Decision Making

Running head: TECHNOLOGY AND DECISION MAKING Technology and Decision Making University of Phoenix Healthcare Informatics HCS/482 Richard Ong November 15, 2008 Technology and Decision Making Technology, decision-making processes, and data accessibility have changed dramatically in recent years. This paper will discuss systems and informatics theories. The paper will confer on the Data, Information, and Knowledge (DIK) Model. The role of expert system in nursing care and medicine will be provided. Decision aids and decision support systems are used everyday providing focus, leadership and direction within technology and will be examined.

The use of technology for patient and client management will be explored. An analysis of the impact of technology on healthcare and health status will be investigated. Systems and Informatics Theories Systems are “a group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole” (Systems, n. d. , Definition). Systems describe healthcare, schools, computers, and a person. The systems are either open or closed. Closed systems are inoperable to function with others third party products and open systems are designed to allow third party products to plug in or interoperate with the system.

Neither system interacts with the environment. Open systems consist of three characteristics; purpose, functions, and structure (Englebardt and Nelson, 2002). Systems can have more than one purpose based on the needs of the user. Functions that the system will need to carry out need to be identified for the system to achieve its purpose. The “systems are structured in ways that allow them to perform their functions” (Englebardt & Nelson, 2002, p. 6). The two types of models used to conceptualize the structure of a system; hierarchical and web (Englebardt & Nelson, 2002).

Some examples of system applications are; institution wide, specialty support, documentation, administrations, operations, expert, stand alone information, and decision support. The study of healthcare informatics incorporates theories from information Nursing science, computer science, cognitive science, along with other sciences used in the healthcare delivery (Englebardt & Nelson, 2002). Three models that represent the informatics theories are; Shannon and Weaver’s information-communication model, Blum’s model and The Nelson .

Shannon and Weaver’s model states that a message starts with the sender and is converted to a code by the encoder. The converted message can be letters, words, music, symbols or a computer code (Englebardt & Nelson, 2002). The message is carried by a channel and along with the message noise is transmitted in the space to the decoder where the message is converted to a format that is understood by the receiver. “Bruce L. Blum developed a definition of information from an analysis of the accomplishments in medical computing” (Englebardt & Nelson, 2002, p. 12).

According to Blum the three types of healthcare computing applications are; data, information and knowledge (Englebardt & Nelson, 2002). Data is information that is not interpreted. Data that is processed and displayed is categorized as information and when the data and information are combined and formalized knowledge results (Englebardt & Nelson, 2002). “A knowledge base includes the interrelationship between the data and information” (Englebardt & Nelson, 2002, p. 13). The Nelson Data to Wisdom Continuum states the four types of healthcare computing applications are; data, information, knowledge and wisdom.

The four overlap at all times. Data is the naming, collecting and organizing the message. Information is further organizing and interpreting the message. Knowledge occurs when the message is interpreted, integrated and understood. Wisdom is the ability to understand and apply the message with compassion. Data, Information and Knowledge Model “Nursing informatics, as defined by the American Nurses Association(ANA), is a specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science and information science to manage and communicate data, information and knowledge in nursing practice” (Newbold, 2008, para. 1).

Decision making by healthcare professionals is based on the assimilation of data, information and knowledge to support patient care. Organizing data, information and knowledge for the processing by computers is accomplished through the use of information technology and information structures (Newbold, 2008). The first level is data which “…are recorded (captured and stored) symbols and signal readings” (Liew, 2007, Definitions). Data is bits of information though to just have data is not meaningful to decision making. The second level is information which is organized, interpreted and communicated data between machines or humans. Characteristics of quality information are: complete and clear in its descriptions, accurate, measurable, preferably by measurable objective means such as numbers, variable by independent observers, promptly entered, rapidly and easily available when needed, objective, rather than subjective, comprehensive, including all necessary information, appropriate to each user’s needs, clear and unambiguous, reliable, easy and convenient form to interpret, classify, store, retrieve and update” (Theoretical issues, 1998, Concepts).

Knowledge is the third level of the model and is the collection of information that is obtained from several sources to produce a concept used to achieve a basis for logical decision-making. The information needs to be useful and applied to be known as knowledge. The final level is Wisdom which “…is the highest level of being able to understand and apply knowledge using compassion” (Theoretical issues, 1998, Concepts). “Information consists of data, but data is not necessarily information. Also, wisdom is knowledge, which in turn is information, which in turn is data, but, for example, knowledge is not necessarily wisdom.

So wisdom is a subset of knowledge, which is a subset of information, which is a subset of data” (Steyn, 2001, para. 2). Without an understanding of the source of data and information which is based on activities and situations, the relationship between data, information, and knowledge will not be understood (Liew, 2007). Expert Systems in Nursing Care and Medicine Medical artificial intelligence is primarily concerned with the structure of Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs that perform diagnosis and make therapy recommendations. Unlike medical applications based on other programming methods, such as purely statistical and probabilistic methods, medical AI programs are based on symbolic models, such as statistical and probabilistic methods, medical AI programs are based on symbolic models of disease entities and their relationship to patient factors and clinical manifestations’ as defined by Clancey and Shortliffe (1984). Expert systems (ES) in nursing care and medicine fill an appropriate role with intelligent programs offering significant benefits.

They hold medical knowledge containing specifically defined tasks and are able to reason with data from individual patients responding with reasoned conclusions. The advantages of an expert system over a doctor are: 1. A large database of knowledge can be added and kept up to date with the ability of a large amount to be stored. 2. The system does not forget or get facts wrong. 3. The continued existence of the knowledge is forever not lost with death or retirement. 4. The computer can make contact with specialist knowledge that a doctor may not have. . The ES may shorten time to make the correct diagnosis and reduce diagnostic errors. 6. Countries with a large number of population and have physicians are limited can receive medical knowledge leading to prompt care. ES’s are not replacing doctors or nurses but are being used by them stimulating an interrogated large database of knowledge of a human expert. Decision Aids and Decision Support Systems Decision support systems (DSS) are systems that “model and provide support for human decision-making processes in clinical situations.

They are advanced technologies that support clinical decision making by interfacing evidence-based clinical knowledge at the point of care with real-time clinical data at significant clinical decision points”(Gregory, 2006, p. 21). Decision support systems offer various methods of decision support, including recommendations for diagnostic testing, critical lab value alerts, help with diagnosis and advice for clinicians on what medications to use. According to the British Medical Journal, “Clinical decision support systems do not always improve clinical practice, however.

In a recent systematic review of computer based systems, most (66%) significantly improved clinical practice, but 34% did not” (Kawanoto, Houlihan, Balas, & Lobach, 2005, p. 769). Decision support systems can improve patient outcomes however; more studies are needed to develop better systems. Decisions by their very nature are uncertain, medical decisions have the added complexity of involving an individual’s values and beliefs as related to the risk-benefit profiles or uncertain outcomes of medical treatment. The goal of using a decision aid is to help the patient make informed decisions based on his or her belief and value system.

Limited and conflicting research on the use of decision aids makes it impossible to determine if having patients use a decision aid would benefit him or her. According to an article published in the Medical Decision Making Journal “Decision aids are a promising new technological innovation in health care, however, like any new innovation, their widespread adoption needs to be preceded by a careful evaluation of their potential harms, rather than an uncritical promotion of their potential benefits” (Nelson, Han, Fagerlin, Stefanek, & Ubel, 2007, p. 617).

Decision aids can be an important addition to promoting shared decision making between the physicians and patient however, decision aids “may send the wrong message to patients about the goals of decision making, or lead patients to believe that they can reduce or eliminate uncertainty when confronting decisions” (Nelson, Han, Fagerlin, Stefanek, & Ubel, 2007, p. 618) Technology for Patient and Client Management Technology can be used in many areas of patient and client management. Technology is said to have the potential to bring the patient and healthcare providers together creating patient-centered care.

The goal of patient-centered care is to empower the patients, give patients choices and tailor treatment decisions based on the patient’s beliefs, values, cultural traditions, their family situations and their lifestyles. Technology impacts this concept when healthcare providers use clinical information systems such as enhanced patient registration systems which uses the internet or onsite wireless devices, using decision aids and decision support systems, Telemonitoring Devices, and the electronic health record.

New technology will help healthcare providers with patient management by increasing the ability of healthcare providers to retrieve and apply accurate information about their patients quickly and allow patients to acquire information to improve control of their diagnosis and or treatments and to talk with their healthcare providers. Technology on Healthcare and Health Status Analysis The future holds many technological changes that will affect healthcare directly and help shape our already powerful profession.

Technological advances will dramatically change healthcare provider’s roles and the healthcare delivery systems. Computers are not unusual for a patient to use to surf the Internet to find information related to the diagnosis. Patients may also browse the Internet and find conditions here the symptoms are closely related to what he or she is experiencing. He reads all he can find, and when he goes to the doctor he may be informed, misinformed, or over-informed, regarding the possible diagnosis of his problem. Technology presents to the healthcare consumer a tremendous resource of information regarding his healthcare.

Computers, biosensors, implants, genetic therapies, and imaging devices are examples of the emerging technologies of the 21st century. Medical artificial intelligence in contexts such as computer-assisted surgery, electrocardiography and fetal monitoring interpretation, clinical diagnosis, and genetic counseling will have a major impact on our future. Telemedicine currently ranges from radiographic consultations across cities to telebiotic surgeries across hemispheres (Cohen, Furst, Keil & Keil, 2006). Interactive disks already assist patients to make more independent medical decisions regarding their care.

Devices for home use can help monitor blood pressure and blood glucose or perform a pregnancy test. Technology also helps assist patients with finding information regarding a diagnosis. Although technology is very beneficial to healthcare other concerns continue to exist. Every day healthcare providers use complex machinery, including many types of monitors, ventilators, intravenous pumps, feeding pumps, suction devices, electronic beds and scales, lift equipment, and assistive devices. The directions for use of many of these machines are not self-evident and may be highly complicated.

As a result, some patients may endure injury secondary to misuse of the product (Cohen, Furst, Keil & Keil, 2006). The company may also incur unexpected expenses if the equipment becomes damaged and need to be replaced. Similarly, new computer systems present many learning difficulties for healthcare providers. Many computer systems are not user friendly. Computer systems designers are notorious for supplying computers with numerous advanced but obscure functions, but these systems often lack the ability to make daily tasks easier t accomplish. Millions of dollars have een wasted on computer systems that are not used or are underused because the user needs were not assessed before the systems were designed (Thielst, 2007). There remain three basic reasons for the continued increase in healthcare costs: inflation, increased demand for services as a result of federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and expensive technological advances in medicine. Conclusion In conclusion, significant economic and social trends are dramatically altering the forms of healthcare delivery in the United States and the roles played by healthcare providers.

Advances in technology, globalization of culture and communication, ever-widening computer applications, aging of the population, and dynamic changes in the healthcare industry are among major developments (Thielst, 2007). To cope with and to contribute to the future of healthcare, the healthcare team must understand how computers are now being used in healthcare, and they must be able to work with computers in a cost-effective manner in their healthcare practice.

No matter what delivery system is in place in a particular institution, healthcare providers will find that each is vitally involved with ensuring quality and in discovering measurable ways of monitoring quality. References W. J. Clancey and E. H. Shortliffe, eds. (1984). Readings in Medical Artificial Intelligence: First Decade. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley. Cohen, T. , First, E. , Keil, O. & Wang, B. (2006). Medical equipment management strategies. Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology, 40(3), 233-238.

Englebardt, S. P. , & Nelson, R. (2002). Health care informatics: An interdisciplinary approach. St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier. Gregory, A. (2006, January/March). Issues of Trust and Ethics in Computerized Clinical Decision Support Systems. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 30(1), Pp. 21-29. Kawanoto, K. , Houlihan, C. , Balas, A. , & Lobach, D. (2005, April 2). Improving clinical practice by using clinical decision support systems: A systematic review of trials to identify features critical to success. BMJ, 330, P. 765-700. Liew, A. (2007, June).

Understanding data, information, knowledge and their relationship. Retrieved November 10, 2008, from Journal of Knowledge Management Practice: http://www. tlainc. com/article 134. htm Nelson, W. , Han, P. , Fagerlin, A. , Stefanek, M. , & Ubel, P. (2007, October 1, 2007). Rethinking the Objectives of Decision Aids: A Call for Conceptual Clarity. Medical Decision Making, 27(5), Pp. 609-618. Newbold, S. (2008). A new definition for nursing informatics. Retrieved November 10, 2008, from Advance for Nurses: http://nursing. advanceweb. com/Article/A-New-Definition-for-Nursing-Informatics. spx Steyn, J. (2001). Data, information, knowledge and wisdom. Retrieved November 12, 2008, from Knowsystem: http://knowsystems. com/km/definition. html System. (n. d. ). Retrieved November 11, 2008, from Answers. com: http://www. answers. com/topic/system Theoretical Issues. (1998). Retrieved November 10, 2008, from University of Texas at Tyler: http://www. uttyler. edu/nursing/ckilmon/ni/theory. htm Thielst, C. (2007). The future of healthcare technology. Journal of Healthcare Management, 52(1), 7-10. Retrieved from ProQuest database on November 11, 2008.

Outline the importance of the following for the land rights movement Native Title Mabo Wik Evidently, the land rights movement involves the ideas of the Wik, Mabo decision, as well as the Native Title. Aboriginal people are able to rebuild connections with their spirituality, through the land. Aspects of Indigenous Aboriginal spirituality such as ancestral spirit beings, totems, sacred duties and rituals are held within the land.

Native title refers to individual or communal, rights or interests of Aboriginal people or Torres Strait Islanders in relation to waters or land. This form of land title was considered to be of great significance to Aboriginal people because it allowed them to gain social and economic independence, and was a huge leap in their journey of self determination. It aimed to assist the establishment of native title by organising the Mabo decision.

In the end, Aboriginal people want to own their sacred sites, and this can only be achieved through the Native Title. Eddie Mabo was an Indigenous Aboriginal man who established the Mabo decision of June 1992. This decision provided the recognition that Australia was under British settlement in 1788, hence going completely against the concept of Terra Nullius. It was this dramatic result, which contributed towards the establishment of the Native Title.

Native Title became part of the known laws of Australia, which meant that Mabo’s observance provided all Aboriginal people with justice and equality. The Wik decision expresses the notion that native, leasehold and some other types of land titles can successfully co exist. This means that there is great degree of fairness within this decision, as both the Aboriginals and the Australian government is pleased.

Tesco Information System Name of Student: Robert Onyango Course Instructor: Mr. Bonoko Course: Date of Submission Introduction This paper is generally about information systems in an organisation. To illustrate this further, the author will specifically look at Tesco, an organisation of choice. This paper intends to highlight a specific information system––management information systems––and explore it thoroughly using the various analytical models in relation to Tesco. The illustrations will draw from various related information system schematics and draw examples of how the organization in question – Tesco – has put them into use.

Description of the Organization (Tesco) Founded in the year 1919 in London, Tesco is a grocery and merchandising retail chain. The organisation is without a doubt the largest retailer in Britain by local and global market shares and sales. The organisation originally dealt with foodstuff, but they have since ventured into other circles, for example, financial services, software, internet services, clothing, car and health insurance, and consumer electronics. Tesco appears on the London Stock Exchange and it also headlines the FTSE 100 Index.

As at 23rd December 2011,the organization had bagged an astounding ? 31. 3 billion in terms of the Market Capitalisation and consequently ranked the 14th-biggest organization on London’s Stock Exchange. Looking at the competition in the retail industry, it is very important for organisations to establish operational strategies that are efficient. Information System (IS) covers a complex sample of Information Technologies and the professionals who apply the fastidious technology in he sustenance of an assortment of organisational functions (Williamson, Harrison, and Jordan 2004, 376). Structure of Management Information System This kind of information system––MIS––entails information technology application to managerial and organisational needs. It constitutes determining the type of information technology to be beneficial to organisation and development and application of business solutions in relation to it (Seilheimer 2000; Walsham 1993).

The strong point of this kind of information system is that in combines the business understanding with information system and technology knowledge to help an organisation––Tesco––compete successfully or restructure on-going operations. [pic] Fig. 2. The Role of MIS in Tesco Source: Tesco Annual Report, 2010. Professionals who are conversant with this type of IS use their backgrounds that are business based in working with users and managers to recommend and pinpoint technological improvements that may be beneficial to an organisation.

Their work is to codify, analyse, design, implement, and manage modern telecommunications, business, and many other computerised information systems. Moreover, traditional processing systems are maintained. Professionals in this discipline are also assigned the duty of dealing with exhilarating growth technologies, for example, the design and management of telecommunications systems, e-business, using and developing server systems for the consumer, data warehousing and database development, and finally, developing web-based technologies for other applications in business inclusive of electronic commerce (Trinder, 2007).

MIS is the primary source of information required to keep an organisation running effectively and efficiently. This kind of IS has three main resources: information, technology, and people, although in recent times, data, procedures, hardware, and software (programs) have since been added to that list. Management information systems stand out from the rest of the pack as they are employed in the analysis an organisation’s operational activities.

In the spheres of academics, the term usually refers to the set of information methods of management linked to the automation or propping peoples’ ability to make decisions, for example, expert systems, executive information systems, and decision support system. Before the in-depth investigation into Tesco, it is important to highlight the various management information systems available as most of these systems specialise in exact industrial and commercial segments, structure of management, or features of the project, and Tesco is no different.

At the top of the food chain is the management information system, which comes up with reports that are preset and have standard schedules founded on summarised data that was retrieved from the organisation’s transaction processing systems to operational level and middle management for information of semi-structured and structured decision setbacks and also classify them. The second are the marketing information systems (MIS) purposefully for management of marketing elements of the organisation.

Thirdly, there is the executive information system (EIS), which is a reporting instrument that gives hasty access to recapitulated reports stemming from all echelons in the organisation and is usually a host to operations, accounting, and human resources departments. Decision support system (DSS) is the fourth typology. These are computer applications utilised by the middle management in the anthology of information from vast source ranges to catalyse making of decisions and solving of problems.

Last is the office automation system (OAS), which is meant to aid productivity and communication via eradicating log jams and automating the flow of work. This typology can be put to practice at all and any echelon of management (Cronholm and Goldkuhl 2003). How IMS Supports Tesco’s Organizational activities For market success, an organisation has to be efficient in its customer service. To get to this goal, Tesco saw it necessary to boost its efficiency pertaining to the customers by processing their orders from its compound conduits.

Moreover, the firm had to place a maintenance limit to its cost. Information systems have developed into a vital feature in running an organisation, considering it is an impetus to the organisation’s supply chain (Stapleton and Murphy 2003). Furthermore, it gives an arena for the amalgamation of the whole organisation into a single block. Following the rapid innovations of technology, information systems are growing by the day. The end result is the emergence of various information systems that have already been stated above.

In a calculated move aimed at elevation of its competitiveness, Tesco has integrated a transaction processing system (TPS) into its supply chain (Friedlos 2007), which has been made possible via the development of Tesco Direct (Tesco 2009). The invention is assisting clients to place orders of non-edible stuff that the organisation is dealing with before ensuring that the goods are delivered to clients’ residences. The organisation has since introduced an official webpage, and this has amplified the efficiency of this service (Amatya 2005, 5).

Individuals were definitely enjoying a comfortable process of consumption thanks to Tesco direct products. The major challenge that the organisation faced while implementing this policy is that they had to ensure customer satisfaction by making sure their expectations were met. This cannot be disputed as it can be confirmed that Tesco has managed to supply high-quality products to its consumers via its Tesco. com service and eventually deeming it as reliable to customers. Besides, guaranteeing that the new product will propel the organisation’s retail operations was one of Tesco’s objectives.

Before scrutinizing Tesco’s application of management information systems, it is helpful to understand its role, which is data conversion from external and internal sources into information that can be utilised in effective decision making in light of planning, organizing, and directing the activities linking them with responsibility. Tesco has several information systems, some of which they utilise on a day-to-day basis to make operational decisions. Others are also used in coming up with strategic and tactical decisions. Performance and Order Management System

In addressing these challenges, the organisation resorted to developing a system of processing the orders placed by customers. This was bent on hastening the processing speed of such orders. The ever escalating customer base of the organisation prompted the need for a more efficient system of processing orders. Considering that Tesco was pitting the development against a time frame, the organisation had put in double efforts to beat their deadline. A team comprising of ten engineers was therefore assembled, and after working in-house for six months, the project was done.

Tesco also had to do outsourcing from IVIS group and Microsoft Gold Certified. Eventually, this saw the birth of order management system (OMS) (Tesco 2009). Decision making model Tesco is a worldwide organisation whose IT organisation is basically managed from India and the United Kingdom. This is a major hindrance to ease of decision making as most of the persons involved and the stakeholders cannot come together to table and discuss strategies and policies, and this could be only pinned on the time factor.

Mike Yorweth, who is the Chief Architect, organised a worldwide meeting using Cisco TelePresence, and the purpose of this meeting was to brainstorm; all the members agreed on the organisation’s use of a global IT strategy. Later, Yorweth stated that the TelePresence had enabled the meeting to take place in three hours, whereas the absence of the TelePresence technology would have resulted in the organisation’s managers waiting another six months to proceed with a face-to-face meeting.

Yorweth also confessed to the TelePresence, enabling the members to come to an understanding faster than in the meetings that had proceeded Decision making is one of the basic sub-branches of organisational models. In management of an organisation of Tesco’s calibre, there exists two types of decision making: structured and unstructured. The former is usually routine and repetitive, and standard methods are used while dealing with them. On the other hand, the latter need evaluation, insight, and judgement.

Important decisions usually exist in Tesco, considering its wide customer base, and sadly, there exists on preset measures in cracking them. CIPSODAR; decision-making and communication models It should be highlighted that making abstract and unstructured decision is a procedure that is assigned a given time frame following gathering of information from relevant sources. Tesco managers, especially the middle ones, go through a series of steps before coming up with a concrete decision. The first step is usually acknowledgement and acceptance that a problem exists.

A good information system will point the managerial team in the right direction by providing all sorts of information needed and also underlines where there lays a problem following evaluation of the organisation, which is readily available online with the introduction of modern technological innovations. At this echelon, Tesco’s policy of exception reporting is vital. This is to say that only situations that require to be addressed immediately are reported. For example, a drastic increase or decrease in sales in comparison with a similar time frame at a previous year, consumers with outstanding balances, and staff resigning in big numbers.

The second step is to check out all the possible solutions. In-depth analysis is usually handy at this juncture, and much information is also needed. Tools that can model the impact of various solutions like price variations and salary increments, such as the spread sheet, may be required. It automatically follows that the third stage is choosing a decision and consequently implementation of the solution. In some cases, it requires the formation of a new information system biased towards management to keep an eye on the solution progress. [pic] Fig 2. The Decision Making Process in Tesco

Source: Tesco Annual Report, 2010. Decision making is not a smooth process as many a people may assume, especially when dealing with a global organisation such as Tesco. Occasionally, one has to take steps backwards when it is evident that the decision is not applicable and is bound to backfire. This may be also brought about by discovery of helpful new information that offers better alternatives. Conversely, structured decisions are straightforward as Tesco’s information systems provide the correct information, and a manager would have to be a goof if they made the wrong decision(s).

How the System Produces the Required Information Web interface was the tool designed to cover online processes (Shneiderman 1998). The OMS processes the order right after they are sorted. This begets an increase in flexibility, something that can assist the organisation to replace the system online while they have removed it for maintenance. A number of channels that could be either online or offline send orders that are received by the system in order for it to be operational (Larson and Davis 2003).

Tesco has several warehouses within it that make use of the OMS; therefore, employees have an easy time monitoring and managing processes of the workflow as the system automatically makes it available for them. Technology model Hardware and Software in Use The software that was used by the organisation is BizTalk Server 2006 to put into operation the OMS development, which was a sub-channel to Tesco Direct. This particular program gives an organisation the capability to merge various systems, resulting in an efficient process of business (Chappell 2005, 3).

This boosts circulation of information between factions where vast software ranges come into play. The software’s ability to be interpretable is solely responsible for this. A good example is highlighting the ability of Tesco to use its former Tesco. com in communicating despite the fact that it was using Microsoft SQL server version in 2005. Moreover, the efficiency of processing the orders is amplified, considering that the software is able to support a variety of data formats. The health and activity tracking system is also used effectively by the OMS system.

The former refines debugging and monitoring of the processes and applications besides keeping a track on performance statistics on every system components. Plus, the slipups that may possibly arise from the process of procurement are resolved after being recognised by the HAT. The system reliability is also refined in the process. Subsequently, the BizTalk server is also made manageable by the OMS. Tesco’s communication with the varied applications of the warehouse utilised by the suppliers of the organisation is improved by the server, both externally and internally.

Tesco’s direct service has comfortably integrated the OMS. Four computer servers that are installed with Windows Server 2003 operating system are employed to make certain the operation of the implemented OMS. Conversely, the databases are managed by the SQL server version 2005. Performance – Positive Aspects Tesco’s retail procedures have been thoroughly refined, courtesy of the ordering system. The OMS has brought the following advantages to Tesco: improvement in order processing capacity. The ability of Tesco’s performance pertaining to processing of orders has skyrocketed.

As per the latest statistics, Tesco’s reliability in relation to processing orders has shot up to approximately 5,000 orders in an hour. It is without a shred of doubt that the BizTalk Server 2006 is responsible for pulling these strings, proving that it is much more superior to the mainframe-based Tesco. com. Tesco has also experienced reduced hardware costs. This is made possible as the OMS has ensured a massive drop of the cost of the hardware involved in the organisation’s chain of supply.

This sprouts from the fact that the OMS is capable of performing processing of orders by using a minute fraction of the server (estimated to be about 20–25 per cent). Consequently, the organisation has been handling huge customer numbers with ease and escalated reliability. What is even more fascinating is that if Tesco decided to broaden its consumer base, they will not have to spend anything on the hardware, i. e. , the server. Moreover, there are very high chances of the organisation further developing its processing of orders.

These probabilities stem from the acknowledgement that distributed processing is enhanced by Window Server 2003. Supplier relationship is maintained. This is the third advantage that cannot be overlooked. It is mandatory for any organisation to maintain its flexibility with regards to the replacement of their suppliers within the supply chain so as to not to have an impact on the operation of the organisation (Williamson, Harison, and Jordan 2004). Sundry business developments that have been effected by its partners in business are accommodated by the BizTalk Server used in propping the OMS.

The outcome is evidently positive as Tesco is experiencing finesse in communication with their business partners. At this juncture, it is already evident that the integration of BizTalk Server within Tesco’s information system has improved and augmented the reliability with which Tesco is handling processing of orders. Taking into the consideration that the server possesses elements of coupling loosely with the Internet and interoperability, it is safe to make a suggestion of removing the OMS for maintenance without necessarily affecting the purchase activities and processes for the customers.

Formal information systems are important to Tesco as they give exact answers to recurrent questions on the screen or via monthly, weekly, or daily reports. High ranking Tesco managers are bound to use new information via a new method of data analysis or by outsourcing the information. The Tesco design management team designed their MIS to have the following characteristics that make it stand out from the rest. It is very elastic, which provides for various methods of data analysis and information evaluation (Remenyi and Sherwood 1999). They have the capacity to prop up a scope of knowledge and skills. They make the managers’ work asier via interpersonal communication with organisation members besides not needing too much concentration as managers are always busy and give them the time to focus on other things. Work is easily interrupted and could be easily resumed at a later time, and finally they ensure managers are out of scope for overload of information. It can therefore be safely concluded that the system is a success. Analysis of Failure and Success It is general knowledge that management information systems are compound, and in the process of selecting, implementing, and designing them usually require many people, both from within Tesco and outside it.

The managerial team charged with the responsibility of making sure the system pulls through ought to have a clear understanding of the system and have a very close relationship with the organisation (Croholm and Goldkuhl 2002). Managers ought to be knowledgeable on the probabilities Offered by the ICT systems are the challenges that they may come across, and they should be able to understand the need of having the necessary measures in place to make sure that the organisation is operating smoothly. Failures

A good amount of money is required to ensure that the OMS is operational and maintained despite the fact that it brings alongside many positive attributes. There exists an interrelationship between the implementation and purchase of the system with the cost. For example, if Tesco might be needed to carry out an all-inclusive investigation into the system before it is implemented, outsource of professionals and consultations are mandatory. Moreover, Tesco will have to be carrying out maintenance of the system regularly, and that is considerably costly.

Despite Tesco having the cost slip-ups only, there are several others factors that can cause the failure of a management system that they ought to be wary about. The first one is inadequate analysis. This is likely to surface when potential setbacks, particular needs, and limitations are not wholly comprehended prior to the design and selection of a new information system. Another factor is absentia of the management in design. It is very important that all the members and persons intending to gain or benefit from the design should be entirely immersed in its development (Monk, Wright, Haber, and Davenport 1993).

Failure of which leads to destruction or collapse of an organisation as information that is of no interest to anyone is provided; worse still, information that cannot be comprehended by anyone may be produced. This also has a negative effect on the managerial team in that they are left waiting for an information system that will never see the day or light. The third factor is placement of emphasis on the computing system. It is rather obvious that this entails choosing the proper hardware and software, especially for modern computers, and this is very crucial to any corporation regardless of its size.

Before implementation of a system, it should be noted that measures dealing with both data output and input should be established. The organisation needs to clearly spell out the aims and objectives of the new system. For no reason at all, users may decide to ask for the field population on a database and are fond of asking for reports about the organisations’ management that are never read or are completely useless. Fourth, is the lack of teamwork.

An ICT manager needs to be able to integrate all the departments under his/her jurisdiction to operate as one single unit (Naranjo-Gil 2009). Some of the departments under an organisation include marketing, accounts, and dispatch and storage departments. Conclusion When an organisation decides to incorporate the management information system, it is bound to fuel the achievement of being highly competitive (Manning and Raghavan 2006). This is founded on the basis that operations linked to chain management are refined. By using the OMS, Tesco has climbed the charts of market positioning.

Moreover, the relationship between Tesco and its suppliers and customers has immensely improved Tesco should consider doing a couple of things to ensure that they reach the peak in working with the OMS. The first one is to conduct a research on whether OMS culminates into shrinkage with regard to operational costs. Secondly, they should undertake research on the market that is continuous to establish the efficiency with which the organisation is effective in its undertakings. Reference List Amatya, L. , 2005. Information systems of Nepal Telecom for customer service.

Nepal: Elsevier Limited. Chappell, D. , 2005, Understanding BizTalk Server 2006. New York, NY: Microsoft Incorporation. Cronholm, S. and Goldkuhl, G. , 2002. Actable Information Systems – Quality Ideals Put Into Practice. Presented at the Eleventh Conference On Information Systems (ISD 2002). 12-14 September, Riga, Latvia. Cronholm, S. and Goldkuhl, G. , 2003. Six Generic Types of Information Systems Evaluation. Linkoping, Sweden: Department of Computer and Information Science, Linkoping University. Larson, R. and Davis, M. , 2003. M UC Berkeley, IS 202 Information Organization and Retrieval. online] Available at: [Accessed 27 December 2011]. Monk, A. , Wright, P. , Haber, J. , and Davenport, L. , 1993. Improving Your Human-Computer Inter-face. New York: Prentice Hall. Manning, C. and Raghavan, P. , 2006. Stanford University CS276 / LING 286 Information Retrieval and Web Mining, Fall. Naranjo-Gil, D. , 2009. Management Information Systems and Strategic Performances: The Role of Top Team Composition. International Journal of Information Management, 29(2), pp. 104-110. Remenyi, D. and Sherwood-Smith, M. , 1999. Maximise Information Systems Value by Continuous Participative Evaluation.

Logistics Information Management, 12(1/2), pp. 14-31. Seilheimer, S. D. , 2000. Information Management During Systems Development: A Model for Improvement in Productivity. International Journal of Information Management, 20(4), pp. 287-295. Shneiderman, B. , 1998. Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective User Interface Interaction. 3rd ed. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley Longman Stapleton, L. and Murphy, C. , 2003. Revisiting the Nature of Information Systems: The Urgent Need for a Crisis in IS Theoretical Discourse. Transaction of International information systems, 1(4), pp. –14. Tesco, 2009. Online Ordering System that Processes 5000 Orders per Hour. London: Tesco Incorporation. Trinder, P. , 2007. UK F29IF1 Database and Information Systems. Edinburgh, Scotland: Heriot-Watt University. [online] Available at: [Accessed 27 December 2011]. Walsham, G. , 1993. Interpreting Information Systems in Organisations. London: Wiley & Sons. Williamson, E. , Harrison, D. , and Jordan, M. , 2004. Information System Development within Supply Chain Management. International Journal of Information Management, 24(5), pp. 375-385.

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to achieve a particular aim. At the most basic level, a project is actually the response to a need, the solution to a problem. Further it is a solution that promises a benefit especially financial benefit. The fundamental purpose for most projects is to either make money or save money, hence projects should be financially justifiable.

A project is temporary in nature; that means that it has a specific start and finish. A project consists of a well-defined collection of small jobs and ordinarily culminates in the creation of an end product or products. A project is a unique, one time undertaking; it will never again be done exactly the same way, by the same people, and within the same environment. There will always be some uncertainty associated with the project. This uncertainty represents risks to your ability to make definitive plans and predict outcomes with high level of confidence.

All projects consume resources in the form of time, money, materials and labour. Project management is the application of knowledge, skill, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirement. The project management process calls for the creation of a small organizational (project team), which is often a microcosm of larger organization. Once the team has produced desired outcome, the process then calls for the decommissioning of that small organizational structure.

The project form of organization allows the manager to be responsive to: The client and the environment Identify and correct problems at an early date Make timely decisions about trade-offs between conflicting project goals . Ensure that managers of the separate tasks that comprise the project do not optimize the performance of their individual tasks at the expense of the total project- that is, that they do not suboptimize.  A project manager is usually responsible for the success or the failure of the project.

They first need to define the project and then build its work plan. If the scope of the project is not very clear, or the project is executing poorly, the manager is held accountable. However, this does not mean that the manager does all the work by himself (which is practically impossible). There is an entire team under the project manager, which helps to achieve all the objectives of the project. However, if something goes wrong, the project manager is ultimately accountable. Apart from this, depending on the size and the complexity of the project, they may need to take on multiple roles.

The project manager may need to assist with gathering business requirements, help to design a database management system or may prepare project documentation. They may work full time on a large project, or may work part-time on various projects of a smaller nature; or may alternatively handle various projects as well as handle other responsibilities like business analysis and business development. At times, they may have accountability but not authority. For example, he or she may be using certain resources but might not have direct control over those resources.

At such times, the manager might find certain limitations over task execution, which might not take place as they might have liked. Not having direct control over the state of finances and finance allocation might cause ambiguity. Project managers use project management software, such as Microsoft Project, to organize their tasks and workforce. These software packages allow project managers to produce reports and charts in a few minutes, compared to the several hours it can take if they do not use a software package.

In order to be successful, the project manager must be given support and authority by senior management. It is the responsibility of project manager to make sure that the customer is satisfied and the work scope is completed in a quality manner, using budget, and on time. The Project Manager has primary responsibility for providing leadership in planning, organizing and controlling the work effort to accomplish the project objectives.

In other words, the project manager provides the leadership to project team to accomplish the project objective. The project manager coordinates the activities of various team members to ensure that they perform the right tasks at the proper time, as a cohesive group. The different roles of project manager are as follows: Planning Organizing Controlling Leading Communicating Cognitive functions Self management functions Motivational and personal development functions Customer awareness functions Organizational savvy functions.

Planning First, the project manager clearly defines the project objectives and reaches agreement with the customer on this objective. The manager then communicate this objective to the project team in such a manner as to create a vision of what will constitute successful accomplishment of the objective. The project manager spearheads development of a plan to achieve the project objectives. By involving the project team in developing this plan, the project manager ensures more comprehensive plan than he or she could develop alone.

Furthermore, such participation gains the commitment of the team to achieve the plan. The project manager reviews the plan with the customer to gain endorsement and then sets up the project management information system-either manual or computerized-for comparing actual progress to plan progress. It’s important that this system be explained to the project team so that the team can use it properly to manage the project.  Organizing involves securing the appropriate resources to perform the work.

First, the project must decide which tasks should be done in-house and which tasks should be done by subcontractors or consultants. For tasks that will be carried out in-house, the project manager gains a commitment from the specific people who will work on the project. For tasks that will be performed by subcontractors, the project manager clearly defines the work scope and deliverables and negotiates a contract with each subcontractor. The project manager also assigns responsibility and delegates’ authority to specific individuals or subcontractors for the various tasks, with the understanding that they will e accountable for the accomplishment of their tasks within the assigned budget and schedule. For large projects involving many individuals, the project manager may designate leaders for specific group of tasks. Finally, and most important, the task of organizing involves creating an environment in which the individuals are highly motivated to work together as a project team. To control the project, the project manager implements a management information system designed to track actual progress and compare it with planned progress.

Such a system helps the manager distinguish between busy-ness and accomplishments. Project team members monitor the progress of their assigned tasks and regularly provide data on progress, schedule and cost. These data are supplemented by regular project review meetings. If actual progress falls behind planned progress or unexpected events occur the project manager takes immediate action. He or she obtains input and advice from team members regarding appropriate corrective actions and how to replan those parts of the project.

It’s important that problems and even potential problems, be identified early and action taken. The project manager cannot take a “let’s wait and see how things works out” approach- things never works out on their own. He or she must intervene and be proactive, resolving problems before they become worse.  Project manager fosters development of a common mission and vision to the team members. He should clearly define roles, responsibilities and performance expectations for all his team members. He uses leadership style appropriately to situation or stage of team development.

He should be able to foster collaboration among team members. He should provide clear direction and priorities to his team members. He should be efficient enough to remove obstacles that hamper team progress, readiness or effectiveness. He should promote team participation in problem solving and decision making as appropriate. He should pass credit on to team, and promotes their positive visibility to upper management. He should appreciate, promote and leverage the diversity within the team.

The Project Manager should be able to communicate effectively with all levels inside and outside of the organizations. He should be able to negotiate fairly and effectively with the customers/subcontractors. He should be able to bring conflicts into the open and manages it collaboratively and productively with the help of other team members. He should be able to able to influence without relying on coercive power or threats. He should be able to convey ideas and information clearly and concisely, both in writing and orally to all the team members. . 6 Cognitive functions The project manager should identify the problem and gathers information systematically and seeks input from several sources. He should then consider a broad range of issues or factors while solving these problems. For this he collects the appropriate quantity of data for the situation and discusses it with all the team members before making a decision. He then draws accurate conclusions from quantitative data and makes decisions in an unbiased, objective manner using an appropriate process.

For this process of decision making he understands the concept of risk versus return and makes decision accordingly.  The project manager should be able to maintain focus and control when faced with ambiguity and uncertainty and should be able to show consistency among principles, values and behavior. He should be resilient and tenacious in the face of pressure, opposition, constraints, or adversity. Being the head of the project he should manage implementations effectively and should recognize as someone “who gets things done. He should continuously seek feedbacks from the team members and modify his behavior accordingly. He should take keen interest in learning and self development opportunities. Project manager should consider individual skills, values and interest of all his team members when assigning or delegating tasks to them. He should allow team  members an appropriate amount of freedom to do the job. He should accurately access individual strength and development needs of his team members to complete the work effectively.

He should continuously offer opportunities for personal and professional growth to his team members. He should arrange for training program and continuously seeks support to his team member when needed. He should pass credit on to the individuals and promote their positive visibility to upper management. He should give timely, specific and constructive feedback to all his team members. Project manager should be able to anticipate customer’s needs effectively and proactively strives to satisfy them.

He should be able to accurately translate the customer’s verbalized wants into what they actually needs. He should be able to understand customers and their business and actively build and maintain strong customer relationships. He should understand customer’s issues, concerns and queries and try to resolve them effectively. He should actively strive to exceed customer expectations. Project manager should involve the right people at the right time for a particular job. Understands, accepts and properly uses power and influence in relationships.

He should build and leverage formal and informal networks to get things done. He should know the mission, structure and functions of the organizations and others. He should understand profitability and general management philosophy. He balance interests and needs of team/project with those of the broader organization. The functional competencies listed above represents official duties of the typical project manager. In fact, if organization has developed a job description for project managers, it probably includes many of these functional competencies.

What we won’t find in job description are the unofficial duties that Project Managers perform in the course of carrying out their mission. This refers to the apparent need to provide close guidance or detailed instructions to certain individuals. This situation results from any number of root causes. The target may be under qualified, lack of confidence or simply crave attention. Salesperson: There will be times when they will have to rely heavily on their ability to influence thers to sell an idea, sell themselves or perhaps sell the virtues of Project Management. Most of the selling situations will be helpful and have positive outcomes. However if he find himself spending too much time selling Project Management, they may signal deeper underline problems such as issues of trust or confidence. If most of the selling he does to his management, he is in trouble; this is a signal that life as a project manager may be exceptionally challenging. Teacher: This is an example of an unofficial role that actually yields positive roles.

In fact, superior project managers will be able to educate and develop those they work with as they manage the project. Friend: Maintaining friendship and professional relationship with the same people is difficult. However if they can do it they will benefit greatly. An open, informal and comfortable communication linkage is much more likely to keep them supplied with more of the information they need than formal, rigorous and stiff team meetings. Finally avoid the trap of believing that he is been put in charge of a project so he has risen above his peers and friendship no longer matters.

Conclusion

“The Project Manager is a key ingredient in the success of a Project. In addition to providing leadership in planning, organizing and controlling the Project, the manager should possess a set of skills that will both inspire the project team to succeed and win the confidence of the customer. Effective Project Managers have strong leadership ability, the ability to develop people, excellent communication skills, good inter personal skills, the ability to handle stress, problem solving skills and time management skills”.

The process of fulfillment of goods, works or services from the outside party or in-house providers for the satisfaction and accomplishment of the tasks or objectives. This revolves around the whole circle of determining the necessity falling in because the stoppage of the service provision or the end of the functional life of an asset or the valuable.

On local consideration procurement is basically focusing to achieve highest level of excellence and effective and efficient measures of cost meeting the necessities of consumers and the survivors of the community localities. This provides the deep insight and comprehensive investigation and critical analysis of the alternative opportunities accessible to transport a service or make a real time availability of an asset.

Designing a procurement strategy specifically leads to all decisions in order to tackle the best optimization of resource procurement routine making the real time availability of low value attainment of consumables to the highest valued complex decision making schemes of attainment. To deliver the highest value deliverables on the basis of strategic procurement decisions will definitely on differing platform from the value procurement work deliverables. However, the directing procurement philosophy and thoughts will remain stagnant.

It’s a confirm say that these procurement strategies does not function in isolation but it needs an integrating mechanism with other committee strategies and decision making, same even in the case of construction concept applies here in the assignment. In short the procurement process is a cycling vehicle for supporting and delivering these policies to make the required goods and services available at the right time in the right quantity no matter what the area of consideration is (Construction Best Practices 2002-03).

Working of occasional clients: Entering in to the construction world does not mean that each and every player in that market would be a brilliant player and regular procurers of construction work. Here we will be discussing on the same set of objectives considering the foreword opening to construction procurement for occasional clients enriching their knowledge from the essential and crucial segments to transitional and intermediary understanding of segments in the procurement process.

In order to move forward, these occasional clients applies a steep and sharp learning curve on their life cycle of attaining projects, yet founding a procurement strategy at the beginning shows hope for a successful outcome. Usually every construction industry has some of its strengths and weaknesses making the whole cycle to be based on the significant steps each followed by each player in the industry.

These steps are discussed below categorized as one of the worldwide recognized method used in the procurement of construction projects. They must be looking for a particular beneficial solution that meets their needs at its best giving the cost what they have estimated on the required delivery timings mentioned with some future dates, to accomplish this there are numerous strategies and tactics to implement what and how they want their project to survive faithfully.

Although no proper professional advice is taken that may lead occasional clients to timely and accurate fulfillment of these projects, clients must take some impartial professional advice from the building contractors, surveyors, architects, building service companies and ultimately from designers also to make their projects successful on the strong note of agreement that they would not get involve in the project by themselves. Possible alternative methods of procurement:

While discussing the project of constructing a new concert hall also seems that it’s the matter of working resulting from the occasional projects base which is a verified need felt and commissioned by a trust body. Verifying the prevailing needs for this project would be only possible through the statement of needs addressed and the suggested value proposition meant from that project. Success of a concert hall will only depend on the verified needs by the trust body followed by detailed points of consideration that should be achieved by the constructing company while delivering the desired value proposition to their client.

The detailed copy of the requirements are derived from the brief body developed from the business case and provided by the trust body developed specifically to maximize the interest of their stakeholders in direct and indirect contact of attraction (everyone who will be affected positively or negatively by the successful completion of this concert hall, even those who will be using the facility of concert hall for their income generation or whatever purpose they want to fulfill).

This process is demanded to meet the demand and objectives prioritizing the project needs following the physical and environmental, all tangible and intangible, and financial parameters of the project (Gravesham 2001). Now moving ahead with assessing the different forms of alternatives and options available in respect of the learning developed from the business case provided from the client’s end.

It may also be considered that constructing a new place for the client might not be a good decision of cost effectiveness in the project while client may get agree on getting a place on rent, lease, buying an existing facility, doing some extensions into the existing facility, or doing some amendments or changes in your existing facility and premises; these all could be the possible best alternatives that can be considered for doing a cost effective and cheaper business compared to others.

This means that you are possibly interested in working on low-cost leadership strategies for procuring the construction needs. For doing so the possible alternatives and substitutes for each of the method suggested must be analyzed and weighed up at an early stage in project development. Doing this step, your decision should be based on the comprehensive details of the case focusing on the return on capital investment that seems to dig out the probable remuneration to operational efficiency or income flow (Chan 2006).

There should be a proper risk management done to avoid the inherent risks in developing any procurement strategies, these risks could be varied from not meeting the needs, lately timed deliverables and more of funding costs, although these risks sounds less dangerous but still they will be impacting the client’s business very badly. Even in the case of concert hall project the development of the strategy out of the suggested ones should be very well analyzed in respect of different risk factors prevailing around it at the starting level.

The focus points of meeting deliverables should consider the correlation of interdependency in between concert hall’s successful implementation weighting down the risky factors in three parts; cost, time and quality from where cost is the concerned price or certainty discovered in establishing cost, time is the required speed or certainty in its completion and quality reveals about the functional performance of the project.

Focus on all of these risky factors would only make the situation bright otherwise focusing on just one or two will definitely be resulting with a negative effect on the project’s deliverables targeted (Walker and Hampson 2002). Time Cost Quality As shown in the diagram; B, C and D is the most prioritized areas which can be catered as the utmost areas considered as the most central points for project success.

All have importance for risky factors associated with them but all of the three above mentioned areas does not cater to have identical importance in meeting concert’s hall’s completion of project deliverables. There are certain procurement strategies in meeting the deadlines for concert hall successful implementation like the certainty of cost and time for the overall design development of the hall by an architect as per clients’ instructions who would be engaged in the workings of the trust body.

However, this seems a very chronological and organized method as a result for this while, termed as a slow process (officially termed as the traditional procurement process or design-bid-build process). Another strategy would be based on the relative working of speed and cost certainty, while over here the designing is the sole task offered to the contractor and the trust body would not have much say over the matter of design processing (known as design-build process).

Next strategy could be based on the process of either management contracting or construction management that works with the relative speedy work of the design development by an architect given the task on client’s employment but it is the fact that we have to fight against the uncertain cost until the completion of the project. Now we will be discussing each of these strategies in a comprehensive detailed environment focusing more towards the objectives and targets to be met for the concert hall project.

The Decision to implement a new information system RE: Decision to Implement A New Information System I have been made aware that the business is looking to invest in a new information system for the handling of stock and other management activities. I would like to bring to your attention the fact that I am concerned about this new decision that management has made to implement this new system without through consultation with other managers and staff.

I would like to stress that extreme caution should be made whilst considering to implement this new IS after the four million pound loss that was made during the implementation of the old IS few years back which led to the demise of the once very profitable craven comics. I would like to outline that I have the companies best interests at heart as I was present when the crisis of a few years back had occurred and would not like the same mistakes being made again.

I shall delve deeper into the reasons why I believe that craven comics should be diligent and extra cautious in considering to implement a new system to handle stocks in the warehouse. I feel that there are a few key points that need to be considered. Reflection We need to look back to the tragedy that occurred a few years back and really understand why the IT system failed and learn from these mistakes. The main reason for the collapse I believe is that the company was over ambitious with what they wanted to achieve but yet were not prepared to thoroughly plan and investigate different options available.

The company relied heavily on the IT consultants without really understanding the type of system they were purchasing and the implications the new system would bring. Staff and management alike were not fully aware of what the system was actually for instead fighting with the system rather than working in harmony alongside the system making seamless work of stock management duties. Stocks were being misplaced in the warehouse, incorrect amounts of new stocks were being ordered by the system along side various other problems all due to the fact that the employees could not interact with the system effectively.

Both employees and management were not trained in handling the system correctly as the system was clearly the wrong choice for this business. I thoroughly recommend that our current employees have a say in what type of system integration they would find useful as a system relies on people for it to work. The staff at the warehouse must have their say as many witnessed the disaster with the old information system and it could prove very beneficial to hear their views and ideas also. We need to plan effectively and make sure that the system first and fore mostly meets the user’s needs.

These will be staff in the warehouse along with the managers. So we all need to meet up and give our views and ideas on what we need this new system to do. The failure of the previous IS was due to the fact that the system didn’t integrate itself within the business. This could have been due to the lack of planning, analysis and research that went into deciding what IS was most suitable. Therefore I think it is imperative that we sit down with all the key members of staff including warehouse staff and discuss the reasons for needing an information system. Questions like: what is wrong with our current system?

What improvements would like to be seen? How much costs are being incurred with this system? Will the business benefit with a modern IS?. With these questions answered we can then conceptualise and initialise the project. If we think implementing an IS is a good idea we need to develop a project plan. We can then address the question of what type of IS will be most beneficial to this business? , a tailor made one or one where the system is bought off the shelf. With the disaster that occurred with our previous system, the business chose to implement a system with the help of IT consultants.

The system implemented was one that was designed initially for a different organisation but was modified to work within Craven Comics. This, I believe was fundamental to the compatibility issues that were suffered. The system failed to perform within our business as staff couldn’t really get to grips with how it really worked and the system didn’t fit in with the existing practices that the business was used to. Recommendation I Firmly believe that investing in a package that has been tailored to meet our needs from the ground up is the best option.

This way we can design a system that answers all the questions asked in the planning and analysis stages. This way, the various departments will be able to have their say and a system that meets everyone’s needs and fits into the way the organisation works and thinks will be attained. This method is clearly advantages over the readymade packages that are available. Readymade packages are good at doing a certain type of job for example stock checking, but may not do everything that is needed. This can be a very quick and often cheaper method with a clarity of the costs but yields negative results most of the time.

There is a very slim chance that the system will fit into the organisations existing practices and staff may need to be trained to use this type of system which may prove very expensive in the long term. I also believe that outsourcing an IS will not be beneficial. Although outsourcing allows a business to focus a greater amount of time on its core business and reduce personnel, it means that the business has less control over the system. There could also be compatibility issues and a risk of losing competitive advantage is also present as valuable information could be leaked.

I recommend that the ‘prototyping’ method is used in the implementation process of the information system. We could submit a systems specification to the IT department and develop the application in-house. This will enable our IT team to work closely with everyone in the business to design a system from the ground up to meet our needs to the fullest. This method will enable staff and management to monitor the project at every stage and make key changes and decisions if the project is not working. A small working model could be developed and will invariably evolve after discussions with the staff and mangers alike whowill be using the system.

This way the system will mould itself to what the business requires and the way the business works. The performance of the system could be closely monitored; is the system fast enough? What’s the user support like? How much is it costing? Is it integrating itself correctly? and so on. If satisfactory results are not being achieved then there is time available to make changes and modifications. Training time and costs will also be reduced as staff will be growing and learning as the system grows. Once the system is complete then staff should be comfortable and should fully understand the operation of the system.

The prototyping method will allow Craven Comics to have full control. Project Schedule and budget The business needs to have a project schedule and budget. This is very important and wasn’t present during the implementation of the previous IS. Funds need to be split into small manageable parts, for example consultancy costs, IT management costs, Labour costs should all be budgeted. This will enable the business to see where funds are going and any cost over runs could be dealt with swiftly. Problems in the planning stages are the main reasons why most systems fails.

Planning and budgeting correctly will also avoid the business in being over ambitious as was the case a few years back. The business should know how much cash is available and exactly where the cash is going. Failure to do this was a major factor in the failure of the previous IS, this disaster could have been avoided. Analysis and Resource Budgeting We also need to analyse and budget for the resources we have. For example how many staff do we have? how much space is available? The hours that will be needed? Will this impact in sales for the business? All these are key issues that need to be thoroughly monitored and carefully planned in order to minimise a fall in company revenues during the implementation process. I feel that we need all the staff to play a part in helping in the development of the information system. We need to use just the sufficient amount of space that we think we would need to accommodate the system. we should have adequate space to store the mainframe and need to look at the placement of wires and cables so as to avoid any hazards. we need to look at the placement of a backup system and the storage space for all the relevant IT technology.

This will allow valuable space to be maintained for the everyday running of the normal business. Risk The concept of risk needs to be taken into account also. We need to appreciate that there is an element of risk present in this project as is with every new project a business decides to undertake. We need to understand what could potentially go wrong, and the measures that we could take in order to avoid this and minimise damage to the operation of the business. This was not done during the implementation of the previous IS as a result the business didn’t know where resources were going and how errors could be dealt with.

Management Management issues do also need to be addressed. We need to look at the reasons why management failed during the last disaster and make sure that these errors don’t reoccur. I believe managements lackadaisical approach was the main issue. Management were not truly aware of what the business actually needed but were just following the recommendations of the ITconsultants. Management also failed to communicate effectively with fellow employees and just expected them to know what was going on rather than explaining to them what they were looking to do and how it would affect them.

Legal issues and quality standards Legal issues also need to be dealt with alongside required quality standards. For example, data protection and health and safety issues. Project Reporting The project needs to be reported on at every stage. We need status reports, progress reports and forecast reports allowing the project to stay on track and under control. This was not present during the last IS therefore the project veered off course and we lost control of costs and valuable resources.

Once we are approaching the final stages of the implementation process we should sit with all the key staff members and conduct a systems follow up. This will involve re-evaluating the systems effectiveness through discussion with top managers and end users. We should also evaluate the controls, processing and the output of the system. This will enable us to prepare a post implementation review report and make necessary revisions to the system if required to do so. This is also useful for future systems implantation as we will have crucial data of what worked well and what didn’t and the changes that were needed to be made.

If we had taken the above steps during the disaster of the previous IS then this would have allowed the business to save a considerable amount of time and money in implementing a new IS. Mistakes could easily be pointed out and avoided. The fact that we didn’t keep progress reports of the project a few years back we couldn’t really see what went wrong and at what stage clearly enough. Therefore it is imperative that we evaluate the project of implementing a new information system and ask questions like, did this project achieve our scope? Did we make the correct decision in choosing to prototype?

Is the quality there? did we meet our cost/timescale targets? , what were the major hurdles and what measures did we take to overcome them? . The answers to these questions will enable the business to learn from the mistakes and make sure that they don’t reoccur during any future projects. Craven Comics failed to take the above steps therefore there is no accurate record of the mistakes that were made a few years back. Final thoughts/Conclusion Overall I believe the decision to implement an information system is a good idea as the correct Information System can prove very valuable for an organisation.

I also recommend looking at past disasters and the measures the firms took to overcome them. Disasterssuch as the international stock exchange (Taurus project, London Ambulance Service and Northumbria Police and so on and so forth could be looked at to gain invaluable insight. I believe a bespoke package will be the best option. This is the similar to the measures Craven Comics took a few years back. But I believe if all my recommendations are followed then this will be a very beneficial choice for this business. We need to approach the project with care and must avoid the mistakes that were made a few years back.

I will grateful if you can take the time out to acknowledge the advice that I have given to you in this report. I have the companiesbest interests at heart and would not like to witness the collapse of this business again. Arif Saddiq Year 2 Accountancy and finance References Websites Library of Failed information systems projects’[online] [date unknown] ,http://www. scit. wlv. ac. uk/~cm1984/qmp/failures/NINE. HTM [accessed 20 march 2009] [accessed via www. google. co. uk and searched it failures] Wikipedia 2009, Information systems, http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Information_systems [online] accessed 21 march 2009]

Abstract

            The following document gives an analysis and descriptions to mobile phone organization Nokia based in America. It will analyze the internal and external factors that influence the industry, how decision making can be influenced by these factors, evaluation of the organization effectiveness. This document will also look at the area of that industry that requires improvements. All businesses, whatever sector they are in, will have plans, aims and objectives. In some cases these can be very sophisticated but in some small businesses very modest. Whatever they are a business will need to monitor its performance in relation to these goals.

Introduction

            The success of the any mobile phone organization relies heavily on a number of internal and external factors. This greatly influences the growth of the organization. Most mobile phone companies develop the phone with the aim of satisfying consumers and they keep on improving the product until people are satisfied. This has led to technological changes in the world. A mobile operator like Nokia introduces new products almost weekly to improve on the product. An industry is an organized activity that functions to produce and manufacture a certain product. Industries normally start to function with the purpose of profit making, creation of employment and this leads to economic growth. They have aims and this are defines as long term goals. They work in order to achieve this aims. The aims could include: make the maximum profit, survive its competitors, work to boost its share price, and make the most use of the revenue. It also has objectives that are used to achieve the aims.(Barnatt, C. 1997:38).

Internal and External Factors that Influence Mobile Phone Industry.

            There are some factors that influence the Nokia mobile phone industry. The factors are further categorized into internal and external factors. External factors are those factors that a business cannot control and usually happens outside the organization. They also affect internal factors in the industry as well as objectives of the organization and the strategy it implements. Internal factors are factors that the organization can control and use to solve problems. (Centre for Electronic Commerce: 1996)

External Factors

            One of the major factors is competition from outside. The company needs to know the degree from outside. In order to know the degree the industry needs to know how it is fairing with the other relevant businesses. Competitors flood the market everyday, and the level of competition depends on how many small rival businesses exist, how many few rival businesses exist and how rapid changing of the market caused by consumer changing needs. An industry also needs to know its competitor behavior. It has to work out a strategy to remain immune to its competitors. It is mandatory for an industry to know the happenings of their competitors and be ready to respond effectively as it occurs. Most industries beat competition by cutting down prices of products, providing warranty and after sale services to its consumers, ensuring that the products are of quality and spending a lot of money on promotions.

            Another factor is macroeconomic or economic factor. This factor affects the industry in the way that the government imposes taxes, demand of the product, exchange rates of currency in different countries if it operates globally, economic growth, rate of inflation and unemployment rate. Industries should consistently monitor the economic trends and evaluate them to ensure efficiency of organizations productivity.

            Another factor is the global events that are happening worldwide. These events are usually hard to predict and they include: fires, earthquakes, wars, political changes that are going to occur especially in November and what the world is currently experiencing the increase of oil products. Since many businesses operate globally, a way of monitoring the happenings in the world is important to determine their response to these circumstances.

            Legal is also a factor that influences the industries because it concerns the way the government passes the laws. It could be about labor, working hours and when they are passed they determine the way a business might survive. They are set by the government. Political factors influence the industry when there are changes in the government policies. For example, the government could ban the use of a product if it possesses health or any danger to its consumers.

Social factors are the behaviors of consumers and various communities of a particular country and have some influences on the industries. This are brought about by belief of people about a particular product. Businesses try to change their product in order to fit with consumers beliefs. Businesses should also be aware of their responsibilities socially. This can be the way they react to different communities. They also provide some social amenities to the society as a way of making people aware that the industry is not only interested in profit making but also in passing its benefits to the society. Most industries provide scholarship to students, create employment to societies and run positive campaigns against drug abuse.  (Chau, S.B. and Turner, P.:2001, December 5-7)

Their benefits can be classified into social benefits and social costs. A social benefit happens when the company passes its benefits to the society, for example, building a new factory in another different place. This not only brings profit to the industry but also create job opportunity to the local community. Social costs are when the industries benefits have reverse effects on the society. The external factors are changing everyday. This is because the consumers cannot be satisfied hence competitors flood the market, technology emerges everyday hence forcing new products  to be made and finally government policies change day by day.

Internal Factors

            As stated above the internal factors are those factors that can be controlled within the organization. They influence the function of the organization. Managerial influence is a factor as this contributes to the overall performance of the industry. The management functions; promote positive attitudes and increase motivation to employees, ensuring that employees have responsibilities to carry out, and increase skills of their employees by providing training and team building activities. The management of an industry is also responsible for the performance of the industry. It is their responsibility to make strategic decisions and control risks occurrence. There are some factors that the management uses to determine the performance of the company.  These factors are business strategy that the industry is going to implement, implementation of new technologies as they emerge and carrying out research and developments.

            The management should review objectives of the industry, the strategies that it implements and introduce innovations. They should be also monitoring the commitment of their employees and also their satisfaction once in a while. When the organization introduces changes then it should ensure that it satisfies the employees. The employees should be rewarded once in a while as a way of motivating them. When making decisions the management should put in mind the organizational culture and identity. Freel, M. (2000: 62).

            Another internal factor is control. This is the assigning of tasks and the assigning of responsibilities as to the employees. The management should also be responsible in controlling risk occurrences and also the market. Control assists the management to foresee the future hence helps them to solve problems immediately as they occur. It is also a form of writing an account to what is happening in an organization. This in turn helps the management to make strategic decisions. It helps in the gathering of information. The aims of control include; decision making, proper planning and construction of business activities, construction and implementation of strategies and supports the generation of financial reports

            Leadership is also another factor that influences the organization. Leadership affects the decision making structure of the organization. Leadership involves accomplishing missions and influencing people to do a particular thing in order to accomplish a goal. Wrong leadership values could lead to company dysfunctions.  There are some leadership styles that the industry applies; one is bureaucratic leadership that involves following set procedures and standards.

            This ensures quality, decreased corruption and increase in security. Second is charismatic; this is whereby team are assigned responsibilities and have the power to make decisions on their own without consulting the leader. They mostly work in teams and success is credited to the teams. The other one is autocrat ism where the leader is given the power to make decisions all by himself, and there is also democrat ism whereby the leader makes decisions when he has consulted the teams.

            Resource influence is so another important factor that influences the industries. When resources are locally available then it makes it easy to manufacture the product. It also saves the cost of transport hence reduces the cost of production. (Lawrence, K. and Keen, C.D.:1997)

            Motivation is also another factor. It is the work of the management to get things done in the organization and it is usually done by employees. In order to achieve this, the management should motivate the employees. When the management understands this it leads to effectiveness of management and good leadership. Workers who are motivated tend to work better than those who are not.  It is therefore important to study the motivational principles for a business to be successful. Motivation is the key to improving performance. This is because performance is considered to be a function of ability and motivation according to (Chau, S. B.:2001). He also says that job performance=f (ability) (motivation). There are several ways that the management can provide motivations. They include; treatment of people should be fair, satisfaction of employee needs, rewarding employees according to their performance, setting reasonable goals and objectives, the forms of punishment should be effective and setting high expectations for the employees.

            Measuring the performance of the company is very important in order to place the company with others. There are many ways of measuring the performance in mobile phone technology. First the organization needs to define its goals and objectives. This measure determines success of the organization. The goals and objectives should be made challenging and achievable at the same time. This helps to improve the market segment and retaining customers by reducing complaints. Secondly the organization needs to determine ways to measure performance. To do this they need to look at marketing strategies of the organization. This could include; growth of sales, the methods that are used to distribute the product, training on budget allocations, quality of the products and time of delivery of the product. Production is also another factor that the organization needs to look at. Factors to consider are the industries capacity to produce, expansion ability in future, availability of raw materials and suppliers.  Company performance can be determined by company accounts, accounts of management and statistical database. Most companies use gantt charts to show the production of the product against time. ( MacGregor, R.C., Waugh, P., and Bunker, D.:1996). Another factor that influences the performance is the employee attitude .

            The organization needs to develop data collection methods in order to generate reports that will be used in future to compare results. They are also used for reporting on trends that emerge regularly. The organization needs to compare itself with the competitors. This can be done by viewing the competitors’ reports to check their performance, publications that they make and the press releases. The other most important thing to do  is to carry out research in order to find out the customers views  about products, then they generate report on the findings. The other important thing that the mobile phone uses to measure performance is having an understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. This can be done by concentrating on strings of the company. Focusing to retain  customers is also another important factor since it is a sure way to survive and in recent research it states  that getting a new customer is more expensive in fact five times than keeping an old customer.  The industries work to be loyal to their customers hence work hard to ensure that their products are of quality, fulfilling promises to their consumers and use old customers to attract others.

            Changing to competitive environment is a factor that the industry considers. There are some factors that influence the  changing to competitive environment. One is the positioning of the industry. Positioning is the creating awareness about products, the company itself and the brand to the new. This is important and is always the first step. It involves carrying out promotions and advertising the new product. Factors to consider when the mobile phone wants to position itself are: features of the product; the benefits of the products or what the product will do; types of products it can offer; comparison of the product with another similar but relevant and the class of the product. The customer can now distinguish the product by its function, the symbols used and experimenting the product. There are various steps  that the mobile phone uses to position the product. They are identification of similar competitive products, identification of certain attribute that make the product unique, collecting views of the consumers about the product, determining the market target, and examining if it can fit between competitive products.( National Office for the Information Economy: 2000a)

            The other factor that influences decision making of the mobile phone is the industry attractiveness. This is the way profit can be potential in a particular market. This then determinines the profitability of the market. Another factor that can be used is the crisis management.  When changing to competitive market there the industry is prone to risks occurring every now and then. To help solve this risks, the industry prepares contingency plans in advance such that member can be called upon quickly to solve the crisis. Another way of preventing crisis is formation of a crisis team that helps to solve the problem internally and externally.  The other method is acting quickly and solve the issue, using crisis management consultants is also advisable as they help to resolve issues quickly. The final way is to use accurate and information that is correct.

            Another factor that influences the changing competitive environment is market segmentation. This is the process identifying the market, and breaking it into fragments where the industry sees the potential customers with similar characteristics and wants who will posses the homogenization characteristic. This is useful in order to sell the product selectively to different people. This will in turn help the organization to decide whether to go for full market fragment of half of it or different parts. These also position the company with its competitors in the market. It also develops a marketing mix.  The industry bases its market segment according to geographic regions, demography, the behavior of the customer, differences in the product and psycho graphs. The steps that the industries follow are: identification of the total market; determination of the dimensions that exist; profiling the segments; selecting target market and determining the position of the industries in each fragment. The advantages of segmentation include: knowing the customer better; finding resource allocation easily and helps in focusing the organizations strategy.  (National Office for the Information Economy: 2000b)

            The other factor that influences the changing of environment is competitive intelligence. This is selecting, collecting interpreting and distributing information about the competition the industry is going to face or where the industry operates. It involves analysis of its competitors, the position in which the  organization is in, intelligence of the competitors, the position of the organization, what it is capable of doing and the intentions it has in the areas it operates. Information can be collected from employees, customers of competitors as well as suppliers, the annual report from other companies and  newspapers.

            Finally another factor that could influence is the principals that the management uses to manage the organization. These principles are affecting the overall performance of the organization. This principle includes division of work. This is assigning employees with responsibilities to be carried out. It is usual done daily, weekly even monthly. Authority is also a principle that oversees the execution of commands and functions. The other principle is discipline in that the employees must obey orders from the management and also be responsible for facing punishment if they go against the rules. The unity of commands is a principle that states that an employee should be assigned one boss and it is from him that the commands should come from. The management should have one direction for it to become united. This means that people should be involved in the same activities of the organization. Paying of salary as expected is also a principle as it is a motivative factor. It should also be paid on time to avoid any inconveniences.

            The management should also be centralized in that there is only one manager and he or she is in charge of all the activities that go on in an organization. This principle is determined by the organization condition.  If the organization is big then centralization is important. Equity is also another principle that the management should practice. Injustices cause the organization time and money because they keep loosing their employees.  The importance of the principles is to make changes and form a good organization, aids in decision making, helps in acquisition of skills and finally understand the tasks of management. Management has five elements: planning; organizing; coordinating, controlling and commanding. (Poon, S. and Swatman, P. :1998)

            The industries are keen to evaluate the effectiveness of the organization response to the changes that are going to occur. They organize the strategies that are they are going to use in order to survive a particular market. On of the responses is to listen to the customer as the customer is always right. The cutting down of prices is also another response of the organization. This helps to attract and retain existing customers. This also helps build a positive company image. The introduction of the new products in the market will also be accepted positively by the consumers as a result of their responses. The industries also respond fast to crisis by solving problems as they occur. This is a way of maximizing on the profits that are generated by the company. They also try to make the best decisions out of a given sample in order to save the industry from collapsing.

 Recommendations

            Although the mobile phone organization Nokia  is trying its best to satisfy the customer needs there is still a lot to be done. First it should respond to spread its products to other places especially to  places in Africa and Asia. This will be determined by the factors that have been mentioned above. Secondly they need to have a way of checking imitations in the market. There are very many imitations and this confuses the customers who want to purchase the product.

            The other recommendation is to introduce new products that other similar companies have in order to be in the same position as the rest. Thirdly is to keep in touch withits consumers in order to improve its product. They should also standardize their product such that when one travels to a different country he or she can purchase similar products that last. In some countries it has become hard to purchase the product since it does not last since it is fake.

            The organization should also be fast in crisis management. This can be done by collecting views and also implementation of fast response from its users. The management should also consider spending more on promotions than it is now. This will give the public a positive image about the company. They should also try and take criticism positively in order to develop and grow. This is due to the fact that they respond negatively to the critism.

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