Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with the Sales Force Automation System (SFA)
Abstract
Advancement in
information communication technology (ICT) is an important driver in achieving
competitive advantage for organizations in today’s fast moving world. Though it
is vital and inevitable the adoption and diffusion of ICT could be seen as a major
challenge faced by the nations/organizations.
The user acceptance of
technology could be viewed as the demonstrable willingness within a user or a group
to employ information technology for the tasks it is designed to be supported.
Thus, the concept is not being applied to situations in which users claim they
will make use of it without providing evidence of use, or to the use of a
technology for the function which is unintended by the designers or procurers
(for instance using an internet connection for personal work within a work
situation). Obviously there is a degree of uncertainty here since actual usage
is always likely to deviate to certain extent from idealized, intended usage,
but the essence of acceptance theory is that such deviations are not
significant, i.e. the process of user acceptance of any information technology
for intended purposes can be modeled and predicted.
Lack of user acceptance
is a significant impediment to the success of new information systems. Indeed,
users are often reluctant to use information systems which, if used, would
result in extraordinary performance gains. Therefore, user acceptance has been
viewed as the pivotal factor in determining the success or failure of any
information system project.
Thus, this assignment is
focused towards evaluating the application of ICT and its acceptance at Darley
Butler & Co., Ltd. during the execution of Sales Force Automation System
(SFA). Though the system had enormous in built advantages in terms of
productivity and accuracy obtaining user acceptance has been a huge
challenge.
Darley Butler &
Company Limited is established way back in 1848. Then
business activities were diversified, and covered estate agencies, commission
agents, imports/exports, ship chartering, etc. In 1920 the partnership was
converted to a limited liability company, and continued its business of being a
primary exporter of tea and local produce. However with the decline in the
export business, the company shifted its focus to imports, local sales and
distribution of consumer products. With the acquisition in 1967, the company
became a wholly owned subsidiary of E B Creasy & Company PLC, which is
listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange.
Today the Company's core
business is marketing a range of FMCG categories that are well known brands in
the country like, NINJA, DENTA, BIC, COW & GATE, AMRITHA, HACKS, CANDYMAN,
LAXAPANA etc. To maximize distribution of these products, the company relies on
its key strength which is its current distribution infrastructure consisting of
132 professionally trained Consumer Sales Representatives, and 20 Sales
Management and Supervisory staff and the services of 65 long-standing
Distributors located throughout the country. In order to successfully market
the brands, the company has a team of Brand Managers who have hands-on
experience in handling FMCG categories, and are well-versed in the sphere of
brand management.
The company which has
gone through several phases of evolution has today emerged as an aggressive
marketing organization. The medium and long-term strategic goals of the company
are to identify opportunities in high growth mass market consumer categories,
and enter those markets offering high quality and reasonably priced products.
Darley Butler is the sole distributor of all the
products manufactured and imported of the group. Before 2005, the distribution
process was based on a manual system. Distributors island-wide collects the
goods from head office either on cash or credit. Thereafter the company’s Sales
Representatives raise manual invoices to the retailers and wholesalers in order
to re-distribute the goods all over the island. All the manual invoices are
required to be forwarded to the head office weekly. Then the data entry
operators were manually feeding all sales records to the computer system for
the purpose of providing management information.
The process of system feeding of sales data and
providing management information took 3-4 weeks. Simply the last month’s sales
information was provided for the management decision making at the end of the
next month. Due to this decision making delay, human errors and late detection
of the malfunctions during the selling process, it was decided to automate the
re-distribution process island-wide.
Further to the decision
of SFA system, selecting the appropriate infrastructure was one of the critical
factors. A suitable device i.e. a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) had
to be selected complying with requirement and the budgetary allocations. The
main purpose of the PDA is to act as an electronic organizer/tool or day
planner that is portable and capable of sharing information in respect of the
tasks performed with PC or software in respect of re-distribution. It's
considered to be an extension of the PC, not a replacement. Finally the brand
PALM was selected initially for a price of Rs. 18, 000/= for the process.
Battery life (power) of
the PDA was another main concern since it required at least 10 hours battery
life. The PALM TOP has been able to survive for average 12 hrs, after fully
being charged before the beginning of the session.
As the process required
a bill or an invoice to be issued to the retailer/wholeseller, decision of
selecting a printing solution was required. A dot-matrix printer was selected
instead of a thermal printer and the printing was made via Bluetooth.
Finally the training of staff of
both the company and the distributors towards the acceptance of technology were
to be made. All staff involved was made groups of 10 each and an intensive
training was made on the system and handling the PDA. Finally it was executed
along with on the job training and monitoring on regional basis.
The system required some
prerequisites to be met before starting up the day for sales re-distribution.
The IT department of the company forwards the data in respect of the days’ plan
to each distribute point, where the Sales Representative require to synchronies
the PDA before leaving to the route. Then the Sales Representative carryout his
days work as per the plan downloaded and when winding up the day he require to
synchronies the PDA again in order to upload the day’s data to the system.
Thereafter the IT department is carrying out the necessary data processing to
provide management information.
Application of TAM with
Darley Butler SFA and its Critical success factors in terms of Ease of use and usefulness
As indicated above the
main challenges faced by the IT department is the selection of the device/PDA
with adequate power throughout the process, printing solution and obtaining user
acceptance towards the system from members involved. Out of which managing
staff resistance towards the system has been the major challenge. The entire
field staff from top to bottom was reluctant to accept initially due to the
failure of Unileves’ during their automation process by that time. Further the
Sales Representatives were quite averse on the system on top of its ease of use
and usefulness, as the avenues available to manipulate the selling system will
be minimal during process of monthly target achievement. Therefore in order to
build the confidence towards its ease of use and usefulness, the IT team had to
conduct intensive training to all users including company and distributors.
Finally they were able to make it a reality by realizing and being convinced its
positive attributes.
§ Storage of Information
PDA is able to store all
the selling information that is required to proceed the re-distribution for the
day. When the daily data is being synchronized it gives all information of the
route to be covered for the day to achieve its daily target. Sales Representatives
does not require to manually go through their route plan, previous visits, last
selling records, credit terms, previous credits to be collected, amount of free
issues and discounts to be extended to retailers, terms in accepting stock
returns, authorized and unauthorized retailers etc. This makes life easy in
performing the daily sales and collection.
§
Make
to-do lists
PDA contains data that are required from the
beginning of the day to end from each point. It makes life easy in
re-distribution.
§
Take
notes
It allows to note- down remarks and concerns
during the day’s process to be referred during the next visit allowing the
staff to organize their future plans.
§
Track
appointments (date book, calendar) and Remind appointments (clock, alarm
functions)
PDA allows tracking the special appointments
made to other outlets and drop alerts during the days’ process and acts as a
diary/calendar.
§ Perform calculations
PDA allows auto calculations. When the order
is feed in to the PDA it automatically calculates the amounts payable, discounts
allowed and the free issues to be granted. Representatives do not require to
manual calculations or refer any memos on discount structures and free issues.
This makes re-distribution faster and free of manual calculation errors.
§
Quality
of work life
PDA carries a personality. Representatives
were carrying manual bill books, pens, calculators and carbon copies etc. in
performing their duties before. When the PDA is being introduced, it carries
only the devise and transactions are made using the stylus. This certainly
carries a personality to the company representatives and enhances work
quality.
Management
reports and reviews
When the day’s sales/data are synchronized
back to the system at the day end, it allows the management to review the information
for decision making by the next day morning. This allows fast decision making
and obtaining corrective measures if any deviations or errors were made during
the re-distribution process. Further this enhances the data accuracy and making
the monthly targets feasible.
§
Monitoring
malfunctions and obtaining corrective measures
As indicated above,
the system allows analyzing the previous day’s data and is available in the
next day for reviewing. With the previous method, the company couldn’t identify
any malfunctions during the re-distribution process unless being visited the
retailers and wholesalers personally and by checking the bills raised manually.
With the introduction of the PDA as data are available on the next day, it
allows the management to review the same and identify errors and take
corrective measure immediately.
§
Easy mentoring
by field managers
Other than the
management located in head office the Field Managers also given the facility to
monitor re-distribution data and this makes further easy monitoring and
decision making.
Easy
in reviewing monthly performance
Unlike the previous
method, the data on re-distribution will be finalized by the month end, will be
processed for the provision of management information by the first week of the
next month. Whereas in the previous manual invoicing systems, the information was
available for management decision making only at the end of the next month.
This could be considered as one of the main advantage of the implementation of
the SFA and gaining the user acceptance towards technology.
§
Easy
of updating information and information circulation
SFA system could be
made available with the latest information, decisions or the changes affected
towards the re-distribution process. For instance if any prices changes,
discount and free issue structure changes could be updated as soon as decisions
are made and dispatched to the field staff through the process of
synchronizing. This keeps the system live, realistic and accurate to meet the
market competition.
§
Internally
developed software
The SFA system
software is maintained by the IT department of the company. Therefore any
changes could be effected immediately. Also the information requirement and
report structures could be always modified and tailor maid as per the specific
needs of the management to make the decision making process more effective.
Top management commitment
The top management
commitment offered throughout the process was a blessing. As the perceived
usefulness they realized is highly positive, the implementation process was a
success.
Proper
selection of tools and devices
Due to the proper
selection of the devices the SFA system was perceived as easy to use by the
users. Though the users were reluctant toward the new system initially, after
being properly trained before to the implementation and on the job they were
made positive towards accepting the technology.
§
Extensive
on the job training
Intensive and well organized
training given to all the users of the company and the distributors had a high
impact toward the perceived usefulness and the ease of use. Whereby they
realized that, it is more beneficial to enhance the quality of work life.
§
IT
field staff in trouble shooting
Further company
deployed its own team in order to the trouble shoot while it is running. This
helping hand was able to build more confidence among the users, thus making the
technology being accepted by them.
§
Simplicity
of technology
The simplicity of the
technology and the easy of handling the devise was a great help. The Sales
Forces being employed by the company are mainly G.C.E O/L qualified and also
from all over the island. Thus some do not have a proper education of the
computer technology. The touch system and handling via stylus made the life
easy of the user. As a result the newcomers were trained on the system within
3-5 days before being deployed to the field, thus perceived ease of use in the
mind of the user was made positive.
To
provide a better life and to create competitive during the re-distribution
process the Darley Butler & Co., Limited, took the initiative of
introducing the Sales Forces Automation System with the unvalued talent and the
commitment of its IT team and the rest of the support services. Thus they were
able to make it a reality and are well performing since today.
In light of the TAM model, the main factors
that contributed immensely towards its success are discussed in part 3. It is
clearly evident that the success of any system implementation is heavily
depends on the how the user is accepting the same. Thus in technology
acceptance the perceived usefulness and the ease of use acts as main two
variables that affects the attitude towards same.
