The Impact of Technology on Everything Else

Abstract

Process reengineering and advanced information management technologies promise important improvements in medical communications and drug information operations in pharmaceutical companies. Recent experience with the implementation of advanced medical communications systems, however, makes it clear that companies need to be aware of and prepared to manage the indirect, and often undesirable, impacts of technology on people, culture, power structures, job content, and so forth. Through the use of examples, this article discusses these impacts—the impacts of technology on everything else. New work processes and new technology, often accompanied by major changes to the organizational structure, can be frightening to the people of the organization. Therefore, people must be prepared for change, management must take great care in conveying the vision of the future, and companies may need to enlist the aid of change management facilitators to help ensure that the promise of reengineering and advanced technology is realized.