Abstract:
There are a number of cases about IS failure. However, few suggest that the IS
failure led to the downfall of the business. This paper examines the
information technology strategies employed by the high-profile Australian
telecommunications company One.Tel Limited and assesses the extent to
which a failure of those strategies may have contributed to, or precipitated,
One.Tel's downfall. With increased reliance on technology in business and its
sophistication, potentially catastrophic failures may be more common in the
future
One.Tel was founded in 1995 as an Australian telecommunication company
and ceased trading in 200 I. In the middle of 1999, the focus of the company
changed towards the building of a global business, geared to the delivery of
media content. We argue that the IT strategies operating within One. Tel were
not adapted to meet the rapid growth that ensued. Further, we suggest that the
information technology approaches that had served adequately in the early
years were not appropriate for its later ambitions. Most importantly, we
discuss the failure of its billing system in relation to published frameworks of
IT failure as well as the importance of getting such basic systems right. We
argue that these frameworks do not cover well the One. Tel case and we put
forward a new category of IT failure, that of 'business ethos'
