1 Managing Stakeholders in Inter Organisational

Implementing an effective inter-organizational system (IOS) requires significant organizational as well as technical changes. These will affect stakeholders with varying degrees of power and with varying degrees of interest in the system – yet promoters depend on them if the project is to succeed. Identifying stakeholders and understanding their attitudes enables promoters to manage implementation in a way that meets their expectations and encourages acceptance. We examine these issues through an empirical study of a project to introduce an Electronic Patient File (EPF) system in The Netherlands. Few would disagree with the benefits of such a system – yet (at the time of writing) the promoters have been unable to implement it. The paper develops and tests a model of stakeholder management, showing how stakeholders varied in their power to affect the use of the system, and in their interest towards its use. These attitudes reflected their beliefs about the effects of the system on working routines, power, culture and finance. The analysis concludes by comparing the strategies which promoters could use to encourage acceptance. The theoretically based and empirically tested model should be relevant to those leading IOS projects in other sectors.