Big bang adoption

When a new system is adopted instantly
Big bang adoption or direct changeover is when a new system is adopted instantly, with no transition period between the old and new systems. When a new system needs to be implemented in an organization, there are three different ways to adopt this new system: the big bang adoption, phased adoption and parallel adoption. In case of parallel adoption the old and the new system are running parallel, so all the users can get used to the new system, and meanwhile do their work using the old system. Phased adoption means that the adoption will happen in several phases, so after each phase the system is a little nearer to be fully adopted. With the big bang adoption, the switch between using the old system and using the new system happens at one single date, the so called instant changeover of the system. Everybody starts to use the new system at the same date and the old system will not be used anymore from that moment on. The advantage of a big bang adoption is that the new system does not need to be compatible or connected with any old systems it is replacing. This significantly simplifies the design of the new system, especially in an organization that is running on multiple incompatible systems. However, the big bang adoption type is riskier than other adoption types because there are fewer learning opportunities incorporated in the approach, so more preparation is needed to get to the big bang. It has been alleged that this caused large losses.

Dow Corning formerly used systems that were focused on specific departments. The management decided that they wanted to become a truly global company, that would use only one information system: an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. To adopt this new ERP system, they used the big bang adoption type and they spent considerable time and effort reexamining its business processes. The company was prepared for the adoption and first conducted three pilot implementations, before using the new system across the global organization. (Scott, Vessy, 2000)

Dow Corning monitored the progress constantly and made decisions to make sure that the deadlines would be met. This was only possible with feedback and good communication. (Scott, Vessey, 2000)

Another risky strategy is to focus only on the outcome, not on how to achieve this outcome and underrating the learning process for users. It is very hard to plan learning or knowledge, though these are necessary to be able to execute the big bang changeover.

FoxMeyer adopted an ERP system with ambitious warehouse automation software, using the big bang adoption to gain competitive advantage. But FoxMeyer seemed to have an overoptimistic management with unrealistic expectations: the change was too big and too drastic. This resulted in very high work pressure to meet the deadlines for all the employees. So unrealistic expectations of the management are also a risk (Scott, Vessy, 2000). FoxMeyer failed in having communication and attention that was necessary to be able to give fast and effective feedback. They instead tried to minimize problems by ignoring them, and gave discouraging criticism, which resulted in ambiguous feedback. This hindered organizational learning, something which is very important during an organizational change. So bad communication and ambiguous feedback are also risks when adopting a system with the big bang (Scott, Vessey, 2000).