Importance Of IT Implementation For Non-Profit Healthcare Organizations: Essay On Silver Chain Group.

The Need for IT in Non-Profit Healthcare Organizations

Number of organizations and the presence of the organizations in the business sectors are increasing. These organizations are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that they incorporate latest technological measures in their work culture and business actions. The work that is required to be done by non-profit organizations is even difficult as they have limited resources and a huge amount of work to be accomplished. Silver Chain Group is an organization that comes under the category of not for profit Australian organizations. It works in the domain area of healthcare and medical assistance providing community services to people (Silverchain, 2016). The organization has begun to feel the need for IT in its business actions and procedures due to its expansion.   

It has been close to 120 years that this organization is working towards the betterment of community and is making use of new and advanced practices for the same. The stakeholders such as people of Australia, permanent and temporary employees, volunteers and partner organizations with Silver Chain Group are increasing day by day. Due to the strong establishment of the organization in the community, there are many new projects and requests that come up. All of these factors bring in a lot of information and data along with them. This data and information is necessary to be managed in such a way that the aims of the organization are achieved and there is no mis-use of inefficient handling observed. Such capabilities can be assured only with the use of IT. Need of IT in the communication system is also evident (LeMay, 2014).

Silver Chain Group is an organization that is spread in the most parts of Australia and it does not confine to a single office or a limited number of clients that need to be managed. The organization is working for the people and there are various intermediary agencies and partners that are involved. Apart from these entities, the organization has its own full-time and part-time employees and volunteers that spread across the several service areas to execute the activities. Integration and collaboration of all of these entities is necessary which can be made possible only through IT. Without the presence of IT, these units will be left separated and will also not be able to combine and compile their results and processes completed. The aims and objectives of the organization will therefore become difficult to achieve and continuity of the services will be put at stake.

IT Implementation in Silver Chain Group

IT does not only mean the use of advanced packages that will automate each and every task or activity. However, it also refers to the use of technology in management and leadership. The management of the Silver Chain Group will be able to easily track the services and actions and will be able to form better directions and strategies. In such a manner, the business aims will be easily achieved and it will also aid in the smooth continuity of the services and operations. IT therefore will have a huge role to play in the survival of the business activities.

The primary requirement for using IT in the organization will be the presence of a portal which shall be linked to a database for information storage and processing (Delimiter, 2016). The same can be done through a web based application to be developed for the users and employees integrated with the database and communication system. The following phases will be required to use IT.  

1. Planning

In this phase the methodology, scope, approach and costs along with the schedule shall be determined regarding the application. 

2. Requirement Analysis

Information gathering and requirement analysis shall be carried out by investigating the entities at the Silver Chain Group. The requirements shall then be converted in the form of stories and scenarios. 

3. Design and Development

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) principles shall be used in the application design and development will be required to be carried out through agile framework. 

4. Implementation

The management of changes and integration of the application with other system in the Silver Chain Group will be essential and will be required to be carried out in this step. 

5. Testing

Testing of the application shall be done with the aim to find the defects present in the application so that they may be corrected (Softwaretestinghelp, 2016). 

6. Deployment and Maintenance

The application shall be deployed and released once the testing is complete and there are no critical and major bugs present (Ghahrai, 2015). Maintenance activities will also be essential to be carried out regularly.

7. Training

Trainings shall be provided to the end users and the employees.

The business shall use IT through the application and database that will be developed for the organization.

• The first step that will be required for the business to use IT will be the granting of access to the users for the application and the database. It shall be provided to the employees, administrator and the other users groups.
• The database will be an important part of the IT infrastructure of the organization and the senior management and administrators shall have its access. It shall be used by the business for information storage along with various other data related operations such as data processing, analysis, maintenance, management and extraction of several reports.
• The communication system will be installed in the application as one of its important functionalities. This communication system will allow the application users to communicate and share information with each other. The volunteers and employees working in various areas of Australia can easily seek advice and share details of work with their sub-ordinates and leaders through the application.
• The management will be able to track the resources and other entities associated with the organization through the application by making use of the location based services.
• Communication and interaction with people will be essential for the organization to offer the services in the correct direction. The same will be made possible with the use of the application which is a component of IT itself.

• There are currently several issues and problems that have been observed in association with the state of information handling and management. These issues include inefficient management as there are cases of duplicity and loss that are reported. The organization will be able to overcome these issues by storing and managing its information securely and there will also be automatic backups that will be taken to store the information adequately.  
• The aim and primary goal of the organization is to improve the state of health and care in the communities of Australia. The purpose will be served and aims will be achieved in a better manner as the management will have the required information available that will assist in decision making, problem solving and strategy making activities.
• The people for whom the organization will be working for will be satisfied in a better manner as there will be higher transparency and level of interaction that will be created between the two entities. The people will also be able to bring forward their specific concerns and problems through the application which will be resolved and acted upon.
• The partners and staff members of the organization will also be happier and satisfied because the IT application and tools will allow them to not carry out any unnecessary or replicated activity. A lot of time will be saved because of this and the time and effort will be used and applied in other areas.

The major risks that IT will introduce in business will be the information security risks. There will be many occurrences that may come up due to the involvement of IT. These risks will include attack of certain malware such as viruses and spyware that may lead to information breaching (Spychecker, 2016). There may also be many of the network security risks that may come up in the form of integrity attacks such as alteration of media contents or the man in the middle attacks. Availability of the application will be very essential as the use of IT will be possible through the application only. However, denial and other flooding attacks may have a negative effect on the availability of the application (Digitalattackmap, 2016). It may also be possible that the employees of the Silver Chain Group pass on the information related to the organization with their friends and other unauthorized entities that may result in loss. There are many occurrences in which the attackers take and adapt the form of a real entity such as the attacker may trick the users by impersonating as Silver Chain Group and these attacks are termed as spoofing attacks (Ttu, 2016).

Phases of IT Implementation

There may also be other forms of risks that IT may bring to the business in the form of legal risks. These risks will emerge when the private and confidential information of the customers will be put at risk. There may also be many attacks in the form of quality and ethical risks wherein there may be issues related with non-adherence or non-compliance to the standards and policies.

Silver Chain Group will be required to maintain as well as monitor IT such as the application and the database that will be installed and deployed. There are several ways which may be used for the purpose and they have been listed below.

• Security risks and attacks shall be controlled, prevented and detected using the following measures:
  • Basic security of the application and database shall be improved with the use of firewalls, anti-threat tools, proxy servers and enhanced vigilance.
  • Advanced technical controls shall be used such as intrusion detection packages, anti-malware packages, automatic backup schemes for database, networking tracking packages and likewise.
  • Information present in the application and the database deployed in the Silver Chain Group shall be encrypted.
  • Management, security teams and leadership shall evaluate the application performance and the performance of the database by validating and verifying the contents and activities present in it.
• Legal risks and attacks shall be avoided by adhering to the legal policies and regulatory guidelines. There shall also be check on the contractual terms, licensing requirements and a check on the security attacks shall be applied.
• Ethical risks shall be avoided by providing trainings and sessions to the employees and other end users on the ethical standards and practices to follow.
• Quality risks shall be avoided by providing trainings and sessions to the employees and other end users on the quality standards and practices to follow.

Conclusion

IT has become an extremely significant and required element for the organizations and the users. There is hardly any organization that is present nowadays that does not use or involve any of the IT components and is running successfully. Silver Chain Group is an organization that comes under the category of not for profit Australian organizations. It works in the domain area of healthcare and medical assistance providing community services to people. Due to the strong establishment of the organization in the community, there are many new projects and requests that come up. All of these factors bring in a lot of information and data along with them. This data and information is necessary to be managed in such a way that the aims of the organization are achieved and there is no mis-use of inefficient handling observed. Such capabilities can be assured only with the use of IT. Without the presence of IT, these units will be left separated and will also not be able to combine and compile their results and processes completed. The aims and objectives of the organization will therefore become difficult to achieve and continuity of the services will be put at stake. The management of the Silver Chain Group will be able to easily track the services and actions and will be able to form better directions and strategies. The IT shall be applied in Silver Chain Group in the form of a web based application. Phases such as planning, requirement analysis, design and development, implementation, testing, deployment, maintenance and training will be required to apply IT in the organization. It will also be required to provide login access and make use of the functionalities of the application and database correctly. IT will provide several benefits to the business in the form of improved decision making, better information handling, better customer and employee satisfaction. There may be many risks that IT may bring to the business in the form of security risks, legal risks, quality and ethical risks. It may also be possible that the employees of the Silver Chain Group pass on the information related to the organization with their friends and other unauthorized entities that may result in loss. There are many occurrences in which the attackers take and adapt the form of a real entity such as the attacker may trick the users by impersonating as Silver Chain Group. These risks will be required to be controlled through adequate monitoring and maintenance. There shall be use of advance security framework along with better policies to put a check on the risks.  

References

Delimiter. (2016). [online] Available at: https://delimiter.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/NBX-Case-Study_Silver-Chain_Mobility.pdf [Accessed 31 May 2017].

Digitalattackmap. (2016). Digital Attack Map. [online] Available at: https://www.digitalattackmap.com/understanding-ddos/ [Accessed 31 May 2017].

Ghahrai, A. (2015). SDLC Phases - Software Development Life Cycle. [online] Testing Excellence. Available at: https://www.testingexcellence.com/software-development-life-cycle-sdlc-phases/ [Accessed 31 May 2017].

LeMay, R. (2014). Android in the enterprise: Three Aussie examples from Samsung | Delimiter. [online] Delimiter. Available at: https://delimiter.com.au/2014/04/14/android-enterprise-three-aussie-examples-samsung/ [Accessed 31 May 2017].

NueMD. (2013). The importance of proper IT implementation in healthcare. [online] Available at: https://www.nuemd.com/news/2015/07/20/importance-proper-implementation-healthcare [Accessed 31 May 2017].

Silverchain. (2016). Silver Chain Group. [online] Available at: https://www.silverchain.org.au/wa [Accessed 31 May 2017].

Softwaretestinghelp. (2016). What is Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)?. [online] Available at: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/what-is-software-testing-life-cycle-stlc/ [Accessed 31 May 2017].

Spychecker. (2016). What is spyware and adware?. [online] Available at: https://www.spychecker.com/spyware.html [Accessed 31 May 2017].

Ttu. (2016). Scams – Spam, Phishing, Spoofing and Pharming | Be in Charge of Your Digital Life | CPI: Lubbock | TTU. [online] Available at: https://www.ttu.edu/cybersecurity/lubbock/digital-life/digital-identity/scams-spam-phishing-spoofing-pharming.php [Accessed 31 May 2017].