Work Related Project Analysis
The analysis of a system is a required and formal investigation which must be done in order to assist a person or an organization in a decision making process. Better choices or decisions are made with a system analysis than without (Kay R, 2002). Identification of the underlying issues or the main complaints made by a client must be included as part of the system analysis. Problems and alternative methods including the risks and benefits of the alternative methods must be assessed as well as part of the system analysis. For the consumers and development team to make the best choice from the several improvement methods, it is important to consider these risks and benefits (Kay R, 2002). Personal and cooperate plans, development, and other services typically use the system analysis in directing decision making.
The Reliable Pharmaceutical Services
Some health care organizations offer pharmaceutical services to other health care delivery organizations that do not have the ability to run such services. The book ‘System Analysis and Design in a Changing World’ by John W. Satzinger, Robert B. Jackson and Stephen D. Burd illustrates this by the use of a case study of a Pharmaceutical company, The Reliable Pharmaceuticals Services. In this case study, the pharmaceutical services are offered or provided to hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation homes. These health care facilities have to ability to make prescription orders on the telephone to the organization that offers pharmaceutical services and have their orders delivered to them at the facilities. This ability offers fewer burdens to the health care facilities. According to Satzinger, Jackson and Burd, more often than not, the health care facilities have standing orders with the pharmacy. This means that they get a constant supply of the same products in monthly, weekly or even daily intervals. The facility will keep receiving the product until they call the pharmacy to cancel the order. In a little history about the Reliable Pharmaceutical Services, it was started back in 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Satzinger, Jackson, & Burd, n.d.). Demand for their services has been really high leading to the company’s huge success and fast growth. Information systems like computer based systems are user by the Reliable Pharmaceutical Services. These computer based systems have excel spreadsheets, order entry, billing, access database, and inventory management tools installed in them to assist with the organization and accuracy of outputs (Satzinger, Jackson, & Burd, n.d.). Due to the price controls in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements back in 2004, this pharmaceutical company started losing its profits. Some of the health care facilities that the company had contracts with lost their Medicare and Medicaid privileges and thus, could not keep up the contracts. This also led to a lost in profits for the Reliable Pharmaceutical Services Company. As years went by, there have been an increased number of national retail pharmacy chains like the CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Wal-Mart, etc. Walgreens for example can be found in some hospitals. This increase has led to a lot of competition which has there led to the reduced profits of the Reliable Pharmaceutical Services Company. With this situation at hand, the company had to take certain majors to mitigate the risk of going out of business. They had to accurately evaluate the situation and come up with ways to save the business. In doing so they would have to cut down in spending costs and simultaneously improve the quality of the services rendered to their clients. The management department had to take a serious look at the way they ran the business, breaking down each component and analyzing it completely to find out whether they could find a solution.
Money Saving and Staffing Needs of the Reliable Pharmaceutical Services
Saving money is always a good option when trying to keep a business running. The question is, ‘what did Reliable Pharmaceutical Services do to save money?’ First, they look at how many employees the company had on their staff and compared that to the staffing needs of the company. After the staffing assessment was done, the Reliable Pharmaceutical Services realized there were certain positions within the company that needed immediate staffing. In this case, even though the company needed to save money, increasing the number of staff members would help save the business because the positions which needed to be filled were crucial positions which needed specific skills and qualifications. The company needed to hire about eleven information systems personnel who would be running its operations and managements. Three of these new hires would be working within the company while the other eight would be travelling outside the company as needed (Satzinger, Jackson, & Burd, n.d.). Before hiring the information systems personnel, the hiring managers have certain skills and qualities they are looking for in the person they want to hire. In the case of the Reliable Pharmaceutical Services, the applicants needed to possess at least a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology or Computer Science, and have some experience in Information Technology strategies which would apply to the company. In addition, the applicants must possess very good communication skills since they would be dealing with clients, they have to be very dependable and be able to resolve issues with the use of logic. Talking about dependability, the company needs employees who can be on call and be available to work overtime since things can go wrong with the system at any given time and will need immediate fixing. The Web and wireless technology are very crucial tools that are used within the information systems. The RPS information systems would need the web for example, to quickly gather data about anything that has is linked to the system including clients’ information, businesses, etc. It also collects data about any changes made to the system that could be risky or beneficial to the system. According to Gokalp, the web helps facilitate communication with business clients by allowing them the chance to input their ideas and reviews, and even place their orders online. Many computer systems can be connected within the Reliable Pharmaceutical services (RPS) network with the use if the wireless technology. This reduces the burden of having cables and wires all over the place making the work areas look disorganized. The wireless technology helps the company save money.
Waterfall Approach
The RPS has implemented a new prescription and billing system and now has the project of getting one of its clients, a nursing home connected to the new system. To get this done, the company has decided to use the waterfall approach of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). This approach lays everything out for the entire project, making it easy to predict the outcome. The right scope must be put in place and everything necessary must be done in order to avoid any form of tasks being skipped or added in the middle of the project. Scope creeping must be avoided. This can cause the entire project to fail or have an outcome other than the expected outcome (Satzinger, Jackson, & Burd, n.d.). It is therefore very crucial to have all needed data needed for each step or phase of the process and follow the steps strictly. With the waterfall approach, you can’t skip a step or a phase without completing it. Doing so will cause to project to fail. You might not even be able to start the next phase without completing the phase you are in. It is important to use different techniques to gather data to use for the project. RPS did use some good techniques. They had face-to-face interviews with their clients during which they got information about the clients’ needs and concerns (Satzinger, Jackson, & Burd, n.d.). RPS also analyzed their clients by reading the clients’ documents and conducting some research. Other options would be to send out questioners and conduct some surveys. At the end, the project was a success after the analysts had done their analysis and evaluations. All goals were met.
Conclusion
To conclude, system analysis is a crucial and formal procedure that must be conducted in order to help people or companies make wise decisions. During any system development, improvement or implementation plan, a system analysis should be done. In the RPS case study, the company is able to provide services to clients like the nursing homes and hospitals because they have a reliable system. Their clients can make telephone others and have the orders delivered to them. Due to factors named above, RPS was at risk of going out of business but they carefully planned a strategic method of saving the company and they succeeded, thanks to the good analysis made on the system. References
Gokalp, D. (2013). Reliable Pharmaceutical. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/phcqt26pstdo/reliable-pharmaceutical/
Kay, R. (2002). System Development Life Cycle. Retrieved from http://www.computerworld.com/article/2576450/app-development/app-development-system-development-life-cycle.html
Satzinger, J. W., Jackson, R. B., & Burd, S. D. (n.d.). Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World (5th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage learning.