Teaching management information system to the Department of Social Sciences, Economics, Management of International School- Vietnam National University

We collected information, found out the business process, analyze the system design in the Department of Social Sciences, Economics, Management of International School- Vietnam National [r]

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http://bdg-Teaching management information system to the Department of Social Sciences, Economics, Management of International School- Vietnam National University

Group sciences: Đào Ly Na

Nguyễn Hồng NgọcClass: MIS2015A

Science advisor: Dr Nguyễn Phú Hưng

NTRODUCTION OF RESEARCH

Rationale of the research

In recent times, the society has been growing in all directions, and computertechnology has followed new advances With the era of science and technology,advanced countries has gradually reduced the method of manual management butrather the technique of managing information systems on the computer to analysis data

in management to reduce human labor, save time, high precision, compact andconvenient than manual management on paper as before Educational managementinformation system (EMIS) is an institutional service unit producing, managing, anddisseminating educational data and information, usually within national Ministry orDepartment of Education An EMIS is a repository for data collection, processing,analyzing and reporting of educational information including schools, students,teachers and staff EMIS information is specifically used to create indicators thatmonitor the performance of an education system and to manage the distribution andallocation of educational resources and services Many schools nowadays have an MISdepartment of finance, marketing, management, and many award degrees (atundergraduate or master levels) MIS professionals help organizations to maximize the

benefit from investments in personnel, equipment, and business process and avoidwasting time or over workload Computerization helps to narrow the storage space,avoid data loss, automatically systematize and concretize the information according tohuman needs It is a very practical subject So we chose the topic “Establishment ofteaching and teacher management information system to the Department of SocialSciences, Economics, and Management of International School- Vietnam NationalUniversity" This topic will give you some insights, reviews, and system definitionsfrom which you can input, search, view, edit, delete based on computer support Themanagement system is built on the Microsoft Access database administrator.

Microsoft Office Access (Formerly Microsoft Access) is published by Microsoft is amember of Microsoft Office It plays a key roles in managing data system

It has the following six advantages:

(1) Storage is simple, easy maintenance and management

(2) Object-oriented Access is an object-oriented development tool, object-orientedapproach to database systems in a variety of functional objects; it will be a variety ofdatabase management functions encapsulated in various types of objects

(3) User-friendly, easy to operate

(4) Integrated environment, handle a variety of data

(5) Access supports ODBC (development of database connectivity, Open Data BaseConnectivity), the use of Access Powerful DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) and OLE(object link and embedding) features in a data table, embedded bitmaps, sounds, Excelspreadsheet , Word documents, you can create dynamic database reports and forms and

 What does MIS impact to the human work and life?

 Why does the Department in IS-VNU need MIS implementation to achivesuccessful in managing?

 What are the effects and consequences for Department and its processes whenimplementing MIS?

Objectives of study

The system consists of functions of Faculties such as general information and detailinformation, degree, office, subjects taught by the teachers, published books orarticles, level salary Additionally, it is useful for managing all courses: subject namesand teachers teaching subject, syllabus, component scores, and exporting the reports.Teacher’s information management system should be able to provide users withsufficient information and fast query tool People used to use traditional manualmanagement of paper files, this management approach, there are many shortcomings,such as: wasting time, low efficiency, poor security, update and maintain have brought

a lot of difficulties.By using this system, teachers will maximize their work in humanresource management, such as: understanding the teacher's personal and contactinformation, assigning work (subject and class) for each teacher, statistics on theoutstanding contributions and achievements of each teacher so as to have a basis forrewarding, writing reports, etc

Scope of the study

We investigated the questionnaire for the staff responsible for administering theassignment to determine the system requirements

We collected information, found out the business process, analyze the system design inthe Department of Social Sciences, Economics, Management of International School-Vietnam National University, and set up the file management system for lecturers.The program is built with the ability to integrate with other applications in the future.Methodologies and Data

Research method

The research will do a literature review on the management information system Thishelps to study the experience from previous organizations in building managementinformation systems This helps draw the lessons of success and failure in designing aMIS that are applicable to the case of IS

Analytical method – synthesis: Analysis is the study of documents, information, andanalysis of each of them to deepen understanding of the subject studied Aggregation is

linked in every ways, each part of information is analyzed to create a new theoreticalsystem full and profound object.

Experimental method: It is the method by which scientists actively influence the objectand process of events that the object participates to direct their development according

to their intended goal

Data source

We collected data from Department of Social Sciences, Economics, and Management

of International School- Vietnam National University

We analyze data via Google Tool, MS Excel and classify the data by MS Access Weinvestigate the questionnaire for the staff responsible for administering the assignment

to determine the system requirements

We use MS Access software to build database management software

Actual System Survey

Faculty Profile Management

Faculty profile management is used to store the general information (name, date ofbirth, address, gender, etc.) and personal information (ID, bank account, tax number,salary, etc.) of the faculty, which helps to manage the faculty easier and moreconsistent

Courses Management

Depending on the program the subject will be different Each course has a faculty,document, syllabuses, and the component score The basic information about thecourse includes: course code, course name, course credit, and program

Organization Management

Organization is the basic unit for managing staff In each organization, the number ofstaff is different Sometimes it is not easy to gather all the staff in the sameorganization, and organizational management makes it easy to find the number and theinformation of the staff in this organization

The relevance of MS Access to manage the database

Microsoft Access is a database management system in Windows environment, whichprovides powerful and easy-to-use tools to automatically generate programs for mostcommon management problems Tools that Access provides are: Table, Query, Form,Report, Macro, and Module

The table is structured to store database data A database usually consists of severaltables that are related to each other

Query is a powerful Access tool for gathering, organizing, and searching data acrosstables When executed, the query will receive a result set that displays on the screen as

a table, called DynaSet DynaSet is just an intermediate result table, not written tomulti, and will be deleted at the end of the query However, it is possible to use aDynaSet as a table to build other queries Only with query can solve manymathematical problems in database administration

The form is used to organize the data updates for the tables and interface design of theprogram It is possible to enter data directly into tables, but forms will provide themost convenient input Receive data from a list, receive images, and import datasimultaneously across multiple tables Forms also allow entering individual values (notrelated to the table) from the keyboard It also has another important feature is toorganize the program interface in the form of a command button or a menu system.Advantages of an computerized MIS

The Department of Social Sciences, Economics and Management currently usesmostly manual procedures to manage and recapitualize data Teaching-related contentsare saved in papers and files (Microsoft Words or Excel) to manage Certainly, thesemethods are easy to use and need less capital, less investment in equipment andspecialized software

On the contrary, the manual management costs a lot of paper files and other stationaryexpenses A lot of document lead keeping data integrity and consistent information is aproblem In a spreadsheet-based, extracting data from different departments,consolidating them, and summarizing the information so that making decision be verytime consuming It means that management has deceased efficiency, wasted time and

been difficult to update and synchronize faculty information Besides, when manuallyenter data into files, errors are unavoidable If a user missed a sign or a letter, it may bereally harmful For example, data may lost or duplicate that leads to difficulties instoring and managing records.

Necessity and benefits of new system

With the support of science and technology and the rapid penetration of informationtechnology into human life, we have introduced the method of management teachersand teaching by MIS method based on the MS Access Software The system willaddress the current difficulties and support the management of the future The systemalso will meet the following requirements:

- Minimize lost, lack or redundant data

- Helps train managers to be systematic and more rigorous

- Easy to find information

- Helps to print reports quickly and conveniently

Facilities and the difficulty of the researching process

Facilities

In spites of dealing with almost difficulties in management, the new system has somelimitations such as: need investment for more computers and some devices, software,etc

etc So we decided to build Teaching and teacher management information system tothe Department of Social Sciences, Economics, and Management of InternationalSchool- Vietnam National University for management purposes operation of theOffice.

The objective of this project is mainly to build software support for the facultymanagement with the update information on records of faculty, processes related tofaculty such as process salary, process, appointment process, work process, and storethis information in the system helps the user to manage the records neat, quick andaccurate

TEACHING MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS

Introduction

As the introduction above, research shows us how much necessary of MS Access inteaching management For those reasons, this study needs to elucidate audience facultyand courses management processes and related issues The below sections are going todefine and illustrate these factors

Overview of Department of Social Sciences, Economics, Management of InternationalSchool

The Department of Social Sciences, Economics and Management is a specialized unit

of International School- Vietnam National University, which conducts training, scienceand technology and other related activities in the field of economics and management

In training activities, this organization is in charge of 5 undergraduate programs and 5master training programs It takes responsibility for a number of training programs inthe branches and specialties; organizes the elaboration of syllabus detailing therelevant modules; consults developing training programs, developing projects,compiling documents and textbooks according to the development orientation ofInternational School (IS); organizes research and improving teaching and learningmethods; formulates and applies methods of examining and evaluating student results,ensuring the outcomes according to announced commitments; be responsible for thecontent, quality, teaching progress and teaching methods for the assigned subjects inthe curriculum and teaching plans of IS; builds and manages qualified lecturers andguest lecturers, ensure the teaching quality Simultaneously, this organization is incharge of science and technology activities, international operation, and the associationwith other science and technology organization, implementation activities help applytraining, research to production and business activities

as contact information, faculty degrees, teaching history, teaching schedule, etc

Programs and Courses

The Department manages faculties as well as many courses It is in charge of 5undergraduate programs: Bachelor's Degree in International Business and BA inAccounting, Analysis and Auditing (VNU-Level) , bachelor degree in ManagementScience (Keuka University, USA), bachelor degree program (HELP MalaysiaUniversity) and 5 master training programs: Master of Finance, Banking, Insurance(Vietnam and Southeast Asia) and Master of Marketing & Forecasting (NantesUniversity, France), Master of Business Administration EMBA (Taiwan) and Master ofBusiness Administration (HELP Malaysia) There are 59 undergraduate courses thatDepartment bears responsibility for and each of course which is belong to one or moreprograms consists information such as: credits, schedule, syllabuses, etc

Application of Information technology in managing teaching affairs

The Department mostly manages the data of teachers and teaching manual, excel ande-mail As a consequense, it is difficult to synchoronize data from many sources Insome cases, even the synchonize data is out of date at the time it is available Thatleads to a lot of negative impacts to data management:

 Data is not real-time

 Data is inconsistent

 Data is too costly to recapitulate

 Data is taking too long to be synced and recapitulated, thus do not providemeaningfull information to making decision process

Processes in managing teaching affairs

Managing faculty

All faculties, including visiting and adjunct lecturers will be registered into the MISFaculty [FacultyID, Code, Department, Degree, TaxIDNumber, email, specializedarea]

For visisting and adjunct lecturers, additional information needed include Company(what is the original company), working phone number

- provide syllabus

Assigne a teacher to a course schedule

Deli ver able

Management process a course

Overall process

Table0-31: Overall process of Scheduling and assigning lecturer to a course

Managing a course

Each course has a name, a code, and number of credit, and program it is delivered.All

of these information are to be stored in the table Course below:

Couse data: Courses (CourseID, CourseName, CourseCode, CourseNumberOfCredit,ProgramID_FK)

Each course has syllabus prepared by different lecturers at different Semesters Thoseinformation is managed at the Syllabus management At the Semester beginning, thelecturer provides syllabus Teaching Staff will receive the syllabus with name oflecturer, course of the syllabus, score structure All of these information are to bestored in the table syllabus below:

Syllabus (SyllabusID, CourseID_FK, FacultyID_FK, Syllabus doc, DateSubmitted,DateApplied, Note, Year, Semester)

Managing Course schedule

Manage how a course is delivered One course may have more than one class to suit toflexibile schedule time of students For example, the course “Operations

Management” has one Monday Morning Class and one Monday Afternoon Class Allschedules to teach a course will be saved in the CourseSchedules table below.

CourseSchedules [CouseScheduleID, CouseID_FK (Course), Time (time the course isdelivered), Note (additional note if needed)]

Students register to a course schedule

All students register to a Course Schedule will be registered atCourseScheduleStudents table below:

CourseScheduleStudents: [(CouseScheduleID_FK (Schedule of the course),StudentID_FK (student who register to the course)]

Assigning Lecturers to course schedules

After students register for a course schedule, if the course schedule has enoughnumber of students registered, a lecturer will be assigned to deliver that courseschedule That information is also saved in the CourseSchedulesLecturerstable

CourseSchedulesLecturers [CouseScheduleID, FacultyID_FK (who will teach thiscouse schedule)]

Managing guest speakers

Each semester, a course may have a guest speaker come to discuss professionalexperience of the operations management, supply chain management, etc

Those information will be saved in the table ProposalGuestSpeakers [PGSID,PGSCode, FacultyID_FK (the lecturer who request the guest speaker),CourseScheduleID_FK (the course that the guest spaker will deliver seminar),Language (language of seminar), TimeAmount (how long the guest speaker sessionwill take), Note (other notes if any)]

Managing faculty and student research projects

Student and faculty researches is one of Scientific and Technological activities by TheDepartment of Social Sciences, Economics and Management that will provide theevidences for summary achievements and rewards All of these information of theResearch project of faculties and students is below:

ResearchProjectFaculty[ ProjectID, ProjectTitle, ProjectCode,PDirectorFacultyID_FK, PSecretaryFacultyID_FK, StartDate, EndDate,SchoolID_FK, DepartmentID_FK ]

ResearchProjectStudent[ ProjectID, ProjectTitle, ProjectCode,PDirectorStudentID_FK, PSecretaryStudentID_FK, StartDate, EndDate, ClassID_FK,ProgramID_FK]

to aid in management decision-making

In the 1990s, the increase of the enterprise application led to a replacment of IS tasks.Companies have been successful by providing higher services to the buyer thancompetitors of enterprise applications The applications handled a wider rangefunctions than the original MIS department: order entry, accounting and budgeting,but also enterprise resourse planning, supply chain management and sales forceautomation Many of these tasks were not solely the property of the IS department,

external vendors, outsourcers and business computer departments all claimed a part ofenterprise computing.

IS becomes the basic software in enterprise management, and is a centralized controlentity Again, the name changed to reflect the new role: the original MIS departmentbecame a smaller part of the overall whole

Today, management information systems is used broadly in various contexts :

 Decision support systems

 Resource and people management applications

 Project management

 Database retrieval applications.etc

Noting that when it is used in practice, one can assume that what is being referred to is

a computer system with the following characteristics:

• an information focus, aimed at middle managers

• structured information flows

• integration of data processing jobs by business function (production MIS, personnelMIS, etc.)

• an inquiry and report generation facility (usually with a database)

The MIS era contributed a new level of information to serve management needs, butwas still very much oriented towards, and built upon, information flows and datafiles

The idea of integrated MISs seems to have presented an unrealistic goal The dynamicnature of organizations and the market environment in which they exist forces morerealistic and modest goals on the data processing professional Keeping the transactionprocessing systems maintained, sensibly integrated and in line with organizationalrealities, is a more worthwhile job than freezing the company’s data in anoverwhelming database

The era also saw data processing professionals and the management science andbusiness modelling fraternities move away from each other into their own specialities,

to the detriment of a balanced progress in developing effective and useful systems

MIS components

A management information system is made up of five major components namelypeople, business processes, data, hardware, and software All of these componentsmust work together to achieve business objects

People – these are the users who use the information system to record the day to day

business transactions The users are usually qualified professionals such asaccountants, human resource managers, etc The ICT department usually has thesupport staff who ensure that the system is running properly

Business Procedures – these are agreed upon best practices that guide the users and

all other components on how to work efficiently Business procedures are developed

by the people i.e users, consultants, etc

Data – the recorded day to day business transactions For a bank, data is collected

from activities such as deposits, withdrawals, etc

Hardware – hardware is made up of the computers, printers, networking devices, etc.

The hardware provides the computing power for processing data It also providesnetworking and printing capabilities The hardware speeds up the processing of datainto information

Software – these are programs that run on the hardware The software is broken down

into two major categories namely system software and applications software Systemsoftware refers to the operating system i.e Windows, Mac OS, and Ubuntu, etc.Applications software refers to specialized software for accomplishing business taskssuch as a payroll program, banking system, point of sale system, etc

Information systemSoftware

Hardware

Data

Procedures

People

Requirements of a successful MIS

In this part, I will describe the implementation process together with challenges andsuccess key issues The following section seeks to introduce and describe the MISimplementation process which can be seen as a vital stage in the deployment ofinformation technology to support the business information systems that aredeveloped by the organisation for employees, customers, and other businessstakeholders (O’Brien, 2004)

There are many requirements of a successful MIS A research from Slevin and Pinto(1986) presented a set of success factors which are the same as the ProjectManagement Institute’s Project Management Handbook (Pinto, 1998) Besides,Professor Tan (1996) showed many success factors including technical characteristics,user involvement, communications, management support, project team characteristics,difference between technology provider and receiver, incentives, infrastructuresupport and obstacles, to identify their effects on external technology transfer project.Furthermore, the success factors also are involved by Milis and Mercken (2002),WHO found an outsized variety of potential success factors and additionally provided

an outline of the potential success factors relating to IT project implementation.However, lastly, they'll cluster the success factors into four classes as follows theprimary class integrates factors that influence goal congruency The second classcontains the parts that relate to project team so as to boost the motivation andcooperation of the team The third class concentrates on the acceptance of the projectand also the result Finally, the fourth class worries with the implementation methodthat deals with implementation politics and coming up with

Challenges of a MIS

MIS implementation challenges

We identified and categorised some influential issues regarding the MISimplementation These issues create or worsen the implementation problems(summarised in Table 3.2 below) :

 Management process issues speak to the functional operation of an organisation such

as budgeting, personnel, and general management

 Organisational environment issues are identified as factors which are less tangiblesuch as organisational culture, change, and behaviour

 Leadership issues relate to the areas which involve the interaction and direction ofthe organisation executive

 Technical systems issues are mainly those referring to the hardware and softwareconsiderations of information technologies

 Personnel issues are tose issues surrounding each individual in the organisation

Table 0-32 : Five : Five issues affect to MIS implementation

Resistance to change

In view of the inertia of old transaction processes and structures, the strain ofimplementing a market process reengineering plan can hardly be overestimated Sincetraders need to be aware of the advantages of the new transaction process, educationand promotion of the concept, including ITrelated technical supports, must be aprominent part of the plan Opponents of electronic markets often proclaim thedisadvantages of electronic marketplaces compared with traditional markets, sincetraders cannot capture all the market information on traditional transaction methods.28

In financial trading, for instance, it is important to know who is bidding, who isoffering and who is trading with whom This information gives a trader some guidanceregarding the nature of trading activity and price movements Thus, initiating firms

need to design the electronic market system carefully so that traders can use theirterminals to garner as much information as is available (or more) on the traditionaltrading floor.

Firms that are affected adversely by an electronic market can be expected to fight thesystem For instance, AUCNET had to rely on government authority to overcomeJUCDA’s retaliatory efforts (note 11) Retaliation is more likely when there are manyfirms whose power is relatively equal or when the affected parties are able to uniteagainst the initiating firm Without a strategy to deal with potential retaliations, theinitiating firm may be caught without an appropriate response and therefore jeopardizeits investments

Conclusion

We expect the adoption of electronic commerce applications by existing or newmarket makers to grow rapidly as the cost of communicating information betweenfirms decreases We have investigated here the evolution of electronic market adoption

by such market-making firms The implementation of electronic markets is viewed asmarket process reengineering aimed at decoupling product flow from markettransactions through on-line trading We have taken a close look at how IT-enabledreengineering increases market efficiency as well as barriers

Firms interested in redesigning market processes using electronic commerce solutionsneed to plan carefully to overcome adoption barriers that could cast a shadow over thebenefits of the proposed new market processes By examining the barriers andfacilitators of success in the case studies presented, market makers can be betterprepared to design electronic markets that increase market efficiency and overcomebarriers to adoptions

Evaluating the Impact of IT on the Organization

Evolutionary

phases of

strategic

Basic financial planning

Forecast-based planning

Externally oriented planning

Strategic management

Value System Meet the

budget Predict the future Think strategically Create the futureCompetitive

strategy

mechanisms

Operational level

productivity and diffuse innovation

Focused (niche) innovation and operational/tactic

al level productivity

Focused innovation and strategic productivity(quality focus)

Systemic innovation and productivity

management Top and senior management Entrepreneurial managers

(top/senior/middle)

Corporate-wide employees

Application of

IT/IS Resource management

Efficient operationsTransaction processingException monitoringPlanning and analysis

Effectiveness of divisional operations IT infrastructure Support key division makers

IT-based products and servicesCommunications network

Direct competitivetool

organizational IS (link buyers, suppliers, manufacturers, consumers) Facilitate organizational learning

Inter-Formalized IS

and decision

making

Processing of internal data Ad hoc processing of external data Systematic external data

analysis

Link tactical/operation

al activities to external data analysisManagement

of IT, location

in hierarchy

and scope

TechnologymanagementIndividual projects Middle management responsibility

Formal planning

of IS Data sharing and administration Focus on IT infusion Senior management responsibility

Couple IT and business planning

IT planning at SBU/ corporate level

Senior/Top management responsibility

Systemic support

of organizationalprocesses IT planning at SBU/portfolio levelTop managementresponsibility

Table0-33:Bhabuta’s model linking the evaluation of strategic planning with information systems and the organization of the information systems function (amended from Bhabuta, 1988, p.1.76; Sutherland and Galliers, 1989, p.10)

The Hirschheim et al (1988) model also builds on the earlier work of Nolan (1979) and

arises from research, undertaken during the first half of 1986, into the evolution andmanagement of the IT function in a number of British organizations As a result of thisresearch Hirschheim and his colleagues contend that in companies where top managementhad begun to realize that information systems are vital to their business, organizationsmove through three evolutionary phases in their management of the IS/IT function Thethree phases are labelled ‘delivery’, ‘reorientation’ and ‘reorganization’ (see also Earl,

1989, p.197).The ‘delivery’ phase is characterized by top management concern about theability of the IS/IT function to ‘deliver the goods’ Senior executives have begun to takethe subject very seriously, but there is often dissatisfaction with the quality of the availableinformation systems and the efficiency of the IS/IT function, together with mountingconcern regarding IT expenditure and the consistency of hardware and infrastructurepolicies It would appear that often this phase is initiated by replacing the DP manager with

an external recruit with a good track record and substantial computing experience

The emphasis in this phase is on the ‘delivery’ of information systems and, accordingly, thenewly appointed IS executive spends most of the time on matters internal to the ISdepartment The primary role is to restore credibility to the function and/or to createconfidence in user/top management that the function really is supporting current needs and

is run efficiently During this phase, IS education is sparse, but where it is provided, it istargeted on DP personnel with a view to improving skills, techniques and projectmanagement

In the ‘reorientation’ phase, top management (or the Director ultimately responsible for IS)changes the focus of attention from the delivery of basic IS services to the exploitation of

IT for competitive advantage An attempt is made to align IS/IT investment with businessstrategy In short, it is in this ‘reorientation’ phase that ‘the business is put into computing’.With this change of direction/emphasis, it is common to appoint an IS executive over the

DP Manager The new post is filled, typically, by an insider: a senior executive who has run

a business unit or been active in a corporate role, such as marketing or strategyformulation They are likely to have only limited experience of DP, but are respected bytop management for an ability to bring about change The focus during this second phase is

on the marketplace; on the external environment of the enterprise; on using IT for

competitive advantage, and in extending the value chain through inter-organizationalsystems (cf Cash and Konsynski, 1985).

In the ‘reorganization’ phase, the senior IS executive (by now the IT Director) is concernedwith managing the interfaces or relationships between the IS function and the rest of theorganization Some areas will be strategically dependent on IS, others will be looking to ISmore in a support role Some will have significant IT capability, particularly with theadvance of end-user computing, and some business executives will be driving IT and IS

development Increasingly IS will be managed along ‘federal’ lines (Edwards et al., 1989) with IS capability in the centre and in business units/functions These changed and

changing relationships require careful management and often ‘reorganization’, and onceagain attention is focused on internal (organizational), as opposed to external(marketplace), concerns

board The function Coalition

Table0-34:The Hirschheim et al model of changing considerations towards

information systems management (amended from Hirschheim et al., 1988,

p.4.33;Sutherland and Galliers, 1989, p.11)

The concerns and considerations associated with each of the phases of the Hirschheim et

al model are summarized in Table 3-3.

Evaluation: a systems lifecycle approach

At the heart of one way forward for organizations is the notion of an IT/IS evaluation andmanagement cycle A simplified diagrammatic representation of this is provided in Figure20.1 Earlier research found that few organizations actually operated evaluation andmanagement practice in an integrated manner across systems lifecycles (Willcocks,1996a) The evaluation cycle attempts to bring together a rich and diverse set of ideas,methods, and practices that are to be found in the evaluation literature to date, and pointthem in the direction of an integrated approach across systems lifetime Such an approachwould consist of several interrelated activities:

1 Identifying net benefits through strategic alignment and prioritization

2 Identifying types of generic benefit, and matching these to assessment techniques

3 Developing a family of measures based on financial, service, delivery, learning andtechnical criteria

4 Linking these measures to particular measures needed for development,implementation and post-implementation phases

5 Ensuring each set of measures run from the strategic to the operational level

6 Establishing responsibility for tracking these measures, and regularly reviewingresults

Regularly reviewing the existing portfolio, and relating this to business direction andperformance objectives.Measurement contributes to the business case for or against aspecific investment but cannot substitute for a more fundamental managerial assessment as

to whether the investment is strategic and critical for the business, or will merely result inyet another useful IT application

Type of

investment Business benefit Main formal aids to

investment evaluation

Importanc

e of manageme

nt judgement

Main aspects of management judgement

Organizational

requirements Facilitate businessoperations Analysis of costs Low Fitness of the system for the

purpose Best option for variable organizational requirementsCompetitive

pressure Keep up with the competition Analysis of costs to achieve parity

with the competition

Marginal cost to differentiate fromthe competition, providing the opportunity for competitive advantage

Crucial Competitive need to

introduce the system at all Effect

of introducing the system into the marketplace

Commercial risk Ability to sustain competitive advantage

Increase revenues Cost/benefit

analyses

Assessment of hard-toquantify benefits Pilots for high risk investment

High Validity of the

assumptions behindthe case Real value

of hard-toquantify benefits Risk involved

on the market and the organization Risk involved

Infrastructure

investment Enable the benefits of other

applications to be realized

Setting of performance standards

Analysis of costs

Crucial Corporate need and

benefit, both short and long term

Investment in

research Be prepared for the future Setting objectives

within cost limits

High Long-term

corporate benefit.Amount of money

to be allocated

Source: Norris (1996).

Table0-35: Types of investment and aids to evaluating IT

Effects of a new information systemTo interpret the changes in the knowledge systemover time, it is useful to break the case into three distinct time periods: before, during,and after the implementation of the automated audit system For each time period, it isinstructive to consider each aspect of the knowledge system: the members of the variousoccupational communities represented within the organization, the object of knowledge,the epistemic criteria, and each of the five knowledge processes (constructing,organizing, storing, distributing, and applying) To highlight the effects of the system andits implementation, I will examine each of these categories over time Table 18.1provides an overview of the differences, each of which is described in more detail in thefollowing sections.

Manual auditing (1976–1981) System development (1981–1983) Automated auditing (1983–1993)

People involvedEngineers (10–20)

Programmers/Engineer (2–3) Technicians (several hundred) Administrators (5–10)Primary domain Building energy

systems: Lighting, heating,cooling, etc

VAX/VMS and languages Completed application

(EnCAP)

Epistemic criteriaAuthoritative (little

feed-back about results)

Pragmatic (immediate feed-back about results)

AuthoritativeRitual/superstitious

Algorithms invented to mimic simplified engineering analysisNaming: Data structures, control structures, files, programs, libraries, etc

Technicians learn necessary workaroundsAdministrators identify new requirements Programmers rediscover how system works during

maintenanceOrganize Informally organized;

indexed by individual engineers and projects

Energy auditing divided

up into ‘modules’ and

‘forms’

Organized around application artifacts:

‘forms’ and ‘reports’Store Worksheets kept by

individual engineersOld reports in company library

WANG ‘boilerplate’ for use by typists BASIC programs for use by engineers

Embed algorithms into design of forms, modules, and measures

Systems adopted for code management, version control, testing, etc Documentation written

New (or modified) algorithms coded into the application

‘Gurus’ develop ‘tricks’

to achieve desired results

‘Setup’ files used to store basic program parameters and output text

Distribut

e

Trade publications Direct sharing

Frequent informal meetings among programmers

Application used house and licensed tolarge public utilities – includes training and documentation

in-New features made available to allApply Engineers use knowledge

for next audit

Programmers embed engineering algorithms

in code

Technicians use tricks

to get results

Table0-36: Summary of changes in the knowledge system by time period

Changing epistemic communities

The implementation of the automated auditing system affected one of the keycomponents of the organizational knowledge system: the epistemic communitiesrepresented in the organization As outlined in Table 3-4, during the manual auditingperiod, the organization consisted mainly of engineers and typists The engineerscollected data, performed computations, and made recommendations, while the typistsprepared the reports from the templates available on the WANG word processingsystem During system implementation, a new kind of member was introduced to theorganization: the programmer These individuals (myself included) were mainlyrecruited from the existing pool of engineers; two were hired especially for the project.Later, as the system was completed and rolled into production, the community ofprogrammers shrank, while the community of technicians using the program began togrow rapidly in locations all over the country To supervise this workload, it wasnecessary to add administrative staff, as well Thus, the implementation of the systemchanged the basic membership of the epistemic community to include individualswhose background and training was very different than the traditional engineers Asthe participants changed, it created the possibility that their approach to knowledgeconstruction (and the other knowledge processes) might change as well This is an areawhere contemporaneously collected data could be especially valuable because it isdifficult for me to assess the impact of these changes retrospectively

Changing objects of knowledge

The literature on organizational learning generally assumes that objects about whichknowledge is being accumulated are relatively constant For example, organizationslearn about ‘the environment,’ ‘the competition,’ or ‘production processes’ (Huber,1991) The specifics change, but the domain of relevant knowledge is assumed toremain the same over time In the implementation of EnCAP, this assumption is clearlyincorrect During the manual auditing phase, the objects of knowledge were basicallybuilding energy systems: lighting, heating, cooling etc I remember conversations inthe hallway outside my office, where people would discuss the relative benefits of

different lighting systems, heat exchangers, and so on Engineers took a great deal ofpride in having a working knowledge of these systems.

During systems development, however, the new members of the organization,including myself, were overwhelmingly concerned with issues of software design andimplementation The objects of knowledge became VAX/ VMS (the operating systemfor the host computer), the PL/1 programming language, as well as the data structures,file structures, and architectural features of the rapidly growing application This wasnaturally a period of intensive learning, but there is little doubt that the subject matterwas completely different than in the prior period Finally, as the finished EnCAPapplication was rolled out, the focus of learning turned away from the internal features

of the software and its construction and towards the external features of the softwareand its use As Latour (1987) would predict, the system progressively became a blackbox and the new object of knowledge was the application itself: inputs, outputs, bugs,features, and workarounds

Once the application was in use, members of the community learned about thesoftware rather than learning about energy auditing per se A great deal of knowledgethat was created at EnerSave since the introduction of EnCAP concerned details ofhow to use the program: how to ‘fool’ it to get the recommendation you want, how towork around various bugs, and so on While this knowledge was clearly necessary toaccomplish audits under the new system, it was idiosyncratic to the EnCAP auditprocess Thus, in addition to embedding existing knowledge about auditing andcommercial buildings, the software required the construction of new knowledge aboutEnCAP itself

Developments in the Application of Information Technology in Business

IT and Customer services

There's no denying the fact that client service plays a key role to a small or mid-sizedbusiness The standard of that service will either enhance or degrade customer loyalty

to your brand and your business With the economy in recession, customers haveadditional alternatives than ever The business that proves to be aware of client queries,

complaints, or other needs can gain a clear competitive advantage That's why it's soeasy to understand how a new information teachnology can help you responsecustomer needs well,and ultimately improve the efficiency of your business.

1 Provide consistent, accurate responses to customer inquiries

2 Document and track all known problems and proven solutions

3 Create centralized sources of information about customers, known problems, solutions

4 Assist in developing solutions to new problems

5 Create a closed loop escalation process

6 Promote cross-training of support staff

7 Provide remote access for customers of problem solutions

8 Improve call tracking and problem reporting

9 Improve accountability and responsibility with clear audit trails

10Improve productivity of customer support staff

Table 0-37:Top 10 operational objectives of customer support management

system in mid-1992

1992

IT Infrastructural/compatibility requirements

1 Multi-user, runs off current Ethernet network lines

2 Works under Microsoft Windows with a GUI interface

3 Dial-in capability for remote user access

4 Provides initial access for 25 users, expandable to 50 within one year

5 Must interface with cc:Mail for notification purposes

6 Must have data import/export capability

Usability Requirements

1 Call tracking capability

2 Problem/solution tracking capability

3 Keyword search for problems/solutions

4 Must have a method for assisting technical support staff with answering calls (Al orother)

5 Must have a report generator with user-definable reports without generating

programming code or a script

6 Ability to create and define call queues

7 Have at least five user-definable fields