The Current System at BAAF - Essay Example

A) EVALUATION OF CURRENT SYSTEM AND PROPOSED INTRANET FEATURES The Current System at BAAF - Non-utilisation of Technology 1 Technology plays a pivotal role in businesses nowadays. Organisations all around the world use information systems and technology as an integral part of their systems and operations. In return, technology offers speed, efficiency, effectiveness and an increasing rate of growth. The case under review reflects the demerits of not having an integrated technological facility in business operations. 1.2 The AS-IS process at BAAF for product development and testing is outlined below: 1.3 The system is characterised by inefficiencies created due to lack of co-ordination, inability to reuse information, and distributed processing of data at geographically distant locations. 1.3 The current system is designed in a way that causes unnecessary delays at many intermediate points in the process flow due to sequential processing of tasks; although parallel processing can be undertaken, yet the management is reluctant to employ it. 1.4 This lack of ability towards delivering the products in industry benchmark time is causing BAAF to lose out in the competition with other smaller firms that are faster in offering products in the market. 1.5 In addition, the Drug Licensing Authority (DLA) takes almost 15 months to review the product and to decide whether to grant license to the new product. This adds to the inefficient internal operations and thus, the entire process takes longer than what is expected by Board and Customers. Another consequence of this inefficient practice is loss of revenue to the company. 2. Recommendations for improvement 2.1 BAAF is advised to reduce the delays in their internal operations by introducing an Intranet. That is, an internal network where all the employees of the company can have access and can post, read, and review information by logging on to the network and accessing areas where they are authorised. 3. The Intranet 3.1 An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet protocols, network connectivity, and possibly the public telecommunication system to securely share part of an organisation's information or operations with its employees. Sometimes the term refers only to the most visible service, the internal website (Wikipedia) 4. The Benefits 4.1 By deploying an intranet, BAAF can expect to gain huge financial gains by being able to drastically reduce the duration taken by internal processes for product testing, legal issues, and development of monitoring mechanisms. 4.2 Since all the data will be available over the network and accessible to every employee of the company (with suitable authorisation); the relevant users can access the centralised repository of information, and instances of duplication, incorrect and incomplete data will decline. This will improve productivity and efficiency of operations since data is readily available whenever required. Thus, employees will be able to perform their jobs much faster than they currently are doing. 4.3 In addition, intranet may be configured to provide email access and web forum that will allow geographically distant office employees to co-ordinate on the product testing approaches and methodologies. This also entails establishment of a prompt and organised communication interface for employees to locate and discuss issues with the relevant personnel online. 4.4 Moreover, all the policies, manuals, checklists etc. that are required by employees to carry out their responsibilities, can be kept on the intranet; thus allowing easy access and complete information. 4.5 This will enable BAAF to reduce their turn around time for product development; that will ultimately benefit customers and will also result in savings of high magnitude to the company, as it is estimated that for every week saved in R&D, the company gains up to 1 million pounds per year. B) EXTRANET AND ITS LIMITATIONS 5. Using Extranet to share information between Pharmaceutical companies 5.1 It is estimated that if BAAF works in collaboration with different pharmaceutical companies in the market, they might be able to reduce the amount of work by sharing information with other companies; and eliminating the need to do everything themselves. 5.2 In order for that to happen, the company can establish an extranet. Wikipedia compares extranets with intranets by stating that an extranet is similar to an intranet with the difference that intranets are generally limited to the employees while extranets can be accessed by outsiders including customers, suppliers and other authorised parties. The detailed comparison can be seen at < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intranet>. 5.3 However, using extranets to share information over the network has some disadvantages that may prove to be critical to the company's interests. A brief account of these limitations is discussed below: 5.3.1 It may be possible to tap into the network from outside. An unauthorised user may gain access to the network resources and can attempt to steal, manipulate and misuse the company's confidential data regarding product tests, features and other aspects. This could lead to disaster for the company if the product information gets into the market and competitors use it to develop a competing product. 5.3.2 Since extranets rely on public infrastructure usually, there is an inherent risk of service provider's network failure that may cause BAAF to lose all its valuable data online. 5.3.3 Due to the security requirements of the extranet, heavy expenditure are required on technology infrastructure, firewalls, routers, switches and other technology equipments in order to establish and operate a secure extranet system. This would reflect as heavy cash outflows for the company and may ultimately affect the bottom line. 5.3.4 There may be differences in technology infrastructure in different companies that may or may not support the deployment of extranet on their networks. The implementation team needs to be aware of the difference and should be alert to point these out. 5.3.5 Another often unnoticed limitation of using an extranet and relying on it is the fact that the number and possibility of face-to-face meetings and discussions with business allies and partners decline. Due to the excess usage of extranets for quick meetings, information sharing etc., the traditional table meetings might decrease. This may have a negative impact where lack of socialisation among partners may affect mutual relationships and understanding, which could lead to development of differences in opinions and may ultimately lead to undesired results for the company. Though not directly related to technology but still, this issue should be given due consideration before the decision of implementing an extranet is finalised. C) TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS TO IMPLEMENT INTRANET 6. Comparative Analysis for the Technology to Implement Intranet/Extranet 6.1 A variety of technologies can be used to implement intranet. These include Virtual Private Networks (VPN), Leased Lines and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL). A brief comparison of these is given below: 6.1.1 Technology a) VPN use secure end-to-end tunnels for transfer of data from source to destination. b) Leased Lines are dedicated lines that are taken on rent for 24x7 operations from a public service provider. c) DSL connections though use telephone lines but allow more data to be transmitted over copper media than conventional telephone lines. 6.1.2 Security a) VPN uses encryption for the data that is being transmitted from source to destination. b) Since Leased Lines are dedicated and both ends are under exclusive custody of the organisation, hence there is lesser probability of a security compromise. c) DSL connections may or may not provide security depending upon the contract with vendor. 6.1.3 Cost a) VPN is costly and relatively difficult to implement. b) Leased Line too is a relatively costly solution as end to end connection is provided under exclusive use of the client. c) DSL is the least costly of all the above as it uses the telephone lines that usually are available; and do not require to be laid down from scratch. Hence, the cost of cabling is reduced to a certain extent and existing infrastructure is utilised. 6.1.4 There may be a variety of other soft factors like availability of trained human resource to operate and maintain the system, accessibility to vendor support, and implementation effectiveness of the system selected to deploy intranet. 6.2 The choice of a particular type of technology consists of many other factors like distance between the stations, the requirements for availability, confidentiality, and integrity of data and the magnitude of resources available to the company. REFERENCE 1. Wikipedia. (n.d.).15 January 2007. Reviewed on 20 January 2007. . Read More