The Value of Effective It Systems in Business Organisations

TASK 1

Analyse the use of IT systems for different functions of an organisation

IT systems serve the purpose of raw data transformation into reliable and valid information (Jensen, 2017). In this regard, BMI Healthcare has been considered, which is one of the largest independent providers in UK's private healthcare sector. HIS, popular acronym for Hospital Information System is used for this IT management for establishing a network of strategic, operational and tactical information. Moreover, there are many functional units of an organisation in which the use of IT systems has been implemented effectively and are as follows:

• Production: This includes the management of Operations Theatres (OT) with laboratory MIS for effective usage of IT systems. Along with, it depends on the size of laboratory requirements of sonography, pathology, serology, bio-chemistry and more. For promoting time efficiency, all the testing and investigations are done either through automate system or semi-auto analysers. Henceforth, BMI Healthcare staff used this system for scheduling of work and shifts, handling of patient's scheduling for conducting procedure where their physical presence is vital, registration of specimen and services, reporting and verification, EMR, and related such modules. Furthermore, there has been an upsurge in the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) which has become cost efficient and gives accurate results. It assists in storage with capturing of image display through workstations and then printing of such films in the form of report through interfacing of integration of web and radio-diagnostics information systems.
• Finance: This is one of the important components and is mainly dealt with accessibility of financial history of patients to monitor their progression in terms of the utility and costing with respect to other departments of BMI Healthcare (Jaques, 2017). It involves the automatic invoicing method so that any incident of non payment can be follow up. Here, Computerised Provider Order Entry (CPOE) has been used for easy posting of prescriptions, tests, procedures and other related orders of patients can be maintained appropriately in a sequential order of date, alphabetical mode or department wise. Along with this, the management has managed their employees and staff information with respect to salaries, extra wages etc. has also been done in smooth manner.
• Administration: It is another vital segment for keeping the entire BMI Healthcare details in one location. This department has been segregated into number of small sub sections for easier handling of operations and providing patients with comfort and coordination. It has an integrated information of clinical systems with additional dataset like future appointments, or delivery date of mothers, contacting the patients' family in emergency and more. Henceforth, inclusion of electronic patient records (EPR's) have reduced burden from nurse's shoulders and the patient's evaluation for medication therapy has been used frequently now for better care settings. It also includes their medications, allergy history with each and every movement occurred during their entire check up or stay in hospital. This has made lives easier especially when some employee is not available.
• HR Function: It is one of the active unit which accelerates the working momentumof other smaller sections like CSSD (Central Sterile Supplies Department), kitchen and canteen management, transport management, laundry and inventory system (Pomeranz, 2015). This consists of varied functionalities for effective run of all operations in consistent and coherent approach. In order to develop an integrated framework, the HR laid interconnected loop of services in terms of periodic data backup, privileges management with physical security, data encryption and supporting the system administration system. It lays emphasis whether the other systems at BMI Healthcare is responding and in good working conditions or not. They have also included the RADT for patient's convenience where the interface would inform about their situation prior to manage in profound order.

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Explain how IT systems contribute to the achievement of objectives for BMI Healthcare

BMI Healthcare has implemented the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to improve their complicated environment in both internal and external aspects. Its main objective is to support and enhance the robust patient centred care with an establishment of proper channel between the management and administration for promoting high quality standardisations with optimum effectiveness.

In addition to the same, HIS (Hospital Information Systems) of BMI Healthcare has been categorised into eight divisions such as data and information related to data; automated order entry of physicians, doctors, therapists etc.; administrative processes; connectivity through computerized communication; support from patients and their families, carers; health management with reporting; management of results; and support system for decision making (Ricci, Rokach and Shapira, 2015). This is done for increasing competency of each management information system for improving the understandability approach which is necessary to meet the accredited regulations and policies by the regulatory bodies, who are working for the continuous upheaval and upliftment of the society as the whole.

However, its widespread existence has played imperative role in shaping the domains with DSS, HID, ECC, RM, AP, RPHM, CPOE, PS and more. These contributed to encourage the participation towards the care of patients and facilitate the reinforced cohesiveness of care with context of timely interventions. Here, there are many viable solutions which paved the path of value generation with building a better and longer term sustainability to ensure free flowing support between all the inter-departments to improvise the interoperability components with context of semantic and syntactic methodology.

Additionally, their effects have impacted the working practises in efficient manner through employing bar coding so that it becomes an easier method to find about patients, their tracking of medication, treatment and services. Also, it laid emphasis on checking the EOQ with automatic listing and an expiration date of approximate three months. However, MIS reports act as de facto registers that support in the maintenance of the legalities, regulations and rules for better employees' engagement and improved performance management.

Furthermore, it is user-role based at BMI Healthcare to have a steady control on the biometrics, insurance policies, form filling procedure, generation of E-prescription for patients coming from outside, provision of quick registration during any emergency, protecting and safeguarding the confidentiality of patients with advanced data security (Hanseth and Lyytinen, 2016). Along with this, the test results, scanning, radiology and pathological results are now available on their website for better assessment of treatment in regard to time-efficiency, low costing and easy transmission and connectivity with patients. However, it entails a list of techniques, tools and approaches for understanding the clinical guidelines effectively, support during diagnostics, dashboards and workflow tools in clinical support and computerized reminders, alerts and confirmations of appointment with both professional and patient.

TASK 2

Analyse the different ways IT systems store and process data for knowledge management, customer relationship management, data management and communication management

• Knowledge Management- This is a management of combination of databases, procedures, software and various devices in order to collect and store the entire information and knowledge with respect to execution of operational activities of BMI Healthcare. This KM is classified into tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Here, tacit knowledge is difficult to measure and needs more formal structure for solving issues like improper communication. Whereas, on the other hand, explicit knowledge is involved into an objectivity which can be measured and keep in documented way. Both can be used mainly to allocate the resources by planning the budgeting for smooth running of operations. Their main aim is to eliminate the wastage and incurred losses with establishment of knowledge repository (Epstein, 2018). Furthermore, it assists in filtration of information and data on the basis of utility, search engines with accessibility to reach the non textual objects for information and many more. In regard to face success with execution of this management, it is clearly demonstrated that there must be an equilibrium between the culture, technology and practise. The entire setup is administered by building a map of knowledge so that the entire working practises are easily comprehended. Along with it, the population which are included in this type of management that has influenced the tacit knowledge. Herby, the recognition of location of organisation is needed for making the decision techniques for the identification of creation, usage and dissemination of knowledge. Moreover, once the location has been identified then it leads to the capturing of knowledge through application of relevant documentation by organizing it in appropriate manner. Henceforth, the utilisation of proactive methods like interviews or one-on-one interactive sessions accelerate the momentum gained after the selection of the type of domain required to put the innovative methodologies. Lastly, it can be inferred that this gaining of knowledge is typically collected in the form of many storage repositories such as databases, reports and documents by implementation of exclusive tools of software in usable manner by optimising the specificity in enhanced effectiveness.

llustration 1: Knowledge Management

(Source:Data Information and Knowledge Management, 2018)

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)- This is one of the effective tools to define the accumulation of information with respect to patients' needs and the complete prospects of hospital's work at BMI Healthcare (Ponte and et.al., 2015). This establishment has the ability to customize the database in terms of virtual and restricted configurations for the integration of facilities and purchasing capacity of shareholders. In this regard, the CRM data has already replaced the manual approach by tracking each patient's information through a CRM System. This has helped in easy accessibility for viewing the documentation and when each revision can be done by electronic sharing through implementation of cloud. Consequently, this software can support in storing, identifying and later utilising it for the improvements and enhancements as per the needs of this hospital. Here, an overlapping takes place between the conceptual framework of marketing automation, ERP and automation for bringing modifications in the hospital environment by incorporating better approaches, principles and methodologies. It must be understandable that these three tools must be implied in a sequential order to enhance productivity and profitability as well. Each component specifies a domain with exclusive privileges of logging in. Along with this, there have been two broad classification of CRM software: firstly is cloud or on-demand, which is currently the latest fad and has been employed by all the small and medium sized organisations for their data security and privacy of patients' case studies. This type helps in usage of creative yet genuine data structures with little IT internal support and in sync with the real time integration in support to the back office systems. Secondly, on-premises has been widely accepted tool which has been installed under the control of ownership with high expenses as well as complicated juncture based on the large scale CRM premises while implementations (Fukami and et.al., 2016). Also, it is evident that for program's success rate at BMI Healthcare, it has become essential to gain benefits through implementation of proper technological support from the buy-in-users.

Illustration 2: CRM Software

(Source: DeMers, 2016)

• Data Management – This is crucial for service users to access and update data for easy availability and manipulation of information. It has a significant part in creating the data management for proper running of intermediate interactive system between user and the database. Alongside, BMI Healthcare can hold onto strong relationships between their management, workforce and trustees with satisfying patients who comes there. Also, the data security gets improved by enforcing ethical and legal security policies to attain desired results. This avoids the duplication of data generation (Thong, 2015). Furthermost, it has a hierarchical database with networking type as well to understand the implications when the departments at this hospital are not in consistent contact by laying a coherent framework.
• Communication Management- This has an influence on the interoperability and scalability of all operations at BMI Healthcare. It establishes an internet connection, including Wi-Fi connections and Ethernet with protocols to have a transparent channel of seamless networking to establish a system management by storing the memory during the booting process. Additionally, it brings balance between the applications' memory by involving the daily routine tasks through management of file with keeping a track and also, by defragmentation of disks to maximise the storage space of hardware networking. Examples are Mighty-call, Shore-tel sky, Ring-central etc.

TASK 3

Evaluate how IT systems can be used to support value-added change for improving business operations, performance and sustainability

With onset of globalisation, it has become more important to understand IT systems and its usage on larger scale to implement them efficiently. This has a vital effect on the corporate outlook of activities in socio-cultural aspects as the strategic planning with appropriate decisions related to operational practises at BMI Healthcare has seen an exponential performance in terms of sustainability and productivity (Costanza and et.al., 2014). Their profits saw a sky rocketed effects that made them believe in providing better services and hi-tech equipments which also added value to their business propositions. Further, it also shed light on the abrupt attention on these IT systems which has made the entire medical procedures quicker and easier. Now-a-days, it is normal to find the test results in few hours and to immediately draw an action plan for enhanced mitigation measures.

Although there assessments and variable instruments have led to a spiralling ripples at the macro level practices at this hospital, however, its existence led to the pragmatic viewpoint of application of models, methodologies, principles, instruments and more. With discovery of ESRS, it has supported in the decision making to improve the designing, operating, maintainable and renovating the practises undertaking the legal framework of the private health care laws.

In addition to the same, these IT systems have laid the strategic planning of corporate health sector by the use of a balanced scorecard. In this regard, it can help in referring the responsibilities which can interchanged for effective interconnected loop of networks for optimizing resources.

TASK 4

Recommend practical IT systems solutions for organizational scenarios that cover a range of business problems experienced in the workplace

J.S. Supermarkets is one of the largest retailing organisations which have covered a wide range of business problems, started from their marketing gimmicks up till the implementation of latest digitalized PoS systems. They were using the traditional methods of keeping and storing the cash in their outlets all over the places (Rout and Jain, 2012). There are few recommendations which can help them in making this processing easier, faster and convenient. Here, Netsuite has been implemented by retailers in recent times because of its cloud based solution in the retail management which has combined the functionalities of POS, e-commerce and ordering system. This app let the customers used their application by customizing as per their specifications and are able to add supplementary features such as brands, geographies etc. which has led the real time experience for the customers and can easily use this software for its simple interface which is user friendly. Along with this, Clover is the POS (point of sale) integrated system designed for various retailers that offers mobile POS options to customers in both server based and web based. Moreover, this helps the organisations like J.S.Supermarkets to access the transactions by managing the inventory through single solution (CAMPOS and et.al., 2016). Recently, there was a launch of Oracle Financials ERP Cloud which helps in the end-to-end management of business solutions that are designed for medium to enterprise level of consumers as it offers assistance in financial accounting, planning of materials and many more such applications.

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CONCLUSION

It has been summarized that Use of information technology systems played important role in underlying the fundamental outline of management information systems at organisational level. Additionally, this has also described about various departmental activities occur at BMI Healthcare which not only provide effective services to their patients, but also emphasized on the well being of their employees for better sustainability in the global competitive market which is running on the effectiveness of digitalization. Also, it laid emphasis on the value added changes for the overall sustainable improvements at workplace and has contributed in positive outcomes. Finally, it also included recommendations for J.S Supermarkets to combat their operational problems by employing effective IT systems. 

REFERENCES

Books and Journals

• CAMPOS, A.W.T. and et.al., 2016. Automated service system with user's automatic identification. U.S. Patent Application 14/423,971.
• Costanza, R. and et.al., 2014. Changes in the global value of ecosystem services. Global environmental change. 26. pp.152-158.
• Epstein, M.J., 2018. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge.
• Fukami, S. and et.al., 2016. Magnetization switching by spin–orbit torque in an antiferromagnet–ferromagnet bilayer system. Nature materials. 15(5). p.535.
• Hanseth, O. and Lyytinen, K., 2016. Design theory for dynamic complexity in information infrastructures: the case of building internet. In Enacting Research Methods in Information Systems (pp. 104-142). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Online

• Data Information and Knowledge Management, 2018. [Online]. Available through:<https://iasaglobal.org/itabok/capability-descriptions/data-information-knowledge-management/>.
• DeMers,J., 2016. Benefits of CRM Software and How to Choose a Platform. [Online]. Available through:<https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/08/benefits-of-crm-choose-platform.html>.

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