Sample MITS4001 Business Information System Assignment

MITS4001 Business Information System Assignment Sample

Read the following case study and answer the questions below in the form of a report.
You are expected to answer each question within approximately 250-300 words.

Case Study: Cutting out paper speeds up the process

The Chinese are credited with inventing paper nearly two millennia ago, and in spite of more recent inventions, such as the integrated circuit, computerised storage, and networking, it is still heavily used. So is the world moving closer to ushering out the old in favour of the new?

The paperless office has long been a dream, but can it be achieved?

Liverpool Direct is doing its best. The company is a partnership between BT and Liverpool City Council, which at the turn of the decade was seen as one of the worst councils in the UK at revenue collection and benefit payments. ‘The service was deemed to be failing’, says David McElhinney, chief executive of Liverpool Direct, which was formed in 2001 to help modernise the council's operations. ‘The average time to turn around a benefit claim was 140 days, and there was a backlog of 50,000 cases.’ The paper was holding everything up. Each week, 20,000 pieces of mail would arrive at the benefit office, including everything from benefit claims to notifications that an individual's circumstances had changed. The mail would be stamped, and filtered through different teams depending on what information it held until it reached a file.

It would then be sent to more people for manual assessment. Bottlenecks would delay the paperwork, and files would be buried on someone's desk when they were needed most. 'A claimant might pay a personal visit, and we wouldn't be able to locate their file', Mr McElhinney says. 'The average wait was about two hours.' Not only did the paper cause significant delays, but also took up £750,000-worth of office space a year. Ridding the office of paper began with refocusing the system around the end-user. A series of 'one stop shop' contact centres was set up to handle customer queries and visits, and the organisation opted for what Mr McElhinney calls a 'single version of the truth' - a single electronic document that can be referred to by all parties at any time. Now, when a document is received, it is scanned and put into a digital file. Data can be attached to the documents, which is archived into different folders by a dedicated team, based on the content. Software-based flags can then be set for the document that can trigger actions necessary for that letter. One trigger might cause a letter with a particular response to be generated, for example.

One of the biggest challenges when re-engineering a paper-based system is to minimise disruption, but some interruption is inevitable. ‘It’s one of those systems where you can’t run things in parallel’, explains Mr McElhinney. The systems were turned off for six weeks, and buildings including 15 post rooms where closed; one post room was retained to scan all incoming correspondence; the paper storage building was sold in March 2006, generating £4.5m for the city. Stripping away old ways of working was an important part of the project's benefits: ‘Know your processes, and challenge them to make them more efficient’, says Roddy Horton, central systems manager at the Hyde Group, a housing association with 1,200 employees serving more than 75,000 people. This month, the Hyde Group computerised its recruitment process, stripping 58,000 sheets of paper a year out of the system.

Before the recruitment process was digitised, candidates would receive an information pack and application form in the post. They filled in and returned the form and copies were sent to the recruiting manager and up to five people on the review panel. The recruiting manager would then fill out various forms following the interview and return them to human resources, which would then send a decision letter to the candidate. 'Now, all the details are on the website', explains Mr Horton. An online application form is logged in a database and sent to the recruitment manager, who then electronically forwards it to the interviewing panel. Once the decision is reported to human resources, the candidate receives an e-mail.

The recruitment application is built on a database from Northgate HR that the company had bought in 2001 to manage some human resources information. It then purchased ePeople, a human resources application from Northgate that enables the company to provide a self- service front end to the database. The developers built workflow rules into the system that coordinated these communications electronically. The recruitment applications join an already-deployed paperless expense claims and training request application, also designed to strip paper from the system. Before the introduction of that system, paper-based expense claims and time sheets needed to be signed by a manager, who would often be out surveying sites, dealing with housing issues, or visiting other offices. 'It might be weeks before you saw your manager', says Mr Horton. 'Staff were not being paid on time, and they were also going to huge amounts of effort to claim those payments.’

The electronic system handles those communications digitally, so staff enter their expenses claims directly into the computer. The Hyde group also refined the expenses process by making it possible within the system to request that another person sign a document, if the first choice of manager was absent, for example. Both Liverpool Direct and Hyde’s projects had a common challenge in getting people to change the way they work – especially senior staff used to do things a certain way. Mr Horton found that electronically signing documents was counterintuitive for many staff: ‘I had problems proving that an electronic signature is just as sound as a paper one’, he says, explaining that employees ‘sign’ an e-mail in the workflow system by e-mailing it to the server, which then e-mails the next person in the workflow chain.

‘Sometimes, people can also be nervous of introducing efficiencies because they see it as a job threat', Mr Horton warns. He had to reassure several people as systems were roiled out. But how much paper do such projects really get rid of? Neither of these organisations are yet paperless. Liverpool Direct has achieved the greatest success, having stripped about 70 percent of the paper from the process. None of the paper that is personally bought into the one-stop shop centres and scanned is retained, but any postal correspondence is retained for 30 days after being digitised. The Hyde Group's attempt at digital deforestation has been more muted. Since the recruitment system was digitised, about one-third of its paper has been eliminated. It hopes to increase that to 80 percent by digitising supplier invoices, tenancy agreements, and possibly tenancy repair requests, Mr Horton says. Nevertheless, even though an entirely paperless office may not be plausible, stripping even this much paper out of the system can have positive effects. For example, in Liverpool the caseload backlog has been reduced from 50,000 to zero, while the average processing time for benefit claims has dropped from 133 days to 19. Abandoned call rates to its contact centre have dropped from 50 percent to just 5 percent, and the waiting time for personal visits concerning benefit claims has been reduced from the original two hours to four minutes.

Hyde will always have some paper, even if it is not strictly speaking in the office. The company is reluctant to get rid of paper-based tenancy agreements altogether, and keeps them stored in an off-site location for legal purposes. Nevertheless, with the paperless recruitment system now in place, and with its previous paper saving efforts, it has eradicated 153,000 sheets of paper a year from its operations. In reality, the totally paperless office may still be as far off as the paperless newsagent – but organisations can go a long way towards reducing what they use and increasing the efficiency of their work along the way.

Questions

1- Why is it important to strip away old ways of working when introducing systems such as those brought in by Liverpool Direct and Hyde?

2- Using the Internet as a resource, locate information regarding a simple document management system, such as Scansoft's PaperPort Office. How useful is such a product likely to be within a department of a large company or a small business?

3- What is the likelihood that the paperless office will ever be achieved?

Solution

Introduction

In this study research the business information system is discussed on the achievement of paperless office by Liverpool Direct in mitigating different in old ways of working and its evaluation to better business profit. In such accordance several issues regarding the old models have been discussed and the utilization of paperless documents has been proposed as per the case study for business development.

The way of striping away of old working process by Liverpool Direct and Hyde

It is too important to strip away various old ways of working in order to increase the business profit, by replacing different kinds of systems brought by the Liverpool Direct. For the development of business, different kinds of new strategies are implemented as smart work is more effective and efficient than hard work. In such circumstances, the striping away of the old ways has different effects in business (Oliveira et al. 2021). In addition, “Wise Acre Frozen Treats” has been bankrupted whereas the 180s (clothing) has been recovered.

Adapting of information system to achieve strategically organizational goals by Liverpool Direct and Hyde

On the other hand, in 2013, Crumbs Bake Shop topped in the business whereas in 2014 it was bankrupted. Along with that, a gaming company Zynga tried new development, but it did not work out well. Besides, KIND Snacks tried to develop its business while later it stuck to the quality of the products. In such circumstances, it is too significant to strip away the old methods. Actually, all the old methods will not be stripped away whereas many new methods will be implemented for a better future (Kim et al. 2021). As per the case study, total benefit claim is 140 days where total backlogs have been seen for 50000 cases. On the other hand, personal visit time is 2 hours for this company. Additionally, office space corresponding to a year is £750,000. Hence, a single electronics document is referred for the customer handling through the one stop shop.

Time management and the reduction of the effective process are the main factors regarding several management activities. In the case of Hyde, 153000 sheets of the paper have been wasted for its operation and for recruiting 58000 sheets have been wasted. Various data are saved in the database and after receiving the documents, these are changed into a digital file.

Utilization of simple document management system such as Scansoft’s Paper Port office

In order to manage simple documentation management systems like Scansoft’sPaper Port office, Facts and reality checking are most important for product development and that must be included in this. While the paperless office is not to be plausible and stripping paper out from the system, a positive impact can occur in this regard (Wantaniaet al. 2021). According to this case study sample, caseload backlog has reduced to 0 from 50,000 and average processing of this system has dropped from 133 days to 19. Various management activities depend on managing time and reducing effective processes within a suitable way. Apart from that, contact center has also reduced to 5% and personal visiting as well as waiting times have also decreased to 4 minutes.

Development of IT plans casestudy for assignment help to maintain Document management system within Liverpool Direct and Hyde

Hyde can focus on managing papers and is not maintaining strict decision making within the company and that results in reluctance to get rid of tenancy agreements along with a paper-based process. This keeps all the data stored within a location for off-site legal purposes. Moreover, by managing requirement systems of paperless documents along with its previous paper saving efforts, it is seen that more than 153,000 sheets of paper have been eradicated in a year with an appropriate operation. After that, in reality, a paperless office can be still far off as the “paperless newsagent” and the organization can be forwarded to reduce the usages and manage efficiency the long way (AbdulKareemet al. 2020).

Various difficulties can also be faced by Liverpool Direct to manage “Cutting out paper speeds up the process”. These are as follows:

Upgrading from paper-based system to IS

Analyzing the value of an original document

Managing parallel work and its completion within exact time

After that, management of documentation is a process for maintaining the information as well as its organizing, sharing, and storing, creating as appropriate manner. It is important for managing documentation for businesses from large enterprises to small. As per the case study, Hyde can deal with high-stake information for managing the activities in documentation.

Achievement of paperless office and its justification

This is a modern thing to do paperless office for small to medium size enterprises and for better productivity and growth in business management various companies are trying to achieve paperless office. Besides, paperless office can be achieved by the company, Liverpool Direct by using best management in their organization. In order to identify conflict and success, parallel office can be achieved along with the major three activities and these are cost of IS memories, comfort, and cyber safety. As per the case study analysis, it is seen that Liverpool Direct has a partnership between Liverpool City Council and BT, and that is considered as one of the worst councils within the UK on the basis of benefit payments and revenue collection. For managing council’s operations along with modernization of Liverpool Direct along with average time for claiming of 140 days. Apart from that, a backlog was there with 50000 cases and more than 20000 pieces arrived through mail in the betterment of the office.

Identification and synthesisation of different functions corresponding to the database management system within Liverpool Direct and Hyde

Major difficulties must be maintained through Liverpool Direct by implementing someIS (Information System) activities and that will be beneficial for paperless offices (Udendeet al. 2018). On the other hand, no proper company can achieve new methods with initiating effective firewalls, and can afford memories. Additionally, “Wise Acre Frozen Treats” has been bankrupted while clothing has recovered and in 2014, an appropriate business management has been shown by Crumbs Bake Shop whereas 2014 was bankrupted. Some issues are also there in using papers in office and these are paper not also causing significant delays but also worth £750,000 office space per year. For managing end users with reinforcing of ridding the office and “one stop shop” is involved to set by handling customers visiting, and queries. This is managed through a single electronic document and that is really effective for Liverpool Direct in evaluating paperless offices. Therefore, yes, paperless office has been achieved with various regards along with customer services by Liverpool Direct.

Conclusion

From the above discussion of entire section in this study, it can be concluded that paperless office can be achieved on the basis of proper business and exact documentation of effective information by using database. In this respect, Liverpool Direct proposed the paperless office through single electronic document and reinforcing office as “one stop shop” to handle customer visit and different queries.

Reference list: