INVESTIGATING ENABLERS OF SFA SUCCESS: CASE STUDY OF A PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY

Chihab BenMoussa, Institute for Advanced Management Systems Research
Department of Information Technologies, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
cbenmous@abo.fi

ABSTRACT

How does sales force’s adoption of technology happen and what organizational enablers could facilitate a successful adoption of Sales Force Automation (SFA) systems? This study of the success of a mobile information system designed to help the sales force of a medium-sized pharmaceutical company in dealing with the barriers to performance they face when operating within a mobile work setting; led to insights exploring those questions. Sales force will choose to adopt the SFA only if it believes that it is useful in helping them deal with the barriers to performance they face; and thus would have an impact on its job performance. In order to enhance the adoption of technology by the sales force, training from a work system perspective that goes beyond technical issues and guides the sales force on how the various capabilities of the technology could support their tasks and performance, is the key.