QUESTION

CIS8004
Business systems planning and
implementation
Faculty of Business and Law
School of Information Systems
Study book
Published by
University of Southern Queensland
Toowoomba Queensland 4350
Australia
http://www.usq.edu.au
© University of Southern Queensland, 2012.1.
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Table of contents
Module 1 – Overview of business systems 1
Study material 1
Learning objectives 2
Summary 7
Module 2 – Health Information Systems 9
Summary 14
References 14
Module 3 – Systems planning process 17
Summary 24
References 24
Module 4 – Contemporary issues in planning a Health Information System 25
References 29
Module 5 – Applicability of systems planning (and IS) in an organisation 31
Summary 34
References 34
Module 6 – Cost benefits 35
Summary 41
References 42
Module 7 – Alignment of IS with business processes and models 43
Summary 47
References 47
Module 8 – Systems integration 49
Summary 56
References 56
Module 9 – Adoption 57
Summary 61
References 61
Module 10 – ICT Governance and green IT 63

Summary 67
References 67
Page

CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
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Module 1 – Overview of business systems
Wikipedia states that
Business System Planning is a method for analyzing, defining and designing an information
architecture of organizations. It was first issued by IBM in 1981, though the initial work on
BSP began in the early 1970s. At first, it was for IBM internal use only. Later it was made
available to customers and this method became an important tool for many organizations. It
is a very complex method dealing with data, processes, strategies, aims and organizational
departments which are interconnected. BSP brings new approach to design an information
architecture and its goals are to:
● understand the issues and opportunities with the current applications and technical
architecture
● develop a future state and migration path for the technology that supports the enterprise
● provide business executives with a direction and decision making framework for IT
capital expenditures
● provide information system (IS) with a blueprint for development.
The result of a BSP project is an actionable roadmap that aligns technology investments to
business strategy.
The above definition sets the scene for our course. In this course, we will concentrate on two
key aspects, namely, information architecture – implying that what types of information
sources are required in an organisation to build an information system relevant and
appropriate to its operations and needs, and the organisation itself. Throughout the course we
will focus on these two aspects, of course, with different flavours.
This module serves as an introduction to the business systems planning process by providing
an overview of the key concepts.
Study material
The study material for this week is derived from the following:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_System_Planning
2. http://argowiki.com/index.php?title=Business_Systems_Planning
3. http://www.smallbizskills.com/small-business-planning/why-is-a-business-planning-
system-important/
4. http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/5528/5661380/_LearningTracks/laudon_ch11
_lt2.pdf
5. http://www.conferenz-brightstar.com/whitepapers/business-continuity-planning-new-
zealand-public-health-sector
6. http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=AH950026.pdf
7. http://www.ehow.com/how_6975149_business-systems-planning.html
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
8. http://www.continuityinsights.com/articles/the-business-continuity-planning-iniatives-atjohns-hopkins-health-system

Learning objectives
Successfully completing this module will enable students to:
1. define key terms
2. explain how traditional Business Process Systems (BSP) work
3. identify key components of BSP
4. identify key issues in BSP.
Reading activity 1.1
In this section, let us get to know some common jargons used in this domain.
Our focus is on strategy for the time being but you will encounter a number of
terms that you need to be familiar with.
Business system planning:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_System_Planning
We will focus on the Business Strategy as an initial point of our study. A main
component of BSP is identifying key goals that need to be accomplished. In a
management perspective, these are loosely the ‘strategic targets’ because
whatever you need to accomplish should fit within the organisation strategies
and goals. The Wikipedia source provided the following as key steps in defining
the strategic targets:
● Adaptation to the customer’s desires
● Centrally planned reservations, stock, customer’s payments
● Check-in improvement
● Material movement improvement
● New customers
● Noise reduction
● Paperless processes
● Product portfolio expansion
● Presentation improvement
● Advertising improvement
● Reduction of commitment losses
● Reduction of material costs
● Relations with business partners improvement
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
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● Stock management improvement
● Simplification customer’s order cycle
● Transport coordination
● Upgrade of production line
● Up-to-date information.
What you notice from the above is a focus on customer needs. In any
organisation, be it a university, an advertisement agency or a health agency,
customer needs are crucial, and how an organisation meets these needs assume
paramount importance. Any strategies developed should keep customers in mind
so that they are served better. With this focus, people involved in the
development and execution of strategies should coordinate with each other in
developing an information architecture.
Reading activity 1.2
It is imperative that you understand how to develop‘Planning’ documentation. In
this reading, you will notice key steps involved in the planning. Now read the
following article provided in:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6975149_business-systems-planning.html
This article presents four key steps in developing a BSP. I would like you to
examine these four key steps in detail by doing your own home work. Read
articles from the library, Internet, etc., to understand how these four steps are
integral in developing a Business System Planning. Notice that I am digressing
from Business Strategy to Business Systems Planning as strategies lead to
planning and then execution.
Learning activity 1.1
The Planning depends on size, complexity and various operational dependencies
of a business or an organisation. It is better to know various perspectives of
Business Planning. You may ask why we should have different perspectives.
Can’t we just have one? Is there a standard?. So, it is essential to have different
types of planning processes. For example, we use a motorbike for one or two
riders, a car for 4 – 5 people, bus for 30 – 60 people etc. While the driving
principles are the same, the number of people using the infrastructure defines
the size of the vehicle. Similarly, we need to follow different types of planning
processes and presenting them in different types of documentation sets.
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 1.3
http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/5528/5661380/_LearningTracks/lau
don_ch11_lt2.pdf
In this article you will find another perspective of Business System Planning.
The table provided is especially interesting as it provides an overview of data
needs.
Now attempt the following review questions:
Exercise 1.1
Choose a business that is used by you on a daily basis. For example, this can be
a grocery store, or a transport company or a financial institution as we use these
types of businesses daily. For the purpose of this question, government agencies
are also considered a business. Using table 11.4 of the above reading, identify
about a dozen Critical Success Factors of these businesses. The identification of
these CSF can come from analysing their web sites.
Once you identify these CSF, attempt to develop a matrix similar to the one
given in 11.3.
Learning activity 1.2
During planning, as Managers, you should remember few ‘rules of thumb’. The
first one is planning for longer term, or simply put ‘continuity’. As managers,
we should be able to think beyond the current situation, accommodate future
needs (expansion), etc. while planning. This is not an easy task. So, what factors
should we consider?
Reading activity 1.4
http://www.continuityinsights.com/articles/the-business-continuity-planninginiatives-at-johns-hopkins-health-system

Understand how John Hopkins developed a Business Continuity aspects,
especially issues focusing on Governance aspects. See whether you can compare
your chosen business and this one, in terms of BSP aspects. Prepare a note of
about 500 words from your understanding as this will be useful in compiling
your first journal.
Strategic planning
In the above section we touched upon strategic planning and its nexus on BSP. Now we will
look into a specific aspect of Strategic Planning, namely, in health organisations.
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Reading activity 1.5
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Read the ‘Introduction’ section of page 26 in the article The Strategic Planning
of Health Management Information Systems (follow link:
http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=AH950026.pdf).
In this section, a brief overview is provided as to what is ‘Information as a
management resource’. I recommend reading this section to ‘recap’ your
knowledge gained in previous courses.
What is the nexus between information planning and strategic management?
Strategic management is built on vision, purpose, mission, objective setting, change
management associated with external environment, analysis of internal organisation,
developing alternative choices, and executing controls. You will notice that each key word
in itself is an area of study. When all these key words are put together, we realise strategic
management.
But, what is the link between strategic management and information planning. A central hub
that units all these key words is ‘information’. Therefore, as information system managers,
we should be able to identify various information sources that pertain to these key words,
identify how to capture these information, and then develop appropriate structures to contain
these information sources. While, this sound like a ‘database architecture’, the complication
is obtaining, collating, sifting, capturing and ten presenting these information in a
comprehensible manner so that every member of an organisation can fully understand the
significance of this.
In page 27 of the article, the link between information planning and strategic management is
explained. One aspect you will encounter is the ‘limitations’ (page 28, paragraph 3). When
an organisation provides ‘services’, it is difficult to measure the performance. So, how do we
plan to develop an approach that would ultimately result in performance measurement? The
simple answer to this is ‘planning’. In our case, as we are studying information systems, we
are interested in ‘information management planning’.
Note that we are not talking about Information Systems Planning but rather Information
Management Planning. The main difference is in managing the available information, and a
planning process can be instituted so that performance can be managed. This includes
various analysis and reporting requirements.
In order for proper planning, we need a framework. This is discussed in the section in page
29. The main essence of the section is in understanding the ingredients in developing a
management information systems plan from a strategic plan.
I encourage you to read this section few times and thoroughly understand the concept as this
will be our main building block in the course. A number of aspects discussed in this section
will be visited as we travel along the course in the next 10 weeks or so, in some form.
Ultimately our aim is in producing a management information systems plan that will
influence decision making in an organisation. IN order for us to reach this aim, we need
some guiding aspects, or methodologies. Let us look into these now!
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Methodologies
Page 30 of the article talks about some selected Planning Methodologies. They are:
1. Critical Success Factors (CSF) – this methodology is well known and has been around
for some time. I suggest mastering the fundamental aspects of this methodology because
this will form a component of your assignment and journal work.
2. Business Systems Planning (BSP) – originated at IBM and used by many of IBM’s
clients, mainly for mainframe type development. However, the concepts are generic and
can be applied to various business scenarios.
3. Method/1 – originated from a design aspect, and comes with different modules to handle
various aspects of an organisation.
4. Soft System Methodology (SSM) – based on a visual approach where real world
situations are presented diagrammatically.
I suggest doing your own home work to thoroughly understand the strengths and weaknesses
of each of the methodology presented above, as we will be relying on these throughout the
course.
Learning activity 1.3
In the above section, I introduced you to planning methodologies. Now it is time
to apply these methodologies to test whether we are able to understand them and
then apply them to a given situation.
Reading activity 1.6
In pages 35–9, three case studies are given. I would like you to read the cases,
match the details with the materials presented above. Your task is to:
1. See whether you can come up with a simple matrix we discussed earlier in
the chapter and develop a Critical Success Factor matrix similar to table
11.3 discussed earlier.
2. See whether applying the other methodologies, you are able to understand
the planning processes.
I am aware that at this stage of the course (week 1), it might be too much of a task in
attempting the above two activities in 1.3. However, as you attempt the tasks, I want you to
document the problems, issues, strengths, weaknesses, ideas and strategies that have been
encountered.
By the end of learning activity 1.3, I want you to develop a 2-page report summing up the
above – problems, issues, strengths, weaknesses, ideas and strategies – as this will be quite
handy for the journal as well as the assignment.
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Summary
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
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In this week, we introduced the concepts of Strategic Planning and its relationship with
Information Systems. We paid specific attention to Business Systems planning. This week’s
material is very important in building up your knowledge for the course.
Next week, we will embark on Health Information Systems.

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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
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Module 2 – Health Information Systems
Last week (Module 1), we touched upon Business Systems Processing (BSP) and strategic
planning associated with BSP. A key message from last week was that planning is essential
for processing. In our case, Information Architecture Planning is important to realise the
right Information Systems.
In this week, we will look into a specific type of Information Systems, namely, Health
Information System (HIS). The HIS is important for two reasons:
1. They are complex encompassing many aspects of an organisation
2. They are important for common public.
So, in order to arrive at a HIS that can accommodate consumer needs, a lot of planning is
required.
Learning activity 2.1
In this week, I will be presenting a set of articles drawn from journals to
introduce the concept of Health Information Systems. The main discussion will
centre upon the basic components of HIS, how to develop such a system,
considerations required and potential problems in developing such systems. I am
merely outlining the concept with an expectation that you will read more articles
to fully understand what this HIS is. Our assessment task will be mainly from
Health Information Systems, and so a thorough understanding will help you to
improve your performance!
Reading activity 2.1
What is Health Information Systems?
Health Information Systems in developing countries: benefits, problems, and
prospects – Azubuike & Ehiri (1999)
In this article, the ABSTRACT provides some information on Health Information Systems.
Read the abstract few times to understand what HIS could be and the essential components
of it.
The first statement in the abstract perhaps provides a succinct definition of HIS. In the
simplest form, HIS is a management tool for health care service delivery.
So, the very idea of HIS is delivering services. The delivery of services includes both internal
stakeholders of a Health Department (or organisation) and external stakeholders. These
services can range in their magnitude, namely, clinical services, financial services,
management reporting, care planning, hospital admission etc. So, integrating all these under
the umbrella of Health Information Systems is not a trivial task. In addition to this, if we
recap some points from previous week, there will be a necessity to ‘measure performance’.
So, how do we plan to accomplish all these?
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Now, read the first two paragraphs of ‘Introduction’ to get an idea of the requirements of
HIS. The last statement in the first paragraph highlights the nexus between the HIS and the
actual delivery of services. So, as IS Managers, we need to understand the context very well
before planning can take place.
We stated earlier that Information Architecture is very important for Information Systems
Processing. If you read page 161 of the article (section: Health Needs Assessment), you will
understand how to begin Health Needs Assessment. While this specific aspect is slightly
beyond our scope, as IS managers you must understand certain aspects beyond your
operational domain. The very last statement in this section states ‘sufficient data to inform
such decisions’, implying the significance on reliance of data for management decision
making.
Let us look at another perspective. Read Lloyd et al. (2011), page 26, last section in italics.
This section states that one of the main objectives of HIS is ‘to enhance decision making,
drive improvements in clinical practices….’. The emphasis [of HIS] is on ‘quality and
efficiency of care’.
In terms of data requirement for HIS, read the section ‘Information is a strategic resource…’
in page 28 of the report. This section provides an outline of the various data requirement for
a quality HIS.
Please note that I am only exposing the concept here and we will delve into the specific items
later in the course.
Learning activity 2.2
In order to realise HIS, you should have a strong IT infrastructure. This
infrastructure consists of software, hardware, communication and other systems.
In an organisation, it will become necessary to BUILD this infrastructure as
existing ready-made solutions may not be sufficient to meet organisational
needs. So, how to build such an infrastructure?
While, building is not our main scope, as Managers, we should know what is
involved in building such an infrastructure. So, let us get used to some key
components in this domain.
Reading activity 2.2
Building an Information Technology Infrastructure (Goldstien & Blumenthal,
2008), pages 709–15.
Now attempt the following review questions:
© University of Southern Queensland
Exercise 2.1
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
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1. Develop a 50 word summary on ‘What is Health Information Technology?’.
This should be a layman’s note, and there is no need for references. You can
read the article and paraphrase your understanding.
2. Link HIT and HIS. Develop a report of 100 words that would compare and
contrast HIT and HIS.
3. Provide five reasons as to the barriers to adoption of Health Information
Systems.
Learning activity 2.3
How to develop Health Information Systems?
Now that we have seen what HIS is, it is time to see the development aspects.
Like any computing systems development, HIS is also complex in terms of
development. Let us look into the various components that make up a HIS and
how to develop them.
Our key aim is develop an information architecture (as we understood from week 1) so that
systems development can follow. The article by Mohammed & Yusof (2011), a paper
presented in the European Conference on Information Management & Evaluation provides
some details as to what needs to be considered for such an activity.
I am again slightly digressing from Information Systems to Information Quality because in
Health Information Systems, the quality of information will ensure effectiveness and
efficiency. So, in order to build a quality HIS, we need quality information, as health systems
are very time critical and time sensitive.
I suggest reading sections 2.1 and 3 few times to understand the various parameters that lead
to Information Quality. Pay special attention to tables 1 and 3 as these tables give you tips on
the type of information you may need to collect for developing a HIS. Table 1 provides
previous work in this domain and it may be a good idea to fetch those articles from the
library online services and make yourself familiar with such works.
By the end of this reading, you should be aware of the complex nature of data collection, and
the quality aspects that need consideration from the start.
Reading activity 2.3
In order to understand a little bit more about the components of HIS, read ‘The
Rotterdam local Health Information System 1987–2000: from Rebus and the
health barometer to the health monitor’ (Swart et al. 2012).
The above article presents a HIS implementation. While this system is not a
typical HIS that we want to examine, this presents some interesting aspects
especially in terms of data aspects. This system is very public (and community)
oriented.
The idea of providing this recent article is to indicate the current trend of HIS
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
and how they digress from a hospital centric notion.
Reading activity 2.4
Now read Azubuike & Ehiri, sections pages 182–4, starting from section
‘Suggestions for the way forward’.
The main thesis of these sections is data collection techniques, leading into HIS
development. The sections, to some extent, argue that the four levels presented
should be integrated. While the article is interesting in terms of various data
collection techniques, you will note that the prescription in developing a HIS is
sadly missing in this article. So, you are going to fill this gap.
Exercise 2.2
1. Develop a note of 200 words on data consideration for the REBUS system.
2. Develop a 100 word note on how a simple HIS can be developed. This can
be your own idea or you may read other articles and come up with a
conceptual model. I leave the choice to you!
Learning activity 2.4
Consideration required in developing a HIS
I am presenting a preliminary case study to inform you the considerations
required for a HIS. This is an Australian case and so you will be able to search
on the Internet to gain more information on this if required. Now read:
Reading activity 2.5
Lloyd et al. (2011), ‘Smart use of data, information and communication: the
INFORM-ed best local practice project – Grafton Base Hospital, Health
Information Management Journal, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 26–30.
The case reports preliminary progress of a funded project in developing a HIS,
from integrating existing information sources. The section on ‘Aims of the
Current Research’ sets the scene for the reading. I encourage you to read this
section to understand the scope of the article. There is a brief on the Project
itself (in page 27) providing statements on aims of the project. This is very
important for us to understand what was planned to be accomplished. The
findings tell us what was accomplished. This section is very important to
understand the various aspects of the project and how the project was ‘put
together’. While the components of the projects were not explicitly provided,
this section gives us with information as to what constituted the project. In page
29, some issues have been highlighted.
In essence what you will notice is the ease with which you can read this case
study report. The report was written by health employees but still easy to
© University of Southern Queensland
follow.
Exercise 2.3
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
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In your opinion, did the Grafton Base Hospital case study meet the data
requirements for a HIS project? If it has met the requirements, how did the
project team meet the requirements? If not, what improvements should be
made?
Learning activity 2.5
Problems and issues
We are nearing the close!
Now that we have understood what a HIS is, and the requirements in developing
a HIS, it is imperative that we understand the problems and issues as well,
because when we develop complex systems, it is seldom possible to
comprehend all issues and problems. One way to understand the issues is by
learning from others’ experiences.
Reading activity 2.6
I present James & Thomas 1999, ‘Problems in community healthcare
information systems: a case study’, Health Informatics Journal, vol. 5,
pp. 146–53.
This article a bit old but provides some useful information for students. The
focus is on community healthcare rather than hospital systems, and provides
details of a HIS in a rural community setting. In page 147, details of the
champions involved in the development of the HIS are presented. This section is
important as this is part of planning. The ‘Methods’ provide details on the
methodology employed in developing the system. Table 1 presented in page 148
gives a snapshot of various components of the system and their respective
strengths and weaknesses. The problems are highlighted in page 151, under
Discussion. Finally Future Developments provide details as to how these
problems can be addressed.
A major point to note in this article is the follow up activities. Developing
computing systems is a technical skill. However, planning for the development,
measuring performance aspects, following user opinions and assuring usefulness
of the system are key management actions. As highlighted in week 1, these
aspects comprise the complete life cycle of a system. The article presented here
appeared to have gone through that process.
You may like to read this article and develop some notes as in your assignment
you will be able to use some of these points.
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Summary
Exercise 2.4
1. When you follow the week 2 materials, you will note that I omitted
discussing a traditional hospital based HIS. I would like you to read some
articles from the library sources that provide details on a traditional hospital
based HIS. Once this is done, compare this with a community based HIS
development. I urge you to undertake this activity because this will help you
in completing your assignment.
In this week, we introduced the concepts of Health Information Systems, with special
attention paid to community type of systems rather than hospital type of systems. I am
confident that you will do your homework to understand the hospital based HIS as this is
relatively simple to conceive. This week’s material is very important in building up your
practical knowledge as well as in handling the assessment tasks.
Next week, we will embark on Systems Planning Process. This is because, now we know
what Business Systems are and how a Health Information System works. So, it is time for us
to understand the Planning Process so that in the future we are capable of developing a plan
for a Health Information System with a Business flavour!
References
Swart, W, Bleeker, J & de Haes, W 2002, ‘The Rotterdam local Health Information System
1987–2000: from Rebus and the health barometer to the health monitor’, Scand J Public
Health 2002, vol. 30, pp. 63–71.
James, SD & Thomas, RE 1999, ‘Problems in community healthcare information systems:
a case study’, Health Informatics Journal, vol. 5, pp. 146–53.
Azubuike, MC & Ehiri, JE 1999, ‘Health Information Systems in developing countries:
benefits, problems, and prospects’, The J Royal Society for the Promotion of Health,
vol. 119, no. 3, pp. 180–4.
Lloyd, S, Collins, J, McInnes, A, Lollback, A & Garland, A 2011, ‘Smart use of data,
information and communication: the INFORM-ed Best Local Practice Project – Grafton Base
Hospital, Health Information Management Journal, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 26–30.
Shapiro, JS, Soulakis, N & Kuperman, G 2011, ‘Using health information exchange to
improve public health’, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 101, no. 4, pp. 616–23.
Goldstien, M & Blumenthal, D, 2008, ‘Building an information technology infrastructure’,
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, pp. 709–15.
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
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Mohammed, SA & Yusof, MM 2011, ‘Towards an evaluation method for information quality
management of Health Information Systems’, Proceedings of the European Conference on
Information Management & Evaluation.

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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
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Module 3 – Systems planning process
Last week (Module 2), we looked into the concept of Health Information Systems (HIS). A
key message from last week was that planning is essential for systems development. In this
case, the way you collect data and transfer the data into meaningful systems specification
assumes significance. While doing so, quality of information is important, especially in HIS.
In this week (Week 3), we will look into the Systems Planning aspects. In order to arrive at a
good computing system, proper planning is essential. You would have realised this by now
from previous courses. However, the main question we are going to answer in this module
is:
What is Systems Planning?
The planning aspect should address organisational objectives and tightly linked with
organisational priorities. So, one should understand organisation priorities, mission, vision
and strategic importance of these so that all these management concepts can be embedded in
planning.
Once the management components are embedded in planning, we will be able to actually
‘do’ the planning. In order to plan for the ‘planning’, it would be better to understand the
different types of tools available. So, we will look into the available tools. This is similar to
developing a architectural plan for building a house. You will have an engineering drawing
stipulating various components of the house, the type of materials that would be required etc.
Similarly, Systems Planning will also prescribe a number of aspects relating to data needs,
repository requirements etc so that you will be able to visualise the system in your head.
In order to meet this week’s learning objectives, I will be presenting three key reading
materials, two case studies and a set of additional reading materials. I will draw your
attention to key sections of these materials to provide you with a basic understanding. You
will be able to augment this by reading additional materials.
From this week onwards, the structure of the course will be rigorous, focussed and
concentrated. I will be providing 4 to 6 key readings and your job is to read and master these
as much as possible. Your ‘application’ skills will be through the assessment tasks – namely
preparing the journals and the assignments. Unless you keep pace with the course materials,
you will find it challenging to prepare the assessment tasks.
Learning activity 3.1
In this activity, we are going to understand what happened in early 70’s in MIS.
How did people conceive Systems Planning?, what was the nexus between
strategic goals and planning process etc. This historical information is important
for us to understand how we progressed to the current state of planning. So, I am
presenting a paper from MIS Quarterly March Issue, 1978 to provide this
background.
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 3.1
King, WR 1978, ‘Strategic planning for Management Information Systems’,
MIS Quarterly, March, pp. 27–37.
Read from the beginning till the end of section ‘MIS Strategic Planning – an
overview’ on page 28.
The abstract opens the article with a challenging statement that planning in an
organisation is not linked with strategic process. While this may be the case in
1978, is this still the case? In order to answer the question whether planning is
linked with strategic process or not, we should understand what was happening
in the late 70’s. The first two sections, ‘Abstract’ and ‘MIS strategic planning –
an overview’ provide us with some information on this.
Exercise 3.1
Carefully study Figure 1 of this article. Look at the right side ‘MIS Strategy
Set’. There are three major elements, namely, Systems Objectives, System
Constraints, and System Design Strategies.
Your task is to consider how relevant these three elements are for current
systems planning. In 1970’s, most of the systems were stand alone systems.
However, currently, social media systems and other web based systems are
prevalent among users. So, do we need to add more ‘elements’ in our strategy
set? If so, what are they?
I would like you to think on this above question carefully, and with the
background knowledge presented in the previous two weeks, come up with an
answer that can be defended.
Learning activity 3.2
Now that you have seen Figure 1, let us take a look at the organisational strategy
set. The box below this title in the figure provides few key elements. These are
mission, objectives etc. Every organisation should have these, and these will be
revised from time to time to indicate the ‘make up’ of the organisation. Our key
objective in this learning activity is to understand what is an Organisational
Strategy Set?. I am sure that you would have learned this from some of your
previous courses, but our focus is to link this with MIS planning.
Reading activity 3.2
King, WR 1978, ‘Strategic planning for Management Information Systems’,
MIS Quarterly, March, pp. 27–37.
Read the section ‘The organisational strategy set’ from page 28.
In this section, background information is provided on mission, objectives,
strategy and attributes. The first paragraph under each sub section provides
some pseudo definition, I encourage you to read this, and understand the key
© University of Southern Queensland
elements.
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
19
Each of the sub section is elaborated to provide details on the elements
presented in the figure. Can you understand these? Can you relate these to an
organisation of your liking? What differences did you see in a modern
organisation beyond what has been presented in the article (remember that the
article is written in 1978).
Exercise 3.2
Now that you have some idea of organisational strategy set, I would like you to
visit USQ’s web page and locate the following three key aspects:
1. USQ’s mission statement
2. USQ’s organisational objectives
3. USQ’s organisational strategy
In your opinion, do you think USQ has endeavoured to accomplish the above
three? Prepare a note of 300 words detailing your arguments – for or against.
Learning activity 3.3
The previous learning activity provided you with some idea as to what is an
organisation strategy. We know that these should be tightly linked to MIS
strategy. But what is MIS strategy. Our objective in this learning activity is to
understand MIS strategy.
Reading activity 3.3
King, WR 1978, ‘Strategic planning for Management Information Systems’,
MIS Quarterly, March, pp. 27–37.
Read the section ‘The MIS strategy set’ from page 30.
In this section, similar to ‘Organisational strategy’, you will get to know MIS
strategy. I would like you to pay close attention to the building blocks of MIS
strategy, as these blocks are still valid. The two areas I want you to focus in
system constraints and system design strategies. Please read these sub sections
few times to thoroughly understand what has been presented!
Learning activity 3.4
Now we are going to learn how to link Organisational Strategy Set with MIS
Strategy Set. This is quite tricky as a lack of understanding on organisational
strategy would result in a mis-match and vice versa. So, As MIS managers, we
should understand both organisational strategy aspects as well as MIS strategy
aspects. Only then can we match these two and arrive at a successful planning
process. This is our objective in this section.
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 3.4
King, WR 1978, ‘Strategic planning for Management Information Systems’,
MIS Quarterly, March, pp. 27–37.
Read the section ‘The MIS strategic planning process’ from page 31.
This is our core section. However, to understand this section, we needed the
background information from the previous two sections. I strongly recommend
reading this section at least 3 times prior to attempting the exercise tasks, as this
section is a key attribute for our course.
In a nutshell, this section gives you a loose definition of what is MIS strategic
planning process is (first paragraph in the section in page 31), various steps
involved in executing such a process, the methods required (we will see this in
detail later), and finally the transformation itself. While the article presented
here is dated, the concepts are generic and still valid. So, I urge you to
understand this aspect thoroughly as you will be relying on this throughout the
course.
Exercise 3.3
Consider Figure 1 – Overall MIS Strategic Planning Process.
As an exercise, assume that I am keen to implement a social media site (face
book) for this course CIS8004. I want every one of you to think carefully how
this can be accomplished. Can you fill in some details under the various
elements in the figure so that you can populate the figure?
What I require is, mapping the course objectives with MIS strategies for
developing a face book entity for this course!
This is only a planning process, so I want you to think carefully what is required
(in terms of organisational strategies and MIS strategies. IN this case, there is no
organisation but the course is considered to be our organisation. We do have
objectives for the course and let us focus only on this aspect. Ignore the mission
part for the time being.
By the time you complete this exercise, you should have understood how to link
organisational strategies and MIS strategies together. In the next set of
activities, we will look into some of the methodologies available to us to
successfully plan the process.
© University of Southern Queensland
Learning activity 3.5
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
21
In this activity, let us examine some basic methodologies available for planning
processes. The central notion of systems planning is to improve communication,
management support, improve reporting and finally to develop an organisational
data architecture. The last element is crucial as we don’t want to collect the
same data in many points in an organisation, so a proper planning should collect
data once and distribute the data wherever and whenever needed. This implies,
planning processes should consider organisational entities (various
departments), how to gather data without hardships, and how to use it
effectively. The privacy, security, confidentiality and all other key terms we
discuss automatically become alive at this juncture.
Our main objective in this learning activity is how to accomplish planning
process using various methodologies available on hand?
Reading activity 3.5
Lederer, AL & Sethi, V 1988, ‘The implementation of strategic information
systems planning methodologies’, MIS Quarterly, September, pp. 445–61.
Read pages 445–8, stop before ‘Problems with the methodologies section’.
These sections present frequently used methodologies of late 80s. You will
recall that distributed systems were just emerging at that time, web based
systems were not that common and users were not exposed to Windows
Graphical User Interfaces in late 80s. So, a main question you will ask is how
relevant these methodologies to current day development?
Exercise 3.4
Identify three Systems Planning Methodologies frequently used in the past five
years?
Please note that Systems Planning methodologies are different to Systems
Development Methodologies.
Learning activity 3.6
Now that we have read on methodologies, we should also know what can go
wrong with methodologies. This is because we can’t assume that a known
methodology is a best methodology for any given situation! It is better to have
an array of methodology understood so that we can use a suitable and
appropriate methodology. In this section, we will try to understand potential
problems with methodologies, as identified in late 80s.
© University of Southern Queensland
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 3.6
Lederer, AL & Sethi, V 1988, ‘The implementation of strategic information
systems planning methodologies’, MIS Quarterly, September, pp. 445–61.
Read pages 448–52, stop before ‘Results’.
In this section, you will get to know some of the traditional problems in using
methodologies for planning. So, it is best to mix & match methodologies. As
this section is a light reading section (in my opinion), I ma not providing too
many cues to you.
Exercise 3.5
Read the article ‘A case study in IT innovation in a small, rural community
hospital’ by McGinnis et al (supplied with this course).
Your task is to accomplish the following three aspects:
1. Match the organisational strategy set with IS Strategy set. In this case, the IT
details can be assumed to be surrogates for IS.
2. Is there any evidence of using a methodology for system planning purposes?
If so, what are they? Are they relevant to the case?
3. How do you mitigate the problems encountered in the methodologies used?
So far you have learned what is systems planning. I presented materials from the 70s and
80s to provide historical information, and asked you to obtain details on the recent trends.
I deliberately took this direction so that whatever research you will be conducting for this,
will also help you in developing the journal tasks and other assessment tasks.
Now, it is time to revisit our Health Information Systems again! Let us apply the Planning
Process for a Health Context.
Learning activity 3.7
A major challenge in health departments all over the world is sharing
information by all stakeholders. This has given rise to the problems of loosely
integrated data, inaccurate data etc. Essentially, this relates to planning.
However, it is not easy to plan for a Health System because health stakeholders
are busy in providing care to their patients (now we use the term consumers in
Australia – not patients). Furthermore, these healthcare staff members are busy
with their daily activities and seldom find time to provide their requirements.
These requirements also change from time to time. So, a new wave of thinking
is imminent in Health Systems Planning. So, how to achieve this? What should
be this new wave of thinking? What methodologies should be used? We are
going to seek answers to the above questions now!
© University of Southern Queensland
Reading activity 3.7
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
23
Gudes, O, Kendall, E, Yigitcanlar, T, Pathak, V & Baum, S 2010, ‘Rethinking
health planning: a framework for organising information to underpin
collaborative health planning’, Health Information Management Journal,
vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 18–29.
Read this entire article as this presents a new way of planning namely,
collaborative planning. With the advent of internet and other collaborative
business models, planning is also expected to be collaborative, as there are
many stakeholder involved in the planning. The advent of globalisation has also
forced us to think collaboratively.
What we need to understand is that in order for systems to succeed, we need to
implement them at different levels, especially when the systems are built for
consumers. Some of the systems we read (early 70s and 80s) are for
organisations and consumers seldom accessed those systems. However, with the
current trend, consumers directly access products via online facilities, and so,
we have to capture their sentiments as well, in addition to traditional data fields.
So, how to execute a planning process?
This article provides some details on these aspects. Pay special attention to
bullet points in page 21. The paragraph under the bullet points informs us that
there are three main features dictating collaborative planning. You should know
these!
In page 22, you will find some references to certain frameworks. Are these
similar to methodologies? What are the similarities and differences between
these two?
Page 23 presents a schematic of various elements considered for a public health
framework. Let us now focus on public health and see how complex this
framework is. How these elements are mapped into information architecture is
provided in Table 1 in page 24. Can we make some sense from these two pages?
Finally in page 26, the authors arrived at a conceptual model. How relevant is
this model in addressing their initial objectives?
What are the challenges in realising the model presented in page 26?
In summary, the article presented as a case study provides a recent view (2010)
view of planning for a complex public health information system. When you
assimilate the previous articles and this article, you will be able to realise the
gap, which is deliberately not covered by me. You will be asked to fill in this
gap in the assessment.
Exercise 3.6
In your opinion, how did the Systems Planning Process change in the past
decade? Are there any new methodologies available to plan? If so, what are they
and what are the problems in such methodologies?
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Summary
Exercise 3.7
Read the article ‘The complexity paradigm: implications for information
systems and their strategic planning’ (supplied with this course).
Can the above paradigm suitable for the Public Health Systems Planning
Processes? Provide your argument on suitability or otherwise.
In this week, we looked in Systems Planning Processes. I presented materials from 70s and
80s and provided case studies from 2010 to highlight different perspectives. The materials
from 70s and 80s focussed on organisational aspects and the materials in 2010 look into
community and consumer aspects. What happened in between is left for your imagination.
You should be able to search the library to understand the development in the 90s and
beyond.
Next week, we will embark on Planning for a Health Information System. While I have
introduced some preliminary concepts for a Public Health Planning in this week, we will
examine various issues associated with Health Information Systems Planning in details next
week.
References
King, WR 1978, ‘Strategic planning for Management Information Systems’, MIS Quarterly,
March, pp. 27–37.
Lederer, AL & Sethi, V 1988, ‘The implementation of strategic information systems
planning methodologies’, MIS Quarterly, September, pp. 445–61.
Gudes ,O, Kendall, E, Yigitcanlar, T, Pathak, V & Baum, S 2010, ‘Rethinking health
planning: a framework for organising information to underpin collaborative health planning’,
Health Information Management Journal, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 18–29.
McGinnis, SK, Pumphrey, L, Trimmer, K & Wiggins, C 2004, ‘A case study in IT
innovation in a small, rural community hospital’, Research in Healthcare Financial
Management, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 9–19.
Mukherjee, I 2008, ‘The complexity paradigm: implications for information systems and
their strategic planning’, Journal of Computer Science, vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 382–92.
© University of Southern Queensland
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
25
Module 4 – Contemporary issues in planning a Health
Information System
Last week (Module 3), we looked in planning aspects. The materials presented included 1970
and 1980 type systems planning information, with cases drawn from the past decade, to
indicate how things have changed in the past 30 years or so.
This week we will see the issues in planning a Health Information System. As we have
already seen in week 2, Health Information System is complex and involves a range of
activities. While organisation systems we discussed last week mainly focus on various
organisation aspects, Health Information Systems concentrate on consumers and their data,
with a view to providing quality service. Thus, in addition to traditional data architecture,
Quality of Information is also essential while building a Health Information System.
Let us look into some contemporary issues in building a Health Information System this
week!
What is a Health Information System?
We already looked into Health Information Systems (HIS) in Week 2. I am providing another
perspective of HIS now. The HIS can be seen in different ways. The main perspective is
hospital information systems used in many Public Hospitals and Private Hospitals. However,
recent years have seen an increase in community based health systems being developed.
Some people also used the term ‘Population Health’ when discussing HIS.
Learning activity 4.1
In this activity, we are going to understand the evolution of computing systems
in Healthcare. These systems, in some form or another, are known as Health
Information Systems.
Like every organisation, healthcare also understood the value of ‘information’ and started
developing computing systems. In early years, these systems were mainly financial systems.
Then customer details have been added. Inventory management also became part of the
healthcare systems later. Slowly, statistical data started appearing within this domain. Now,
people predict trends using available data. Thus, HIS involves both organisational aspects
and consumer aspects. This is what we are going to see in the following activity.
The reading will indicate that there are three key developments. The first one is the financial
systems. These systems were mainly used to keep track of income and expenditure, and
mainly used for accounting and auditing purposes. The second stage of development
included patient care systems. These systems evolved to address some of the administrative
challenges. Major databases were a result of these systems, and the financial systems were
linked to these databases. The third key development was ‘reporting systems’. These helped
administration people to track service delivery, etc.
I suggest you reading this section slowly to assimilate these points. It is a good idea to start
making notes of these as these notes will help you to develop the journal tasks.
© University of Southern Queensland
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 4.1
Jayasuriya, R 1995, ‘Information Systems for community health’, Australian
Health Review, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 43–61.
Read the section on ‘Evolution of computerised information systems in
community health’ in page 45 of the article.
This section provides a brief overview of computing systems used in community
health. While hospital systems are well advanced, community systems are
relatively new. The purpose of presenting this section is to understand the
evolution of computing systems in community health, which focuses on
consumers.
Reading activity 4.2
Howard, SL & William, BI 1997, ‘Lessons about strategic information in home
healthcare’, Hospital Topics, vol. 75, no. 3, Summer, pp. 10–22.
Read ‘Evolving trends in home healthcare’ to understand more evolution trends.
The reading is self explanatory so I am not providing any cues.
Learning activity 4.2
Now that these health systems are being ‘built’, people also observed problems
and issues. These systems are complex and present a number of challenges. At
the time of development, probably sufficient tools were not available. People
might have not had the capacity and capability. So, challenges were encountered
and resolved.
Our learning objective is to understand the type of challenges people
encountered so that these can be resolved.
Reading activity 4.3
Jayasuriya, R 1995, ‘Information Systems for community health’, Australian
Health Review, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 43–61.
Read the section ‘Issues arising in the development of community health
information systems: evidence from NSW’, in page 48.
Like every other computing systems development, Health Information Systems
also included technical issues, project issues and management challenges. This
section presents these three issues.
Read the section and see whether you are familiar with these issues from
previous courses!
Now read the ‘Discussion’ section in page 54 to understand reason behind such
issues being presented while developing a HIS. Of particular interest is Figure 1
in page 55.
© University of Southern Queensland
Reading activity 4.4
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
27
Howard, SL & William, BI 1997, ‘Lessons about strategic information in home
healthcare’, Hospital Topics, vol. 75, no. 3, Summer, pp. 10–22.
Read ‘Lessons from New Mexico Home Health Agencies’ in page 3, and stop
before the section ‘Strategic planning – planning factors’ in page 6.
What you will notice in this reading is a number of ‘subtle’ challenges presented
including unskilled labour farce, stand alone systems etc. I want you read this
article carefully to understand the issues presented to the development team.
Some issues are hidden and some are explicit.
Exercise 4.1
I want you to read the article:
Nnaji, GA, Oguoma, C, Nnaji, LI & Nwobodo, E 2010, ‘The challenges of
budgeting in a newly introduced district health system: a case study’, Global
Public Health, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 87–101.
In this case, you will see details of ‘financial challenges’ in terms of budgeting
for a health information system. I want you to pay attention to the techniques
used to planning aspects. In previous weeks we saw some methodologies to
collect data for Planning Processes. Now, we are given with yet another tool.
Your task is to map the various activities involved in planning and budgeting
aspects.
Learning activity 4.3
Let us learn another perspective of Health Information Systems – this time
Geographic Information Systems (GIS). When health departments discuss
consumers, they discuss ‘populations’. The population is a collection of
consumers, and it is necessary to aggregate data on these consumers for various
management purposes. While the aggregated data were presented to senior
managers, and to analyse trends, a GIS is used. One example is outbreak of a
specific disease. By collecting data on various sections of the population, it is
possible to see how the outbreak is travelling or moving. GIS is very handy for
these type of information projection.
Let us learn a little bit more in this emerging area of Health Information
Systems!
© University of Southern Queensland
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 4.5
Dubowitz, T, Williams, M, Miyashiro, L & Lune, N 2011, ‘Using Geographic
Information Systems to match local health needs with public health service
programs’, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 101, no. 9, pp. 1664–5.
Read this 2-page article to understand how GIS can be used to match problems
and solutions. The focus of reading should be on the section ‘Planning with a
Geographic Focus’, as this is where we started our course!
Exercise 4.2
In your opinion, is planning a GIS is different to Health Information Systems
than to an traditional organisational system? If so, what would be your reasons?
If not, why? Provide reasons and justifications.
Learning activity 4.4
With this module, we will be closing our discussions on basic building blocks.
From next week, we will move into specific aspects to maintain depth of a
Master’s course. So, it is time to review how does ‘strategic thinking’ help to
accomplish MIS planning?
What I am going to present now is a concept on whether information outcomes
in the form of reports are useful or not?
This article (Reading provided below) argues that many reports coming from
information system is either not read or read in so much detail that the main
point is missed. So, how can this be addressed? Can we use our ‘design’ aspects
(or behaviour aspects) to help us in producing meaningful reports?
So, the article proposes a new type of management report. This is discussed
under the section ‘Answering key questions’. This is further elaborated in
Figures 1 and 2 in page 72.
There are two illustrations – one product focussed and the other community
focussed. Would these be applicable to resolve some of the issues encountered
by Health Information Systems?
I am closing this week’s module with this question with an expectation that you
will seek answer to the above question.
Reading activity 4.6
Jenkins, J 2008, ‘Information design for strategic thinking: health of the system
reports’, Design Issues, vol. 23, no. 1, Winter, pp. 68–77.
© University of Southern Queensland
Exercise 4.3
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
29
Apply the principles outlined in the above article to the case study presented in
Exercise 4.1 and how applicable the concept of ‘Design thinking’ is to the case?
References
Jenkins, J 2008, ‘Information design for strategic thinking: health of the system reports’,
Design issues, vol. 23, no. 1, Winter, pp. 68–77.
Dubowitz, T, Williams, M, Miyashiro, L & Lune, N 2011, ‘Using Geographic Information
Systems to match local health needs with public health service programs’, American Journal
of Public Health, vol. 101, no. 9, pp. 1664–5.
Nnaji, GA, Oguoma, C, Nnaji, LI & Nwobodo, E 2010, ‘The challenges of budgeting in a
newly introduced district health system: a case study’, Global Public Health, vol. 5, no. 1,
pp. 87–101.
Howard, SL & William, BI 1997, ‘Lessons about strategic information in home healthcare’,
Hospital Topics, vol. 75, no. 3, Summer, pp. 10–22.
Jayasuriya, R 1995, ‘Information Systems for community health’, Australian Health Review,
vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 43–61.

© University of Southern Queensland
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
31
Module 5 – Applicability of systems planning (and IS) in
an organisation
So far we paid the foundation for Systems Planning and looked into a specific instance,
namely, Health Information System. Now that we have these concepts our belt, the main
question that we would like to answer is the applicability of such an activity in an
organisation.
In this week (Week 5), we will look into the applicability of Systems Planning aspects. In
order to arrive at a good System, in additional planning we must establish its relevance to the
organisation, its appropriateness and of course justify cost considerations. So, how can we
understand the ‘applicability’ aspects of Systems Planning?
Learning activity 5.1
We already read that the planning aspect should address organisational
objectives and tightly linked with organisational priorities. So, one should
understand organisation priorities, mission, vision and strategic importance of
these so that all these management concepts can be embedded in planning.
Without a clear understanding of these, it is not possible to understand the
relevance and applicability of IS planning.
During the periods of growth, organisations change. For example, new
departments will be added, some entities will be merged etc. So, to
accommodate these changes, Information Systems Planning should also change.
So, Planning should be applicable to an organisation.
Just to give a simple example, in 2011, Faculty of Business at USQ was
renamed to Faculty of Business & Law. This is a very cosmetic change in an
organisational point of view because the 2011 included School of Law, and the
structure existed. Still, it was necessary to undertake a ‘planning’ process
because all letter heads, name tags, business cards, etc., need to reflect this
change. This includes information provided in the course materials.
While the applicability of this name change is beyond our scope, the planning
that goes with the change is an important aspect. So, how can we understand the
applicability when planning for a System that does not even exist? What
attributes should we need to consider?
Reading activity 5.1
Street ,CT & Meister, DB 2004, ‘Small business growth and internal
transparency: the role of Information Systems’, MIS Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 3,
pp. 473–506.
Read the section ‘Theoretical perspective’ in pages 475–8.
I am particularly interested in your understanding of what a Small Business is, and the role of
IS in a small Business. This is because, in the Australian Context, there is a definition for a
© University of Southern Queensland
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
small business. When you have a certain number of people working in an organisation, it is
classified as small, medium and large. In a small business, do we real need an Information
System? For example, the person who runs the deli (a small convenience store in the street
corner), does he need an Information Systems?
One of the reasons for having a Systems Planning is to assure Internal Transparency and
consistency. In organisations, procedures are very important. These are even more important
as organisations grow. These procedures dictate how ‘governance’ is implemented in an
organisation, including enforcement issues. As part of governance, we produce ‘reports’ For
reports we need data. In a later module we will examine data in the context of collection and
use. So, the applicability of planning is essential to ensure consistency, transparency and of
course a system.
The section ‘Internal Transparency’ provides details as to how things can be planned for
transparency in an organisation. Mainly, this term is linked with financial systems. However,
in the current system, this includes the usage of resources as well.
One of the major tasks for us as IS Managers is capturing user data. For example, in this
course, how do I capture your data, how assessment scores are allocated, how people
understand what is happening in terms of marking, results, etc. require a system to be
developed. This system consists of a number of procedures, rules, documentation, actions
etc. There will be a person overseeing the applicability of all of these so that organisational
goals can be linked to these activities and procedures. These, when developed properly, and
informed to all stakeholders, will provide transparency.
Exercise 5.1
In your own opinion, do you believe the assessment procedure (Peer Review
System) is applicable to this course? If so, do you believe the Information
System – the actual Peer Review System – is transparent? If not, provide
reasons as to how the transparency can be improved.
Note: In the exercise, transparency doesn’t indicate exposing the markers
names.
Learning activity 5.2
In this activity I am presenting a material that is slightly out of sync to your
course. I am presenting an article on research applicability to practice but the
concepts can be well applicable to our course. So, please bear with me for the
change in tone in the reading.
The material presented in this activity discusses relevance to practice. While the
central theme of the discussion is research, it is quite applicable to other areas as
well.
© University of Southern Queensland
Reading activity 5.2
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
33
Rosemann, M & Vessey, I 2008, ‘Toward improving the relevance of
information systems research to practice: the role of applicability checks’,
MIS Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 1–22.
Read sections ‘On research relevance and potential solutions’ in page 2 till end
of page 8.
What you will observe in this article is a lot of information we should be aware.
For example, the section on Institutional Perspective provides details on
structures and mechanisms that should be available at an organisational level.
You may read Table 1 to understand how documentation is developed to
coincide with procedures.
The section on Governance provides ‘control and monitoring’ aspects. We
will look into governance in a later section. This is a good introduction to
governance. See Table 2 to note a range of activities pertaining to different
entities.
In our case, Figure 2 is important. The problem identification, data analysis and
communication relate to the problem identification, developing the data
architecture and then transforming into a workable System. Table 3 provides
some guidelines as to how this can be achieved.
I am providing a light reading in this section with the hope that you will be able
to relate this article with your knowledge to understand applicability. The
paragraph under Table 3 in page 8 provides some interesting tips.
Learning activity 5.3
Now that we have seen Systems Planning aspects and the applicability of
planning (and IS), it is time for us to recap whare are Information Systems?
Reading activity 5.3
Paul, RJ 2010, ‘What an Information System is, and why it is important to know
this’, Journal of Computing and Information Technology, CIT 18, no. 2, pp. 95–
9.
The article is a philosophical view type and Sections 1–3 provide us with some
very useful information. The main thesis is to see IS as a model rather than as a
system, including ad-hoc decision making processes in the form of codes.
Sections 5 onwards are useful to understand, in a philosophical view point about
IS. A main view is how can we cater to future needs when we don’t what the
future holds for us? The statement ‘an IS is IT is use’ is interesting as this
specifies that any systems developed should be useful. The section on
implications establishes applicability aspects.
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Summary
Exercise 5.2
Following on our Face Book Page, in your opinion do you think creating a Face
Book Page is relevant and applicable to the needs of this course? If so, what are
such needs and how can they be relevant and applicable? If not, provide reasons.
The focus of this week was on applicability. I merely introduced the concept, provided
some light reading and reinforced the concept with a set of three exercise questions. The
applicability will be made clearer indirectly as we progress in the course rather than
providing some direct materials.
Next week, we will embark on cost/benefit aspects. Our aim is planning for a cost/benefit
analysis first, and thinking about the various aspects involved in cost/benefit, including direct
– indirect costs, tangible – intangible costs, and then pulling all these in one convincing
document.
References
Street, CT & Meister, DB, 2004, ‘Small business growth and internal transparency: the role
of Information Systems’, MIS Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 473–506.
Rosemann, M & Vessey, I 2008, ‘Toward improving the relevance of information systems
research to practice: the role of applicability checks’, MIS Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 1–22.
Paul, RJ 2010, ‘What an Information System is, and why it is important to know this’,
Journal of Computing and Information Technology, CIT 18, no. 2, pp. 95–9.
© University of Southern Queensland
Module 6 – Cost benefits
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
35
Last week (module 5), we focussed on applicability of Business Systems Planning and
Implementation in an organisation. We reached this stage after studying basic principles of
BSP, planning processes, Health Information Systems and issues associated with Health
Information Systems. Till such time we were travelling on two parallel tracks – a generic
Business Systems Planning to understand various concepts associated with this important
domain, and a specific Health Information System to build depth in one area.
Now that we have looked into some fundamental concepts of Business Systems Processing,
it is time look into cost aspects. This is because developing organisational Information
Systems is very expensive. The considerations include software, hardware, network,
telecommunication, skills development, ongoing maintenance, security, privacy, licensing
and other issues. And every one of these aspects cost money. In order for successful
implementation of an Information Systems, as managers, we should know how to develop a
costing structure. This is, of course, part of planning.
In this week (week 6), we will look into the Cost Benefits of developing an Information
Systems. The aspects I will cover will mainly include fundamental building blocks of costing
elements. Two case studies provided at the end of this week will show you how to compute
such costs, leading to a fully fledged costing required to estimate the cost of an Information
Systems Development.
Learning activity 6.1
In this activity, let us try to understand what constitutes various cost elements.
This is very important because the management has to allocate ‘funds’ to
develop a system. If it too expensive, then the management may be reluctant to
support the development. If it is too affordable, then crucial elements of the
system may be compromised in quality. Arriving at a balance is a tricky act!
In general, there are three types of cost elements we consider while estimating
the development cost. These are direct cost, indirect cost and intangible cost.
For our study purposes, let us focus on these three costs. There are other costs
such as emotional costs but let us not worry about these costs now. Let us
concentrate on key principles to understand how to develop a costing structure
and then establish the benefits of such an activity!
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 6.1
Even before we develop a cost structure, it is important to know the benefits of
doing such an activity. The first question the management will ask is what are
the benefits of developing a System? As an IS Manager, you may have to
prepare a proposal highlighting various benefits of developing a new system.
This proposal will most often be considered by various members of management
as the System is going to be used by the organisation. Once you convince the
management of the benefits, then the management will ask you to provide an
estimate on the cost of development.
So, let us see what could be the potential benefits of developing a System!
Garrido, T, Raymond, B, Jamieson, L, Liang, L & Wiesenthal, A 2004, ‘Making
the business case for hospital information systems – a Kaiser permanente
investment decision’, Journal of Health Care Finance, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 16–23.
I suggest reading this article first in its entirety. The reason is there is some key
information in the initial sections that you should be aware of. I recommend
reading the second paragraph of page 16 as this sets the scene for providing
some form of justification.
Similarly, the background provides valuable information about the organisation.
While a justification document is an internal document, it is still beneficial to
recap organisational mission, vision, strategic goals etc. and then lead this into
the system justification section so that your arguments are convincing.
The next section Business Case Design (in page 18) provides the real reason as
to why such a cost benefit exercise is undertaken. In this case, the cost benefit
analysis is conducted on existing entities rather than developing a new System. I
am deliberately providing this article as an example because on many occasions
it is important to assess whether Systems are returning the value to an
organisation.
Now, concentrate on figure 1 in page 19. You will find a list of items that
provide benefits to an organisation. In fact, there will be 36 items providing
financial benefits. These are direct benefits. I am using the word ‘direct’ to
indicate that these benefits can be quantified, or a number (Dollar Value) can be
assigned to these benefits. Many organisations are interested in this aspect.
Now read the Financial Impact Summary in page 20, to understand how to
recover the cost expended. This is very important because when you estimate
the development of cost, you should also estimate the return on the investment
(RoI) made. This section provides statements to this effect.
When you read the rest of the article, you will notice how various changes can
positively impact the organisation.
So far, we are only developing a ‘Business Case’ type of document. We haven’t
actually developed any cost structures. Be patient! We will develop such a
structure very soon. Prior to doing this activity, we need to understand a number
of aspects leading to cost estimation.
© University of Southern Queensland
Exercise 6.1
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
37
In one of the previous weeks, we undertook a task of identifying parameters for
developing a Face book Page for this course. Do you recall it? If not go back to
module 3, exercise 3.4.
I want you to think the various benefits a Face Book Page can bring to this
course. For the purpose of this learning activity, I want you to identify all direct
cost elements that a Face Book Page can bring to CIS8004. Once you identified
these elements, list them in their order of importance.
Learning activity 6.2
Now that you have understood the direct benefits (as a result of direct cost
elements), it is time to look into intangible benefits. But, we missed some
important aspect in the previous section. We did not provide a definition for
‘Direct Benefit’. We will look into some definitions, different types of cost
benefits and how to measure them.
The materials presented in this section will be useful for your assessment so I
urge you to focus on this section.
Reading activity 6.2
Murphy, KE & Simon, SJ 2002, ‘Intangible benefits valuation in ERP projects’,
Journal of Information Systems, vol. 12, pp. 301–20.
Read the article from the beginning till ‘Intangible in IT and ERP projects’,
page 305.
These pages provide some fundamental terminologies you are expected to use
while developing a cost estimate, or even while building a case for cost benefit.
You will also notice definitions, and prior work etc. in these pages. The very
purpose of providing this article is to illustrate as IS managers, you should also
be familiar with cost related information. As I said in one of the earlier modules,
as IS managers, in addition to technical knowledge, we must possess
management knowledge as well. Otherwise, we can’t carry out our duties. So,
this week, we will learn some management aspects in the field of cost benefits.
Learning activity 6.3
Now that we have understood various definitions and entities that make up cost
benefits, it is time to determine the intangibles!
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 6.3
Read the section on ‘Intangibles in IT and ERP projects’.
This section provides a number of key points on assessing intangible benefits of
a System. In many cases, especially in Government Settings, intangible benefits
will be considered equally important to tangible benefits. In many service
sections, intangible benefits are important. So, in recent years, intangible
benefits are given equal importance while developing cost estimations and
benefits.
Figure 2 provides a high level view of intangible benefits. You will notice two
aspects – ongoing and future. Study this picture and relate this to the text in the
section. See whether you can understand this properly!
Now look at figure 3. This figure links the three fundamental blocks of
management, namely, tactical, strategic and operational – into intangible
benefits. What you will notice is the dichotomy of tangible and intangible
benefits appearing in the diagram.
Now read the remainder of the section in page 308. There is some reference to
Systems Investment in this page. Also, it might be a good idea to read Shang &
Seddon (2000) to see how they tracked the benefits.
By the time you have completed reading this section, you will have a clear idea
as to what elements constitute tangible benefits and how intangible benefits are
arrived at. A number of references provided in the section will help you
formulate your idea as many authors in these references are working in
Australian universities or have worked in Australia. Example includes Love and
Seddon.
Exercise 6.2
Now that you have identified the Direct Cost Benefits (and elements) of Face
Book for CIS8004, identify the Indirect Cost Benefits (in terms of intangible
benefits), list them in order of priority. Also, map these onto figures 2 and 3.
The research methodology given in this article will give you some idea to
achieve the above task!
© University of Southern Queensland
Learning activity 6.4
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Now that we have seen how to consider various elements that lead to a cost
benefit planning, it is time to see how to apply these elements so that we can
present a proper ‘financial’ analysis. This is very crucial in getting the senior
management support. Without such informed analysis, it is difficult to get
support from the management.
In this activity I will present two methodologies to arrive at the cost benefit
analysis. While there are a number of methods available to arrive at a cost
benefit portfolio, I am presenting these two methodologies because they tell us
how to realise both tangible and intangible benefits.
Reading activity 6.4
Karikari, I & Stillwell, J 2005, ‘Applying cost/benefit analysis to evaluate
investment in GIS: the case of Ghana’s Lands Commission Secretariat, Accra’,
Transactions in GIS, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 489–505.
Read the Introduction section in page 489 to understand the context. Context is
very important as IS managers you will be required to build the context of what
you are doing in your business case. IN the article presented, in page 490, you
will notice key shortcomings of the present situation reported. This is important
because this is what we want to resolve.
For any solution, approach is very important. As IS managers, we want to
follow an approach that is applicable, cost effective and easy to implement.
Section 2, Contemporary cost/benefit approaches provides you details on
various approaches that can be used for developing a cost/benefit portfolio.
In your assessment, you may be expected to consider few approaches, justify a
chosen approach. So, reading the given references within this section would
provide you with a strong base in this domain. Scientific cost/benefit approach
is always a plus in an IS manager’s tool kit.
Exercise 6.3
Develop your own notes documenting various strengths and weaknesses of
various approaches provided in section 2 of the article.
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Learning activity 6.5
Now I want you to slowly and carefully read section 3 – Adopted approaches.
This section is very important to us. The assessment may have some tasks based
on this section. I want you to understand section 3.1 first. This approach is
based on ‘projected savings’. You will notice terms such as ‘productivity
increase’. What is this? What is the link between cost and productivity? How
will you measure productivity? These are some of the questions you will ask
your own self.
It will be good idea to ask these questions with you Face Book Page
development as there will be some productivity aspects as a result of developing
Face Book Page for CIS8004. Am I correct?
Now I want you to go to section 3.2. This section provides you a step-by-step
procedure on IEM method. You would have already understood that IEM is
based on cost savings. This is quite different to some of the methodologies you
would have read. Traditionally for new systems, cost benefit involves what is
going to be spent and how much return will be accomplished over a given
period of time. Many Excel spreadsheet formulas provide some idea as to how
this can be done.
However, the methodology we are looking at is potential cost savings. In other
words, we have to link all organisational goals with system activities (so to say),
assign a value and then compute cost and benefits. This is not trivial as we have
to include direct and indirect costs, tangible and intangible aspects etc. The
reason is when you look at productivity gains or losses, there may be a number
of factors that can lead to gains or losses. For example, a favourite sport
watched overnight might introduce slack in the workplace and this can result in
productivity loss. So, how to include these aspects in our estimation?
The rest of the section provides details on how to calculate the cost/benefit. I
recommend you make an attempt. There are some mathematical formulas
involved at Net Present Value but at a Master’s level, these are not very
complicated to handle. Even if you arrive at the cost savings aspect, you have
done well!
Exercise 6.4
We will consider our Face Book Page development concept again! Apply the
IEM method to the Face Book Page creation project and see whether you can
come up with a cost/benefit analysis!
Use the article presented in the section as a reference.
© University of Southern Queensland
Summary
Learning activity 6.6
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
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Now that we have understood some basic principles of cost benefit models, and
applied the same to compute the Face Book Page development, it is time to see
some more case studies to understand the concept better.
I am presenting two articles in the next section to you. The first one (Nussbaum,
2009) provides details of how costs can be contained. When you contain cost,
you may realise in savings. This article introduces a set of approaches in cost
containment. The article is only an introduction type and it would be a good
idea to be familiar with various jargons presented in this article.
The second article (Ohinmaa & Hailey, 2002) is a case study on a telemedicine
assessment. Following our previous style, now we are linking our knowledge to
Health Information Systems. This article provides details on various
measurement aspects, I encourage you to focus on section 4 to understand how
cost estimations are carried out.
Reading activity 6.5
Nussbaum, GM 2009, ‘Assessing IT expenditure in an uncertain economy’,
Healthcare Financial Management, pp. 40–2, September.
Ohinmaa, A & Hailey, D 2002, ‘Telemedicine, outcomes and policy decisions’,
Disease Management Health Outcomes, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 269–76.
Exercise 6.5
Read the article ‘Teaching case’ by Mitri & Cole and mimic for the Face Book
Page System Development.
Source: Mitri, M & Cole, C 2007, ‘Teaching case: a systems analysis role play
case: we sell stuff, inc.’, Journal of Information System Education, vol. 18,
no. 2, pp. 163–68.
In this week, we looked into Cost/Benefit aspects of Planning Process. I presented materials
in a disjointed fashion, with three cases to reinforce the learning activities. I left traditional
cost/benefit estimation models to you to comprehend from library sources. I am confident
that the exercises provided will give you breadth and depth required for cost estimation
activities.
Next week, we will study how Planning Processes align with Business Processes. This is
very important because we must ensure that the three levels of organisational aspects tactical,
strategy and operational – align with what we do.
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References
Garrido, T, Raymond, B, Jamieson, L, Liang, L & Wiesenthal, A 2004, Making the business
case for hospital information systems – a Kaiser permanente investment decision, Journal of
Health Care Finance, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 16–23.
Karikari, I & Stillwell J 2005, ‘Applying cost/benefit analysis to evaluate investment in GIS:
the case of Ghana’s Lands Commission Secretariat, Accra’, Transactions in GIS, vol. 9,
no. 4, pp. 489–505.
Murphy, KE & Simon, SJ 2002, ‘Intangible benefits valuation in ERP projects, Journal of
Information Systems, vol. 12, pp. 301–20.
Mitri, M & Cole, C 2007, ‘Teaching case: a systems analysis role play case: we sell stuff,
inc.’, Journal of Information System Education, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 163–68.
Nussbaum, GM 2009, ‘Assessing IT expenditure in an uncertain economy’, Healthcare
Financial Management, pp. 40–2, September.
Ohinmaa, A & Hailey, D 2002, ‘Telemedicine, outcomes and policy decisions’, Disease
Management Health Outcomes, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 269–76.
© University of Southern Queensland
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
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Module 7 – Alignment of IS with business processes and
models
What we have seen so far include the basic details of Information Systems, a specific
instance namely Health Information Systems, providing justification in terms of a business
case, developing a cost/benefit analysis and then assuring applicability of our IS Planning (as
well as Development) to the organisation.
In order for us to develop a System, once the basic concept is defined, the management
considers the proposal, and if suitable provides you with an approval to proceed. Till such
time we are seriously contemplating the development. We have only been planning and not
yet actually started the Systems Development.
However, once we received approval to commence the Systems Development, we will
embark on developing what computer scientists term as ‘Requirement Specification’ phase.
At this juncture, we are interested in obtaining user requests and turn them into a
specification so that System Developers can write the program codes. While this is true in a
Computer Science point of view, as IS Managers, our job is to obtain the right specification,
match it with various business processes and then develop suitable models. A challenge is in
achieving System Development goals in congruence with organisational goals. So, how can
we accomplish this?
Aligning Business Processes and Business Models is, therefore, this week’s topic!
Learning activity 7.1
What is a Business Process?
Business Process is seen differently depending upon the context. In a simple
sense, it is a set of actions and procedures that result in a change in an
organisation, In our case, these changes are specific to an IS System.
For example, assume that your organisation has decided to introduce a radio
frequency based ID card to record your presence. This will entail a series of
action such as procuring the technology, integrating this with various HR
databases, etc. These set of actions at information capture level are loosely
known as Business Processes.
While the above example gives you an idea, the definition of Business Process
is not that straightforward. It is more than that. Let us look into the definition of
Business Process.
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 7.1
Mili. H, Tremblay. G, Jaoude. GB, Lefebvre. E, Elabed. L & Boussaidi. G 2010,
‘Business process modelling languages: sorting through the alphabet soup’,
ACM Computing Survey, vol. 43, no. 1, article 4, pp. 4.1–4.11.
Read the initial page, section 1 – Introduction and section 2 – Business process
basics.
The introduction provides some basic idea as to what Business Process is?
There is a subtle difference between information gathering in Software
Engineering and Information Gathering in an IS. It is essential to understand the
subtle difference as software engineering is mainly focused on ‘information
sources’ and the IS is focused on ‘organisational processes’. So, as IS managers,
you need to understand various processes associated with running a System, the
interaction sequences (integration to some extent – we will see this another
week), workflow aspects and so on. So, conveying all these in a unified way to
the development team is not an easy task. So, we need some models to convey
these processes so that all stakeholders involved in the development can
understand what needs to be built!
Section 2.1 provides some more intricate detail on Business Processes. There
are two key themes emerging this section – Process definitions and process
instances. The definitions relate to the data sources and the instances relate to
how they are used. For example, your student data is used by me for your course
work related functions, and the University administration uses the same data for
enrolment related functions. So, while developing the System, these distinctions
need to be made so that we can build all these processes into a model, to tell
developers what is required.
The next question you would like to ask is ‘Why?’. Why do we need Business
Processes? We provided some reasoning earlier for using Business Processes in
an organisation. In order to arrive at a ‘streamlined’ operation in an
organisation, it is essential to see all the processes in an organisation, establish
linkages and then develop the Systems. By doing this, we can achieve
efficiency. So, Business Process provides us with tools and techniques to
accomplish efficiency in Systems Planning & Development. This is the message
in section 2.2.
The next question you would like to answer is how can we represent Business
Processes? While there are many ways to accomplish this, three key points need
to be assured:
1. How to describe a process so that it could be understood without any
ambiguity>
2. How to analyse the process so that the assessment of various aspects
associated with a process is accurate?
3. How to enact a process so that it could be executed efficiently?
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
45
Page 4:7 of the article provides details on the above three. If you think about
these carefully, you will notice that these are still in the ‘Planning’ stages of
System Development and needs very careful thinking. Remember the adage ‘Do
it right the first time!’. If you don’t put proper thinking into the development,
repairing the mistakes will cost you a lot more! Read section 3.1 to understand
various steps involved in describing a business process.
Now that we are ready to express a Business Process, what tools are available to
us? This is covered in section 3.3 in page 4:10. The article provides details of
four tools to represent a Business Process. I suggest reading this section and
becoming familiar with the jargon!
Finally, we are interested in the types of modelling we can come up with.
Details are provided in page 4:8, section 3.2. I suggest reading this section to
understand real world modelling and pseudo real world modelling concepts.
These have an influence later when we develop the system as these can be
translated into required functionalities, associated data classes and data types.
Exercise 7.1
Read: Dhar, S & Varshney, U 2011, ‘Challenges and business models for
mobile location-based services and advertising’, Communications of the ACM,
vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 121–9, May.
I want you to read the full article and prepare notes on the following:
1. When you develop application for a consumer oriented task, would you
consider different Business Processes? If so, how do they differ from those
presented in learning activity 7.1 and reading 7.1?
2. In table 6 of the article, there are references to six Business Models. How do
these differ from Mili et al?
Learning activity 7.2
Now that we have got some basic idea as to what a Business Process is and what
a Business Model is, we are interested in widening our knowledge in Business
Process and Models. Also, this is a strategic activity (as Planning is) and so, we
have to be strategic.
Let us focus on the above!
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 7.2
Samavi, R, Yu, E & Topaloglou, T 2009, ‘Strategic reasoning about business
models: a conceptual modelling approach’, Information Systems and EBusiness
Management, vol. 7, pp. 171–98.
Following on from reading 7.1, this article provides yet another view on the
representation of Business Model & Process languages. You will encounter the
term ‘Ontology’ and this is a common term used in representing business
processes.
The article is easy reading and so you should not have any difficulty in
comprehending the essence of the article. I am not testing your knowledge with
an application in this week as Business Models require a set of tools to arrive at.
As we don’t have access to such tools, I will be providing some theoretical
background, merely introducing the topic to you.
Should anyone wish to continue this aspect, perhaps a Research Masters is an
option!
Exercise 7.2
Compare the Business Model (and Process) option provided in article 7.1 with
article 7.2? Which one did you find comfortable and why?
Learning activity 7.3
Now let us look at a practical view and why things fail despite huge investments
made.
Read: Karimi, J, Somers, TM & Bhattacherjee, A 2007, ‘The role of
information systems resources in ERP capability building and business process
outcomes’, Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 24, no. 2,
pp. 221–60, Fall.
I want you to read this article from pages 221 till 230 (stop at Hypotheses
Development). See whether you can understand the concept. If not, read the
references to pick up the major building blocks of the Business Process and
Business Model concepts.
© University of Southern Queensland
Summary
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
47
We looked into the presentation of user requirement in a unified form using Business
Modelling languages so that a Business Process can be arrived at. I treated this topic lightly
as the topic itself is an area of study, assuming a lot of importance. My objective is to expose
you to the principles as application may be beyond the scope of this course. The main
objective is to align business processes using business modelling techniques. This is what
needs to be comprehended by this week’s material.
Next week, we will embark on Planning and Integration. This is because once we identified
all Business Processes, we need to link them together to achieve efficiency. One way of
achieving efficiency is by removing duplicate processes. So, Systems Integration is
important!
References
Mili, H, Tremblay, G, Jaoude, GB, Lefebvre, E, Elabed, L & Boussaidi, G 2010, ‘Business
process modelling languages: sorting through the alphabet soup’, ACM Computing Survey,
vol. 43, no. 1, article 4, pp. 4.1–4.11.
Dhar, S & Varshney, U 2011, ‘Challenges and business models for mobile location-based
services and advertising’, Communications of the ACM, vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 121–9, May.
Samavi, R, Yu, E & Topaloglou, T 2009, ‘Strategic reasoning about business models: a
conceptual modelling approach’, Information Systems and EBusiness Management, vol. 7,
pp. 171–98.
Karimi, J, Somers, TM & Bhattacherjee, A 2007, ‘The role of information systems resources
in ERP capability building and business process outcomes’, Journal of Management
Information Systems, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 221–60, Fall.
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation

© University of Southern Queensland
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
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Module 8 – Systems integration
We focussed on alignment aspects last week. The area we studied included business process
alignment with business models. If you watched the progression of this course, we started
with planning, we looked into Health Information Systems as a specific case of Information
Systems, then we looked into the applicability of Systems and Systems Planning in an
organisation. This was followed by an analysis of cost/benefit aspects as IS managers we
should build a case for our Systems Development (and planning) to be approved. At this
junction, we are ready to justify how business processes and business models are aligned and
we are almost ready to complete our planning.
However, a missing link is integrating existing systems, processes, procedures and other
management activities into our planning for the new or refined Systems. This is because IS
development, when considered at organisation level pays more dividend than when
considered at a Department level. So, it is better to understand what is available in an
organisation (in terms of Systems), how a development of a new system van influence
another system, the overall net benefit or loss as a result of any changes made to the System
and finally how to minimise any potential disruption by changing over to a new System.
These aspects are covered in a broad area called the Systems Integration. How can we
integrate various components of a System so that we can realise maximum benefits? This is
going to be our focus in this week.
As integration is a very tricky topic, I am going to introduce you to some basic principles of
integration and explain the concept through some cases. In my opinion, unless you have
some strong practical experience in Systems Development, you may find this week’s
material a bit challenging. So, I am giving a lighter coverage.
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Learning activity 8.1
Our main objective in this activity is to understand:
What is Systems Integration?
Integration of a system is simply ‘assembling’ various new and existing
components of a system. The main reason for conducting integration is to
achieve high performance. For example, you would have purchased a new
printer and would like to print faster than the previous printer. Then you will
want to integrate the new printer with your computer. This is one simple form of
integration. Another example is including a software application you purchased
recently. While these are trivial examples, we sometimes refer these as
hardware and software installations (or integration).
At organisation level, we are talking much more than just installing an
application as many users will be accessing the resources. So, a proper planning
is required as to how the ‘integration’ is going to be realised, starting from a
justification, consideration for hardware and software elements, skills required
to conduct such an integration, any training etc.
One main goals of integration is to realise ‘decisions’ in an organisation through
this integration. This implies that whatever we do, the decision making process
should improve. This should be our general goal. The decision making can be
either at individual level or at organisation level. So, any consideration for
integration should carefully weigh all available options, followed by a proper
planning, before embarking on the integration procedure.
© University of Southern Queensland
Reading activity 8.1
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Lin, S, Duffy, AHB, Whitfield, RI & Boyle, IM 2010, ‘Integration of decision
support systems to improve decision support performance’, Knowledge
Information Systems, vol. 22, pp. 261–86.
The first nine pages of this article provides a beautiful summary of various types
of integration. While the introduction section sets the scene (including
challenges), the next section ‘Multiple perspectives of integration’ provides
details on various types of integration an IS manager might be asked to
undertake.
One question that you would like to ask yourself as an IS Manager is:
What are the challenges of undertaking Systems Integration?
I encourage you all to search for Virgin Blue challenges when they introduced a
new passenger management system in Australia in 2010 and the problems
encountered because of certain issues with technology integration!
As an IS Manager, you should be aware of various types of integration – data,
model, process, service etc. – so that users can be properly informed. So, in
order for us to undertake Systems Integration, in addition to knowing our
systems well, we should also know what type of integration should we have to
undertake, on the databases – for example implementing a new database
upgrade, or model – for example implementing a new scheme for an ERP
system, or changing the process – for example implementing a new
authentication system etc.
Having some knowledge about integration alone is not sufficient. We should
remember that various activities pertaining to integration occur simultaneously.
This means aligning strategic, procedural and operational sequences in a
seamless manner so that users are not affected by the integration. So, how can
we understand this? Figure 2 provides us with some clues on this aspect.
Study figure 2 carefully and read the section 2.6. This section, I found easy to
read and understand, as the details are provided in a succinct manner.
Familiarise yourself with various terminologies – horizontal integration, vertical
integration etc. As IS Managers, you should be familiar with terminologies and
their roles in Systems Planning and Implementation.
I want you to stop reading this article at this point as we probably have
understood basic principles. Now let us reinforce the concepts with a simple
case study!
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Exercise 8.1
Now read the article: Russel, R & Day, M 2010, ‘Institutional repository
interaction with research users: a review of current practice’, New Review of
Academic Librarianship, vol. 16, no. 81, pp. 116–31.
The article provides details of how institutional efforts go against user needs,
when linking various repositories (databases). I want you to read the entire
article two or three times and answer the following:
1. Was the Data Integration conducted properly in the case given?
2. Was there any evidence of a ‘framework’ being used – refer to figure 2 in
the previous article.
3. How would you conduct Data Integration for the case?
Learning activity 8.2
Now that we have understood various types of integration and how to apply
these to a given situation, let us look into the ‘maturity’ aspects of integration.
Two decades ago, the concept Capability Maturity Model (CMM) was very
popular. Following the same style, there an Integration Maturity Model is
evolving. The very idea is developing a set of metrics (measurement) to assess
the level of maturity an organisation has in terms of integrating its IT resources.
It is necessary to have a high level of maturity to integrate complex systems. I
suggest you Google ‘Queensland Health Payroll System’ and you will
understand what I am talking about. 2010 witnessed the fiasco of Queensland
Health Payroll system that provided a lot of wrong data in terms of salaries etc.
This resulted in a high level of anger from health employees. We don’t want
these to happen in our organisation because this may result in you losing your
job!
So, let us look into the maturity aspects of Systems Integration.
© University of Southern Queensland
Reading activity 8.2
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
53
Sauser, B, Gove, R, Forbes, E & Ramirez-Marquez, JE 2010, ‘Integration
maturity metrics: development of an integration readiness level’, Information
Knowledge Systems Management, vol. 9, pp. 17–46.
The article states that Systems Integration is a ‘structure’, starts with
configuration and ends with verification and validation of the integration. Those
of you familiar with software engineering principles will be familiar with a
number of terminologies used in the article.
I want you to read the article from beginning till section 2.2 – Finding a
solution.
You will notice that a formal definition is provided for Systems integration in
the article, some details provided on technical and management aspects of
integration, a new concept Integration readiness is also proposed.
Section 2 provides justification as to why such an integration maturity metric is
required and then how to develop such a metric. You will notice in page 20, a
list of limitations are also provided.
Of particular interest is the list of references provided for you to augment your
knowledge in this emerging area. When systems are made up of same family of
tools, integration is not that complex, as you may have sufficient expertise in
your organisation. But in a world of hybrid systems, how do we plan to integrate
various components, resulting in a coherent form of functional results? When
you go out of your organisations, users might use different platforms and you
may have to accommodate their needs as well. These are some of the issues you
will have to understand as IS Managers!
I hope the articles presented provide you with answers either directly or through
the references provided in those articles!
© University of Southern Queensland
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Exercise 8.2
Now, let us go back to you Face Book Page system. One aspect I am interested
as course leader is linking the Face Book with USQ systems. I don’t know
where to start, or how to proceed.
As students, you use USQ Learning Management Systems regularly. For our
purpose, assume that I want to link the Face Book Page with the Course
Discussion Page so that students can seamlessly access the discussion through
both media!
Is this possible? If this is possible, how can you achieve this? What type of
integration options will you consider? Remember that we are interested in
planning for integration at this stage, not real implementation aspects.
If there are going to be challenges, what would they be?
I want you to think about these as IS Managers and prepare a draft Business
Case – drawing your knowledge from previous weeks.
You will find this exercise useful for your assessments!
Learning activity 8.3
Now let us look at yet another Integration perspective. In continuation of our
theme (Health Information Systems), let us look at an Indian case. This case
provides details beyond the technical aspects, taking us into political aspects.
BY now, you would have recognised that IS Managers, in addition to various
technical skills, should also have organisational skills, in order to get their ideas
implemented. This involves negotiating some ‘organisational politics’ as well,
because every unit manager is going to compete for resources available within
an organisation. So, understanding the political perspective is always handy!
© University of Southern Queensland
Reading activity 8.3
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
55
Sahay, S, Monteiro, E & Aanestad, M 2009, ‘Towards a political perspective of
integration in information systems research: the case of health information
systems in India’, Information Technology and Development, vol. 15, no. 2,
pp. 83–94.
Section 1 of the article provides us a generic view highlighting lack of
integration and challenges encountered in integrating Information Systems.
Section 2 provides us with various problems of integration. Section 4 provides
details of an Indian case.
Of particular interest is table 1. The data is derived from one particular state and
you can notice that the systems are about 10 years old. The maturity in HIS is
gradually achieved since 2000. Despite the technical skills available in India
(You will be aware that India sends over 500 000 IT professionals with high
level skills overseas for contract assignments), the political will appears to be
one of the drivers in facilitating various integration drivers. This is discussed in
section 5.
Exercise 8.3
The purpose of this learning activity is to highlight the power of external forces
in Information Systems Development and Integration.
In our Face Book Course Page development, do you foresee any ‘political’
obstacles? If so, what could they be? How do you plan to build these in your
planning documents and what are the mitigating steps?
Exercise 8.4
Finally, I am presenting another case for you to read and broaden your
knowledge.
Khoumbati, K, Themistocleous, M & Irani, Z 2006, ‘Evaluating the adoption of
enterprise application integration in health-care organizations’, Journal of
Management Information Systems, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 69–108, Spring.
This article is presented for generic reading. I am aware that the print is not that
good. See whether you can reinforce the concepts of this week once again. You
can stop reading at Research Methodology section.
© University of Southern Queensland
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Summary
In this week, we looked in Systems Integration. I presented materials from recent years (all
chosen after 2001) and provided case studies from Health Information Systems domain to
highlight different perspectives. The materials presented highlighted both organisational and
external views. The domain of Systems Integration and consumer aspects are very important
for IS Managers as current systems are also used by consumers, in addition to employees in
an organisation. So, having a good understanding of IS Integration aspects will aid IS
Managers to conduct their roles in a professional manner!
References
Lin, S, Duffy, AHB, Whitfield, RI & Boyle, IM 2010, ‘Integration of decision support
systems to improve decision support performance’, Knowledge Information Systems, vol. 22,
pp. 261–286.
Sauser, B, Gove, R, Forbes, E & Ramirez-Marquez, JE 2010, ‘Integration maturity metrics:
development of an integration readiness level’, Information Knowledge Systems
Management, vol. 9, pp. 17–46.
Russel, R & Day, M 2010, ‘Institutional repository interaction with research users: a review
of current practice’, New Review of Academic Librarianship, vol. 16, no. 81, pp. 116–131.
Sahay, S, Monteiro, E & Aanestad, M 2009, ‘Towards a political perspective of integration
in information systems research: the case of health information systems in India’,
Information Technology and Development, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 83–94.
Khoumbati, K, Themistocleous, M & Irani, Z 2006, ‘Evaluating the adoption of enterprise
application integration in health-care organizations’, Journal of Management Information
Systems, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 69–108, Spring.
© University of Southern Queensland
Module 9 – Adoption
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
57
Last week (module 8), Integration was the focus. If you noticed by now, we started with
planning, understood costing aspects, aligned the planning with Business Processes,
integrated the planning with the organisational priorities. Now, we want to see whether the
System is going to be used by people. This topic is covered under the title ‘Adoption’.
In this week (week 9), we will look into the Systems Adoption aspects. The key question that
we are interested in answering is ‘How can we assure Adoption of the System?’. Having
spent so much time, money and energy in developing the System, we are interested to know
whether the System will be used by customers, both internal and external. Is there a way to
find out?
Learning activity 9.1
The term Technology Adoption was perhaps first introduced by Rogers. An SCurve
is
traditionally
used
to
predict
the
Adoption
and
at
which
point,
as
there

are
early
adopters
etc.
The
main
idea
is
to
predict
adoption
in
an
informed

manner
so
that
as
IS
managers,
we
identify
‘human
issues’
very
early
in
the

development
and
planning
cycle,
and
avoid
any
potential
problems.
The main purpose of this learning activity is to understand basic principles of
Adoption. This is what I am going to introduce in this activity.
Reading activity 9.1
O’Leary, DE 2009, ‘The impact of Gartner’s maturity curve, adoption curve,
strategic technologies on information systems research, with applications to
artificial intelligence, ERP, BPM, and RFID’, Journal of Emerging
Technologies in Accounting, vol. 6, pp. 45–66.
This articles deal with a number of IS related issues and links Adoption and
Maturity. For our purpose, we need to focus only on certain section. I want you
to read the Introduction (p. 45), Maturity curve, adoption curve and strategic
technology (p. 47) and Maturity curve and information systems research (p. 49).
These sections introduce to a number of new terms. I am aware of the fact that a
lot of new terms are introduced in one shot, but try to understand the IS jargons
as IS Managers, you need to use these jargons from time to time.
Of particular interest is the pictures and tables, as they convey a lot of
information to you. The learning activity is to introduce you to the topic and I
expect a light reading (although the sections are very long) to make yourself
familiar with the concept and key terms.
© University of Southern Queensland
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Learning activity 9.2
Now that you are familiar with the key terms, it is time for us to look into
different models that are available in the IS Adoption. While these models keep
evolving, in my opinion, for some reasons, there appears to be a saturation in
terms of these models. Many newer models appear to be variations of older
models.
Let us look into the Adoption Models, and their origins!
Reading activity 9.2
Oliveira, T & Martins, MF 2011, ‘Literature review of information technology
adoption models at firm level’, The Electronic Journal of Information System
Evaluation, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 110–121.
If you read the article, you will notice that in section 2 – Models of IT adoption,
a number of models were referred to. I am sure that you had already heard about
these models in your other courses. I recommend reading these models as they
are important to understand how these models originated and being applied.
In section three, TOE – Technology-organisation-environment – framework is
developed. You will know that any technology developed should be addressing
organisational context, and the context or the environment is essential for its
success. So, this TOE is important for us to understand planning, and how
people in an organisation would accept the concept initially and then use it
subsequently (adopt).
Table 2 and table 3 provide a list of prior work and I recommend accessing
these to augment your knowledge.
Exercise 9.1
What are the differences between traditional models of Adoption (discussed in
section 2) and TOE model (discussed in section 3)?
Learning activity 9.3
Now that we have seen models, we are interested in seeing the factors that
influence these models. It is important to understand the factors (or causes) of
Adoption and how they influence the Adoption (effect). If we can master this as
IS managers, then we have a better chance of successfully planning, developing
and implementing IS applications. So, how can we identify these factors?
© University of Southern Queensland
Reading activity 9.3
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
59
Chong, AY, Ooi K, Lin, B & Teh, P 2010, ‘TQM, knowledge management and
collaborative commerce adoption: a literature review and research framework’,
Total Quality Management, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 457–473.
Read from the beginning (p. 457) till the section ‘Research model and
hypotheses’ in page 463.
As you read the above pages, you will notice that you are recognising some
differences in technology adoption models. While the traditional models such as
the Rogers’ DOI focussed on individual attributes to predict adoption, other
models such as the TOE look into organisational context for adoption.
This opens up a dilemma? Which one should I focus, Individual adoption or
organisation adoption? This is a very tricky question to answer as individual
make up organisations. So, we need to read this article and the previous article
presented to understand the differences as both elements are important for us.
Exercise 9.2
What are the major differences between Adoption Theory that focus on
individual characteristics and those that focus on organisational characteristics?
Learning activity 9.4
Now that we have some exposure to various Adoption Theories and Models, we
can tell our management that we can predict Adoption in our organisation. Can’t
we?
While the answer is ‘yes’, it is not that straightforward. We still need to
‘assemble’ what we have understood in a meaningful form to develop the model
so that we can predict the level of adoption.
In order for us to understand the adoption, we may have to understand the
‘behaviour’. There are some theories available to understand behaviours. This
learning activity introduces you to such a theory.
© University of Southern Queensland
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 9.4
Pavlou, PA & Fygenson, M 2006, ‘Understanding and predicting electronic
commerce adoption: an extension of theory of planned behaviour’, MIS
Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 115–43, March.
This article coming from MIS Quarterly covers a lot of IS aspects. The authors
primarily developed an ‘experiment’ and measured the ‘cause’ and ‘effect’. I
want you to read from the beginning till the Research Methodology section.
The reading may be a bit heavier as a lot of aspects have been covered in the
article. Remember we are at a Master’s level course, and there is no
examination in the course. Only with such readings will you be able to attain
high levels of score in the course as you have to demonstrate your knowledge,
skills and application!
Exercise 9.3
Let us go back to the Face Book Page. IN the article presented above, consumer
behaviour was assessed in an electronic commerce environment. Would it be
possible for us to ‘plan’ an experiment to assess our classmates’ behaviour in
the adoption of the Face Book Page.
I want you to set up an experiment, use the Face Book Page to collect data and
predict adoption of the CIS8004 Face Book Course Page.
I am aware that you may not have all the skills required to establish such an
experiment but assuming that this is your page, won’t you be interested in
finding what others felt about page?
This course being a planning course, I want you to develop a plan as to how
such an experiment will be set up? The actual conduct of the experiment is not
our current interest.
In order to start with the planning, I am providing two additional papers that
have undertaken such experiments. I hope these two papers provide you with
some ideas to get started!
Reading activity 9.5
Ruiva, P & Neto, M 2011, ‘Sustainable enterprise KPIs and ERP post adoption’,
paper presented in the Iberian Conference on Information Systems and
Technologies, 2011.
Reading activity 9.6
Marques, A, Oliveira, T, es Dias, SS & Martins, MF 2011, ‘Medical records
system adoption in European hospitals’, The Electronic Journal of Information
System Evaluation, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 89–99.
© University of Southern Queensland
Summary
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
61
We touched upon IS Adoption this week. The IS adoption is a big field and I covered this
lightly because this will be covered in other courses such as the CIS8011. A basic
understanding will help you to predict whether a system is going to be adopted or not.
Next week, we will look into some of the emerging concepts such as the Green IT. The
materials presented next week will be our last set of materials.
References
O’Leary, DE 2009, ‘The impact of Gartner’s maturity curve, adoption curve, strategic
technologies on information systems research, with applications to artificial intelligence,
ERP, BPM, and RFID’, Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting, vol. 6, pp. 45–66.
Oliveira, T & Martins, MF 2011, ‘Literature review of information technology adoption
models at firm level’, The Electronic Journal of Information System Evaluation, vol. 14,
no. 1, pp. 110–21.
Chong, AY, Ooi, K, Lin, B & Teh, P 2010, ‘TQM, knowledge management and collaborative
commerce adoption: a literature review and research framework’, Total Quality
Management, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 457–73.
Ruiva, P & Neto, M 2011, ‘Sustainable enterprise KPIs and ERP post adoption’, paper
presented in the Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, 2011.
Marques, A, Oliveira, T, es Dias, SS & Martins, MF 2011, ‘Medical records system adoption
in European hospitals’, The Electronic Journal of Information System Evaluation, vol. 14,
no. 1, pp. 89–99.
Pavlou, P A & Fygenson, M 2006, ‘Understanding and predicting electronic commerce
adoption: an extension of theory of planned behaviour’, MIS Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 1,
pp. 115–43, March.

© University of Southern Queensland
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
63
Module 10 – ICT Governance and green IT
So far we learned the planning and development aspects of a System. As IS Managers, these
aspects are essential for us to carry out our daily activities. Once the System is developed, it
has to be maintained. Maintenance is somewhat technical in nature. However, as IS
Managers, we need to maintain various aspects of the System with a managerial view point.
This is covered under the Governance aspects.
I am introducing two slightly related concepts in this last week of study. They are IT
Governance and Green IT. As IS Managers, we help to accomplish the decision process in an
organisation. This involves various procedures, structures, relationships etc. These aspects
are covered in IT Governance.
You will notice that we are talking about IT Governance, NOT IS Governance. This is
because IS is part of a large IT (or ICT) infrastructure in an organisation.
Learning activity 10.1
What is IT Governance?
There are few definitions available for IT Governance, depending on the School
of Thought you are following. In general, IT Governance is the structures,
processes, procedures, relationships and how these aspects are made functional,
in an organisation so that efficient decision making can be achieved. IT
Governance is not very different from traditional governance. Due to the
intricate knowledge one should have about various aspects of IT and how it is
implemented in various organisational units, IT Governance has assumed
importance now. When the cost aspects are taken into account, IT spending is
not trivial in an organisation. For example, paper usage in an big organisation
run into thousands of dollars. So, by implementing a proper governance
structure, it is possible to control certain unnoticed leakages in an organisational
IT infrastructure. So, in the current economic climate, IT Governance is
assuming some relevance.
© University of Southern Queensland
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 10.1
Simonsson, M, Johnson, P & Ekstedt, M 2010, ‘The effect of IT governance
maturity on IT governance performance’, Information Systems Management,
vol. 27, pp. 10–24.
Read the first paragraph up to Research Hypothesis.
This section sets the scene for us. The IT Governance aspect is explained in this
section and why IT Governance existed in an organisation.
Now read the section IT Governance and IT Maturity in page 11.
In the IT Governance section, the origin of IT Governance is traced back to the
nineties. Also note the word ‘insightful’ as we want to know what is happening
at an organisation level in order to effectively manage our IT (in our case IS).
This section talks about some frameworks for IT Governance but we will look
into these later.
In terms of IT Governance Maturity, we are interested in finding out whether
any governance of IT has matured in an organisation. This is not surprising at all
because we are using IT for the past 40 years or so seriously. So, without
providing the term ‘IT Governance’ people responsible to manage IT houses
should have incorporated some form of governance to track various activities so
that decision making can be facilitated. However, in recent years, these
activities are being streamlined and packaged under the IT Governance topic.
When you read the IT Governance Maturity section from pages 11–14, you will
be amazed by the number of activities performed by the IT Manager, either
directly or indirectly. So, these activities finally lead to a performance portfolio.
What is it?
Read IT Governance Performance in page 14. The four points listed in this
section provides one view of performance. While this is somewhat true for an
organisation, when public service departments (such as Health Service) are
concerned, we may have to add few more attributes. We will look into these
later.
The idea here is to introduce you to some emerging concept. Now that you are
aware of IT Governance, let us look into the frameworks.
Learning activity 10.2
A framework gives us an idea as to how we can fit our thinking into a ‘frame’ so
to speak. One of the activities we will undertake as we progress in our career (as
IS Managers) is developing a Governance framework for the organisation, or
providing input in developing such a framework. So, we should have an
awareness of emerging materials in this domain. I am going to introduce you to
current IT Governance Frameworks now.
© University of Southern Queensland
Reading activity 10.2
CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
65
Lap o, LV 2011, ‘Organisational challenges and barriers to implementing IT
governance in a hospital’, The Electronic Journal of Information Systems
Evaluation, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 37–45.
I recommend reading the entire article to understand the two key frameworks –
COBIT and ITIL – and how their success depends on proper planning and
implementation of processes. So, in order to govern an organisational IT, we
must start from proper planning. The article argues that the evidence of positive
impact of these frameworks is still missing in IT. So, when you read the article
carefully and read between the lines, you will understand that the IT
Governance concept is still in its early stages.
I want to draw your attention to the two frameworks used to assess IT
Governance in organisations – COBIT and ITIL. This is covered in section 3 of
the article. The COBIT and ITIL procedures are provided in this section.
Section 4 provides details on the assessment conducted using these two
frameworks.
I want you to focus on these sections to understand how such an assessment is
possible, the various steps involved etc. I am introducing the concept here so I
am not providing depth. If you are keen to learn more about IT Governance,
please refer to the list of references.
This is where I want to stop in terms of IT Governance. The next section is on
Green IT.
Exercise 10.1
What are the differences between COBIT and ITIL frameworks? Why do we
need two frameworks? Can’t we manage with one?
Learning activity 10.3
We are embarking on our last topic Green IT. Global warming is talked about
everywhere and the Australian Government has introduced a Carbon Tax
concept. How do all these affect our IT operations? We are emitting so much
‘heat’ from computers, a lot of energy is consumed by computers, monitors,
printers, servers etc. So, we want to understand what Green IT means.
© University of Southern Queensland
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CIS8004 – Business systems planning and implementation
Reading activity 10.3
Molla, A, Pittatachawan, S, Corbitt, B & Deng, H 2009, ‘An international
comparison of green IT diffusion’, International Journal of Business
Management, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 3–23.
Read the section in page 4, Conceptual Foundation to understand what Green IT
is.
The first sub-section provides a definition on Green IT. You will notice that the
authors argue that the definition itself is not agreed upon and they provide a
loose definition. Table 1 will help you understand certain aspects that define
Green IT.
Now that we roughly know what Green IT is, we want to know the drivers or
factors that contribute this concept. This is provided in page 6, Drivers of Green
IT. There are three key factors – Economic, regulatory and Normative – driving
the Green IT.
Now let us look into another article to understand a bit more of Green IT.
Learning activity 10.4
We saw three major drivers in the previous article. Are there more drivers?
Let us look at some more drivers and the opportunities tat exist
Reading activity 10.4
Hanne, FZ 2011, ‘Green-IT: why developing countries should care?’,
International Journal of Computer Sciences Issues, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 424–27.
I suggest reading the full article as the article is easy to read and provides very
generic concepts. I draw your attention to the definition of Green IT and the
reason provided for the significance of Green IT. This is what was covered in
section 2 of the article.
In section 3 of the article, various drivers of Green IT are provided. Notice some
of the drivers are different to the previous article.
Section 4 gives justification as to why countries should use Green IT. You can
comfortably omit ‘Developing Countries’ as the concept provided is equally
important to developing countries as well.
In both articles, the reference list provided at the end give you a good starting
point to know more about Green IT.

SOLUTION

Business System Planning for Health Information Systems

The information management System which are used by health Organisations while gathering and reviewing the data. The need for business systems planning is there in health organisations to analyse and study the huge amount of data flowing in the company (Vitez, 2012). Steps followed while planning a Business Systems Planning for Health organisations are:

Step 1: Identify the need of the system

Step 2: Strategic Definition

Step 3: Integration of computerized management system

Step 4: Creating Individual Responsibilities for the health Management System

John Hopkins Health Information System

By the end of 2002 in John Hopkins Health System policy continuity plans were developed for the hospital IT departments, payroll and patient financial services. The Business Continuity Planning (BCP) was an initiative to facilitate the process of contingency planning all across the health system and was started in January 2003 which started with the intake of patient and the functions of admission. Features of BCP:

Every successful BCP is scenario –based
The scenarios at John Hopkins are based upon the most relevant vulnerabilities in the organisation.
The successful BCP programs cover a testing phase first where in the written plans are first set into motion and then operationalised.

A formal risk analysis is also done before implementing any BCP, these risk analysis tools analyse both the internal as well as external environment in which this health system operates. The vulnerability analysis was conducted and then a comprehensive business impact analysis (BIA) was done. According to then there were two main impact areas:

Revenue capturing
Patient care delivery (Cole and Barnes, 2005)

The UNHCR Health Information System

The health information system (HIS) which is used at UNHCR is a standardised tool which is helpful in designing, monitoring and evaluating the public health of the refugees and to conduct the HIV programmes too. The main aim of this HIS is to work towards improving the health status of the people for whom UNHCR is very much concerned and the tool uses the evidence-based policy formulation. Along with evidence-based policy formulation it also helps in improving the management of health programmes and finally it is helpful in directing and planning the actions of UNHCR which would be beneficial for the health of the refugees.

There is an emergency version also developed for UNHCR’s HIS. The strategically managed HIS is useful in:

Drug detention and Rehabilitation Centres of UNAIDS
Helps in guidance of public health interventions for Repatriation
Supports eth laboratory services in UNHCR by helping the primary health care facilities
Maintains the essential medical supplies and medicines at various UNHCR bases
Prepares UNHCR staff for epidemics all the time and actively respond to refugee camp settings too whenever required

World Health Survey

A survey Programme and World Health Survey has been developed and implemented by World health Organisation (WHO) in order to develop a compiled database which has all the baseline information about the health of populations along with the outcomes associated with the populations investing in various health systems. The baseline information system also monitors the functioning of several health systems functioning in various countries and it also monitors the inputs and the outcomes at the same time.

It is being developed in individual countries by proper consultation with the policy makers and along with the people who are routinely involved in the HIS. The data would be periodically input in a very cost effective manner in order to cover all the gaps existing in the current health information using this HIS. This HIS is also strategically very helpful in managing all the baseline information in order to scale-up the health activities in various countries (World Health Survey:Current Status of the World Health Survey, 2012)

Conclusion

From the assessment of the three different HIS it can be easily judged the vital role HIS play in business system planning in various health organisations , rather they are important tools to not just manage information but to take health organisations to a different level to serve the society.

Bibliography

Cole, G. and Barnes, A. (2005) The Business Continuity Planning Iniatives at Johns Hopkins Health System , 30 April, [Online], Available: http://www.continuityinsights.com/articles/2005/04/business-continuity-planning-iniatives-johns-hopkins-health-system [5 April 2012].

Vitez, O. (2012) Business SYstems Planning, [Online], Available: http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646ce0.html [5 April 2012].

World Health Survey:Current Status of the World Health Survey (2012), [Online], Available: http://www.who.int/healthinfo/survey/en/index.html [5 April 2012].

Journal 2

Planning a Facebook Page for Health Information Systems

The number one social network in the world that is Facebook plays a vital and interactive platform to interact with the customers. In this article we are going to plan a Facebook page for a hospital in order to receive the feedback of several customers worldwide regarding various services offered by this small hospital. We will follow few considerations which are listed below to design the Facebook page:

Step 1: Opening page

Create an opening page for the hospital does not open a group or personal profile for the hospital. There are special Facebook Pages for companies which want to show there commercial presence and want to interact with the customers.

The main Page should contain brief Profile about the hospital, and its services.

THE CORE HEART CENTRE

The Core Heart Centre is a unique heart care centre where we have world’s best cardiologists to serve you 24×7 and treat you with best techniques related to heart issues.

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Location: 1^st Floor Stanton Street

IS Phone: (213) 236-7886

Our Help Desk No.: (213) 236- 7856

Hours: Mon-Fri 8 AM – 6PM

Features of Heart centre:

Intensive care Unit functional and well equipped with modern heart care instruments
30 bedded and well served with big staff of nurses to take care of patients day and night.
Takes care of all the heart –related issues

Step 2: Content user Friendly

The most important part is to write the content on the page which is easy to understand and correlate by the heart patients. It should be regularly updated with fresh information and achievements. Like

Range of Heart Related Facilities offered at Core Heart Centre

Angioplasty
Angiography
Ballooning
Heart Transplants
Pace-maker Implants
Free consultation from heart specialists online through website

Step 3: Networking

It is very important to develop a relevant network amongst the people of you organisations like you should place links to the other heart centres or medical shops or heart specialists on your Facebook page which can also be contacted and your heart centre has association with (Noff, 2010).

Step 4: Finding the target audience

Using eth health Information System as a platform you can ask the customers to leave their valuable suggestions or comments to improve your services and Heart centre. Just in case if you find some suggestions good you can respond to them to make the communication two way and eth visitor will also feel pleased.

Step 5: Excite People about your Herat centre again and again

You can put some contests or general quiz related to heart or you can implement some kind of heart-o-meter which will assess the health of the heart of the visitors like Saffola did for healthy heart. You can also reward them with social or monetary incentives for winning the contest (Noff, 2010).

Step 6: Creating a Welcome Tab

A Facebook page which greets the visitors both new and old with a ‘Howdy’ creates a good impression and it also welcomes all the new fans to the page.

Step 7: Add Value

By putting some healthy heart tip[s or how you can keep your heart healthy or educating the visitors about eating or exercises which will keep their heart healthy will create value and the customers would like your Facebook page.

Step 8: Collect Information

There should be a tab which when clicked should ask for customers information like email id, name and contact information or any other health related issues. This will help in gathering details about the visitor and if any health concern can be collated with the data of the hospital. If we are planning to launch any heart check-up camp we can also contact and tell the compiled list of visitors by sending them mails. This way they will feel special and cared for. Any special events organised by the hospital should also be advertised on the Facebook page and all kinds of social charities like free heart check up camps or donations to the poor and needy should be put on the Facebook page too.

Conclusion

Thus using all these steps we can create an effective Face book page which will gather information also about the customers and help them to put their comments regarding the health care provided by the hospital. This will help in gathering information also about the visitors and what new they are looking or expecting from us.

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BUSINESS PLANNING OF HEALTH

Business System Planning for Health Information Systems

John Hopkins Health Information System

The UNHCR Health Information System

World Health Survey

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Business System Planning for Health Information Systems

John Hopkins Health Information System

The UNHCR Health Information System

World Health Survey

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