Information systems and business informatics: an Australian German comparison

At last year's ACIS conference in Melbourne a panel titled 'IS: A discipline in crisis' discussed issues relating to be in disability of IS in Australia. It is not, however, just the Australian IS discipline that must deal with problems such as the need for better organisational structures and greater visibility in universities. This paper presents a comparison between the German Business Informatics discipline and the Australian Information Systems discipline. The objective is to provide another perspective on the IS discipline to raise new ideas and stimulate discussion with reference to the organisational structure of our discipline in universities.

Impact of nursing information systems on residential care provision in an aged care provider

The challenge of an ageing population has placed a great pressure on the Australian aged care sector in the coming decades. Technology-enabled solutions such as health information systems (HIS) can be seen as a way to improve care quality, safety and process efficiency. Compared to the overall healthcare sector, the adoption of HIS in the aged care sector has been slower. One reason for this is that aged care providers are not well informed therefore not yet convinced of the positive impacts of technology solutions on their service provision. This paper reports findings from an evaluation of the impact of HIS adoption at an aged care provider in Victoria. The evaluation was conducted in two distinct areas, residential aged care and residential disability services. Overall, the findings show positive impacts of the system on individual work of the care staff and on service provision of the organisation as well as suggesting opportunities for improvement in later implementation stages. The evaluation will also inform other aged care and disability service providers of the benefits of HIS and useful lessons in adoption of technology solutions.

Assimilating healthcare information systems in a Malaysian hospital

The importance of information systems/information technology (IS/IT) to healthcare organisations is being recognised today as paramount and critical in order to realise superior healthcare delivery. Successful assimilation of IS/IT, which is the central focus of this study, then becomes a key consideration in ensuring that IS/IT is appropriately and systematically deployed into a healthcare organisation. The key findings from this research indicate that there are people, process, technology and environment elements that should be considered as facilitators to the healthcare information systems (HIS) assimilation process, as well as barriers that the healthcare organisation should overcome throughout the entire assimilation process or at specific stages. This research, therefore, is not only topical but especially beneficial to management and administrators in the web of healthcare players as they grapple with trying to successfully assimilate HIS into their respective organisations. © 2014 by the Association for Information Systems.

Analysis of cultural conflict in the development of web-enabled information systems

The advent of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the emergence of Internet commerce have given rise to the web as a medium of information exchange. In recent years, the phenomenon has affected the realm of transaction processing systems, as organizations are moving from designing web pages for marketing purposes, to web-based applications that support business-to-business (WEB) and business-to-consumer (B2C) interactions, integrated with databases and other back-end systems (Isakowitz, Bieber et al., 1998). Furthermore, web-enabled applications are increasingly being used to facilitate transactions even between various business units within a single enterprise. Examples of some of the more popular web-enabled applications in use today include airline reservation systems, internet banking, student enrollment systems in universities, and Human Resource (HR) and payroll systems. The prime motive behind the adoption of web-enabled applications are productivity gains due to reduced processing time, decrease in the usage of paper-based documentation and conventional modes of communication (such as letters, fax, or telephone), and improved quality of services to clients. Indeed, web-based solutions are commonly referred to as customer-centric (Li, 2000), which means that they provide user interfaces that do not necessitate high level of computer proficiency. Thus, organizations implement such systems to streamline routine transactions and gain strategic benefits in the process (Nambisan & Wang, 1999), though the latter are to be expected in the long-term. Notwithstanding the benefits of web technology adoption, the web has ample share of challenges for initiators and developers. Many of these challenges are associated with the unique nature of web-enabled applications. Research in the area of web-enabled information systems has revealed several differences with traditional applications. These differences exist with regards to system development methodology, stakeholder involvement, tasks, and technology (Nazareth, 1998). According to Fraternali (1999), web applications are commonly developed using an evolutionary prototyping approach, whereby the simplified version of the application is deployed as a pilot first, in order to gather user feedback. Thus, web-enabled applications typically undergo continuous refinement and evolution (Ginige, 1998; Nazareth, 1998; Siau, 1998; Standing, 2001). Prototype-based development also leads web-enabled information systems to have much shorter development life cycles, but which, unlike traditional applications, are regrettably developed in a rather adhoc fashion (Carstensen & Vogelsang, 2001). However, the principal difference between the two kinds of applications lies in the broad and diverse group of stakeholders associated with web-based information systems (Gordijn, Akkermans, et al., 2000; Russo, 2000; Earl & Khan, 2001; Carter, 2002; Hasselbring, 2002; Standing, 2002; Stevens & Timbrell, 2002). Stakeholders, or organizational members participating in a common business process (Freeman, 1984), vary in their computer competency, business knowledge, language and culture. This diversity is capable of causing conflict between different stakeholder groups with regards to the establishment of system requirements (Pouloudi & Whitley, 1997; Stevens & Timbrell, 2002). Since, web-based systems transcend organizational, departmental, and even national boundaries, the issue of culture poses a significant challenge to the web systems’ initiators and developers (Miles & Snow, 1992; Kumar & van Dissel, 1996; Pouloudi & Whitley, 1996; Li & Williams, 1999).

Requirements engineering for web-based information systems

This chapter overviews the existing methods of requirements analysis as prescribed by some of the best-known web-development methods. It also discusses the pre-eminent importance of stakeholder analysis, identification of stakeholder views and concerns, and the processes governing elicitation of web systems requirements. The chapter finally derives a model of concern-driven requirements evolution from several case studies undertaken in the area of web-enabled employee service systems.

Use of geographical information systems as a tool for predicting fish yield in tropical reservoirs : case study on Sri Lankan reservoirs

Use of geographical information systems (GIS) in inland fisheries has hitherto been essentially restricted to site evaluation for aquaculture development and assessment of limnological changes in time and space in individual water bodies. The present GIS study was conducted on the land-use pattern of the catchments of nine reservoirs in Sri Lanka, for which detailed fishery data, viz. yield, fishing intensity, landing size of major constituent species, together with selected limnological data such as conductivity and chlorophyll-a, were available. Potential statistical relationships (linear, curvilinear, exponential and second-order polynomial) of fish yield (FY, in kg ha−1 yr−1) to different land-use patterns, such as forest cover (FC, in km2) and shrub-land (SL, in km2), either singly, or in combination, and/or the ratio of each land type to reservoir area (RA in km2) and reservoir capacity (RC in km3), were explored. Highly significant relationships were evident between FY to the ratio of SL and/or FC+SL to RA and/or RC. Similarly, the above land-use types to RA and RC ratios were significantly related to limnological features of the reservoirs. The relationships of FY to various parameters obtained in this study were much better correlated than those relationships of FY to limnological and biological parameters used in yield prediction in tropical and temperate lacustrine waters previously.

Buxton silver gum reserve: using geographic information systems to investigate historic change in site integrity

Eucalyptus crenulata is a rare species known from only two populations. The Buxton Silver Gum Reserve was set aside in 1978 for the conservation of the species, but this objective may be compromised by changes in the integrity of the landscape immediately surrounding the Reserve. A time sequence of aerial photos and Geographic Information Systems technology has been used to identify patterns of landscape change, and aid in determining appropriate management strategies to minimize negative impacts caused by landscape fragmentation and habitat exposure

Walkability of local communities: using geographic information systems to objectively assess relevant environmental attributes.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used to objectively measure features of the built environment that may influence adults’ physical activity, which is an important determinant of chronic disease. We describe how a previously developed index of walkability was operationalised in an Australian context, using available spatial data. The index was used to generate a stratified sampling frame for the selection of households from 32 communities for the PLACE (Physical Activity in Localities and Community Environments) study. GIS data have the potential to be used to construct measures of environmental attributes and to develop indices of walkability for cities, regions or local communities.

Information systems development contracts : An exploratory study of Australian legal pratitioners' and information systems professionals' perceptions

IS professionals are primarily concerned with the development of a project to meet the goals of a client. Unfortunately, IS professional do not always pay close attention to the contract or to its management and are often unaware of the legal implications of the contracts to which they are assenting. Legal advice can be sought during pre-contractual processes to help ensure that the contract meets the expectations of all the parties. If the project does not meet stakeholder’s expectations, thus causing a contract to come into dispute, lawyers may be called in to review the contract and to seek a settlement. This paper reports an exploratory study of the differences in perceptions of IS development contracts that exist between IS professionals and legal practitioners.

eBusiness and information systems : academic programs in Australia and New Zealand in the e-Age

Universities are increasingly turning to ‘fashionable’ education programs to attract bright, high-quality students to both under-graduate and post-graduate degree programs. Traditional offerings in technology areas, such as Information Systems and Information Technology are being augmented by newer, more marketable degrees in areas such as eCommerce/eBusiness. This paper analyses the eCommerce/eBusiness and Information Systems (IS) / Information Technology (IT) academic programs in Australian and New Zealand universities on the basis of Kotler and Fox's service offering model of educational institutions; and considers what differences exist between these two apparently similar areas of academic endeavour. Finally we look at the trends of academic program delivery in the e-age and question whether universities need to take a more consumer-product approach to the issue of attracting appropriate students.

Investigating information systems analysts' possession of tacit organisational knowledge

Outsourcing of Information Technology (IT) services which are central to business strategy may be risky. Managers have made the outsourcing decision both to concentrate financially on the core competencies and to rid themselves of a troublesome and cost inefficient department. More recent research has, however, cast doubt on the promises of huge savings. In this paper, we consider the likelihood that outsourcing may lead to the loss of organisational knowledge - that organisations outsourcing their total Information Systems operations may also have lost irreplaceable tacit, cross-functional knowledge which subsisted within the minds of the professional systems analysts. The findings of our research revealed that expert systems analysts possess a unique organisational understanding and draw on this knowledge to operate efficiently in their environment. We present a model that will allow future researchers to build on our findings and examine whether outsourcing can lead to a loss of organisational memory.

Security management: an information systems setting

Information Systems have been used for many years to analyze problems and compare options in a managed environment. The introduction of computer and information security systems into such an environment is a typical example of a situation to which an Information Systems approach can be applied. In this paper, we examine the issues peculiar to implementation of security in a healthcare environment, looking specifically at one such specially designed system, SIM-ETHICS, which takes a participational approach.

Development of an instrument to evaluate the quality of delivered information systems

Delivered information systems are an integral part of many organisations’ information technology infrastructure. Their dynamic nature creates new challenges, not the least of which is the need to measure the quality/effectiveness of these systems. Given the size of investment in these systems, it would be invaluable for business to formulate a fresh, simple, easy to administer, multi-dimensional instrument capable of measuring the quality of delivered information systems or applications. Such an instrument would provide a practical and efficient means to pinpoint areas that key stakeholders, ranging from end-users to managers, perceive as requiring attention. In this paper, we report on the development of one such instrument. This instrument addresses key areas of performance and uses multiple statements to enhance stakeholders’ understanding of these areas.