Creating a Profound, Light-Filled Cultural Change
Let's look at an example...the information system used by a hotel chain. Many of the hotel employees make regular use of the system as they do their jobs. But they cannot change the way the system works. The only people who can do that are programmers. Users are required to accept the system as it is. This has a profound effect on how they do their jobs.
If a hotel worker has ideas for improving the way she does her work...ideas for serving customers better...ideas for saving time or resources...and those ideas require a change in the way the information systems works, she is stuck. Because users of the system can't change the way the system works. Only programmers can do that.
Thus, in a fundamental way, hundreds of millions of workers around the world who use information systems as a central part of their job function are "slaves" to those systems.
The rhythm of change in today's information systems is painfully slow.
Changing the system is a large, expensive, time-consuming undertaking for programmers. Then, users must often be re-trained on the new system when it is delivered. And there is often a disconnect in communication between users who understand what is needed and programmers who are unfamiliar with those needs. The system always comes out the way the programmers conceive that it should be, rather than the way the users conceive that it should be. There is an extreme need in the world today for systems to change and evolve rapidly. Systems need to change in response to ideas that users have for improving the way they do their work. Systems need to change in response to shifts in markets. Systems need to change in response to the demands of customers.
With AngelBase, the rhythm of change in information systems will be extremely rapid--systems will change continuously--as business needs change.
After an AngelBase information system is initially completed by programmers and released into the user community at our example hotel, the hotel workers will have the power to change and evolve the system as it is running. Users who are expert in a particular domain (such as reservations, or marketing, or maintenance, or accounts payable) can make changes in the system in order to implement improvements in their job functions. When the system changes, users won't need to be re-trained, because they will have created the changes in the system themselves, and they will be proud of what they have done.
If an accounts payable worker named Susie makes an improvement in the system, her co-worker, John, might see it and say, "Suzie, I like that change you made, can you send me a copy of the change?" Then John can also utilize the improvement. If it's a good one, then others will get interested. Pretty soon, the accounts payable manager will adopt it for the whole department. On the other hand if someone makes a change that doesn't work out so well, it will simply be abandoned. If the accounts payable manager has an idea for improving his department's working relationship with the maintenance department, then he can get together with the maintenance manager, and the two of them can work together to make the necessary changes in the system. This kind of phenomenon is impossible in today's information systems.
AngelBase unlocks the creativity in system users, and turns them from "slaves" of the system into "masters" of the system. This represents a profound cultural change that will affect and industry in a very big way. It will also change the way people feel about themselves. A master is happier than a slave.
Graduating from "slave" to "master" is a huge spiritual step that God wants everyone to take. AngelBase will enable this to happen for millions of people.
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