Reasons for not utilising data mining

Respondents who indicated that their departments were not adopting data mining technology indicated reasons that could be classified as technological, organisational, or human resource issues. The responses are shown in Table 5.11 below. In terms of technological reasons many respondents indicated that the adoption of technology was too complex and time consuming (36%), difficult to find the appropriate software (56%) and they were satisfied with the current system in place (48%).

Organisational reasons identified for not adopting data mining technology included a lack of top management support (44%), a lack of policy development (40%) issues that were more important to resolve (36%) and the cost to implement new technology (68%).

Lack of expertise (56%) and a lack of awareness (60%) of data mining technologies were identified as major reasons for not adopting the technology.

Table 5.11: Reasons for not utilising data mining

Agreement (By Number of Responses)

Reasons Strongly

Agree

Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Technological Reasons

12.1 Satisfied with current analysis method

0 12 10 2 1

12.6 Difficult to select appropriate software

1 13 10 1 0

12. 7 Too complex and time consuming 2 7 11 4 1

Organisational Reasons

12.4 Costly to implement new technology

2 15 6 2 0

12.5 Lack of top management support 2 9 10 4 0

12.8 Lack of management policies 2 8 10 5 0

12.9 Having more pressing problems 3 6 12 2 2

Human Resources Reasons

12.2 Lack of expertise to implement data mining

4 10 9 2 0

12.3 Lack of awareness about data mining

6 9 8 2 0

There would appear to be major challenges in technological, organisational and human resource issues for non-adopters to move forward to adopt data mining technology. Interview data supports this result that technological, organisational and human resource issues are an important challenge faced by the public sector in employing technology. Having a good and viable technological infrastructure which is properly set up could reduce problems. As one interviewee commented: ‘our infrastructure development lagged behind in supporting our system, for example, telephone lines, local area network (LAN) is very fast but hangs, the line drops out. Actually these sorts of problems should be addressed first. Then we could have a global system to represent government’s data’. The implementation of technology has to come with proper policies of usage, working procedures, training phases and better planning. One interviewee commented: ‘For example one department has decided to implement a technology but before it reaches us, sometimes that technology has already become obsolete. That’s where I could see some obvious drawbacks. We can still carry on, but the thing is, when it is time to implement such technology it seems that we are 2-3 years behind. If there is an advance in technology we can’t implement that, decision makers in government are wary, and there are too many steps that we have to look.’ This suggests the importance of having good management policies which will then assist in resolving new developments and

managerial problems quickly. At present bureaucracy may be restricting the implementation of good decision, or at least delaying them.

Finance was identified as a reason for not utilising data mining by one interviewee. The interviewee argued that the government must make financial resources available ‘In my opinion, there is a need for the government to catch up with the technology, but we have to follow policy, I mean the budget...’ Although another interviewee discounted this reason arguing that there was always a provision and budget for the information technology development, giving an example of the development budget provided for (8th Malaysia Plan)26 of RMK8. This was argued to be a substantial amount provided for the development of systems.

The human resource issues such as lack of expertise, lack of awareness found to be significant reasons appear to be related to the attitudes of the public servants toward technology as perceived by interviewees. While workshops are readily available for example, one interviewee stressed that the attitude of staff is very important in whatever training or workshops are conducted by the departments ‘attitude, I think that one is very important, to me whatever system we have, if our attitude is not right, you know software is just a software, hardware is just a hardware, it cant run without the human touch. Somebody has to push it...’ One respondent suggested that culture in the Malaysian environment, especially Malays, result in a reluctance to change and result in lags in the introduction of new technology. ‘The infrastructure has to enable a full support, if not the users will become frustrated and lose their interest. This often occurs in our Malaysian culture and environment especially with Malays who least use IT or any system which could help them because they are reluctant to change toward technology.’

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The Eight Malaysia Plan, covering the period 2001- 2005, is the first phase in the implementation of the Third Outline Perspective Plan (OPP3), 2001-2010. The OPP3, which embodies the National Vision Policy (NVP), will chart the development of the nation in the first decade of the 21st century. Sources: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN017502.pdf

In another interview, discussing the attitude of his subordinates toward technology, he claimed that ‘sometimes people seem to be reluctant, it is not that they are saying it is not good, perhaps they just don’t want the additional burden of new workload, new things that must be learnt from the beginning...sometimes they don’t see the benefits of that. So we have to do road shows, workshops, presentation, it can’t be achieved overnight. So we have to do the marketing, so that they will see more clearly.’

In sum the reasons identified above are the major obstacle and challenge in utilisation of data mining or any new technology within the public sector. Those reasons fall under the three issues of technological, organisational and human resources.