The Experiences and Solutions

The experiences and solutions described in this paper originate from the company DSS Consulting, whose mission is to administrative support to small school districts primarily in the mid-west and mountain west. This includes negotiating labor agreements or setting up procurement systems. One major problem Chris had was difficulty in getting support from others in the organization and putting together the forms and developing instructions for consultants. Required items were missing from a considerable part of the a database program provided by a third-party vendor; a program for putting information into the database program written by an outside consulting firm; a set of forms districts would use to organize information about schedules and budgets; and a set of instructions for consultants to use in helping districts use the program and its results.

The more serious these problems were the bigger the concern for the desired satisfaction of the customer without first handling the database problems. If provided data are erroneous and do not reflect the real facts and processes of the past, the "discovered"relationships, rules are based on these false or incorrect data values, and may trigger erroneous decisions. This and similar problems led DSS Consulting to the recognition that, in such situations, extra work has to be invested to filter out likely or evidently incorrect planning before concentrating on the original tasks. Chris needed help from their customers, since they know their data, and be able to help deciding about their budget and planning strategies. This process resulted in the unplanned use of resources on both sides, which had a negative effect on the overall success of the whole project right at the beginning. However, this sacrifice had to be made to avoid larger problems later.

Cross-functional projects have to become an organization-wide standard that will guide the creation and implementation processes in order to gain support. If this standard is put into force, understood and observed by all, the organization is on the right track towards quality services. Of course, the company standards should be revised and updated as changes in the organization's environment and activities render it necessary. However a team of experts should do this consciously, not all individuals who have access to resources.

When DSS started to develop systems, they had little time to produce a tool