A Survey Of Isdn Adoption And Diffusion

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54-80-10 A Survey of ISDN Adoption and Diffusion Issues Previous screen Vincent S. Lai Jan L. Guynes Bijoy Bordoloi Payoff Integrated services digital network (ISDN) technology has garnered a great deal of attention but not much use. Reasons for low use include decision makers' lack of familiarity with the technology and the job of cost justification. Potential adopters of ISDN can develop effective strategies for planning and infusing this technology into their organizations if they understand the implementation issues. This article examines ISDN adoption and diffusion patterns and implementation experiences of early adopters among the Business Week 1000 companies. Introduction The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a worldwide public network service that can provide end-to-end digital communications and fully integrate technologies (including circuit switching, private line, and packet switching)and applications (voice, data, and image) over existing twisted-pair cable. In 1986, the first ISDN features were introduced in the US. Two years later, the first commercial services were offered. This article explores the evolution of ISDN by evaluating its adoption, diffusion, and implementation within organizations. The evaluation is based on a nationwide survey of Business Week 1,000 companies. The findings and conclusions of this study, as presented in this article, should prove useful to vendors (for improving their products and services) as well as potential adopters (for learning from the implementation experiences of early adopter companies). Specifically, the objective of this survey was to explore the following areas: · · Adoption and diffusion issues, including: · Who makes adoption decisions for emerging information technologies in large corporations? · Do companies have an established strategy to assess and adopt emerging technologies? · What is the acceptance status of ISDN among large corporations? · Why do some companies reject ISDN? · What are the major obstacles for ISDN availability? Implementation experiences, including: · What is the extent of implementation in organizations that have adopted ISDN? Previous screen · For what type of applications is ISDN used in organizations · What cost savings are provided by ISDN? · What are the significant changes in communications activities that occurred after the implementation of ISDN? · What is the overall performance of ISDN implementations? Some background and information on ISDN is presented first—information that is pertinent to the discussion of the survey results. However, the article focuses only on the general aspects of ISDN. The architecture and technical details of this technology are not within the scope of this study. Overview of ISDN The objective of Integrated Services Digital Network is to provide voice, video, and data on a single network. The objective is to control an increasingly diversified, complex technology(data communications) while also reducing the installation and maintenance costs in communications facilities. Two standard ISDN access interfaces (or two classes of services to customers) have been defined: · The Basic Rate Interface. · The Primary Rate Interface. The basic rate interface (BRI) is the minimal ISDN service and is appropriate for residential and small business users. This service defines three channels and is referred to as 2B + D. The B channels are each of 64K bps and are appropriate for either voice or data transmission. The D channel, which is a 16K-bps signaling channel, is designed to control transmission of the B channels. The primary rate interface (PRI) is referred to as 23B + D and is suitable for organizations that have heavier and stricter demand for data communications. It consists of 23 64K-bps B channels and one 64K-bps D channel. The Primary Rate Interface offers a high level of versatility for users. A transmission job that requires higher bandwidth can be performed by multiplexing two B channels to form one 128K-bps channel, or by multiplexing four B channels to form one 256K-bps channel. In a similar manner, a 64Kbps can be submultiplexed into two 32K-bps or eight 8K-bps channels. In essence, ISDN provides the user with a universal plug connected to a universal network. Applications with data rates of less than 300 bps to more than 2M bps can be accommodated. With this high transmission bandwidth, Integrated Services Digital Network supports such services as remote meter reading, energy management, security management, audio, telephony, high-speed data networks, facsimile, graphics, and videotext. The current ISDN services (BRI and Primary Rate Interface), which are referred to as baseband ISDN services, can accommodate only transmission data rates of up to 2M bps. Because of the growing demand for high data rate services (especially image and video services), Broadband ISDN technology with data rates of up to 600M bps is being developed. Currently, the International Telecommunications Union and other standards organizations are working to define the standards and capabilities of this new technology. Previous screen No Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network service, or BISDN, is available to users. The ISDN Survey and Its Methodology For this survey, a questionnaire concerning Integrated Services Digital Network adoption and implementation experiences was developed using previous studies and field testing. Preliminary interviews identified questions of practical importance. The initial questionnaire was pilot tested in 13 organizations and then revised to address issues of content and construct validity before being used in the survey. The questionnaire was mailed to the directors of IS of the Business Week 1,000 list of largest industrial companies. Six weeks later, a follow-up mailing was sent to those companies that had not responded to the first mailing. Eighty-nine companies responded to the first mailing; 74 responded to the second mailing. Of the 1,000 questionnaires, 16 were nondeliverable, producing an overall response rate of 16.6%. The length, difficulty, and confidential nature of the subject matter of the questionnaire may explain the low response rate. After reviewing the responses, it was found that not all questionnaires were valid. The removal of these invalid respondents resulted in 143 usable questionnaires. Characteristics of Respondents Company Profile The participants who responded to the survey were from a broad range of companies, both in terms of size and industry representation. A profile of the participating companies by industry is provided in Exhibit 1. The largest number of respondents came from the manufacturing and processing industry—a distribution that was anticipated, because a large percentage of the Business Week 1,000 companies are either in manufacturing or processing. Company Profile Classification -------------Manufacturing/Processing Chemical/Pharmaceutical Medical/Legal Computer/DP Services Finance Construction Petroleum Trade Transportation Education Other Total Company ------49 18 15 12 11 7 6 4 2 2 17 Percent ------34 13 11 8 8 5 4 3 1 1 12 143 100 Respondent Profile The targeted recipients of the survey questionnaire were IS executives well versed in network management and technology. These executives include the director of IS, vicepresident of IS, manager of network services, and manager of IS. Because there was no knowledge of who would be more competent in Integrated Services Digital Network at the Previous screen respective companies, the questionnaires were sent to the director of IS with the request that this person direct the questionnaire to the most qualified personnel within the company. A profile of the respondents by their job title is provided in Exhibit 2. Respondents by Job Title Job Title --------Director of IS Manager of Network Services Manager of IS Director of Network Services VP of IS Chief Information Officer Other Total Number of Respondents ----------42 35 22 17 13 6 8 143 Percent ------29 25 15 12 9 4 6 100 Almost all of the questionnaires (94%) were responded to by someone in an IS executive position. The remaining 6% of respondents held the job titles of analyst/programmer, software engineer, senior systems analyst, or telecommunications specialist. Survey Results: Adoption and Diffusion Issues The survey responses were used to examine the issues related to Integrated Services Digital Network adoption and diffusion and implementation experiences. Here, adoption and diffusion issues are discussed first, then the implementation-related issues are analyzed. Decision Makers of IT Adoption Successful technological innovation requires a competent management system. Effective managers are needed to set the technological policy for the creation of an environment conducive to technological innovation and to prioritize available resources to facilitate the development and implementation of new ideas and technology. In companies like the Business Week 1,000, the IS management structure is usually composed of a chief information officer (CIO), vice-president of information systems, and director of information systems. This management structure has a continuing responsibility to monitor advances in information technology and to keep the company informed of progress in the IS field. When it comes to who makes the actual decision to acquire new information technology, the results are quite diverse, according to the findings of this survey (see Exhibit 3). Decision Makers on Technology Adoption Position -------Committee VP of Information Systems Director of Information Systems Chief Information Officer Other Responses (percent) --------33 26 24 11 6 Previous screen The majority (94%) of the change agents of information technology are senior IS executives. They decide the acceptance or rejection of new innovations. Other people who enjoy this privilege include the company's president, the vice-presidents of finance and of engineering, and the chief financial officer. If the adoption decision is made by a committee, the VP of IS, director of IS, and CIO are usually represented. Adoption Strategy Adoption of new information technology requires systematic planning. It is especially useful for the IS management team to form a small advanced-technology group whose purpose is to make assessments and provide recommendations on the use of emerging technology within the company. These groups assist in technology introduction and provide useful insights for long-term IS planning purposes. To determine how progressive the largest US companies are in technology planning, this survey included two statements that respondents were asked to agree or disagree with. These results, presented in Exhibit 4, provide insight into corporate IT adoption strategies. Degree of IT Adoption Planning Adoption Strategy ----------------The organization has an informal network of employees to keep up with new developments in information technology. The organization has formal procedures for evaluating new information technology. Mean Score ----- Standard Deviation --------- 5.2 1.6 4.9 1.7 Note: Rated on a scale of 1 to 7 (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree) Most surveyed companies agreed that their organizations had some type of process for managing the adoption of new information technology. These include the formation of informal networks among company employees and the development of formal policies in the company. Though the mean scores of the two technology planning questions are not exceedingly high, they adequately disclose an emphasis on planning the adoption and assimilation of new information technology. The high standard deviations associated with the mean scores indicate, however, that there were high variations among the respondents in their adoption strategy. In general, the respondents agreed that the informal networks set up by employees are more prevalent in conducting evaluations of emerging technologies than formal organizational procedures are. Acceptance Status of ISDN Among Companies Of the companies, only 13 (9%) were currently using ISDN, 10 (7%) were planning to implement it, and 15 (11%) were currently evaluating it. Another 21 (15%) were planning to evaluate it. The remaining companies (58%) were either still skeptical of, unaware of, or uninterested in ISDN. It was interesting to find out that more than 40% of the respondents had not even evaluated ISDN (see Exhibit 5). The users seemed to be skeptical of the technology because there is no clearly focused, widely shared vision of the applicability, benefits, and Previous screen realization of ISDN. In addition, respondents indicated that their communications needs have been served equally well by their existing networks. Therefore, they would rather wait until Integrated Services Digital Network offers the technological advantages and potential benefits it promises. Acceptance of ISDN Status -----Not evaluating Have evaluated, but did not implement Plan to evaluate Currently evaluating Currently using Have evaluated and plan to implement Responses (percent) --------41 17 16 11 9 7 Reasons for Rejecting ISDN The high rejection rate (17%) of ISDN indicates dissatisfaction among the companies that have evaluated this technology. In the survey, respondents were asked to list their rejection reasons and to rank the top three reasons in the order of significance. To better compare the results, a score was calculated for each problem. Four points were assigned to the most significant problem, three points to the second most significant problem, two points to the third most significant problem, and one point to an unranked problem. Using this method, the main reasons cited for rejecting Integrated Services Digital Network are as follows, in order of significance: · Other networks can serve the same communications needs equally well. · Nationwide ISDN not available. · Not able to cost-justify. · Not an established technology. · Not available in our area. · International ISDN not available. · Not compatible with organization's computing environment. The companies that have evaluated but rejected ISDN pointed out that Integrated Services Digital Network is not a revolutionary communication technology. This fact, plus the immaturity and unavailability of ISDN, has prevented it from achieving a nationwide prevalence. In addition, potential users are not convinced that ISDN will provide any significant additional service capabilities. ISDN Obstacles No empirical studies have been conducted to investigate the importance of the problems of ISDN systems. This survey asked the IS executives who have evaluated ISDN (regardless Previous screen of whether or not the technology was adopted)to pinpoint ISDN-related problems and to rank the top three in the order of seriousness. The same computation method used in calculating the scores for ISDN rejection was applied. The principal problems cited, in order, are: · National ISDN not available. · Unattractive tariff structure. · Lack of user awareness. · Worldwide ISDN not available. · Expense of ISDN equipment. · Available only in metropolitan areas. · Incompatible equipment. · ISDN services not attractive. · Lack of standards. Although there are varied issues comfronting ISDN and obstructing its widespread use, all of them are a result of one issue: the failure to implement ISDN standards and procedures. This is what leads to incompatible ISDN implementations and isolated Integrated Services Digital Network use, with limited interworking of ISDN through different Central Office. This is the obstacle to universal ISDN acceptance and the cause of unattractive tariff. This issue also frustrates potential customers and provokes their indifference toward ISDN. National ISDN-1was announced in February 1991; the purpose of the standard is to unify different industry constituencies and expedite coast-to-coast ISDN availability. Implementation Experiences Extent of Implementation In the survey, 13 respondents indicated that their organizations were using Integrated Services Digital Network. Three of these adopter companies (23%) stated that the technology was adopted within one year, five (38%) within two years, four (31%) within four years, and one (8%)within five years. These companies have either chosen Basic Rate Interface, Primary Rate Interface, or a combination of both services. They also have a different number of ISDN lines installed in their organizations (Exhibit 6). In the survey, 10 companies (77% of adopters) had installed Basic Rate Interface, two (15%) installed primary rate interface (PRI), and one (8%) installed both basic rate interface (BRI) and primary rate interface (PRI) services. The services most companies subscribed to are still confined to basic rate interface (BRI), with less than 500 lines installed per company. Only one company had more than 1,000 lines installed. When these ISDN adopters were asked about their future plans for upgrading their installation base (i.e., line increase or service upgrade to primary rate interface (PRI)), none of them indicated that they would be doing so. Number of ISDN Lines Installed Previous screen Number of Lines -------Less than 101 101-300 301-500 501-700 701-1,000 More than 1,000 No response Number of Responses BRI PRI ----3 2 3 0 2 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 2 1 As depicted in Exhibit 7, all 13 respondents who adopted ISDN indicated that their companies had not optimized ISDN use. This is especially significant when it comes to the handling of external communications activities. None of the respondents used their ISDN lines to perform more than 15% of their communications activities with the outside world. In addition, 23% of the adopters mentioned that their ISDN service was confined to only one departmental use on a trial basis. In general, basic rate interface (BRI) has a slightly higher extent of implementation, as compared to primary rate interface (PRI). basic rate interface (BRI) line capacity has been more effectively used and basic rate interface (BRI) has a higher rate of use for intraorganizational communications. Extent of ISDN Implementation Extent of Implementation -------------Capacity Local Communications External Communications Percentage Used ---------up to 15% 16-30% 31-45% no response up to 15% 16-30% 31-45% no response up to 15% 16-30% no response Number of Responses BRI PRI ----4 2 3 1 2 0 2 0 4 3 3 0 2 0 2 0 9 2 0 0 3 1 Applications of ISDN The survey results indicated that ISDN has not been used to perform the type of sophisticated applications(e.g., telemetry, high-speed data, and video) promoted by the ISDN carriers. Instead, respondents were more attracted to ISDN telephone features and interested in its data transfer and voice-communications capabilities. This restricted scope of ISDN applications has severely hampered the diffusion of ISDN service in organizations. If Integrated Services Digital Network services are not applied to applications that they are uniquely designed for, users will not be attracted to nor will they accept and use the technology. If users do not understand the technology and how it relates to their communications activities, the extent of implementation cannot be expected to be high. Cost Savings of ISDN Previous screen One of the major issues of IT investment is cost savings. In the context of ISDN technology, the concern is the total reduction in communications costs after this technology is installed. An earlier survey showed that savings would be in the range of 10% to 20% for the primary line users. 10 However, it was hard to generalize about the savings because of the variation in three areas: · Private and public implementation. · Types of hardware and applications used. · Tariffs charged by different carriers. Many organizations that participated in our survey indicated that cost savings in data communications should not be restricted only to the direct costs that were paid for the lines. The subscribers should also consider the savings derived from flexibility, bandwidth, services, speed, and convenience of the networks. Although the respondents did not agree strongly about the cost-savings aspects of ISDN (Exhibit 8),they were more inclined to accept the fact that ISDN can reduce their data communications costs. In fact, one of the respondents stated that the company had saved tremendously in the rewiring costs incurred in department moves or employee changes because of the easier wiring schemes of ISDN. Cost Savings with ISDN Items ----Saves network management cost Saves transmission cost Mean Score ---------4.9 4.4 Standard Deviation -----------------1.24 0.88 Note: Rated on a scale of 1 to 7 (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree) Organizational Changes Promoted by ISDN When it comes to the organizational structure and nature of job changes, there is a high consensus (a mean score of at least 6.5) among the adopters that these changes are minimal (see Exhibit 9). At least 77% (10 out of 13) of the adopters signified no change in any way in their communications structures after the installation of ISDN. It also appears that the roles of network manager and other staff associated with network management are not affected by the implementation of ISDN. The explanation may be that ISDN is a public service provided by the carriers. Therefore, network maintenance and management are solely the responsibilities of the common carrier. ISDN and Changes in Communication Structure 10 D. Bushaus and P. Travis, “Users Find ISDN Pays Off,“ Telephony(February 1990), pp. 12-15. Previous screen Events -----Changes in job description or design Changes in network management function Changes in department structure Mean Score ---------6.8 6.5 6.5 Standard Deviation -----------------0.4 1.1 1.3 Notes: Rates on a scale of 1 to 7 (1=large change, 7=no change) Performance of the Implementations The survey also asked ISDN adopters questions to determine the performance of ISDN implementation in their companies. As Exhibit 10 indicates, “ISDN performed as expected” had the highest mean score. Three respondents strongly agreed (a score of 7 out of 7) that ISDN had performed as expected. User acceptance also received high marks from the adopters. In fact, more than half of the adopters strongly agreed (scores of 6 and 7) that their Integrated Services Digital Network services had been highly accepted by users. Overall, 50% of the adopters felt that the decision to adopt ISDN had been a wise one, but 8% felt strongly that it had been a poor decision. Implementation Performance Performance ----------ISDN performed as expected User acceptance ISDN adoption was worthwhile Operation went smoothly Installation went smoothly Management support Mean Score ---------5.5 5.3 5.2 4.9 4.7 3.6 Standard Deviation -----------------1.0 1.0 1.2 1.9 1.5 2.0 Notes: Rated on a scale of 1 to 7 (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree) As far as the ISDN installation and operation issues are concerned, more than 50% of the adopters agreed or strongly agreed that their installation and operational procedures had gone smoothly. However, their moderately high standard deviation values (1.9 and 1.5) reflected that their opinions were highly variable. The findings also exhibited that more than 24% of the adopters were disappointed with their implementation processes. Among all the performance indicators, management support was far behind all the others. It received only a 3.7 mean score from all ISDN adopters. In fact, 11% of the adopters strongly disagreed that Integrated Services Digital Network had received management support. CONCLUSION This survey indicated that only a few leading-edge companies are beginning to take advantage of Integrated Services Digital Network and are incorporating it into their longrange plans. A majority of the potential ISDN users are still confused as to the benefits, schedule availability, standards, and price/performance relationships of this new information technology. The main question is: What can Integrated Services Digital Network do for their organizations? Many companies are unwilling to include ISDN as part of their future plans and are taking a wait-and-see approach. Previous screen The industry has been deadlocked, unable to make ISDN acceptable, let alone popular. If the theory of the diffusion of innovation is used to explain the spread of ISDN over time, then ISDN is still struggling at the bottom of the S-curve. There is not even an indication when Integrated Services Digital Network will reach the takeoff point in the Scurve. Of those respondents who currently have ISDN services, their extent of Integrated Services Digital Network implementation was found to be limited. No company reported having used more than 50% of the technology's capacity. For the most part, these companies are using ISDN for such basic applications as voice messaging, file transfers, and modem pooling. Advanced data applications on Integrated Services Digital Network have been slow to take hold. This explains why the utilization rate of ISDN is low in internal and external communications activities. ISDN is obviously a valid technology despite its lack of acceptance. Lack of acceptance can be changed. This change will come when ISDN is a seamless, ubiquitous network that supports the transmission of integrated services. Achieving the full potential of ISDN requires the following critical success factors: · Ubiquitous marketplace coverage. · Interworking between ISDN and non-ISDN networks (e.g., X.25). · Identification and development of ISDN applications. · Portability and interoperability of terminals, applications, and ISDN switches. · Ongoing support to develop national ISDN standards and enhancement. · Increased customer awareness. · Decreased terminal and service prices. · Standardized tariff structure. ISDN providers also must demonstrate to customers the operational and economic advantages the network offers or the varied service capabilities it provides. The full benefits of ISDN will not be realized until its capabilities are universally available, much like the telephone system today. Bibliography Frenzel, C.W. Management of Information Technology (Boston: Boyd & Fraser Publishing Co., 1992). Gurbaxani, V. “Diffusion in Computing Networks: The Case of Bitnet.“ Communications of the ACM (December 1990). Hertzoff, I. “ISDN: A New Path to LAN Connection.“ LAN Technology (December 1989). Iffland F.C., et al. “ISDN Application and Development.“ IEEE Network (November 1989). Lindberg, B.C. “Switched Broadband Network Interfaces.“ Telecommunications (October 1991). Previous screen Walters, S.M. “A New Direction for Broadband ISDN.“ IEEE Communications (September 1991). Author Biographies Vincent S. Lai Vincent S. Lai is assistant professor of IS at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Jan L. Guynes Jan L. Guynes is associate professor of Information Systems and Management Sciences at the University of Texas at Arlington. Bijoy Bordoloi Bijoy Bordoloi is assistant professor of Information Systems and Management Sciences at the University of Texas at Arlington.