Management Information Systems
In their formative years, business computers were employed for the practical business of calculating the payroll and the proper management of accounts payable and accounts receivable. As applications were developed which afforded managers with information about sales, inventories and other data that could assist in directing a business entity, the term Management Information System or MIS emerged to represent these kinds of applications. At present, the phrase is used extensively in numerous contexts which include but not limited to decision support systems, resource and people management applications, ERP, SCM, CRM, management and database retrieval application.
Basically, an MIS is a structure designed to collect, process, store, and disseminate data in the form of information needed to perform functions of management. In a way, it is an acknowledged report of the activities that have been planned and implemented. Simply put, a marketing information system consists of people, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision makers (Kotler and Keller 2006).
Marketing the Strategy to the Organisation
James Collington has first to convince Dr. Harrison and staff that NOC is a learning organisation, so they must know how to attach the power of information and communication technologies without constraining knowledge management and learning. He has to make them understand that in a learning organisation, information and communication technologies are employed to strengthen organisational identity build and sustain learning communities keep staff members, clients, and others informed of corporate developments and let them be aware of the significance of these activities. Likewise, it can create unpredicted, useful connections between people and provide access to their knowledge and ideas give confidence to innovation and creativity share and learn from good practices and unintended outcomes reinforce relationships develop and access organisational memory share tools, methods, and approaches celebrate successes identify internal sources of expertise and connect with the outside world. The creative use of information and communication technologies such as shared document drives, intranet pages, online communities and networks, wikis and other collaborative work spaces, such as blogging and online storytelling, staff profile pages, online webinars, podcasts, and social network analysis indicates that an organisation should take learning seriously. NOC is one of them. Finally, in a learning organisation, sufficient opportunities are provided for staff members to learn how to make use of available information and communication technologies for knowledge management and learning (Daft 2003 Galbraith 2002 Ireland and Hitt 1997, pp. 101-104 Murray and Greenes 2006, pp. 38-44).
I.T. Strategy for Newark Opthalmic Centre
Purpose
This strategy aims to enhance the existing systems of the Newark Opthalmic Centre. The purpose of the strategy is to ensure alignment with the Centres shared vision, install a suitable computerised scheduling system that would significantly reduce workers scheduling workload, resolve cash flow issues, provide efficient medical charts, institutionalise effective patient record-keeping, and respond to the requirement of building on and improving service to the Centre s customers and stakeholders.
Context
Information Technology
Information technology, now more than ever, is crucial if the Centre is to deliver on its vision of becoming a leader in the ophthalmic business industry. Service to patients, performance of professional staff, stakeholders concerns, retention of old clients, and gaining new patrons and the business processes of the Centre are all progressively more reliant on IT in one form or another. New clients, old patients including Centre staff come to the institution with the expectation that the services that will be provided will respond to the needs, rather than respond to the needs of the Centre as a business entity.
Changing Environment
The shifting milieu presents numerous prospects and risks
Delivery of more efficient services to users on their own computers
Elimination of the need to store escalating amounts of patient file store as personal devices hold more and more data
Growing expectation of the Centre as a service provider
Volatility of potential requisites, predominantly in the research computing sphere
NOC I.T. Strategy s Mission
In order to clarify its role in supporting the Centre s mission and strategic objectives, NOC has characterised its mission as
Maintain the highest levels of excellence as a health service provider institution of reputable standing
Provide an infrastructure, systems and services which make available suitable and precise information to all players and stakeholders
NOC I.T. Strategy s Aim
The aim of this scheme is to guarantee that the Centre has the appropriate levels of computing, telecommunications, network services and technical support to allow it to attain its organizational aims and objectives. The most important job of this I.T. strategy is to manage the computing resources and information facilities in order to encourage an environment favourable to excellence in serving the public as it provides its ophthalmic-related services.
It is within this context that the following strategic objectives and implementation plan have been devised for the development of the Centre s IT services in the next ____ years.
Strategic Objectives
The strategic objectives listed have been identified as essential to attaining the strategy s mission and are comparatively aligned with overall NOC priorities and, to some extent, mirror particular technological and staff development objectives which will have to be achieved in order to strengthen service provision.
Objectives linked to the Centre s Priorities
A mechanism which will make certain that NOC staff development and training anticipates changes in NOC requirements
Greater prominence on the identification and classification of peripheral funding opportunities that will contribute towards the accomplishment of other objectives
Commitment to cut down the environmental impact of IT within the Centre
Focus on delivery of services to the new structures.
Technological Objectives
An infrastructure that will meet and respond to the needs of the centre in the next ____ years and beyond
Applications and services that will have an apparent relationship with the business of the Centre
A diminution in the diversity of technologies in use
A cutback in the number of core systems and applications offering similar functions
Delivery of services in a way that meets the needs of the user
An efficient system for making sure that new and up-and-coming technologies are assessed
A vigorous system that ensures valuable monitoring and evaluation of technical infrastructure and services.
Implementation
Overview
NOC I.T. Strategy will maintain its commitment to choosing software and hardware that matches open standards. By this, it is meant that those solutions enabling the group to hook up together incongruent systems and technologies in a non-proprietary way as well as the ones responsible to replace components easily will be preferred. Likewise, open-source alternatives to commercial systems as part of any tendering processes will be considered.
In addition, the strategy proponent will press forward with the emerging strategy of making services available on the Web. Since many services are available on the Web, with different interfaces and different user device requirements, it must be ensured that the user experience of the Centre s services is a great deal more flawless than what is being experienced currently. In practice, it would mean that, at least for the unfussy user who does not need the full functionality of any specific system, the fundamental intricacy must be concealed within the portal (MUSE). As a result, MUSE will become the fundamental point of delivery for most services.
The reach of current desktop applications such as those delivered on the managed desktop will be extended by assimilating them within the portal. Users of the systems will be able to select how, when, and where they will access services such as payments or consultations. Use of portal standards for such applets allows users to produce their own set of frequently used functions which can be delivered to their PDA or phone as well as the conventional portal on a desktop or laptop computer that will allow rapid response to technological change. With increasing volumes of data and increasing variety in storage locations and technologies, metadata storage and search facilities that will enhance understanding and use of this resource will become increasingly significant.
Services for Patients and Stakeholders
An environment will be set where patients and professional service staff are able to access information and services from wherever they are and with whatever device they have available to them. This way, patients will be more in control of their NOC experience, with the presence of such information systems that allow them to interact within the Centre in an active and flawless fashion.
Support for Research
Support for research will be boosted with the creation of a Research coordinator post (funds permitting) within NOC who will organise a range of strands of sustenance is currently provided. Efforts will be focused on making the experience of using the High Performance Compute facility as effortless as possible for users so that they can concentrate on research rather than computing. Continued funding will also be afforded to upgrade and increase the power of the HPC, taking advantage of the increase in computing power and using the opportunity to reduce our environmental footprint. In addition, how to create an effective Virtual Research Environment will also be considered.
Support for Centre Employees
The new processional staff structure will certainly produce specific challenges for NOC, both in the provision of information provision and in technology support. It also guarantees that the reporting needs of less frequent users of the core systems and those who must deliver on many dissimilar fields are responded to within a single user crossing point. Work is already under way to guarantee that reporting is at a suitable level for employee use. It is also sought that there is appropriateness in the movement of functionality for the systems to the portal so that much of the work of the employees can be done from a single point. Collaboration tools will become ever more important, and NOC s role will be to guarantee interoperability between systems and to optimise their use.
Support for Professional Services Staff
Like the core operational systems like SAP, CIS and so on, collaboration tools play a gradually more significant function in the work of the professional services staff. Integration of these tools already in place will be pressed on in order for tasks and processes to be restructured and reorganised from end-to-end, and so that the use of technology would be maximised. While professional services staff will continue to use a variety of systems in the course of their work, we will, as for Centre employee, try to lessen the differences between systems, by providing common functionality through the portal.
Indicative Activity
The following provides an outline of the principal technical activities that will be undertaken during the implementation phase
Infrastructure Developments
Physical Estate
Enhance on the work already done in the data centres to guarantee for full resilience in mission-critical and high importance systems in the event of a disaster affecting the Centre. Regional and national shared data-centre initiatives will likewise be monitored with the consideration of establishing an off-site second data centre to be used for archive andor HPC computing. Further, measures to trim down energy usage where practicable and affordable will be practised enthusiastically.
Backup Strategy
A complete review of the way backup and archiving of computer data is managed will be conducted in order to better serve the current and future needs of the community and lessen the burden of operational staff within NOC and to meet regulatory requirements.
Storage
Storage provision will be centralised continuously, both for corporate systems and departmental systems needs. Increasing requirements for large scale data storage will mean that there is a need to participate in regional and national initiatives for shared data storage.
General Purpose Filestore and Printing
To enhance on the investment already made in centralised storage in order to provide a more streamlined and cost-effective service, the following will be put in place
UNIX To rationalise the server estate by the consolidation of multiple services on to fewer computers
DATABASE Continue to use and upgrade Oracle as the database of preference for all corporate applications accept the use of MySql, SQL Server for point solutions.
NETWORK
Increase core resilience by building on work done with dual data centres
Collapse back aggregation centres into data centres where resilience features are already available
Make sure that current aggregation centres are passive, supported by UPS for telephone functions and dual physically separate network feeds
Increase building resilience as and when feasible and affordable
Institute a program of replacement for edge switches
TELEPHONY
Build on the installation of the IP-based switches to provide new and enhanced functionality such as converged voice, voicemail, email, etc.
Service developments
SEARCH
Use collaborative systems such as clear space product to increase ability to find expertise within the Centre community
Increase ability to extract knowledge from data by making use of the facilities provided by existing reporting tools technologies
PORTAL
Make more applications and information available
Upgrade Portal to take advantage of portlet standards
Increase integration of portal with applications, through use of channels
Make portal or channels within portal evident and functional on other devices
Move current desktop applications on the managed service to the portal
Review current portal technology
SAP
Continue integration work and make data available for use by non-SAP users
Undertake necessary SAP upgrades
Evaluate new developments to determine whether SAP should be used
Work on improving user interface where practicable and cost-effective
CIS
Move away from Forms applications to Java.
Support simple developments in PHP in order to decrease time to deployment.
Conduct second review of CIS systems.
REPORTINGMANAGEMENT INFORMATION
At staff employee level, enable reporting on all data through a single interface
Divert resources to this function in order to improve the level of support for management information although this may mean decreased resource elsewhere.
VLE
Build more resilient service to reflect increasing strategic importance.
Increase capability and space.
Consider replacementreview in 2011.
COLLABORATION
Deploy next generation mail and calendaring product.
Complete and evaluate Document Management system pilots under way.
RESEARCH COMPUTING
Continue funding of HPC
Replace every 3 years
Encourage centralisation of HPC installations across the centre.
Increase support from CiCS within available resources.
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