the London Ambulance Service (LAS)

PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED IN THE LAS CAD SYSTEM

First and foremost , from the investigations carried out , it is clearly shown that the CAD system was not fully mature or on time to be executed . Its users either were not ready or fully prepared to absorb it . The software itself was not comprehensive , it was not appropriately adjusted and finally it was not effusively tested . The flexibility of the hardware was also not tested when in operation and while fully loaded . Problems were also identified with the transmission of data from the mobile data

terminals and back . There was also some cynicism about the accurateness of records of the automatic vehicle location system (AVLS . The people who worked in the Central Ambulance Control and the ambulance crew itself , did not trust the system and were neither fully trained about the system . The layout of the control room was changed with the introduction of the CAD system . The staffs working in the control were in a mix up because they were working in a very unfamiliar environment where there was not even any backup . Due to this simple problems that they used to solve with their colleagues became monster problems . The CAD system was over ambitiously put in place . It was developed and put into operation in opposition to an impracticable timetable . The project itself was poorly managed and ambiguous from the development phase through the implementation process . Full time professional and qualified project management was lacking

A decision that had been made earlier to implement the full CAD system was erroneous . Putting into place a system such as CAD requires a step by step kind of approach , while establishing the efficiency of each step before moving on to the next . Each step should be justified by analyzing each aspect of it like costs and benefits . It 's true to say that the management , the supplier and all the concerned parties really put all their efforts into the implementation , but due to the fact that they implemented it as a single phase then they had no time to do the analysis and hence the couldn 't recognize the connotation of the numerous problems that were in due course to make it fail

Another cause of failure to the system was the fact that most of its users did not own up completely to accept the system . Some of the components of the system were recognized with certain problems over the previous months such that they created an atmosphere of distrust with the staff . Instead of wishing for its success , the staff rather expected a system failure . For the system to work efficiently , it required a number of adjustments to the existing working practices . The senior staff making the implementation had the idea that the system itself would bring about these adjustments . Btu instead most of the staff found it to be an outfitted line of restrictions within which they tried to operate and seem to be flexible with . This brought further perplexity...