Revision- 02 September 2011

1. Revision- 02 September 2011 Past Paper Analysis

2. QUESTION 1 a) For EACH department consider the online applications they are considering. In BOTH cases recommend ONE application that you would prioritise to implement and ONE application you would advise against implementing. In your answer, justify both recommendations using analysis and critical discussion. Consider the impact on the organisations, potential benefits and their achievability, likely difficulties and barriers to success. Guys, This is becoming interesting isn’t it? The same type of question appeared in 2011 December! • What are the different applications that you can consider for each departments? • Recommend one application that you would prioritise to implement, and one you advise against implementing. • Discuss critically about the applications. • Explain the impact of applications on the organiations. • Explain benefits and their achievability • Explain barriers

3. Information Technology is capable of delivering many benefits to support the activities of national governments. In the given case study, we see the effort of a Government in using the technology to optimize the benefits. We come across with two different departments here such as; Department of Health and Social security (DH) Department of Agriculture and the Environment(DAE) Selection of application and justification • DH This department of the government is large and got big budget. I recommend –(ii) Ordering routine prescriptions for medicine online and(iii)registering and re-registering for job seeker support. The reasons behind the selection of these applications mentioned below; • These two applications are easy to implement. • Requirements for are clear for these applications. • The cost for these applications will be less comparing to other applications.

4. The reason for not selecting the other two applications – (I) Booking appointments with local doctors, including home visits, (iv) applying for special grants towards home living requirements are complicated applications to implement. These two applications will face with more resistance from the staff. The requirements for implementing these applications are not clear. The cost of implementing these Applications will be higher. Selection of Applications for DAE For the department of Agriculture and Environment, I would suggest; • Licence application and renewal for regulated agricultural activities. • Booking or rearrangement of an inspection for a new process or facility. The reason behind the selection – these two applications are easy to implement, the requirements are clear, and cost effective. The reason behind not selecting the other applications- (iii) and (iv) are very complicated applications to implement. There will be more complexities and resistance. Again, these application’s requirements are not clear. The cost for these applications will definitely be higher.

5. Impacts of applications in the department of Health • Impacts of new technology will be on people, organisation and technology itself. Main impacts of applications are mentioned below;

9. Impacts of applications on Department of Agriculture and Environment.

11. Potential benefits and achievability of different applications in two departments. Benefits and achievability in the department of Health Application I – it will save time, increase flexibility, increase efficiency, reduce cost by reducing the staff involvement in appointment fixing. But, this system change the existing practice of the doctors and the organisation, so it is hard to measure the benefits in the short-term. There will be long-term benefits for the orgnisation. In order to achieve the said benefits, organisation needs to encourage the staff to accept the technology and provide sufficient training and support. Application 2- this will improve efficiency, reduce complexities, save time, reduce cost, reduce workload by making process online. Customer satisfaction is the major benefit of this application. It is hard to measure the benefits in this situation, however to achieve benefits the orgnisation should encourage the people to use the technology, provide training and support.

12. Application 3- it will increase customer satisfaction, it will save time and it will reduce the effort of applicants by avoiding the process of visiting government offices for applying. It will reduce the workload of staff. Here we need effective training and support to the staff to accept the technology. • Application 4- it will improve the customer satisfaction, it would save the time, efficiency and customers will be happy to avoid the visits in government offices. To achieve the benefits, organisation must provide training, support, instructions to the staff. Potential benefits and achievability in the department of agriculture and environment. Application 1- this application will increase the customer service and satisfaction, improve efficiency, saves time and cost. To achieve the benefits organisation should provide ……………. (continue) ( please follow the same method! I mean improve customer satisfaction, efficiency, saves time, save cost, reduce workload, increase staff performance…. Use them as appropriate. Again training, support, acceptance of technology required to achieve the benefits, also mention some benefits are long-term so difficult to measure)

13. Barriers to success Any I.T or I.S will have barriers while implementing. The new technology will have impacts on people, culture, politics and structure of the organisation. DH Application 1 – the main barrier is the resistance from the staff, it includes from doctors, patients and administrative staff. Because the new system affecting these people. Existing working practice, culture of the organisation, organisations politics, power balance, personal agendas of the staff are the main barriers to success. For example some patients will find the new online system is ‘impersonal’( no human, and only deal with computer). Again, some people are not willing to accept technologies. Again, there will be technical barriers too. For example there should be specific instruction and strategy as how to facilitate the application.

14. Application 2- this application too will have some barriers such as technical problems such as how to codify the information, who can access the information, what information can be shared. Again there will be some resistance from the staff such as doctors since this is reducing their power and existing practice. Application 3- here barriers will mainly be technology, some people who cannot access internet will face problem in application. Again, culture and motivation of different people also will create barriers. Application 4- here technical and human barriers exist. For example the requirement for such application should be clear to the I.T to provide the service, there should be clear strategy, instruction and procedures, again the staff should be motivated to assess larger number of applications.

15. Barriers to success in DAE Application 1 – here main barrier is the culture of users, some people still prefer the paper application method. So, there will be resistance from the users and from the staff who assess each application. Application 2- here two barriers are possible, from users who feel ‘impersonal’ when use computer applications and technological barriers to specify the requirement and incorporate into the system. Application 3- here the main barrier will be the culture and motivation of the people. Some people will be reluctant or not interested to use the online reporting. Application 4- here cultural barriers may exist as some people may not like to share the best practices with others, technological barriers to codify and arrange the knowledge into systems, staff resistance to change working practices.

16. b) The culture of the two organisations, although they are both government departments, will differ because of the different types of activities they carry out. Using the Cooper and Quinn model or another suitable framework, discuss the differences between them and its likely impact on the implementation of ONE of the initiatives you have selected from EACH department. Do you remember this question? Want me to still explain? Please refer to the December 2011 question paper and follow the same method, but please change the name of the departments. Can you??????? ( I would summarise the answer, please follow the model from December 2011 to get full idea) In the given case study we are analysing the possibility of implementing different application systems in two different departments of the government; Department of Health The department of Agriculture and Environment Both departments belong to the government, however there will be differences in the culture, structure, politics of two departments. Again, both departments are carrying out different activities too.

17. The culture of department of health staff will be human relations. When we analyse the impact of technology in this department, we have to consider the Contexualist/organist metaphor. Because, this department is related to human needs, and the department behavior is affected by the changes in the environment. For example, the health department of the government is like organisms that is growing, and affected by the factors of environment. The culture of department agriculture and environment is internal process. Because this department is focused on internal matters and is bureaucratic. We can consider mechanist/structuralist metaphor while analysing the impacts of technology in this department. ( please follow the December 2011 model for completing the answer)

18. QUESTION 2 • a) Both departments in the case are concerned to reduce costs. Critically examine the mechanisms through which these can be achieved in each case. • b) For EACH department, illustrate and justify how you would expect the manager’s roles and the staff contributions to change under the applications you have selected? ( follow answer for the same type of questions in December 2011)

19. QUESTION 3 • a) Both departments anticipate tangible benefits from their investments in new IT. Compare and contrast both tangible and wider evaluation considerations that may be relevant to DH and DAE. 10 (please follow the answer from December 2011) • b) DAE are considering a knowledge base that includes the opportunity for farmers and landowners to share experiences. An alternative is to provide enhanced opportunity for interaction within an 'online community’ (social network). Which approach do you consider would succeed best for DAE and why? • Is the online community approach relevant for DH? If so, why? And if not why not? 15

20. The case study explains the initiative of the DAE to build a knowledge base. This is similar to a knowledge management system, where relevant information is created, acquired, captured, stored, shared and used. The initiative to build a knowledge base will benefit the users, as the people of same experience can share relevant information. But the main problem here is the culture or people or users, some users may not find sharing information is a good practice. They may consider this as an infringement to their power or interest. Proper training, support, motivation e.t.c. are needed to persuade users to share the experience. In the second option of ‘online community’ the organisation provides a social networking atmosphere. It is easier in the sense that users can share experience, interact and use relevant information by interaction in the online community. But, the problem is the willingness of people to change. Some users may not be computer friendly, and they do not like to join the online community. however, farmers or landlords with same interests, experiences may be involved in the activities of DAE, and may find it useful to join the community. Here motivations come from the benefits associated with such communities.

21. I consider the second approach – ‘online community’ as the best. Because, the first approach is not flexible to the user and it is looking too pushy for the users. And, the users have to actively enter/share information. But, the second approach is like social networking for example such as Facebook, MySpace et.c. And farmers and landlords find it more social and attractive to join. When we consider the department of HEALTH the online community approach is not relevant. There are many reasons, for example DH dealing with human factors such as health, wellness, symptoms e.t.c. There will be great differences in this aspect when compared to DAE. People may not have much in common to share and use. However, the social networking based on health topics are getting popular these days. For example the online community of people who suffer from ‘AIDS’ , Cancer e.t.c. can give relevant information to those affected. Another example is the online communities of people who quit smoking and alcoholism, this will provide relevant information to the interested groups.

22. Question 4 a) In considering: DH (i) Booking appointments with doctors OR DAE (iv) Online regulatory knowledge bases Show how the Technology Acceptance model (TAM) and HCI principles can help ensure the success of the implementation. In the case study given here we find some applications that require the acceptance from the user to achieve the benefits. For example in the Department of Health – Booking appointments with doctor online requires the acceptance from the users. The success of this application depends on the level of acceptance from the users. If the users are resistance to change and prefer to use the diary system ( manual/ paper based) the application will not work well. The situation is same in the Department of Agriculture and Environment, where application is intended to create a knowledge management system. We find that sharing information is subjected to every individual. So, user acceptance to the technology is important for the success of these applications.

23. So, we find that computer based information systems touch people in many roles. For example as users, customers, individuals, technical specialists, managers et.c. So in order to ensure the success of the applications organisations must understand the end-user experience. In other words understand the interaction between the applications and the people who use it. Because, people are essential part of technology. We can understand this concept from the following diagram. ( draw the diagram in the page 212, Fig.8.1) In short people accept any application which enhance their power, support their culture, if not they resist the change. In order to enhance the acceptance of users, we have to understand two major concepts such as Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Technology Acceptance model.

24. HCI Human-computer interaction is known as ergonomics as well. This concept trying to understand both human user and the computer systems. HCI trying to make the interaction between both user and computer application effective. In short, HCI deals with user, their tasks and the environment in which they work. For example the brightness of screen, colour, layout of the screen, arrangement of the keyboard, considerations about human memory are taken into consideration in HCI. HCI principle also consider the tasks that an IS support. A task analysis is done to understand this idea better. Another effort in HCI is to understand the interaction between technology and the user. This is known as interface design. ( if you are looking for a perfect or master piece answer, please include Five principles of interface design mentioned in page 214 towards the final paragraph)

25. TAM – another issue related to the user acceptance is Technology acceptance model. TAM was developed by Davis, who believed that whether or not people accept and use an IS depends on two variables or factors such as; Perceived usefulness - is the system useful for a task? Perceived ease of use - is the system easy to use? ( please draw the diagram. Find the easy diagram and draw. If you can draw both!)

26. Technology Acceptance Model Perceived Usefulness External Variables Attitude Toward Using Behavioural Intention to Use Actual System Use Perceived Ease of Use Davies et al, 1989

27. DeLone McLean Model System Quality Intention to Use Use Information Quality Net Benefits User satisfaction Service Quality

28. To conclude both departments – DH and DAE online applications will be accepted by user according to the ease of use, usefulness and interface design. For example, if the online booking to fix the appointment with the doctor is complicated and requiring technical skills and not user friendly, users will resist to use the same technology and the application will not be successful. b) In what ways are I.T. implementations within organisations changing, and how does this affect the way such implementations are managed. Illustrate your discussion with examples taken from the examination case. ( we have answered the same question in December 2011, kindly follow the same answer)

29. QUESTION 5a) Critique the assumptions underlying the proposals for appointment booking applications within BOTH organisations. In what way are they beneficial and in what way problematic? How can problems be overcome? Both the departments – DH and DAE planning to implement online appointment booking applications to improve efficiency, increase user satisfaction, performance and ease of use. This is due to the wide access and availability of internet in the modern world. There are both advantages and disadvantages for the above mentioned initiative or applications. Online appointment booking will save the time, cost for the user. It will certainly reduce administrative work for the organisation and reduce the cost. This application will increase efficiency and customer satisfaction. However, there are problems too. Technologies or applications will be successful, only when it is accepted by the user. There will be resistance from the staff of the organisations to change the existing practice( manual booking by diary system).

30. The culture of the organisation will also play an important role in the success of these applications. For example, if the doctors and staff find the new practice reducing their power and flexibility, the applications will face resistance from the organisation. Again, if the users are not computer friendly, or finding computer based appointments ‘impersonal’ the application will face problem. In both departments the new online appointment will affect the work, and work schedule. People will accept technologies that enhances their power, support their cultural values, if they find it reducing the power and work against the personal interests they will resist the change. Individual values and attitudes also play an important role here. In order to overcome these barriers, organisation must motivate the people, both users and staff to accept the technology. As people find benefits in the new system, they will accept the same. Providing training, support and encouragement will help to ease the resistance. Short-term benefits or quick-wins can also be considered to increase the acceptance. In order to win the acceptance from the users, organisations should consider HCI, TAM, Interface Design principles too.

31. b) Productivity and effectiveness in all organisations can be improved by use of appropriate information systems. Critically discuss. ( this question also the same as the December 2011 question 5, still I would like to summarize here one more time..) I.S can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of organisations by using appropriate information systems. Here care must be taken to align I.S strategy according to the organisational strategy. It is also important to select and implement the right I.S for the business. For example, by using an ERP system, an organisation can integrate all departments and even get connected to suppliers and customers. This will increase the quality of information and flow of information. There are many benefits associated with the same. Reduced costs, improved performance, better quality, higher customer satisfaction are few major benefits. In the given case study both DH and DAE CAN benefit by increasing productivity and effectiveness. For example the online appointment systems will reduce the cost of the organisation, saves the time of the user and increases customer service.

32. Technology affects the way people work, for example the diary based booking will change to online booking. Physical visits of job seekers in government offices will become online application. These factors increases the effectiveness and productivity. However, technologies can be successful according to the level of acceptance from the users. There will be problems with the implementation of technologies, for example the case of DH, where doctors and staff should change the working practices. Here the culture of organisation, values and attitudes if people will play a major role. Training, motivation, support are few ways to overcome these barriers. Again the users also find technologies ‘impersonal’ or complicated, where associated benefits with the technologies may attract the users. Again, HCI, TAM, Interface design principles will help the organisations to provide a user friendly atmosphere. ( please read both December 2011 model answers and September to have a complete idea)