The Process of Acquiring an Information System Beth Long HCS483 September 12, 2011 Donald Davis The reliance on information technology (IT) has increased more and more for Health care organizations as a usefully important competitive advantage. If planned, developed, and managed properly, information technology can bring about greater efficiency in organizational operations, better working environments, and effective decision-making processes. Information systems designed for the health care industry help organizations meet the quality and standards that are set for the organization to succeed in the health care industry.

The process for selecting and acquiring an information system first starts with figuring out where the health care organization needs to start from. The first step would be to assign a work team or committee to develop a process and research the types of information systems that the health care organization is reflecting on. While researching the information system it is crucial that all individuals involved fully understand the system before presenting it to the stakeholders of the health care organization.

This can involve getting the designers of the system to set up a demonstration to show all aspects of the system before applying the system into the health care organization. After these steps are completed it is vital for the work team or committee to figure out the expenses of implementing and running the system for the stakeholders to review. These steps will help the health care organization in the decision process to safeguard that they are making the right decision when put into operation the new information system. There are 18 steps for helping the process of choosing an information system.

These steps are: Step 1: Teamwork It is recommended that the team consist of 3 to 7 people to oversee the selection of the new information system. Make the team up of different level of the organization. Step 2: Goals What are the goals for the project? These need to be decided upon first. Step 3: Big Picture Once the goal s has been made, then it needs to be decided how these goals fit in to the bigger picture. Step4: Future Needs Ask what kind of information system will be need in a few years. What other application are going to be needed in the future and when will they be needed?

Step 5: Technical Environment This step is critical to the decision process; this is where the basic technical question will be asked. Like what type of computer is wanted, what operation system is going to be needed? Step 6: Budget There will need to be some kind of budget defined before looking. Step 7: Specs This is a written specification document which will list your project goals, define the base system functionality that is required, specify how it needs to integrate with other systems, and list the technical requirements that have already been stated, that was needed.

Step 8: Build vs. Buy This step you will decide to go with a commercially available system or if to develop the application internally. Step 9: Research Now is when you pinpoint certain vendors and products that could meet the health care organizational needs. This can be done by asking colleagues for recommendations. Step 10: Literature In this step you will contact you r researched list of venders and get some product literature. Step 11: Request for Proposal Now you send o request for proposal to the vendors you are interested in. This has to be one to ten pages long. Step 12: Evaluate

When the requests for a proposal are returned then the tea will need to meet and pick a vendor. Step 13: Demos In this step software product demonstrations will be done. Step 14: Evaluate Again After the demo is done the team will meet and go over all of the information. Pricing will be a concern at this point. Step 15: Decision Points This is where the team will decided what software product to go with and the price. Step 16: Check References This where your team will ask the vendors certain question about their concerns on the product and check references. Step 17: Demo Again

With this demo set an agenda. Have all technical issues fixed at this time. Step 18: Evaluate Again and Select Make sure when choosing your goals are going to be meet. Make sure all questions have been answered. Now is the time to decide which vendor you are going to go with. Make the best choose that will fix your organization. A health care organization’s goal play an important role in them choosing or upgrading an information system. This can be an important and expensive decision. Not only does the health care organization want an information system to meet their needs now, but also in the future.

The stakeholders play a major role in the selection and acquisition process of the information system. The stakeholder will either be from an external or an internal organizational environment. The stakeholders will be either a primary or a secondary. A primary stakeholder has a direct stake within the organization and in its success. The secondary stakeholders are the ones that have either a public or special interest at stake within the organization. All the patients are considered a secondary stakeholder because the information system the organization is trying to implement is based on these secondary stakeholders.

The primary stakeholders have a major role in the acquisition of the information system because they are the main financial providers of the new information system. They want to make sure they are investing in the right information system that will benefit all the stakeholders and the organization. References Information System Briefing. (2011). Retrieved from http://buzzslot. com/2011/05/information-system-briefing/ Ryder, J. (2000). 18 Steps to Selecting a Human Resource Information System. Retrieved from http://www. hrrevolution. com/Articles/Selecting_HRIS/