Information Technology Analysis - Term Paper Example

? Information Management Information Technology Analysis Discuss the 5 major components ofinformation management / information technology (IM / IT) governance with a focus on how they will collectively improve the quality of health care. IM / IT governance refers to the strategies and policies made by the senior management of an organization for the appropriate use of information technology to improve efficiency of its business processes and achieve desired goals. IM / IT governance in a health care organization would subsequently refer to the IM / IT strategies and policies that collectively improve the quality of health care as a whole. According to Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) the five major components of IM / IT governance are:strategic alignment, value delivery, resource management, risk management and performance measurement (ISACA, 2009). Strategic alignment: In a health care organization,suppose a hospital, strategic alignment is when the corporate business goals of the hospital and its departmental or functional goals are aligned with each other. More specifically to achieve strategic alignment, what the top management has to work upon is making a set of attainable goals and objectives and communicate them to all the subordinate department heads so that the narrowed down departmental operational goals are aligned with the more broader corporate ones. As a result when IT operations help to achieve the hospital’s overall desired strategic goals, whether they are providing best quality healthcare services to patients, maintaining healthy hospital environment, providing fast and efficient healthcare services, etc., the health care quality to the end customer (patients) will be improved. Value delivery: Values are the organization’s fundamental underlying aims and goals based on which the IT strategies, policies and plans are structured so that best possible decisions can be made to guide operations. IT governance delivers maximum value and improves healthcare quality when while making an IT based decision, the alternative with higher value is chosen. For example, one decision might increase customer satisfaction; the second alternative decision might increase hospital’s revenue while the third might increase both. Logically, the third alternative should be opted for, so quality is improved with best value delivery. Value delivery is contingent to management’s decision making. Resource management: It is quite obvious that IT departments or projects require a reasonable amount of resource investment including human resources, capital, time, space, etc. IT governance involves managing resources and making intelligent decisions so that the quality of health care is improved with optimum resource allocation i.e. getting maximum value from resources allocated at lowest cost so that healthcare is improved (Weill & Olson, 1989). Risk management: Risk in IT governance has three levels: innovation, agile execution and cost efficiency (Mueller et al, 2008). For an IT decision to be at its least risk so that healthcare is improved the most effective level is cost efficiency because on the scale of risk versus time elapsed, cost efficiency is when the IT decision bears least risk as compared to the other two levels. Although, it is to be noted that for every new IT project in any healthcare organization the risk level is highest if the idea is supposed to bring a strikingly abrupt change initiative. For example: shiftinga hospital’s completely manual patient-file-system to an enterprise databasewill drastically improve healthcare quality but will have high risk involved. Again, it is the management’s decision that evaluates value versus feasibility. The best decision is then, the one that maximizes value and improves healthcare quality minimizing risk to the least. Performance measurement: IT governance improves quality of healthcare when appropriate performance measures are used to evaluate whether the ongoing performance of the hospital is in accordance with the set objectives. This can be related to checking whether the performance is the desired output that was laid down while strategically aligning IT goals, is effectively managing risk and resources, as well as delivering value. There are several techniques of measuring the hospital performance for example balance scorecard, KPIs, financial ratios (ROI, ROE, EPS, etc.), Management controls or COBIT, etc. (Selig, 2008). 2. Determine which elements of a health care IM / IT strategic plan are most important and steps that can be taken by any organization to ensure those elements are viable. The most important elements of a healthcare IM / IT strategic plan are laying down strategically aligned goals and objectives, deciding about the specifications of the software applications and IT architecture, resource allocation including hiring plans for the HR departments, deciding on which applications need to be developed and which can be bought from already existing vendors and most importantly – allocating capital for the IM / IT (Snell et al, 2002). The steps that can be taken to ensure feasibility of these elements revolve around the five components of IT governance explained above. This strategic planning should not be completely centralized; instead the managers from all departments should be involved so that needs of the organization are catered to as a whole. Performance measurement is the basic element that can make sure the strategic plan is viable because it evaluates performance in comparison with requirements. The implementation of IM / IT projects or plans should be initially in phases so that fewer resources are used and problems can be rectified easily. This approach is referred to as pilot testing. One most common practice is using parallel systems which means continuing with older ways of doing things with the new IT applications in use so that reliability of the IT architecture is determined and so that business processes can continue in case of project failure. Moreover, for a running IT department performance measurement and strategic plan revision/evaluation should be regular to ensure best performance. 3. Make at least two (2) recommendations for improving the application of systems theory to health care IM / IT governance and planning. Provide specific examples to support your response. According to the systems theory organizations also work as the way biological organisms/systems work and that this analogy can be applied every type of system. It suggests that all different functions of an organization are interdependent therefore performance of every separate function/department will affect other functions/departments as well as the organization as a whole (Modaff et al, 2011). 1. When IT governance and strategic planning is being done, all the five components of IT governance should be considered and worked upon without neglecting any of them as all five are interrelated and absence of any component will negatively affect the overall IT governance and outcome. For example while computerizing a hospital from manual database to ERP system, if the planning lacks proper selection of alternatives and value delivery, no matter how much the organization spends on the IT transformation the output will not be totally effective. 2. As the systems theory suggests that all departments and functions of an organization are interrelated the healthcare IM / IT strategic planning process should be decentralized for improving implemented outcome of the plans. For example, while making a plan for software development of a Decision Support System (DSS) for doctors in a hospital, the doctors should be involved in the planning process along with the senior management to ensure that the software will meet all the requirements of the doctors who will be its end users. References: ISACA. (2009).Implementing and Continually Improving IT Governance. 2009. Rolling Meadows IL. USA Modaff, D.P., DeWine, S., Butler, J.A., Butler ,J. P.(2011). Allyn& Bacon.Chapter 04: Systems Theory - Learning Organizations Mueller, L., Magee, M., Marounek, P., & Phillipson, A. (2008). IBM Redbooks. IBM IT Governance Approach-Business Performance through IT Execution. First Edition Selig, G.J.(2008). Implementing IT Governance: A Practical Guide to Global Best Practices in It Management. Ch.1 Introduction to IT/Business alignment, planning, execution and governance. 17. Snell, S. A., Stueber, D., & Lepak, D. P. (2002). Virtual HR departments.Human resource management in virtual organizations, 81-101. Weill, P., & Olson, M. H. (1989). Managing investment in information technology: mini case examples and implications. Mis Quarterly, 3-17. Read More