End-user attitudes towards EDM use in project work

A case study of the Kamppi Center project

M.Sc. thesis research methods and results

29 March 2006

Mathias HjeltSwedish School of Economics and Business

Administration

Research objectives Explore end-user attitudes towards

EDM usage in a large construction project:

How do users across different segments of the project organisation perceive the benefits and challenges of EDM use?

Propose a model describing factors affecting individual EDM adoption

Case: Kamppi Center 500 million EUR construction project

including: a shopping centre underground bus and cargo terminals 12,500 m² of office space 5,700 m ² of residential apartments parking facilities

SRV Viitoset appointed design & build contractor

3 architectural offices ~ 20 structural / technical design offices Hundreds of subcontractors

Case: Kamppi Center Electronic document management in

the project: ASP / web based Raksanet Used by 340 users from 90

organisations 17,000 documents organised in 1700

folders Mainly DWG, PLT, PDF, Word, Excel Automatic paper copy distribution

ICT adoption theoryAdoption decisions in an organization (Gallivan 2001)

Managementobjectives

and intentionsfor change

Availability oftechnological

innovation

Primary innovationadoptionprocess

Secondaryinnovationadoptionprocess

Otherinfluences

Mandateto adopt

ICT adoption theoryUnified Theory of Acceptance and Use of

Technology (Venkatesh et al 2003)

The UTAUT model is based on previous frameworks: innovation diffusion theory, TRA, TAM, MPCU, etc..

Intention and actual use influenced by: effort expectancy perfomance expectancy social influence facilitating conditions

ICT adoption theoryUpdated IS Success Model (DeLone &

McLean 2003)

User’s intention to use is influenced by three dimensions of quality:

system quality information quality support quality

Research design

In-depthInterviews

SurveyLog fileanalysis

Phase 2• Objective: gain deeper understanding• Qualitative• 5 users + 1 expert• Sample based on phase 1

Phase 1• Objective: “draw the big picture”• Quantitative• Entire user base

Survey 19 Likert-scale questions on the topics of:

Respondent background (e.g. previous EDM experience) Support quality (received training, support, guidelines) System quality (e.g. reliability, functionality, ease of

use) Information quality (contents of the EDM, structure) EDM vs other channels of communication Overall perception of benefits

1 free-text comment

Web based implementation Covering letter sent by e-mail to all active users (n=282) Each respondent given a unique URL in the e-mail

http://kamppi.iterate.fi/KABCDE The link contains an ID which helps tracking responses

Answer required on all quantitative questions Effect: 20 partial responses 13 complete ones

Ensuring a satisfactory response rate Cover letter credibility

From: SRV Viitoset’s director of planning

Low effort Questionnaire can be completed in 5 minutes All questions on page – you see what you’re in for

Incentives Non-monetary: ”get your voice heard” Monetary: 2 x 100 € gift certificates

Timing post-holidays, Monday a.m.

Follow-up / reminder ”You still have a chance to give your input / win a gift

certificate”

Response statistics Respondents:

282 intended recipients 13 unreachable (invalid email addresses, over-quota

mailboxes etc) 167 actual responses Active response rate 167/(282-13) = 62 %

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Mon Thu Wed Thu Fri Mon Tue Wed

0 %

25 %

50 %

75 %

100 %

Reminder

Interviews 5 end-user interviews

2 project management 1 architect 1 subcontractor 1 city planning

1 expert interview

Previous EDM experience 53 % were first-time EDM users

Attitude towards EDM At the outset of the project:

Experienced EDM users were more confident regarding benefits than first-time EDM users

Subcontractors were the least experienced; thus also the most sceptical

At the end of the project: A majority reported that their attitude had

improved Subcontractors reported the biggest

improvement!

Perceived benefits of EDM usage Most respondents considered EDM

essential in a project of this size and complexity

Other channels of communication

Still the use of parallel channels was considered a major source of stress and extra work!

Perceived barriers to EDM use Why didn’t EDM replace other

channels of communication? Using the system was considered slow

and cumbersome - sending a file by email much easier and faster

Users did not receive enough training or guidelines – the complexity of the contents was perceived as the biggest challenge to getting started

Key findings Users quick to revert to other channels if

EDM not perceived as easy to use or useful

Two aspects influence ease-of-use and usefulness: System quality: The technical aspects of using

the software Information quality: The actual contents,

structure, meta-data practices, etc

Users need training and guidelines regarding both aspects! Self-learning not always viable Learning from colleagues not always viable Thus, formal training should be organised

Acceptance factors

Company properties

Individual propertiesDimensions of quality

Effort expectancy

Performance expectancy

Social influence

Facilitating conditions

Involvement in project

Involvement in the information process

InfrastructureSupport quality

- training- guidelines

System quality

- functionality- usability

Information quality

- up to date, accurate- complete- well structured

Information accessibility

Use

User satisfaction

Management attitude

IT skills & personality

Support from collegues

Service provided End users

Evaluation of research methods Web-based questionnaire successful, but...

respondents skewed towards more active users difficult trade-off between detail and likelihood

of getting a broad response (4-point Likert scales perhaps too coarse, certain questions ambiguous..)

Matching of quantitative and qualitative data quantitative answers appeared largely positive;

free-text comments and interview responses much more critical

Number of interviews...