COIT20274 Information Systems for Business Professionals

COIT20274 Information Systems for Business Professionals

Executive Summary

The presented assignment demonstrates the case study of Springfield Animal Hospital (SAH) which is a privately owned veterinary practice organization. The following assignment defines a brief knowledge of information systems which are going to be implemented in the SAH. Information system helps an organization to connect with all the aspects of business operations and provide relevant results to monitor and control business operations effectively. This assignment shows various types of information systems and their specific usage in veterinary industry.

Introduction

This assignment depicts the answers to case study questions regarding implementation of Information Systems at SAH. This assignment helps Nigel, which is the owner of SAH to address issues concerning adapting information systems among his organization. The owner wants to expand his organization and as a consultant this assignment provides solution and advice in implementation of various Information Systems.

Q1.

The various kinds of information which are beneficial for small business organizations like SAH are:

Management Information System: MIS helps in increasing the efficiency among the managerial activities of the organization. It provides summaries and ad hoc reports which helps in making the regular routine decisions among organization and solving issues concerning various processes at the company. It utilizes the data which is collected through transaction processing systems and provide relevant results summaries for managers and authorities.

Expert Systems and Neutral Networks: It is a knowledge based system which helps in analyzing data to produce meaningful results. It helps small business organization to diagnose the issues and making controlled decisions for solving problems through computer information (Rainer and Casey, 2012).

Decision Support Systems: It helps in increasing the quality among organization by replacing a previously made judgement and supporting the further required changes. The external data is analyzed into meaningful subordinates and generates further in to data models and statistical projections.  

Transaction Processing System: These systems help in collection, cancelation, storage, process, display and modify the transactions among organization. The multiple transactions can be stored and managed in small business organizations through TPS which is beneficial in billing, wages, inventory management, manufacturing and checking reports at work.

Information System in Organization: These systems provide accurate and useful information in real time by processing the input data. The input data is stored, collected and processed to govern effectively (Cress, 2010).

Q2.

The specific business and system problems faced by SAH in order of priority are as follows:

1. The management of employees with respect to salary, cessation procedure, retention and over-time issues.

2. Business operations or running the business in a proper manner to find appropriate equipment which can provide break even, proper exit strategy in business and a professional legal team with consultant, accountant and lawyer.

3. Client compliance in order to encourage clients to utilize training center, marketing strategy to communicate values to target customers and a team to gain care compliance.

4. Management of time in business operations, to manage gaps between appointments, staving off the burnouts and making out time for a healthy and prosperous life as well (Zander, 2017).

5. Managing the change among organization with an approach of innovation, reinvention and renew among the practices.

6. SAH needs to make sure they does not charge their clients in an improper manner to cover their under earnings.

7. Veterinarians is a service industry business with modest returns, SAH needs to find ways to cope up with market scenarios and mishaps such as recessions and slowdown of economy.

8. A strong measure is required to save money and increase the cash flow among organization.

9. Attracting new customers and retaining the existing customers (dvm360, 2008).

Q3.

The key information requirements of SAH are as follows:

Inventory management:SAH requires details of stock under inventory to manage efficient and effective inventory among their organization. The inventory management can be handled with information system among organization which will provide an uninterrupted supply of goods required for SAH daily services. This will help in providing a legitimate competitive advantage to the company by saving crucial time in business operations (Venkatesh, et al. 2013).

Customer requirements:SAH needs a complete requirement list and profile of their regular, targeted and potential customers systematically. This will help in conducting timely requirement of their consumers such as providing especial care to pets and training profile of pets. The organization can utilize Transaction Process system in order to maintain the logs and details of consumer with respect to the information of pet and pet owners in a uniform order.

Business operations:SAH requires a complete list of all the services they provide to their clients and also the business operations conducted in the organization to manage situation demands. In order to improve the operation quality of the organization, SAH requires their manager to keep a detailed note of all the business operations of the organization and arrange them to receive a higher competitive value for the company using information systems (Laudon and Laudon, 2013). 

Q4.

Information system (IS)is a combined approach where hardware, software, people, data resources and communication networks are collected together to transform and disseminate the information in a group or a company. The major information requirements as specified in the previous question are summarized as inventory management, customer requirements and business operations. Information System is an organized system which collects, communicate, stores and organize the information. The first requirement of inventory management can be fulfilled with MIS or (Management Information System) which deals in collection and management of information and data to produce relevant results. The second major requirement of SAH is customer profile which can be accessed through implementation of IS or Information System. The Information System will help in collection of all the information of pet owners, clients and animals to process them uniformly. Also, it will provide real time results out of data by processing them effectively. The third specific information system for handling business operations at SAH is TPS or Transaction Processing System. This system will help in enhancement of business operations at SAH by collecting, cancelling, storing and displaying all the relevant data related to business processes at the organization (Rainer and Casey, 2012).

Q5.

A typical business organization has its key stake holders in 3 different zones.
The internal one consists of administrative authorities and employees from all corner of work. Here the working environment is such that all systems should be interconnected as required during execution of tasks because the data remains isolated & unaffected in each department, unless requested for. So the network should be well defined within the working environment but should not exceed the zone. Intranet fulfils this condition. It provides access to only authorized personnel thus keeping the information safe and sound.

The second one is also important as it consists of distributors, suppliers and especially big investors from other areas of profession who as such do not have involvement in business works but are a part of its financial frame. Even the government is linked in regards to norms and policy framing. These people also need access to some particular range of information. Extranet follows similar principles as that of an intranet; the difference is that it links outside users as its trusted partners. Basically it connects an organization with its business partners. SAH can utilize it to ensure its supplies like pet consumables remains sufficient during clinic overload.

The third one is the most vital one which defines a firm or organization’s reach among masses. Here the customers or clients are being talked about. Internet is a suitable medium through which any business can flourish. All it needs is a good image in society. Clients are at ease when they can book appointments, contact doctors and share their opinions from distant places without having the need to visit SAH’s premise (Cox-Witten, et. al. 2014).

Q6.

Information System is an organized system which collects, communicate, stores and organize the information. It is beneficial for Springfield Animal Hospital Management to distribute, create, process, collect and filter the relevant data among their organization in an effective manner (Kroenke, 2015).

As it is rightly said, that ‘Change before time changes you’. It is crucially important to execute, adapt and accept changes according to the external and internal environment among business operations. SAH comes under a service providing business and the organization needs to expand its operations. In order to achieve its targets, it needs to accept the modern technological changes in order to enhance its work capacity, productivity and revenue. All of these elements can be effectively achieved through implementing information systems among organization. The organization needs to train and motivate their staff to adapt the new changes among their workplace. The staff will require extra training to move towards digital networks over manual handlings. Moreover, a specific budget and time schedule should be managed among organization to provide training to existing employees. Secondly, SAH needs to hire more Human Resource which can be work seamlessly over information systems. Also, the organization needs to motivate their employees regarding acceptance of information systems. They can start with explaining the positive impacts of adaptation process, such as convenient process, time saving, increased productivity etc. (Cameron and Green, 2015).

Q7.

All private and government services are vulnerable to Cyber security threats. Veterinary practices are no exceptions. In fact most hackers believe that businesses like these have relatively less or no security levels unlike banks and large cooperation. This logic makes veterinary offices as easy target. The false believe needs concern.  To abate the challenges faced by veterinary practices, SAH must keep in mind that any kind of exposure to information related to Names, Addresses, Banking information, may invite unwanted guests. The clients are highly sensitive to privacy matters. Theft, hacking, loss of records, system failure and unauthorized access are most common types of data breaches observed in veterinary practices. The organizational data involve business crucial which are required to be secured.

To resolve such issues, care must be taken for keeping the monitor as opaque as possible. Location of systems, password encryption and adhering to office policies add to its security. It is also advised to keep the antivirus software and other application software updated. Last but not the least, all concerned staffs should be provided proper training in avoiding any such problem during their conduct (Vos and Achterkamp, 2006).

Summary and Recommendations

The adaptation process of Information systems depicts broad changes among organization. As SAH moves from manual handling operations to digital platforms, it needs to accept the new favorable changes among its organization. The information systems will provide helps SAH in improving its business operations and complements its expansion process. Information systems will also provide competitive advantage to the organization.

References

Kroenke, D. (2015). MIS Essentials (Fourth ed.). Boston: Pearson. p. 10.

Cress, K. (2010) Five types of Information System, Mindmeister mind map. [Accessed online: https://www.mindmeister.com/37310006/5-types-of-information-systems] [Accessed on: 21^st march 2017].

Rainer, R.K. and Casey G.C. (2012) Introduction to Information System: Support and Transforming Business Fourth Edition. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2012. Print.

Dvm360 staff (2008) Tackle your top 10 veterinary practice management problems. [Accessed online: http://veterinarybusiness.dvm360.com/tackle-your-top-10-veterinary-practice-management-problems] [Accessed on: 21^st march 2017].

Zander, J.A. (2017) Top Challenges for Veterinary Practices. Chron [Accessed online: http://work.chron.com/top-challenges-veterinary-practices-21708.html] [Accessed on: 21^st march 2017].

Cameron, E. and Green, M., (2015) Making sense of change management: a complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.

Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., (2013). Management Information Systems 13e.

Venkatesh, V., Brown, S.A. and Bala, H., (2013). Bridging the qualitative-quantitative divide: Guidelines for conducting mixed methods research in information systems. MIS quarterly, 37(1), pp.21-54.

Vos J.F.J & Achterkamp M.C (2006); Stakeholder Identification in Innovation Projects – Going Beyond Classification; European Journal of Innovation Management, 9(2):161-178.
Cox-Witton, K., Reiss, A., Woods, R., Grillo, V., Baker, R.T., Blyde, D.J., Boardman, W., Cutter, S., Lacasse, C., McCracken, H. and Pyne, M., (2014). Emerging infectious diseases in free-ranging wildlife–Australian zoo based wildlife hospitals contribute to national surveillance. PloS one, 9(5), p.e95127.