of the
Ministry
 Plan for this transition to e-documents: Rollout of e-distribution of
documents within the Ministry on the 16th of September 2012

9. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
Contents
 Theoretical Background: The concept of Information
Systems Continuance and Discontinuance
 The context
 The initiation of the project
 Implementing the project
 Post implementation period
 Organization restructure and government change:
System use decline
 Conclusions
 Limitations and future research

10. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης Implementing the project (1/3)
A very challenging project due to:
 All public agencies were used to a different way of work (handwritten
signatures, filing folders and cabinets, indexing books)
 Bureaucracy of the Greek Public Administration, where all processes
include official documents that need to be signed consecutively by more
than one person in the hierarchy
 The strict deadline imposed by the Deputy Minister did not allow for such
a carefully designed Process Reengineering plan
Solution: Two alternative ways of exchanging and filing
documents

11. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
Implementing the project (2/3)
1st alternative
 Use of Document Management System to exchange and file documents
 The Ministry already possessed such a system but had never put it into
operation
 The System was being used only as a metadata registry
 Main advantage: Versioning and tracking facilities
 Main drawback: It was based on a client-server technology and required a
lot of support for every client
 Needed a web-based version to be easily adopted by users
 Its upgrade to the web-based version would cause a delay or several
months

12. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης Implementing the project (3/3)
2nd alternative
 E-mail service for exchanging documents and file server for
filing them
 Main advantages:
o No training of staff required
o Based on existing infrastructures
 Main drawbacks:
o Lack of versioning and tracking facilities
o More storage space required

13. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης 1st rollout phase
 Extensive need of user support
 Large spectrum of issues for support
 Change management: the most demanding challenge
 Most staff members reluctant to change their daily work
routine
 Full commitment of the IT Dept. needed
 Strong support of Deputy Minister reduced the impact of
personnel reactions
 IT Directorate collected different types of documents and
processes in order to propose process changes

14. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης 2nd rollout phase
 Web-based version of the system ready to use and all
employees created as users
 Training program scheduled by IT Directorate
 Difficulties had started to arouse caused by the use of e-mail as
an exchange method
 Minister signed a circular imposing the use of the Document
Management System on October 1, 2013
 The circular also regulated some secondary issues of e-
documents
 Auto-reply messages from central nodes in the ministry to
inform senders about the obligation to send documents through
the Document Management System
 Change of certain processes was taken over

15. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης Process Change
Certainly a big opportunity was given to simplify processes
3 main types of changed processes:
1. Processes redesigned by the IT Directorate but their
proposed model was then discussed with the operating
unit in charge, thus coming to a commonly accepted
solution
2. Common processes throughout the Ministry exclusively
redesigned by the IT Directorate, abolishing steps and
documents that now became obsolete due to the DMS
3. Processes that were automated by means of
interoperability with other Information Systems

16. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
Contents
 Theoretical Background: The concept of Information
Systems Continuance and Discontinuance
 The context
 The initiation of the project
 Implementing the project
 Post implementation period
 Organization restructure and government change:
System use decline
 Conclusions
 Limitations and future research

17. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης Post-implementation period
2-day training sessions to all users
Plans for building interoperability with other systems
Examining similar systems operating in other European
countries
System use increased during 1st year due to:
o Top management support
o CEO-CIO proximity, i.e. the cooperation between the General
Director and the IT Director
o Skilled IT staff
o Redesign of existing processes
o User feedback and user-led activities
o Influential lead users

18. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
Contents
 Theoretical Background: The concept of Information
Systems Continuance and Discontinuance
 The context
 The initiation of the project
 Implementing the project
 Post implementation period
 Organization restructure and government change:
System use decline
 Conclusions
 Limitations and future research

19. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
Organization restructure and government
change: System use decline (1/2)
Shrinkage of organization chart of the Ministry by 60%.
Change of the people in charge of the project
More duties assigned to participants in the project
Staff reduction
Change of Top-Management
Different vision and priorities of the top management
Change of strategic plan

20. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
Organization restructure and government
change: System use decline (2/2)
Results:
o System use decline by 16% due to:
• System performance shortcomings as a result of the failure to continue
the project and enhance the system’s functionality.
• Change in the Ministry’s strategic plans
• The replacement of key executives
• Changes in the Ministry’s organizational structure
• Users started discovering workarounds to standard operating
procedures
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21. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
Contents
 Theoretical Background: The concept of Information
Systems Continuance and Discontinuance
 The context
 The initiation of the project
 Implementing the project
 Post implementation period
 Organization restructure and government change:
System use decline
 Conclusions
 Limitations and future research

22. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης Conclusions
 IS projects heavily dependent on context
 Factors derived from literature detected in current case
study
 Top-management support, CEO-CIO proximity and skilled
IT staff can have impact on system continuity
 Replacement of key executives and organizational change
can have impact on system discontinuity

23. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης
Contents
 Theoretical Background: The concept of Information
Systems Continuance and Discontinuance
 The context
 The initiation of the project
 Implementing the project
 Post implementation period
 Organization restructure and government change:
System use decline
 Conclusions
 Limitations and future research

24. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ
Υπουργείο Διοικητικής Μεταρρύθμισης
και Ηλεκτρονικής Διακυβέρνησης Limitations and future research
 Paper deals with concepts (System Continuance and
Discontinuance) at an abstract level
 Mere focus on description of facts
 A research model needs to be formed and validated
 Empirical data need to be collected from users or executive
staff
 Declining trend of system use obvious, but their causes
remain unknown
 Distinction between individual and organizational factors
needed