HI5019 - Strategic Info System: Ramsay Healthcare Case Study

This case study examines Ramsay Healthcare Limited's implementation of SAP IS-H as a strategic information system. It defines the company's business processes, including strategic service offerings, supply chain and resource planning, patient management, enterprise support, and collaborative care support. The study outlines functional and non-functional business requirements, system requirements, and the software and vendor selection process, highlighting the importance of ACA Pacific as a vendor. It explores how SAP technologies improve business efficiency through cost reduction, resource optimization, and enhanced patient satisfaction. Finally, the analysis evaluates potential security risks and data breaches and provides guidelines for mitigating these risks, emphasizing the importance of a well-implemented strategic information system for the overall success of Ramsay Healthcare.

HI5019
SIS (GROUP ASSIGNMENT)
A case study of healthcare industry – Ramsay
healthcare limited
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
1. Define business processes...................................................................................................4
2. Develop business requirement............................................................................................5
3. Determine the system requirement.....................................................................................6
4. Software and vendor selection............................................................................................7
5. Determine at least three (3) ways which companies or organizations utilize such
technologies to improve business efficiency..............................................................................8
6. Evaluate the level of efficiency of the technology implementation...................................9
7. Examine potential security risks, data breaches...............................................................10
8. Provide guidelines on how these risks could be mitigated...............................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
A strategic information system is one of the most important factors that need to be
implemented in an association for the overall development and success. This kind of
information will support the company in formulating various effective strategies that will
assist them in making good competition in the market. The current report has been developed
on the case study of Ramsay Healthcare Limited regarding the implementation of SAP IS-H
so as to perform a different kind of activities. In this report, there will be a proper discussion
in regards to the requirements of the business and system. The process of the whole business
is explained so as to know about the different activities as well as the application of software
in the system. Installment and procurement of SAP in the company will be analyzed to have
knowledge in regards to operational efficiencies. At the end of the assignment, there will be
an explanation of the data breaches and the security risks as well as guidelines will also be
provided for the purpose to mitigate such kind of risks and issues that may impact on the
business operations.
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1. Define business processes
Ramsay healthcare limited is a private organization that makes provision of the healthcare
services in the different areas of the world like Australia, UK, Malaysia, Indonesia, and
France. The company got established in the year 1964 in Sydney, Australia and are having
specialization in psychiatric care, rehabilitation and surgery. It is considered as the largest
provider of the healthcare facilities in Australia with around 100 of the operational facilities.
There is a different kind of processes that are being followed in an association after the
implementation of SAP, so as to provide effective facilities and services. These business
processes of the company can be explained as follows:
 Strategic service offering: These kinds of features supports the association to make the
performance of the health care services and make a proper analysis, manages the budget as
well as reporting and make optimization regarding relationships of partner (Galleries and
Leidner, 2014).
 Supply chain and resource planning: The solutions give supports to the operations of
logistics, management of staff as well as case costing. It enables the business to make the
development of an effective supply chain, makes good strategic decisions and will also make
a reduction in the cost.
 Patient management: Implementation of the SAP will support different activities of the
business to deal with patients by including control of price and coding, administration and
services of patients, preparation of invoice and payment management and resource
scheduling and planning.
 Enterprise support and management: With the support of different functions that address
the process of organizational management and the portfolio solution will Assists Company
manage finances, execute different operations, make delivery of corporate services and
support management of human capital.
 Collaborative care support: Such sort of functions make provision of the base for the
activities which will give support in regards with the coordinated care of the patient
regardless of the occurrence of the treatment (Vigersky, 2015). Medical activities and
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documentation can be captured; coordination can be made among treatment and diagnostic
activities and will carry out care, prevention as well as aftercare assistance.
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2. Develop business requirement
There are different kinds of business requirements in an organization dealing with healthcare
practices and services. For the proper implementation of the SAP in Ramsay Healthcare
Limited there are some non-functional as well as functional requirements that can be
described as follows:
 Functional requirement: The functional requirements make a specification that what will be
done by the implementation of the SAP. They make relation with the actions that the product
will be applied in such as way that will satisfy the different fundamental reasons for the
existence. Functional requirements are the major business requirements that must be fulfilled
in a healthcare industry. That is, if the conversation is being made with the business people,
they will make a proper description of the things which will be done by the product so as to
make completion of the work (Kawamoto et. al., 2014). There are different kinds of
functional requirements in the healthcare industry like maintenance of the data of patients,
preparation of the automated purchase, scheduling of different emergency services,
maintenance and recording of bills, generation of the accounting reports as well as updating
of the information in relation with a clearance of cheque.
 Non-functional requirement: These kinds of requirements are in relation to the properties
that must be there in the product. Such properties must be taken into consideration as the
qualities and characteristics that will support in making product reliable, fast, usable and
attractive. There is no requirement of such properties as they are described as the product’s
fundamental activities like manipulation of the data, computation etc. But all such things are
there due to the requirements of the clients for a particular service. Different non-functional
requirements are processing of salary, updating records of employees, the requirement of
safety and security and real-time information access (Hilty et. al., 2013).
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3. Determine the system requirement
This kind of requirement gives proper information regarding the basic configuration as well
as the setting that is being needed to make utilization of SAP in a Ramsay Healthcare
Limited.
The minimum requirement for hardware
 In SAP implementation, there is the requirement of Pentium 4 and 2.4 gigahertz.
 At least 2 GB of RAM in order to store different types of information (Galleries and Leidner,
2014).
The requirement of the network
 Minimum requirement
1. 1 Mbps downloading
2. 1 Mbps uploading
3. 200 ms latency
 Requirements as per users
1. 1 Mbps – small
2. 2 Mbps – medium
3. 4 Mbps – large
4. 10 Mbps – extra large
5. 20 Mbps – XXL for 500 users
 Supported system browser
1. Windows Vista
2. Window 7
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3. Window 8
4. Window 10
5. MAC OS * 10.6 or high
 Additional software
For the purpose to operate a business with the support of web application designing there is a
requirement of the following software:
 5.1 version of Microsoft silver light
 Adobe Reader 8.1.3 or higher
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4. Software and vendor selection
In a healthcare industry, it is very necessary to have a proper administration of the patient in
regards with its care and for this purpose; association must make the development of a proper
system that will support in maintaining and recording complete information of the patient.
Update of such kind of information must be done on a regular basis in order to convey
accurate information or data to the relevant users. Implementation of SAP will be very
helpful in solving different issues as well as problems that are being faced by Ramsay
Healthcare Limited. With the support of this kind of system, integration of the data from
different kinds of locations can be done in a proper manner (Vigersky, 2015). It will be very
supportive of the cited association as they are having their operations all around the globe and
the comparison of the data can be done for the analysis of the performance on a specific
location. The selection in regards to the particular software and vendor is very important for
the smooth business activities and operations.
Software selection
SAP gives support to the most significant procedures in a healthcare industry and supports in
giving the tool to assist in the management of the procedures so as to have great effectiveness
and efficiency. SAP has been developed by taking inputs from the industry, technical
expertise and customers and has acquired solution maps, research, and extensive experience.
They support in implementing, planning and visualizing comprehensive, coherent as well as
an integrated solution for the information technology. It also makes description regarding
how different procedures are covered, involving the procedures that are supported by SAP
and its partners. The solutions which are there in SAP in regards with the portfolio of
healthcare solutions are designed carefully so as to give support to the providers of healthcare
and hospitals (Kawamoto et. al., 2014).
Vendor selection
One of the most significant functions in the healthcare industry is to make identification of
the vendor because that is the person who is able to ascertain different kinds of business
requirement and give suggestion in regards with the Suitable and appropriate product. Also,
there should be genuine as well as reliable software as by making utilisation of such software,
the association will be capable of making utilization all the different features and functions
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being offered by the implementation of SAP software. By taking consideration regarding all
such things, the identification of the vendor that has been done regarding the purchase of the
software is ACA Pacific, an association that makes a specialisation in giving value-added
solution regarding software to the company. The particular vendor has been selected as the
firms' deals in giving similar services like cloud-based storage services, flash, tape, disk etc.
Apart from this, the firm also makes provision in regards to the business solution to the
associations by making provision of the encryption and network security systems (Vigersky,
2015).
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5. Determine at least three (3) ways which companies or organizations utilize such
technologies to improve business efficiency
SAP in the healthcare organisations makes delivery of the patient-centric solutions that are
being designed to face various challenges arise in front of healthcare providers and hospitals.
The solutions give support in the different collaborative activities that enable clinicians to
make sharing of information and make rapid and accurate decisions and also allow
administrators of a hospital to work in cooperation with public authorities, healthcare
providers, suppliers, and payers. Streamlined processes make enhancement in the efficiency
of different operations like ordering medical products, patient scheduling and admission,
staffing, financial accounting and data sharing and recording. There are different ways in
which utilization of such technology supports an association. It can be defined as follows:
 Develop savings and make the reduction in cost: By having the proper understanding in
regards to the drivers and origin of the cost is considered as the main point so as to make a
reduction in expenditure. The business functionalities regarding intelligence, analytical and
reporting in SAP regarding solutions of the healthcare make a reflection on end-to-end,
automated and fully integrated procedures significantly and directly make a reduction in the
processing cost. For instance, functions of logistics like decentralized replenishment,
integrated with the procurement and central inventory management allow for optimizing
inventory and order management of non-medical as well as medical products. The solution in
the SAP also supports in the identification of the additional opportunities of revenue (Thakur
et. al., 2012).
 Optimize utilisation of the resources: SAP in regards with the healthcare industry makes
optimisation for the occupancy of the available beds and efficiently make utilisation of the
various resources- involving materials, machines, and personnel with the support of effective
and informed planning. Functions of business intelligence support in predicting,
understanding and identifying trends of the patients, requirements of the resources and
equipment utilisation patterns. In addition, enhance the productivity of the employee’s
supports providers in making an efficient flow of the work and allows hospitals to make
improvement in the number of admissions in an effective manner while having proper
maintenance of the existing level of staff.
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 Increase satisfaction of patients and care quality: It is necessary for the providers of
healthcare to make increment in the care quality and also make improvement in the
experience of the patient. Automated, as well as streamlined processes, support clinicians to
quickly enter and find data by providing more time for the care of the patient (Haddad et. al.,
2014). SAP in regards to the solutions of the healthcare enables in offering numerous
communication and information channel to the patients that will make improvement in the
satisfaction.
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6. Evaluate the level of efficiency of the technology implementation
Introduction to the technological changes in Ramsay Healthcare Limited makes a
presentation of the various set of challenges for the administration so as to have the
competent administration of the project. Managers are responsible for the innovation as well
as the implementation of the technology in daily routine in order to guide the development of
the innovation instead of management of implementation. Where there is the management of
the technological changes, there should be serving of both technical implementers and
developers. The manager who makes implementation has to make integration in regards to
the needs as well as perspectives for both users and developers. The easiest way to make
implementation of the technology is to take it as an internal marketing and not making the
sale of the job (Hilty et. al., 2013). The SAP is being considered as one of the effective
solutions that can be applied in Ramsay to make improvement in the performance of the work
as it makes a reduction in the efforts of a human for making the performance of the different
activities and reduces errors.
Staffs, as well as employees, are considered as the heart of any business as they support in the
proper administration to achieve various objectives by performing different kinds of tasks.
SAP can be operated easily and is a user-friendly that makes enhancement in the output
quality. By making implementation of the SAP, there is the minimisation in the manual
entries and no requirement is there to double check as the customers can see the outputs in a
quick and easy manner (Wamba et. al., 2013). Also, this kind of application is very flexible
so the users will be able to make modification in the details if needed.
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7. Examine potential security risks, data breaches
The development and advancement of the technology make increment in the efficiency of the
operations and supports the business to expand and grow. It also makes provision in the
opportunity of hackers to steal information that can make the impact on the performance of
the business as well as their on their working for the achievement of goals and objectives as
this information can be utilised by the different competitors for the purpose of getting an
advantage. There are various security risks in making utilisation of the SAP (Poba-Nzao et.
al., 2014).
The protection of the server and the system is being done by the anti-virus software and
firewall as they support in eliminating and detecting potential threats. If there will be no
protection on the firewall then there can be the entry of the various potential threats like
malware and virus in the system that will provide damage to the information and data being
stored in the system. Due to this, there can be a loss of the significant information which will
eventually make an impact on the business performance as various important decisions are
taken by the management after consideration of this information (Thakur et. al., 2012).
The activities which take place are based on the gathered and stored information in the
business system. These systems are being used by different members of the associations like
doctors, nurses, managers etc. Hence the stored information is confidential and is being used
by the different members, due to this there are chances of information leakage through the
system by having access to multiple users. This kind of information can also be used for the
unauthorised usage. This kind of security risk can provide various disadvantages to the
customers as well as business associations.
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8. Provide guidelines on how these risks could be mitigated.
There are various security risks that arise due to the implementation of the SAP in the
business and make an impact on the business operations. These all kinds of risk must be
avoided by Ramsay Healthcare as this risk will damage reputation and goodwill of the
business (Giménez-Figueroa et. al., 2018). There are various guidelines regarding the
mitigation of the risks and these can be defined as:
 There must be the implementation of the proper system that will support in protecting
firewall and will also support in removing as well as detecting various potential threats.
 Firewall protection will make identification of the threats if there will be the usage of the
external devices like CD and pen drive that will give data security.
 It is very important to protect PC and server from malware and virus so as to protect
information from losing (Poba-Nzao et. al., 2014).
 As the significant information of the patients is being stored in the system like a credit card,
contact number etc. It is the major duty of the business to secure such data and information.
Hence it is very important to have proper control so as to have proper retrieval of the
information.
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Conclusion
From the report which is presented above, the conclusion can be made that the
implementation of the various new technologies like SAP in the healthcare system will be
very effective that will support ineffective and efficient business operations. It is also
important to have a proper implementation of the technology so as to have proper survival in
the market full of competition. It has been analysed from the report that formation of the
solutions in the SAP is designed in such a manner that gives full support to the hospitals and
the healthcare providers to complete their mission in regards with completing their mission of
the healthcare. These kinds of solution offer an easy and flexible interface that will help
employees to have efficient working in the business with a short curve of learning. It can also
be said that SAP in regards to the business operations is highly configurable that makes
incorporation of the global practices. SAP in the Ramsay Healthcare supports in making
delivery of the optimum services with a significant line in two major ways like by making the
supply of the sophisticated management solutions that support staff of the hospital to make
enhancement in the patient care.
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References
 Galleries, R.D. and Leidner, D.E. eds., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges
and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.
 Giménez-Figueroa, R., Martín-Rojas, R. and García-Morales, V.J., 2018. Business
Intelligence: An Innovative Technological Way to Influence Corporate Entrepreneurship.
In Entrepreneurship-Development Tendencies and Empirical Approach. InTech.
 Poba-Nzao, P., Raymond, S., and Pere, G. 2014. Motivations underlying the adoption of ERP
systems in healthcare organisations, Information System Frontiers, Vol. 16, No 4,pp. 591-620
 Thakur, R., Hsu, S., and Fontenot, G. 2012. Innovation in Healthcare: Issues and future
trends, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 65, No. 4, pp. 562-570
 Wamba, S.F., Ananda, A., and Carter, L. 2013. A Literature Review of RFID-enabled
healthcare applications and issues, International Journal of Information Management,Vol. 33,
No. 5, pp. 875-891
 Haddad, P., Gregory, M., and Wickramasinghe, N. 2014. Business Value in Healthcare, Lean
Thinking for Healthcare, pp. 55-81, Springer, New York: NY
 Hilty, D.M., Ferrer, D.C., Parish, M.B., and Callahan, E.J. 2013. The effectiveness of
telemental health, Telemedicine, and e-Health, Vol. 19, No. 6, pp. 444-454
 Vigersky, R.A. 2015. The benefits, limitations, and cost-effectiveness of advanced
technologies in the management of patients with diabetes mellitus, Journal of diabetic science
and technology, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 320-330
 Kawamoto. K., Martin, C.J., Williams, K., and Morris, S.J. 2014. Value Driven Outcomes,
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 223-225
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