Management Information Systems: A Research Paper
By
Greg Butler
Student #######
American Military University
MC302 D002 Summer 07
October 23, 2007
Management Information Systems: A Research Paper
Executive Summary.
In April 2004, after a year of planning, preparation, and training, the City of La Quinta “went live” with an enterprise-wide, integrated information system for the first time in its 22-year history. For the roughly one hundred member staff, it was a revolutionary leap. Previously, each functional department had selected, purchased, and implemented its own best solution to facilitate day-to-day operations.
The implementation of SunGard’s HTE NaviLine software required infrastructure improvements and behind-the-scenes setup. The result was several databases for common use among departments and several automation improvements to previous transaction processing systems.
Functional departments, individually and collectively, are able to spend more time concentrating on serving customers and less time searching City Hall for a needed piece of information. Implementation in two final departments will lead to even better service, particularly for those in the development community.
The system is challenging, but powerful by virtue of its use of a multi-platform IBM® System i™ server. It is moderately user-friendly by virtue of NaviLine’s Web browser interface.
Several improvements are necessary to make the system truly great, but in its current state the system represents a marked improvement in operational efficiency over past methods for the City of La Quinta.
Organizational Structure.
The City of La Quinta, California was incorporated in 1982. It utilizes a Council/Manager former of government, where the City Council serves as the board of directors for the municipal corporation and the City Manager acts as the chief executive officer serving at the pleasure of the Council (City of La Quinta: Government, 2007).
Daily business operations of the City are divided among functional departments, each led by a Department Director. Where required by the diversity of tasks performed, Division Managers, who report directly to Department Directors, are employed to oversee staff-level personnel (City of La Quinta: Finance Department, 2007, pp. B-1 – B-3).
Of particular note in a discussion of information systems is the organization of the Information Systems division at the City. The division, formally called Central Services, consists solely of an Information Services Analyst, who reports to the Finance Director (City of La Quinta: Finance Department, 2007, p. E-35). The position requires a high school diploma and experience in network administration (City of La Quinta: Salary Schedules/Job Descriptions, 2007). In practice, this analyst supports all hardware and software support issues for approximately 100 users. It is not the classic systems analyst role as defined by Ralph Stair and George Reynolds in their text on information systems (2008, pp. 37-42). Rather, it encompasses the operations roles of computer facility operations, local area wired and wireless networks, and Web operations. In the realm of systems development, this analyst recently prescribed the network infrastructure design for a 15,000 square-foot expansion of City Hall. When support situations arise or upgrades are planned which are beyond the expertise of the analyst, the project is outsourced.
In 2003, La Quinta committed to implement Sungard’s HTE NaviLine, an enterprise-wide integrated information system with a browser-based interface in an effort better coordinate departments and staff. Within NaviLine, individual modules are tailored to the needs of the functional departments. One or more modules serve the City Manager/Management Services/Human Resources Division, Finance Department, Building & Safety/Code Compliance Division, and the Building & Safety/Building Division. As of this writing, the Planning and Public Works Departments are scheduled for future implementation.
Inputs and Outputs.
Each module requires manual inputs for initial setup and ongoing systems maintenance. For example, the Land/Parcel Management application (LX) “stores information about the property in (a) jurisdiction and the addresses associated with that property.” Continuing, “Other HTE software applications retrieve the information stored in LX for processing” (HTE, 2002, p. 2-1). Manual inputs initially set up the various descriptive fields and their associated data composition requirements for property information, including, but not limited to Assessor’s Parcel Number, address(es), owner(s), legal description, and zoning. Similar manual inputs are required for building permits, accounting, and other applications to establish things such as permit fee line-items and Finance Department account numbers corresponding to the City’s chart of accounts. During ongoing operations, additional manual inputs are required to insert line-item quantities, freeform text entries, and overrides of automatically calculated values based on the original file system setup.
Automatic inputs consist primarily of calculated values (line-item totals) derived from manually input data entered during the individual module setup. For example, during the creation of a building permit, the user selects from the LX application the parcel on which the new building will be constructed. The system automatically attaches (inputs) the property owner information from LX to the Building Permits application. Also, total fees are automatically input by the information system in response to manual line-item quantity inputs by the user. Similarly, the Payroll application automatically calculates (inputs) pay and deduction amounts based on attributes found in an employee record found in the personnel database (Stair & Reynolds, 2008, p.112).
The current configuration of the system allows only system errors to generate automatic outputs. All other outputs are currently set up as manual outputs. Examples of manual outputs are the printing of building permits, business license certificates, work orders, and monthly accounting reports, all generated at the request of an authorized user.
Organizational Usage and Impact.
For the maintenance of employee records, the City Manager/Management Services/Human Resources Division utilizes the Human Resources Personnel Suite and Personnel/Payroll modules.
The Finance Department makes use of the Integrated Accounting and Extended Reporting modules for general ledger and budgeting, accounts payable, and internally and externally required financial reporting. The Payroll/Personnel module is used to generate biweekly payroll, monitor accrual and usage of vacation, sick, and administrative leave, and track and report withholding information. The Cash Receipts application is a transaction processing system that processes all customer payments, assigns monies to the appropriate revenue account number, and prepares them for later batch processing into the general ledger (SunGard, 2007a). The Business Licenses module, used for business and dog licenses, interfaces with the Land/Parcel Management module to assign licenses to particular addresses (SunGard, 2007b).
The Building & Safety/Code Compliance Division primarily uses the Code Compliance module to initiate and track progress of Code Compliance cases. The division also uses the Business Licenses module to generate garage sale permits, pool draining permits, home occupation permits, and massage therapist permits, all of which are associated with an address in the Land/Parcel Management module (SunGard, 2007b).
The Building & Safety/Building Division uses the Building Permits module as the core for its operations. Building permits are created using address and property owner information from the Land/Parcel Management module and contractor information stored in the Business Licenses module (SunGard, 2007b). In addition, monthly statistical reports are prepared for City Council and publishing on the Web.
All of the above departments and divisions utilize the Document Management and Work Orders/Facility Management modules. Document Management allows the merging of Microsoft Word documents with data extracted from various NaviLine modules to generate business license certificates, building permits with specific legal text, and code compliance form letters, among others. The Work Orders/Facility Management module allows any user to initiate a request for maintenance service such as repairing a malfunctioning door lock or replacing a fluorescent lamp in a conference room (SunGard, 2007a).
When implementation is complete for the Planning Department and Public Works Department, the Planning & Engineering module will be used to track Site Development Permit and Tract Map applications (SunGard, 2007b). Both departments will use their access to the Building Permits module to grant departmental approvals prior to the issuance of building permits, replacing the currently used paper approval. Additionally, Planning Department personnel will utilize manual outputs from the Building Permits module to facilitate periodic reporting to the U.S. Census Bureau.
There is a two-sided impact on the operations of departments that comes with the use of NaviLine. To accomplish the City’s goals of providing high quality services to residents and visitors, more employee time must be spent actually providing those services, and less time must be spent providing internal coordination of efforts among the departments.
On the positive side, the implementation and use of NaviLine allows, for the first time in the City’s history, automatic coordination between departments that charge fees for various services and the Finance Department, which collects all payments. For example, historically, a building permit was created and printed by the Building Department using a stand-alone database management system. A contractor purchased the building permit by signing for it in the Building Department and hand-carrying it to the Finance Department, where a receipt was issued. Later, a Finance Department staff member entered the nine to fifteen line-items from the permit into the appropriate accounts in an accounting application. Now, line-item fees created during the generation of a building permit are automatically assigned by the information system to the proper revenue account as soon as payment is tendered. The intended result is faster processing with reduced opportunities for data entry errors.
Planning Department personnel previously created census reports by manually reviewing paper copies of building permits, inputting the desired data into a spreadsheet for manipulation, and manually transcribing the required information onto Census Bureau forms. Even though the information must still be manually transcribed onto Census Bureau forms, the collection of that data is more automated through the use of NaviLine applications.
The negative aspect of using NaviLine applications is that the system setup has required that individual users be more highly trained in the use of this specialized system. Also, more data collection is required at the initial stages of building and other permit application processes. As a result, many jobs, even previously simple clerical jobs, have become more complex, requiring a degree of skill in computer usage that previously did not exist.
This more powerful system, by virtue of being more complex, requires more attention be given to system operation and maintenance. This complexity also means that an error by one person can have a more immediate and wide-ranging negative impact on others than in the past.
Hardware and Software.
This complex and powerful system required the acquisition of several pieces of new hardware. According to SunGard, “HTE NaviLine takes advantage of the security and reliability of the IBM® System i™ server for data storage, while providing a familiar graphical environment for accomplishing daily business tasks” (SunGard, 2007c). The result is that the City’s existing client/server network architecture, utilizing Windows XP Professional on PC-compatible clients, Microsoft Windows Server 2000 on a PC-compatible server, and many non-networked printers, required several upgrades. An IBM iSeries® 800 server and IBM OS/400® system software were purchased and installed. Using the iSeries® server allows the running of Windows Server 2000 and OS/400® simultaneously on a single machine (IBM, 2007a). NaviLine operates under Windows Server 2000, while OS/400® manages the datafiles. Consequently, other, older servers were replaced, conserving valuable space in an already crowded server room.
From the client side, all of these changes are virtually transparent. Once configured, the user simply double-clicks a standard Windows shortcut on the desktop to open NaviLine’s Web browser login screen residing on the intranet server. NaviLine printers must have unique network addresses, so several new, high-volume printers were purchased.
New software includes all previously mentioned HTE NaviLine modules. In addition, IBM iSeries® Navigator™ provides a graphical user interface for centralized system management (IBM, 2007b). As an added benefit, Navigator™ allows user control of printers, meaning selected users can monitor and correct minor printer errors without troubling the IS staff for every trivial matter.
Recommendations.
The information system is good and has revolutionized the coordination among departments at the City of La Quinta. There is an interdependence that fosters a cooperative spirit. But no system is without shortcomings or the need for improvement. NaviLine shows evidence of programmers not communicating well with one another. Most screens have a navigation bar in the left column, with page-specific buttons in the upper portion of the bar, and “OK,” “Cancel,” and “Exit” buttons at the bottom. In a couple of screens, these buttons are arranged horizontally near the top. This inconsistency is bothersome to even experienced users. NaviLine could be improved by incorporating improved compliance Windows GUI standards. This could be accomplished by ensuring consistent placement of action buttons on various screens. Also, screens that display items in a long list format do not scroll in the traditional Windows manner. Clicking on the scroll arrow functions as a “page down” or “page up” command and clicking in the scroll bar itself does nothing. Here again, conformance to the Windows scrolling function would improve user satisfaction.
From the administration side, the assignment of user permissions is laborious. Permissions for individual users are displayed in multiple screens for a single application, requiring the administrator to drill down to set all applicable permissions as needed. In addition, there is no capability to create a new user using an existing user’s permissions as a template. This feature should be changed to mimic a similar function in the Building Permits module, where permits may be duplicated with all or selected characteristics of the existing one.
Though not easily quantifiable, these small improvements would likely result in a five percent increase in user accuracy during input. The user interface would be more intuitive and familiar to Windows users, regardless of their level of experience. However, collectively or individually, they are sure to improve user satisfaction and acceptance. That alone would transform a good information system into a great one.
References
City of La Quinta: Finance Department. (2007). Fiscal Year 2007-2008 Budget. Retrieved October 1, 2007, from http://www.la-quinta.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=1830
City of La Quinta: Government. (2007). About City Government. Retrieved October 21, 2007, from http://www.la-quinta.org/Index.aspx?page=5
City of La Quinta: Salary Schedules/Job Descriptions. (2007). Job Descriptions. Retrieved October 1, 2007, from http://www.la-quinta.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=117
HTE, Incorporated. (2002). Land/Parcel Management, NaviLine Training Manual. Lake Mary, FL: HTE.
IBM Corporation. (2007a). IBM iSeries 800 executive summary. Retrieved October 21, 2007 from http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/i/hardware/800/execsummary.html
IBM Corporation. (2007b). IBM iSeries Navigator. Retrieved October 22, 2007 from http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries/navigator/newv5r1.html
Stair, R.M. & Reynolds, G.W. (2008). Fundamentals of Information Systems, A Managerial Approach, 4th edition. Boston: Thompson.
SunGard. (2007a). HTE NaviLine. Retrieved October 22, 2007, from http://www.sungard.com/hte/default.aspx?id=682
SunGard. (2007b). HTE NaviLine. Retrieved October 6, 2007, from http://www.sungard.com/hte/ default.aspx?id=684
SunGard. (2007c). HTE NaviLine. Retrieved October 6, 2007, from http://www.sungard.com/hte/ default.aspx?id=663