Strategies in Implementing Efficient Information Systems

1. Strategies in Implementing Efficient Information Systems Alina Andreica, PhD alina@euro.ubbcluj.ro Head of ICT Department “Babes-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2. Motivations and Theme Relevance • IS (information systems, top of IT strategy) – significantly increase organization effciency • Strategies in implementing IS • Case study on BBU • Romania: IS in eartly-medium stages; component integration and management assistance is in course of implementation • Importance of management awareness

3. Topics • Implementing Information Systems - Goals, Strategies and Stages • Management Information Systems and Their Advantages in Organization Management • Information Systems in Romania • Case Study: Implementing Information Systems within Babes-Bolyai University – BBU • Conclusions • References

4. Implementing Information Systems - Goals, Strategies and Stages • Importance of IT strategies • SI implementation – top level of IT strategy • In-house design vs. firm contracting (management) • adaptation to organization’s characteristics and needs • Focus on systematizing the aspects related to efficient implementations • Management awareness • Potential in increasing efficiency • User role in implementation(mostly specifications) • Electronic management assistant

5. Information Systems (IS) Implementation - Stages • Problem analysis and specification design – problem analysis (IT team) & specifications (with user involvement!) • involvement of the organization in providing rigorous specifications for its needs is essential • Management coordination & involvement • Design and implementation of the IS –IT team • Architecture design, Choosing programming languages and environments, Application implementation, Application testing

6. Information Systems (IS) Implementation - Stages • System installation – within the target organization, involves user feedback • Data export, if necessary • User training • Maintenance –future operations in order to ensure an efficient exploitation of the system • Recommended to be included in the initial contract User involvement: creating the system’s specifications, on site testing of the system, data collecting

7. Information Systems (IS) Evaluation – User Involvement • The degree in which they respond to the specific system requirements • User-friendly graphical interface • Speed in processing/response to user request • Security in distributed access • Cost – an efficient rate performance/ cost • Flexibility, extendibility - to future adjustments • Training, assistance and maintenance

8. Management Information Systems and Their Advantages in Organization Management • IS – model daily transactions and ensure access to analyses and solutions for various types of users • IS involve • data processing – distributed in modern systems • information for tactical & strategic management • database management- consistent, flexible and efficient organization of data collections • Most IS rely on database processings • Interactivity – real time response for various categories of users

9. Management Information Systems and Their Advantages in Organization Management • IS involve • decision assistance-support management decisions • specific analyses, predictions or finding optimal solutions under certain constraints, consequent to data processing • expert system facilities -advanced decision assistance • similar to experts' knowledge on a certain field • Based on inferations over a knowledge base for that field • executive information services -dedicated to the superior management level • group facilities for extracting relevant synthetic information • distributed facilities – access over computer networks • Security aspects

10. ICT Impact on Organizations • human resources policy and skills by • modifying the requested personnel skills and the work style, the interactions among employees and the departmental interactions, outer-organization interactions • reducing manual work, increasing efficiency • inducing mutations in professional responsibilities • operational impact – e-means of performing activity • see distributed database systems • organizational impact • reducing the traditional number of management levels

11. Information Systems in Romania • IT implementation level within the economic field is higher than the average in Romania -more resources • within the business environment, IT is implemented more extensively within the more flexible SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) • Romania is in the ICT stage of developing dedicated information systems – • ongoing study in the county of Cluj • Dedicated questionnaire

12. Information Systems in Romania • 40% of the total employee number in the firms from our sample have access to their own computer • Computer networks and Internet connections are used on a large scale – 95% in our sample • 80% of the firms in our sample have their own website • mainly used for promotion & communication purposes • evolved e-commerce services - not yet extensively used • ICT created new jobs for 66% of our subjects-various % • 70%sustain thatIT strategies influence human resources policies and management strategies

13. Information Systems in Romania • Regarding the software that is used, we noticed almost equal proportions among: office automation, database, Internet, financial and specific software (around 14-16%) • management software, imposing a consolidated integration from all departments comes with a lower percentage – 9% • Human resources software rated with 8 %

14. Information Systems in Romania • The most used Internet applications regarded, as expected within the business environment, e-business – 21%, e-payment – 21%, e-commerce – 12% and e-news – 12%

15. Information Systems in Romania • The most important facilities offered by means of the web site were: marketing and promotion – 37% (top ranking - first step in moving the business towards the web), external (client) communication – 24%, internal (employee) communication and product distribution – 7-8%

16. Information Systems in Romania • The last year investments in ICT for small and medium enterprises are further discussed (see figure 8). 18% declared total ICT investments higher than 75%, 14% in the interval (50%, 75%], 9% in the interval (30%, 50%] and 31% - investments lower than 30%

17. Case Study: Implementing Information Systems within Babes-Bolyai University- BBU • IT strategies • easier to implement in small and medium organizations, since they are more flexible • must be more elaborated in larger organizations taking into account their complexity • resource availability is more dynamic in the private sector than in the public one • Academic institutions can compensate this trend with consistent “know-how” and by attracting alternate resources

18. Case Study: Implementing Information Systems within Babes-Bolyai University- BBU • BBU • a large organization, in the Romanian public sector, aiming at providing academic education programs for the society • one of the largest universities in its geographical area - over 40,000 students and over 2000 academic staff and employees • Competitiveness in didactic and research areas and international compatibility are among the major goals of its management • BBU’s strategy included means of obtaining self-attracted income

19. Case Study: Implementing Information Systems within Babes-Bolyai University- BBU • BBU’s IT strategy • recently invested in upgrading its large communication network • is in train of upgrading its information systems – using an in-house strategy - • This solution is sustained by the availability of qualified IT developers, the huge advantages in managing, upgrading and extending “in-house” systems and, of course, cost advantages • Two large scale software projects are currently under development within BBU’s IT Department • Academic Information application + ERP type system

20. Case Study: Implementing Information Systems within Babes-Bolyai University- BBU • AcademicInfo - https://info.ubbcluj.ro • web based software application aiming at offering academic information for various categories of users: students, academic staff, academic management • provides a user-friendly web interface and appropriate security mechanisms • centralizes local databases from all faculties and is based on a structured layer design, therefore ensuring flexible future upgrades

21. Case Study: Implementing Information Systems within Babes-Bolyai University- BBU • ManageAsist - an ERP type software system • models the activity and specific information processings within the administrative compartments of an university (Acquisitions, Finances-Accountability, Assets) • offers distributed access to the system’s facilities for various user categories, including faculty managers/ administrators, and providing relevant synthesis for management levels • Presently, the system contains the Acquisition module • is designed on multi-tier architecture principles in order to ensure easy extendibility of the project and natural development in stages

22. Case Study: Implementing Information Systems within Babes-Bolyai University- BBU • accurately documented specifications, enhanced by user feed-back • The design principles ensure flexibility in stage development and extendibility • Advantages – proved and expected to be more obvious on longer term: • cost-performance rate • stage development, flexibility& extendibility of projects • internal management of software projects and IT autonomy

23. Conclusions • ICT implementation is a necessary condition for increasing organization efficiency • ICT strategies must be adapted to • the objective of the organization & the activity target field, • the financial resources, human resources policies • management style and strategy • the most used distributed applications in Romanian SMEs regard e-business, e-payment and e-commerce • enterprise sites are still mainly oriented towards promotion and marketing

24. Conclusions • ICT created new jobs for most of our subjects70% in our sample sustain that IT strategies influence human resources policies and management strategies • Implementing information systems – the “top” level of an IT strategy • take into account the users’ role in creating the system’s specifications, on site testing of the system, data collecting • provide flexibility & extendibility in the development and implementation of the software systems • BBU case study: advantages of properly applied in-house IT strategies, which ensure flexibility of software project design in development stages