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 Hjelt Swedish 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 theory Adoption decisions in an organization (Gallivan 2001) Management objectives and intentions for change Availability of technological innovation Primary innovation adoption process Secondary innovation adoption process Other influences Mandate to adopt

ICT adoption theory Unified 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 theory Updated 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-depth Interviews Survey Log file analysis 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 to all active users (n=282) Each respondent given a unique URL in the   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 addresses, over-quota mailboxes etc) 167 actual responses Active response rate 167/(282-13) = 62 %

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 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 Infrastructure Support 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 providedEnd 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...