EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNICATION
Executive Summary
The operating contract agreement lays down the system upgrade period. The upgrading though aimed at stabilizing the software seems not to bear the expected fruits. The update, however, seems not to be handling most of the issues which if rectified can help our organization achieve efficiency and effectiveness in operations. Among the problems that our technical team would like corrected about the software have been identified and require your immediate attention. The software has given the organization a competitive edge over the close competition, but the downtime is profoundly affecting its effectiveness. Among the issues identified include, lack of interface integration with the firm’s core departments making the record keeping to be challenging to undertake. The information recorded by the same system in one section fails to be transmitted to the other necessary users. The healthcare serves many different clients, the health status of these patient depends on the patient’s records. The system is reported to having problems within the record keeping interface. Due to this, the organization is at the verge of losing vital data which is necessary for future treatment of its patients. The system also has some issues with self-registrations the off-premises registration by the patient. The patient has in recent past recorded dissatisfaction when required to register again when they visit the premises. Poor communication between the two organizations has been attributed to identified as the primary cause of this software ineffectiveness. Proper communication between the organization’s information technology department and the software support team is necessary to influence the software effectiveness.
Strategic planning needs to be undertaken to ensure that there is a collaboration between the two organizations to promote the applicability of the software. One of the identified strategies is ensuring that the system upgrading period is flexible. Under this, the organization seeks to ensure health care operations undertake that system upgrading. Despite the operating contract, the update during working hours has been seen to cause a lot of operational hardships to the employees. The update of the system, therefore, should be scheduled within the time when the activities within the organization are minimal (Jan, Shah, Johar, Shah & Khan 2016). The approach will help reduce data loss as a result of irregular upgrading of the system. Through the implementation of this strategy, operational efficiency will be improved productivity effectiveness promoted. The upgrading happening within the service delivery time has led to poor service provided to the patients and loss of business for the hospital. Rescheduling of the time in which the updates takes place, therefore, may improve service delivery.
Secondly, the vendor ought to provide notification before the updating process. The employees have always been caught off-guard during the upgrades affecting their job performance. Due to this the organization suggests that they have to notified before any upgrading happens. The approach is aimed at ensuring the employees are prepared to handling the system downtime, therefore, reducing the implications caused due to the upgradation process(Jan, Shah, Johar, Shah & Khan 2016). Through notification, the vendor will provide the organization with the underlying benefits from the up-gradation. The organization through its employee should be in a position to delay the upgrading to a more appropriate time in the future. Through this, the employees will have control over the system and thus be able to take charge of the entire operation.
Thirdly the organization suggests that the vendor stabilizes their software swiftly. Under this, the organization wants to ensure that the software provided serves the intended purpose. Despite numerous upgrading to the software every department complains of the shortcoming of the software. The vendors thus ought to ensure that their product serves the intended purposes for which they were acquired. Future upgrading, therefore, should be based on the raised issues by the organization IT department. The software upgrade should be informed by the technical team, through this the organization will ensure that the software upgrading is not only based on stabilizing the system but also its functionality aspect. The approach will promote productivity among the employees and build employees loyalty and trust to the vendor’s product, therefore, improving the customer-vendor relationship thus promoting business performance.
Negotiation with the key stakeholders on the aspect of upgradation is another necessary strategy. The vendors have shifted from their old server to a cloud server. However, this is causing operational challenges for the healthcare with the firm risking data loss with the current shifting. The negotiation is aimed at ensuring that their upgrade will not be violating the contractual agreement. Through this, the healthcare will always be prepared on the impacts of a given update and therefore take necessary measures to ensure that they are ready for the upgrade (Estill, Salazar-Vizcaya, Blaser, Egger & Keiser, 2015). Under this, the vendors will be able to operate objectively and design the product that is stable and matches the current market needs. The healthcare, on the other hand, will have software precisely tailored for them.
Redefining of the priority levels, under this, these levels should not be determined by the vendor but by the clients. The vendor should operate in a customer-oriented approach, under this, the customer’s needs, therefore, will dictate the priority level of the service required. Under this, the organization seeks to ensure that their issues are prioritized and solved within a timely manner. The process will ensure that the upgradation undertaken is aimed at meeting the clients need and want rather than based on the vendors perspective (Krini, & Börcsök, 2015). The approach will promote vendor-firm relationship and ensure mutual benefits for the parties. The healthcare on its pat will operate efficiently and therefore attracting more customers. On the other hand, the vendor’s software will end up becoming stable and objectively designed rather than just being stable but ineffective.
Although the benefits accrued as a result of technological advancement there arises challenges, which the organization faces in creating an information technology infrastructure. The major hurdle is having skilled labor to tackle the progress and oversee the transition. The organization IT department has been unable to control the current issues with the software (Bishop et al., 2014). The reason behind this challenge may be that the IT team is inadequately skilled to handle the issue, the organization, therefore, ought to invest in employee training and development. This will ensure that the Information and Technology team is well prepared for any upcoming issues. The best aspect about the current software is its ability to upgrade itself. The technology, therefore, gives the organization a competitive advantage not only currently but also shortly.
Technological advancement provides an opportunity to increase customer base. The increased market is due to increased quality standards offered at the hospital. Proper integration of the software, to effectively serve its intended functionality will promote quality service delivery. Service recovery initiatives through the use of the integrated software will help attract future customers for the hospital. Through the position assigned I will push for resource allocation to facilitate the implementation of the identified ideas, to promote organizational growth and expansion.
References
Bishop, P., Bloomfield, R., Littlewood, B., Popov, P., Povyakalo, A., & Strigini, L. (2014). A conservative bound for the probability of failure of a 1-out-of-2 protection system with one hardware-only and one software-based protection train. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 130, 61-68.
Estill, J., Salazar-Vizcaya, L., Blaser, N., Egger, M., & Keiser, O. (2015). The cost-effectiveness of monitoring strategies for antiretroviral therapy of HIV infected patients in resource-limited settings: software tool. PLoS One, 10(3), e0119299.
Jan, S. R., Shah, S. T. U., Johar, Z. U., Shah, Y., & Khan, F. (2016). An Innovative Approach to Investigate Various Software Testing Techniques and Strategies. International Journal of Scientific Research in Science, Engineering, and Technology (IJSRSET), Print ISSN, 2395-1990.
Krini, J., & Börcsök, J. (2015, November). The basic concept for the selection of an appropriate “Software Failure Prediction Model.” In Complex Systems (WCCS), 2015 Third World Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Work flow.
The process starts by identifying software operation efficiency in every department of the health facility, this is aimed at identifying performance deviation on the part of the software.
The activity is aimed at ensuring service recovery is achieved within the organization. The lost business due to system failure ought to be rectified and the businesses recovered if possible. The identified software performance issues will be addressed based on departmental approach so as to ensure each issue pertaining the project is effectively tackled. The operation will start by identifying software failure in each department. The identification will then be followed with assigning responsibility to whoever is responsible for the performance failure. The assigning of responsibility is aimed at ensuring that an employee will not be punished for the mistakes of the vendor and vise versa. Understanding the responsible party guides the health care in effective decision making, through this lack of operational skills on the part of the employees will be handled through training. The software failure will be assigned the developing vendor to tackle it so as to ensure efficiency in operations. The organization through the suggested strategies gives the guidelines on what should be done to ensure mutual benefits from the situation. A follow up process then is undertaken to ensure that the guidelines laid down are bearing fruits or not based on the intended results. Through the follow up process new opportunities are identified through which the organization can influence service recovery from the earlier system failures and delays. Implementation of these suggested approaches to ensure that the lost market is recovered and the new market developed for the healthcare facility.