[thrive_headline_focus title=”The Informatics Planning Model” orientation=”left”]
Bryan Shane
Informatics Planning Model essential to maximize the effectiveness of it in supporting program goals.
Introduction
The use of informatics is an extremely important strategy that enables nearly all public organizations to achieve their missions. Informatics provides the applications that process transactions in both program-specific and administrative functions. It provides the tools necessary to ensure the personal productivity of individual staff members and the means for effective collaboration and coordination of programs and services with other staff, clients and suppliers. It facilitates the development of business strategies and innovations by exploiting unique technological advantages. It provides the information necessary to make both strategic and operational decisions.
There are, however, problems that impede its most effective use in public sector organizations, especially at the branch level.
Problems
Lack of an informatics plan
Often, there is no current, long term informatics plan that encompasses all technology strategies and plans for all groups within the organization. Further, there is usually no defined and established informatics planning process to update said plan on an annual basis to adapt to new priorities/needs and advances in technology. Limited provision for the inclusion or participation of all stake holders in a coordinated, organized and timely fashion – to update informatics strategies and establish new priorities – is also lacking. This results in an inability to maximize the power of informatics in enabling the achievement of the program or business goals.
Poor organizational structure
Often the informatics structure is fractured, with more than one informatics group in the organization. This structure does not permit development of the clear lines of authority required to exercise the necessary degree of control over technology and roles and responsibilities. Usually this results in poor coordination and communication among the various informatics groups and across lines of authority.
Service issues
The analysis of informatics needs requires the active participation of informatics staff to determine compatibility with existing informatics architectures/infrastructure, and to obtain the best prices possible.
In many organizations, 40 to 60 percent of informatics purchases occur without informatics consultation or approval. This issue is especially prevalent in the purchase of hardware and software for under $5,000 (e.g., workstations, printers, plotters and software). This lack of a thorough informatics needs assessment results in serious problems affecting productivity, such as downtime due to network configuration; insufficient computer memory; software incompatibilities; inability to provide adequate support or to properly train users; and an inability to provide planned service to clients. Further, some servers tend to be organization-specific and are not optimized for service and cost savings.
Lack of coordination among informatics staff often results in other employees acting as their own system administrators. They attempt to fix problems with servers, operating systems, workstations, peripherals (such as printers, plotters, external storage), and try to install hardware/software themselves , often with disastrous results. In some cases, clients attempt to configure and use their workstations based on personal preferences rather than business considerations. This tendency to use workstations as personal computers rather than business computers creates additional problems such as difficulties diagnosing and solving the problem; incompatibilities of hardware and software; network failures or other forms of downtime at workstation; and generally overall poor service.
Combined, informatics staff in some public sector organizations spend 30 to 40 percent of their time attempting to solve these problems.
Technology issues
There are many examples of unlicensed software or too many unneeded software licenses for the number of users. Often no central registry of software licenses exists and no business processes are in place to enforce licensing discipline. And to compound the issue, there are no standards for common software needs.
Human resource issues
As a result of a poor organization structure, informatics staff are often isolated with little opportunity for career progression and/or lateral transfer. There is little cross-fertilization of ideas and an inability to keep up with latest technological developments. Training is provided on an ad hoc basis or scheduled months before the implementation of the desired technology, resulting in wasted instruction. These typical conditions result in low motivation and morale, which in turn lead to high staff turnover rates. This situation is especially critical given the long lead time to recruit and train (estimated at 6-18 months) new staff in the knowledge of the client business environment and the technology.
The description of these informatics problems/issues in the public sector is not intended to criticize or downplay the dedication, efforts or abilities of these staff in performing their duties. Rather, the focus is on determining solutions to provide the means to improve the effectiveness of informatics staff. Diagram 1 provides a graphical illustration of the informatics problems encountered in many public sector branches.
Figure 1: Typical Public Sector Informatics Problems
Many of the other problems identified will be addressed in future articles in this series.This article, the first of a series, focuses on an informatics planning model and process that will provide a framework to address these typical planning problems previously described. It will serve as a best practice that can be used to develop and maintain a long term informatics plan.
Informatics Plan and Planning Process
There are three principle reasons to develop a long term informatics plan.
- It addresses many of the typical concerns identified earlier.
- It defines the informatics directions, objectives and strategies that the organization wishes to pursue during the first one to three years of the new millennium in support of its business goals.
- It ensures that the day-to-day informatics activities and allocation of resources are geared to meet the business and informatics objectives.
Informatics Planning Model
Figure 1 provides a planning model for a public sector informatics plan. It is based upon a balanced approach to informatics growth and development and provides the means to set the objectives and strategies related to finances and quality of service. But, it also focuses on both the concerns of clients and of the employees who provide these services. Finally, it recognizes the importance of continuous improvement as a basic premise of modern informatics effectiveness.
These five basic perspectives – finance, quality of service, client/employee satisfaction, and continuous improvement – provide the means to develop the informatics plan from multiple points of view. The strategies and plans developed in these five perspectives represent the strategic, tactical or operational elements necessary to improve informatics decision-making within the organization, to enable proactive problem correction and to promote continuous improvement.
Each of the components in the plan will be briefly described.
Mission Statement: This is a brief, clear statement of the goal of the organization, defining the need it will fill, the clients it will cater to and how it will provide its services. The mission statement provides a frame of reference for the entire informatics plan where the overall objectives, strategies and plans are developed and implemented to contribute directly or indirectly to the realization of the mission.
Objectives: In order to achieve the mission, objectives in the five areas focus the strategies and plans for informatics, including:
- Finance objectives outline the purpose of the informatics plan and organization in terms of cost effectiveness, cost recovery or profit.
- Quality of service objectives outline the service standards to be delivered.
- Client satisfaction objectives delineate the company’s purposes as related to serving its customers.
- Employee satisfaction objectives state the organization’s purposes in maintaining an effective workforce.
- Continuous improvement objectives outline the aims of the organization regarding the need for continual learning and growth.
Strategies: Once overall informatics objectives are set in each of these perspectives, strategies are developed to define the tactics needed to move forward to attain these objectives and the overall informatics mission.
Critical Success Factors (CSFs) are those elements that must function effectively to ensure high performance of informatics within the organization. CSFs are used to prioritize operational initiatives so that they are addressed systematically and scheduled most efficiently for the planned period. The CSFs thus become criteria to help management choose the most crucial strategic elements of a plan to begin implementation at an operational level.
The Implementation Strategy is completed to ensure a smooth transition to the more proactive mode of informatics operation. To accomplish this objective, the implementation strategy must contain a number of elements:
- Orientation and training sessions with informatics staff, clients and management regarding various elements of the informatics plan.
- The approach for institutionalizing the informatics planning process and integrating it with the organizational business/operational planning process and budgeting cycles.
- Methods for maintaining and improving the organizational culture among informatics staff relating directly to items described in the plan.
- Development/enhancement of an informatics performance measurement function within the organization to assess and monitor performance in the five areas of the informatics plan (finances, quality of service, client/employee satisfaction and continuous improvement.). This information must then fed back into the informatics planning process on an ongoing basis.
Operational Informatics Plan: In this section of the informatics planning model, strategies are translated into operational services and projects for the upcoming year using the CSFs.
Figure 2: Informatics Planning Model
Informatics Planning Process
The long-term organizational informatics plan must be developed and/or updated on an annual cycle using the informatics planning process. This process is composed of a number of stages, each of which is described below. Stages 1.0 through 7.0 are used to develop a long-term informatics plan from scratch. Only Stages 1.0 and 2.0 and 5.0 and 7.0 are used to update or enhance an existing one.
Stage 1.0 Information gathering stage
Determining business requirements is the start of the informatics planning process. A number of internal and external requirements must be identified and captured in each area of the informatics plan.
Internal Organizational Informatics Requirements
- Financial review of technology life cycle replacement and ongoing staff, service, project and maintenance costs.
- Quality of service review of service level agreements and project agreements to determine performance against service standards and performance measures.
- Employee satisfaction review of staff satisfaction issues.
- Client satisfaction review of customer fulfillment issues.
- Continuous improvement review of all ongoing and potential informatics research/development projects.
External Organizational Informatics Requirements
- All organizational business and informatics strategies/plans that may affect the organization informatics operations are identified.
- External informatics environmental scan all new informatics technologies and processes that may affect the informatics operations are identified.
Stage 2.0 Situational assessment stage
Situational assessment refers to the analysis of data, past and present, from the Stage 1.0. The data is derived internally from the performance within five perspectives (financial, quality of service, client/employee satisfaction and continuous improvement). It is also derived from a consideration of external influences within the organization. Assessment of informatics performance both internally and externally leads to the identification of four or five strategic informatics issues (SII). These are fundamental questions affecting the organization’s mandate, values, programs/services, and finances. It is important to deal with these SIIs if the organization’s informatics function is to succeed. The situation assessment provides the basis to carry out strategy formulation (Stage 4.0) and operational planning (Stage 6.0).
Stage 3.0 Mission statement development
The mission statement is developed by informatics staff, working closely with organization management. It is a brief, concise statement of the informatics mission and is developed using a process-oriented approach. All informatics staff are given ample opportunity to participate in its development and approval. This mission statement must support the business objectives of the organization.
Stage 4.0 Objectives development
Objectives are developed for each of the five perspectives of the informatics plan using a process -oriented approach to ensure full participation and agreement of informatics staff. The informatics objectives for each of the five perspectives of the organization informatics plan include:
- financial objective
- quality of service objective
- client satisfaction objective
- employee satisfaction objective
- continuous improvement objective
Stage 5.0 Strategy formulation stage
The results of the situation assessment stage are reviewed including progress of initiatives in all five perspectives of the informatics plan (financial, quality of service, client/employee satisfaction and continuous improvement). Based upon the input from the situation assessment stage, strategies and plans in each of the five perspectives of the informatics plan are developed or updated to effectively deal with these strategic issues.
Management must approve these strategies/plans before the informatics plan is revised to reflect these updated or new directions.
Stage 6.0 Operational planning
The strategies/plans developed or updated during the strategy formulation stage in each of five perspectives of the informatics plan are analyzed to determine opportunities in the form of new or existing projects, services or other initiatives.
- All new or ongoing informatics services are documented in a standard service level agreement (SLA). The SLA specifies its objective, duration, roles/responsibilities, problem reporting/tracking process, escalation procedures, service standards and performance monitoring/reporting.
- All new or ongoing informatics projects, including those related to quality of service, employee/client satisfaction or continuous improvement, are documented in a standard project agreement (PA). The PA specifies the goal/objectives, work plan/deliverables, schedule, budget, benefits and resources.
- Financial requirements for informatics staffing, technology, services, and project requirements are provided in traditional formats.
- The operational informatics planning stage interfaces with the organizations strategic/operational planning and budgeting cycles.
Stage 6.1 Management review
During this stage of the informatics planning process, a management committee rates all potential informatics services/projects as documented in SLAs or PAs against a set of CSFs. Each potential informatics service or project is given a rating of 1 to 5 on each of the CSFs. This provides the means to determine the relative importance/priority of each potential informatics service or project.
Five sets of operational informatics priorities are developed, one for each of the five planning perspectives. This then becomes the first draft of the informatics operational plan.
Stage 6.2 Client/Manager assessment
Informatics staff and business managers review the informatics operational priorities in each of the five categories and provide comments on any schedules, missing tasks, and dependencies. Based on these comments the second draft informatics operational plan is prepared.
Stage 6.3 Resource leveling
Stage 6.3.1 Budget allocation
The second draft of the informatics operational planning initiatives are compared to the operational and capital budget for the organization. Adjustments are made based upon existing budget levels. Informatics initiatives are granted funding in order of priority until the budget is completely allocated. This results in the third draft of the informatics operational plan.
Stage 6.3.2 Staffing adjustments
The third draft informatics operational plan is presented to all informatics employees to determine any desire for staff movement across projects or services. Changes are incorporated to produce the fourth and final version of the informatics operational plan.
Stage 7.0 Mid-year review
The mid-year review of the informatics operational plan is used to provide an assessment of progress across its five dimensions. The results of this examination, in conjunction with ongoing monitoring, provide the means to adjust informatics operations to deal with current issues. It also provides the information required to begin the informatics planning cycle again.
Figure 3: Informatics Planning Process
A number of principles must be included to guide the development and use of the informatics plan. The organization must:Informatics Planning Principles
- Ensure the plan supports and enables the achievement of the business goals of the organization.
- Ensure that the plan and strategies are coherent and support the organization’s informatics policies, standards, architectures and guidelines.
- Ensure this planning process interfaces with the department’s strategic and operational planning and budgeting cycles.
- Ensure that the organization’s information holdings and transactions are protected at the appropriate level.
- Ensure that the plan is developed with the full input and cooperation of all informatics staff and management.
- Ensure that the development of the informatics plan is based upon a balanced and complete view of the organization as a whole, including its financial, quality of service, client/employee satisfaction and continuous improvement dimensions.
- Adopt a process-oriented approach to developing or updating the plan. Development or updating of the informatics plan must be done cooperatively with informatics staff and management using structured interviews, straw dogs and facilitation. These techniques will ensure complete and multiple opportunities for input from all concerned parties (structured interviews), the development of draft plan elements in a non-threatening manner (straw dogs) and group acceptance (facilitation).
- Use a planned and phased approach to developing or updating the informatics plan. Each phase must be successfully completed and agreed upon by all relevant parties before proceeding with the next phase.
Benefits
This long-term informatics planning model and process provides the direction needed to maximize the effectiveness of informatics in enabling the achievement of program or business goals of the public sector organization. More specifically, use of this approach provides the following benefits:
- The ability to ensure that the day-to-day informatics activities and allocation of resources within the organization are optimized to meet both business and informatics goals.
- A framework for informatics decision-making throughout the organization that provides guidance to all staff in making decisions that are in line with the organization’s aims and strategies.
- The ability to identify the strategic informatics issues, opportunities and threats from multiple points of view which can seriously affect both informatics and business functions.
- Improved motivation and morale among informatics staff by providing them with an opportunity to participate in decisions which directly affect their ability to carry out their daily tasks.
- Facilitates improved communication with informatics staff, clients, and management about objectives, strategies and plans.