Information System Assignment - Doc

An Information System for
Stakeholders of a State University
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Executive Summary
It is important for a university to analyze existing activity system within
the overall business of the university suffering from the issues as well as
requirements enhancement. In the present study, the existing information
system is evaluated and key issues have been found. It helps to obtain
specific requirements and implement new information system within the
human activity system of the organization. The study also discusses an
overall analysis of the business of the university. The Rich picture is
displayed that displays the issues as well as concerns of the identified
stakeholders. Recommendations and reflection are explained that would
be helpful for the university to improve overall business activity.
Keywords: human activity system, information management system
1. Introduction
The study reports on analyzing an existing system within the overall business of the
university that suffers from issues and requirements enhancement. In addition,
information about the university and related information about the strategy that can
compete in the marketplace and operations are explained in the present study. In order
to gain maximum advantages in the operational activity of an organization, it is
important to exploit all of its capacities. Adoption of an effective information system
through processing of data from an organization inputs to produce information, which
would be useful to manage the operation. Thus, in order to increase the effectiveness of
the operation, adoption of effective information system would be useful. In this
perspective, the study has been conducted based on existing human activity system and
find the issues in that; so that new information system can be proposed for obtaining
competitive advantages in the matter. The organizational form, value chain of
University of South Australia and competitive strategy are discussed in the study. On
the other hand, existing human activity cause problem for the university is analyzed in
the study. In this perspective, a new information system for supporting human activity
system of the university is proposed in the present study. In the present paper,
University of South Australia has been selected as a case study.
Assignment Report – 1410ICT or 7610ICT (omit one)
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2. Part 1: An overall evaluation of the business of the
university2.1 Part 1- Information about university and relevant information about
regarding strategy competing for market place and operations
The University of South Australia is one of the public research universities in South
Australia. The university is known as the largest university located in South Australia
has more than 32000 students (Prokopy et al. 2015). The university was founded in the
present form in 1991 merging with South Australian Institute of Technology along with
College of Advanced Education.
The environment of information management of the university has been changed
radically in last few years with developing the new system as well as enhancing the
system. The system is potentially outstripping the capacity to manage as well as exploit
the stakeholders. As a result, a situation has been generated where the role of the
information management has undergone a dramatic transformation. The changing
nature of higher education and pressure placed on the institutions in order to satisfy
several stakeholders. In this situation, the role of information is perceived to be
increased rapidly significantly in identifying the needs of stakeholders. Additionally,
initiatives taken by the particular commissions to enhance information strategies of the
organizations cause some issues and conflict in the university.2.2 Part 1- Organizational form of the university utilizing Mintzberg’s
classification
An organization form defines the procedure of activities like task allocation;
coordination as well as supervision can be diverted towards achieving the aim of the
organization (Schurr et al. 2017). Mintzberg's model analyzes the organization into five
generic elements that consider the role of each associated with coordination of its
activities like strategic apex, operating core, techno structure and support staff as well
as the middle line.
Figure 1: Human activity system
(Source: Li et al. 2014, p.515)
The strategic apex of the University of South Australia is developed by the principals
and senior faculties. The role is to interpret the mission of the university and ensure
objectives to be consistent. On the other hand, the operating core of the organization
carries out specific activities essential for delivering outputs (Arnetz et al. 2015).
However, techno-stricture of the University of South Australia is developed by key
individuals as well as teams working in functions like human resources, training,
planning, and finance. According to Mintzberg, analyzers of the institution decide the
best methods for performing jobs and search for standard skills, whereas planners take
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Information System for Stakeholders of State University
a decision on outputs and define quality needs. On the other hand, supporting staffs like
faculties work in such functions like research.2.3 Part 1- Value chain of the university using Porter’s value chain
model]
The concept of an educational organization as a system is developed by subsystems like
the process of outputs and transformation. It includes consumption as well as
acquisition of the resources like money, materials as well as outputs (Somchart et al.
2016). The activities can be divided into primary or secondary activities. The value
chain consists of primary activities and supporting activities. Logistics, marketing, and
sales are included in primary activities. On contrary, the support activities consist of
infrastructure, development of technology as well as academic standard. The
educational value chain is known as a graphic tool and used as a route in order to follow
determined value added by the technology.
Figure 2: value chain of the university
(Source: Combemale et al. 2014, p.11)
The Porters value chain provides an idea of designing different value chains. Due to the
nature of the particular services, it requires another version of the value chain. Primary
attributes of the value chain for services are designing service, delivery systems
management, management of knowledge and moment of truth management as well as
services competition management. Thus, it is important to implement the effective
system that can provide a potential outcome for the university.2.4 Part 1- Analysis of competitive strategy of the university using
Porter’s competitive forces model
Porter’s five forces include five elements that can be applied to analyze competitive
strategy of the university.The threat of the entry of new competitors: Public universities are generally very
large organizations with administrative operations, invaluable brands, alumni base, and
pervasive facilities, which have legacy over hundred years old. The existence of
intellectual property within the university allows facing threats for the organization
(Westerman et al. 2014). On the other hand, the opening of new universities with a
number of facilities and online learning centers become a threat of the entry of new
competitors.The intensity of competitive rivalry: The organizations within the higher education
industry have exceedingly high fixed for operating capacity as measured through the
process of enrolment for including a chance to realize competitive economies of the
particular scale. On the other hand, the profit segment is generally executed and most
of the organization's lease spaces for the classroom. It does not include facilities like
residential accommodations and includes limited resources. Additionally, it does not
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give tenure tracks for the faculty employees. Thus, it results in lower fixed costs for the
organization.The bargaining power of customers: There are additional elements influencing the
degree of buyer power to the industry (Laudon and Laudon 2016). A developing market
diminishes buyer power that is effective for the industry. Public and private universities
have a target to recruit 15 to 25% of high school classes with predictable as well as
unintended consequences of the market segment in order to select particular options.The bargaining power of suppliers: In the specific case, the degrees of supplier
concentration as well as supplier significance for higher education industry are
essentially on the same side of an economic coin. If few of the suppliers to the specific
industry have necessary elements for the industry, the power of supplier will be high
relative to the different industry.The threat of service substitutions: The strategy of the university has some
limitations that consist of an unintended consequence of minimization of switching cost
between public universities. The overall evaluation of threat for substituting is
considered as high. Thus, it is not beneficial to the industry incumbent.
3. Answer to Part 2: Analysis of an existing human activity
system that is problematic3.1 Part 2- An existing human activity system supporting the university
detected by stakeholders as problematic
Issues of culture, as well as world view and their impact on the process of learning and
working in university like University of South Australia, have become increasingly
significant to practitioners along with teachers. Academic organizations like the
University of South Australia have faculty members seeking to evaluate own cultural
makeup and possible impact of development or expansion in the global online learning
environment. In the University of South Australia, the admission process is processed
through a number of steps. At first, it is required to fill out forms and inspect (Irish et
al. 2014). If the form is found as incorrect, it is canceled; whereas correct form is
displayed as correct student forms. After checking the application list, it is checked
whether it is included in the list or not. If it is not included in the list, it is canceled. On
the other hand, listed candidates apply to university. On listed candidates are checked
for creating student record. On the other hand, fees are paid. If fees are paid, payment
is processed and receipt is printed. Even though the existing system has potential
benefits, there are some limitations in the existing system of the university such as
searching for an application in the system is missing in the system.
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