Essay: Info Systems & Organizational Productivity - Coffee Constructions Australia.

Australian Construction Industry Overview

Coffee Constructions Australia (CCA) is an Australian based organization that was set up in the year 1973. Automatic robotic/construction technology or business productivity is not yet included in the company architecture as of now. The company is currently facing issues with management of its projects and it is having a negative implication on the reputation of the firm and the associated business opportunities. Jim Coffee is the Chief Construction Executive of the company and has decided to invest in the information systems to resolve the current set of issues. The report includes the details of the information systems that the organization may use and the benefits that may be gained out of the same.

The Australian Construction Industry has a total value of AUD 150 Billion annually and the total GDP associated with the industry is 9%. The industry experienced three-month high in January, 2018 (Scutt, 2018). Information technology and systems are being widely used in the construction industry all across the globe.

Coffee Constructions Australia (CCA) is growing at a rapid scale. Automatic robotic/construction technology or business productivity is not yet included in the company architecture as of now. The company is currently facing issues with management of its projects and it is having a negative implication on the reputation of the firm and the associated business opportunities.

Best Practices for Construction Companies 

There are certain practices that the construction companies shall follow to make sure that the maximum productivity, revenues, and efficiency levels are achieved.

• Employees are the primary assets of any industry and company. The employees engaged with the construction companies shall be managed adequately by allocating them with the skill sets as per the efficiencies and knowledge. (Novotny, 2017)
• Health and safety of the employees is one of the most significant aspects that shall be adhered to. It is because the construction workers and resources are exposed to the risks that may have extremely negative implications. There may be health and safety risks that may result in permanent or temporary injuries, loss of life, and likewise. Risk management must be the strong policy implemented in the company.
• Quality assurance and control is one of the practices that shall be followed by the construction companies so that the quality of the processes and outcomes are continuously improved upon.
• Sustainable construction is one of the practices that shall be adhered to. It must be kept in to consideration the environmental and energy consumptions and impacts, sustainable utilisation of the resources, and conduction of the activities as per the quality parameters (Constructionworld, 2018).

Implications for Information Systems 

There are implications for the information systems that are associated. The implementation of the information systems in the organization may lead to introduction of additional risks. There may be implementation issues, maintenance errors, and security attacks that may come up. There may be scenarios wherein the implementation of the information system may not be done adequately. This may lead to increased implementation and setup costs. There will be maintenance that will be involved with the system that may lead to certain issues and costs. Security is one of the areas wherein there may be security risks and attacks that may emerge. The information and data sets may be put at risk. All of such mechanisms may lead to negative implications on the organization in which the information system is implemented (Ramiller and Pentland, 2009).

The information systems may have positive implications in terms of cost-savings, increased collaboration, better accuracy, better flexibility and scalability, easier decision-making, faster processing speed, and a lot more. The data sets are collaborated and integrated with each other that may assist in problem-solving and decision-making processes. The organization will also have positive implications as an outcome (Alter, 2008). The use of information systems will assist in enhanced productivity and efficiency of the resources, better revenues and market shares for the organization.

Issues faced by Coffee Constructions Australia

Benefits of Future State 

The introduction and use of information systems in CCA will lead to automation of the business operations which will enhance the business productivity and accuracy. There will also be benefits in terms of revenues, profits, and market shares.

Business Value Proposition of CCA

The information systems that will be used at CCA will assist in the decision-making processes as the data will be combined in a central repository. The real-time and archived data sets will be available for the enhancement of operational efficiencies and customer services yielded by CCA. The systems will always remain available which will assist in the communication processes. The construction processes and activities will also be automatized and the project management activities will be streamlined. The main problem with CCA currently is the limited automation in the construction activities and the project management activities (Lee and Green, 2015). These will be enhanced.

Value	Customer	Opportunities
Financial	Jim Coffee and Business Partners of CCA	Increased profits and revenues
Technical	Employees of CCA	Automation of business processes to increase productivity and efficiency
Operational	Operational Staff Members of CCA	Faster processing speed and better accuracy
Social	Customers of CCA	Better quality of products and services
Functional	Employees of CCA	Streamlining of operations and ease of management

Support of IS for Business Functional Areas of CCA

Information System	Support provided to the business functional areas of CCA
Project Portfolio Management Systems	· Centralized management of projects, methods, portfolios, and procedures of CCA · Project selection for determining the return on investment
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems	· Integration of the activities at the back-end and the associated data sets for streamlining of the managerial and operational activities at CCA · Data integration and collaboration
Decision-Making &Decision Support Systems	· Problem-solving activities at CCA · The data sets of the CCA projects and methods will be integrated that will allow the management to take smart decisions for the organizations and individual project activities.
Finance Systems	· Budgeting and estimation activities · Cost-benefit analysis and budget tracking (Sommerville and Craig, 2006)
Human Resource Management System (HRIS)	· Human resources will be automatically allocated and deallocated to the projects on the basis of their skills sets. · Performance tracking and measurement of the resources will be adequately done.
Data Warehouse/BI	· Data analysis and warehousing will be done for the data sets of CCA retrieved from variable sources. · Automated analytics
Electronic Documents & Records Management System (EDRM)	· There will be contracts, records, and other documents that will be associated with CCA that will be automatically handled and managed.
Knowledge Management System (KM)	· Identification of the knowledge sources and creation of knowledge · Analysis, development, and storage processes will be automated.
Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)	· Customer support services · Customer interactions and solving of the queries
Sales/Marketing	· Sales and marketing activities · Strategy making & planning along with generation of sales report · Management of sales data will be adequately done

Use of Information Systems 

There are several information systems that are present and shall be used in CCA. Some of these information systems are Project Portfolio Management Systems, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems, Decision-Making & Decision Support Systems, Finance Systems, Human Resource Management Systems, Data Warehouse/BI, Electronic Documents & Records Management System (EDRM), Knowledge Management Systems, Customer Relationship Management System (CRM), and Sales/Marketing System. The automated modules and components are not yet included in the organization. The business productivity and automated construction activities are not included (Love, 2004). CCA is currently expanding at a rapid scale and the continuation of the execution of the business activities with the current architecture will not be able to cope up with the current procedures.

Information System	Use	Pros	Cons
Project Portfolio Management Systems	Centralized management of all the projects and methods carried out at CCA and to determine the return on investment for each project at the time of selection.	· Better decision making · Increased revenues for the organization · Value to the Stakeholders	The implementation errors and operational issues that may come up. The staff may also be resistant towards the changes.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems	Integration of the activities at the back-end and the associated data sets for streamlining of the managerial and operational activities at CCA	· Cost-Savings · Integrated information sets · Scalability of operations · Better collaboration and scalability	Enhanced cost of set-up, maintenance, and implementation. Expert skills may be needed for handling the system.
Decision-Making &Decision Support Systems	The data sets of the CCA projects and methods will be integrated that will allow the management to take smart decisions for the organizations and individual project activities.	· Easier decision-making · Better communications and collaborations · Better planning	The implementation errors and operational issues that may come up. The staff may also be resistant towards the changes.
Finance Systems	The information system will be used for budgeting and estimation activities along with cost-benefit analysis and budget tracking.	· Streamlined allocation of the funds · Enhanced tangible and intangible benefits	Enhanced cost of set-up, maintenance, and implementation. Expert skills may be needed for handling the system.
Human Resource Management System (HRIS)	Human resources will be automatically allocated and deallocated to the projects on the basis of their skills sets. Performance tracking and measurement of the resources will be adequately done.	· Better human resource satisfaction · Enhanced productivity and efficiency levels	The implementation errors and operational issues that may come up. The staff may also be resistant towards the changes.
Data Warehouse/BI	Data analysis and warehousing will be done for the data sets of CCA retrieved from variable sources.	· Better data security · Easy collaboration of the data sets	Enhanced cost of set-up, maintenance, and implementation. Expert skills may be needed for handling the system.
Electronic Documents & Records Management System (EDRM)	There will be contracts, records, and other documents that will be associated with CCA that will be automatically handled and managed.	· Better data security · Security of documents and records · Easy collaboration of the data sets	The implementation errors and operational issues that may come up. The staff may also be resistant towards the changes.
Knowledge Management System (KM)	The knowledge creation, analysis, development, and storage processes will be automated (Son et al., 2015).	· Organizational agility and scalability · Better communication · Smart decision-making and problem-solving (Yu, Lee and Kim, 2006)	Enhanced cost of set-up, maintenance, and implementation. Expert skills may be needed for handling the system.
Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)	The interactions with the customers and the customer support services will be automated.	· Enhanced customer engagement and satisfaction levels · Cost-savings · Increased revenues and profits	The implementation errors and operational issues that may come up. The staff may also be resistant towards the changes.
Sales/Marketing	Sales and marketing activities, strategy making & planning along with generation of sales report and management of sales data will be adequately done.	· Streamlining of sales data · Sales tracking and reporting · Better data management	Enhanced cost of set-up, maintenance, and implementation. Expert skills may be needed for handling the system.

Recommendations & Conclusion 

It is recommended that the information systems that are installed in CCA are done in a phased approach. There shall be adequate planning and analysis that shall be involved before selecting the information system to be implemented. The planned values and processes shall then be applied to carry out the implementation of the information systems. The use of such an approach will eliminate the probability of implementation errors and will automatically bring down the implementation costs. The security risks and attacks shall be managed and handled by integrating the systems with the security protocols and controls. There are technical security controls that shall be used to avoid the issues of information breaches, data loss, malware attacks, flooding attacks, and likewise. Administrative controls and policies shall also be used. Jim Coffee and other managerial resources must take include experts and consultants at the time of implementation of these systems in the organization.

The real-time and archived data sets will be available for the enhancement of operational efficiencies and customer services yielded by CCA. The systems will always remain available which will assist in the communication processes. The construction processes and activities will also be automatized and the project management activities will be streamlined. The introduction and use of information systems in CCA will lead to automation of the business operations which will enhance the business productivity and accuracy. There will also be benefits in terms of revenues, profits, and market shares.

References

Alter, S. (2008). Defining information systems as work systems: implications for the IS field. European Journal of Information Systems, 17(5), pp.448-469.

Constructionworld (2018). 6 Examples of Construction Accounting Best Practices - Construction World. [online] Construction World. Available at: https://www.constructionworld.org/construction-accounting-best-practices/ [Accessed 18 Sep. 2018].

Craig, N. and Sommerville, J. (2006). Information management systems on construction projects: case reviews. Records Management Journal, 16(3), pp.131-148.

Lee, L. and Green, E. (2015). Systems Thinking and its Implications in Enterprise Risk Management. Journal of Information Systems, 29(2), pp.195-210.

Love, P. (2004). Industry-centric benchmarking of information technology benefits, costs and risks for small-to-medium sized enterprises in construction. Automation in Construction, 13(4), pp.507-524.

Novotny, R. (2017). 6 Best Practices for Managing Construction Projects - eSUB Construction Software. [online] eSUB Construction Software. Available at: https://esub.com/6-best-practices-for-managing-construction-projects/ [Accessed 18 Sep. 2018].

Ramiller, N. and Pentland, B. (2009). Management Implications in Information Systems Research: The Untold Story. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 10(6), pp.474-494.

Scutt, D. (2018). Australia's construction sector is booming in early 2018. [online] Business Insider Australia. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/australia-construction-boom-2018-2018-3 [Accessed 18 Sep. 2018].

Son, H., Hwang, N., Kim, C. and Cho, Y. (2015). Construction professionals’ perceived benefits of PMIS: The effects of PMIS quality and computer self-efficacy. KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, 20(2), pp.564-570.

Yu, J., Lee, H. and Kim, W. (2006). Evaluation Model for Information Systems Benefits in Construction Management Processes. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 132(10), pp.1114-1121.