1. Discussion at lease 150 words. It is imperative that today's businesses plan for their future. One area of concentration that includes this is Information Systems acquisition. Businesses need to first identify potential vendors. This can be through software catalogs, trade journals, web searches, or recommendations by colleges. Vendors can be crossed off depending on a variety of factors such as reliability and customer service. Businesses also need to keep in mind exactly what they are looking for in an application. They should look for the functional requirements of the system, technical requirements of the system, amount and quality of the documentation provided, and what kind of support system does the vendor offer. This can be drawn up in a request for proposal that will be sent to potential vendors, letting them know what exactly the business is looking for. Vendors will respond back to businesses letting them know what they can offer. From there, if the business can draw up a contract with the vendor. Service level agreements will also be made to clearly define what responsibilities lie with each party.
Many companies choose to lease applications because it can save time and money. One downfall of leased applications is that it may not fit well with the company's needs. To solve this issue, many businesses use the 80/20 rule. If 80 percent of the software meets the company's needs, then the company will adjust its practices to utilize the remaining 20 percent. Small to medium-sized businesses prefer to lease over buy because they cannot afford to make a major investment in IT. With today's economy, many companies are choosing to outsource applications from outside vendors. This helps the company save money by allowing it to allocate resources elsewhere instead of IT. One big disadvantage of outsourcing is that outside vendors have access to the company's information.
According to Derek Stockley, author of Implementing New Business Systems Successfully, in order to achieve a smooth implementation the extent and complexity of the change, availability of staff and time involved, as well as staff skills need to be taken in account. Also, time management and priorities must be changed and kept in constant control in order for the implementation to be a success. New systems should be tested before they are completely rolled out, so IT personnel can debug the software. Also, new hardware may need to be bought, and budget costs should be considered for adding new hardware. Overall, a well planned out process will go a long way in securing success for the company.
2. Discussion at lease 150 words. When a company wants to start an information system the first step they need to accomplish is planning. There will be certain constraints associated with implementing a new information system, they are known as the triple constraints which include time, cost and scope. The time in reference to the triple constraints is how long until the project is complete. The cost is a major factor in implementing a new information system for a company. It can cost to much to implement and vise versa, it may cost more in the long run to not implement the system. This is something the company heads have to decide upon. The scope of the project refers to the work required along with how much of the company will feel the effects of it and how. The project management process is broken down into five phases which are project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control and completion. Project initiation is when a problem is defined and the solutions are brought to the table. Planning is where everything is laid out for completion. The execution phase coordinates people and the resources needed. Monitoring and control is the determination if the project is heading towards and reaching the goals already determined. Completion is where the project is ultimately complete.
The article I found on implementing information systems was in reference to a hospital. It goes on to say how communication plays a vital role in the implementation and the successful completion. There were three groups working towards this goal. They were Operations, Permanente Medical Group, and Information Technology. The article also goes into stating "As an information systems project progresses, it is easy for additional functional requirements to creep into the project. Most additional requirements that are added in this way appear benign at first but have significant hidden downstream impacts. For large, complex projects, scope creep may introduce a lack of clarity that may result in significant delays and rework. Although some increases in scope cannot be avoided, it is important to understand that any change in scope may reduce the probability of success of the overall project" (https://xnet.kp.org/permanentejournal/fall04/reality.html). This is true no matter what type of company is implementing a new information system. Increasing scope may not be avoidable however you have to realize that it will reduce the success rate of the project. Later the article stresses on having "trial runs" with the new system prior to full implementation. This is so all the "kinks" can be worked out and you can start training the employees in relatively small groups. You want to make sure you train the user's on the new system because they are ultimately the ones who will be using it on a daily basis. This also allows for a lot of the questions to get answered prior to completion of the project. Another problem this company had was a lack of newer technology. When new updates came out and the IT section ran them a majority of the computers "crashed." They stated that they did not have enough power and memory to run the new upgraded program. They failed in the sense that they did not research the requirements for the upgraded software and they left their employees in a bad situation as well as the patients residing at the hospital.