Information Management Needs Assessment - Essay Example

Day Care Business Plan Task Day Care Business Plan Introduction For a successful business to relate with all the departments within there is need for a close correlation between the information management team and other teams from different departments in the organization. This is important for a steady flow of information in an organization. There is evidence of the benefits of organizational behavior in an institution with shared knowledge (Robert & Dorothy, 2003). A day care business is one that deals with the management of a given age group of especially children under the age that can take care of itself in the absence of an older person. The plan for this day care is to accommodate and look after children of four years and above, as well as, those that are five to eight years of age. Two sets of programs are to run here and they are child development programs, and after school, tutoring programs. The child development program aims at children of four years old while the after school tutoring programs aimed at children above the age of five to eight years old. This is developed to accommodate a large number of clients and so there is need for a well-developed team with vast experience and skilled. The day care plans to house close to 30 staff that will include the tutors and the administrative staff. Long Term and Short-Term Plans These involve the planning for the resources of the organization. The planning on the sources of finance and their allocation is vital. Setting targets for the organization and strategies for attaining these set objectives. Information Management Needs Assessment For a well-balanced working system of information management, there is need for a proper and well-documented needs assessment. This will entail the identification of the specific needs that are urgent and those that can wait implementation (Allison, 2003). These needs need alignment with work objectives for them to work successfully. The goal of the information management aspect of the business is to provide ready information to the management team for proper and timely decision making in the facility for an improved service delivery. The information needs of the day care depend on the department where applicable. Administration department needs this system to manage admissions and discharges of new and leaving students respectively, finances and the records management. The educating unit needs this to take care of their educational materials especially for those tutoring the five years to eight. While the information technology department needs this system to protect the organizations information management systems from breaches and also enhance and ensure security for the data. To ease communication in the organization, the need for information management personnel is a necessity. Security, Confidentiality and Integrity of Information World is full of technology enhanced thieves and information mismanages. the enhancement of this is by the development of many systems that have favored fraud cases through use of information falling in the wrong hands. Strong confidentiality policies are to exist. These will help bolster the protection of information that enters into the system. All staff gets the orientation for the management of their personal information and passwords in addition to the information that they handle or come across. This is all going to exist in the policies of the organization. Computer access to the various software used needs limiting and the development of passwords to control that accesses what need to exist. The authorization and the distribution of these roles are to be managed by the information technology personnel that is also going o manage basic desk support using a computerized software (Information Management Plan, n.d). Routine back up of information is also necessary to protect information in case of a system break down. This coupled with the establishment of a firewall that will protect the organizational information items from external access from hackers. Companys Management of Data and Knowledge Proper management of data is an asset to organizational management. The leaking and mishandling of data could lead to gross payment of damages or even loss of very vital data. For proper data management, it is necessary to employ regular data visualization and reporting items to statistically analyze the data and see if there is any damage sustained. Employment of a domain expert will help regular studying of data patterns to ensure that they are still existent in the preconditioned data (Elias, 2007). Some of the items to handle to determine the originality of the data or the condition of the data are to employ data mining models that need validating on a regular basis. This is possible through the employment of the invalidly validating data-mining model. This involves testing the models to establish their correct functionality and the auditing of the data by using multiple samples from the population. Many data owners believe that an alchemic process relates to data mining. Proper data management starts from the onset of the business or organization. This is so because a beginning organization has to ensure it selects the best data management application that could range from the use of the simple computer applications of excel, word and access. This next decision afterwards is the decision of either having an in-house staff handling the information management aspects or the outsourcing of the necessary personnel or systems. Continuous analysis of the data collected helps continuous discovery of any discrepancies, the editing of the data or continuous updating especially if a client changes critical information such as the telephone number and say location. Many organizations use clustering. Its affection is after the entry of new data, which then undergoes reorganization, reevaluation and reconfiguration (Vlatka, 2007). My Company’s Internet Use (i.e. For New Business, Information Tracking on Current and Future Clients etc) My company’s internet use is going to help ease communication within the organization. Communication with clients’ representatives and even meetings to discuss the progress of the kids is fastened. The use of internet also provides real time information to the organization and its external stakeholders. This will aid in not only communication to existing and organizational staff but also the communications with prospective clients. Advertising, public reactions and other marketing aspects will be managed on this platform. This therefore will require development of an internet system that specifies the access and needs of our clients and our services. The development of a website is vital for this achievement to count. Company IT Planning and Analysis Management Recent office information technologies have helped knowledge workers to share information and hence processing the results. The use of systems such as groupware and workflow is recognized among others based on the needs of the organization. Operational and strategic benefits are attainable with the aid of these systems (Mehdi, 1999). The immediate step to consider before the application of any of these systems is the needs of the different organizations and their applicability by the personnel. The fact that my day care is going to hire one personnel to handle information technology aspects makes the need of a simple system that one person can control viable. These systems keep the workers connected and make them access their information anywhere any time and hence making work simple. The use of the internet and the basic Microsoft systems is a good beginning. This is so use to their wide spread and ease of handling since this is a simple organization that is still beginning. “Total quality management aims at realizing quality” (Sven, 2007). This management aspect cannot be under looked in the day care business. The quality of the services to children needs reengineering regularly and the systems need regular updating and close relation. This will aid in keeping good system that is ready for use any time by the organization. This business will be well organized and staffed to take care of all arising within the facility. References Award, E. (2007). Knowledge Management. India: Dorling Kindersley Gaillers, R. & Leidner, D. (2003). Strategic Information Management: Challenges and Strategies in Managing Information Systems. Burlington: Butterworth-Heinemann. Information Management Plan, (N.D). Information Management Plan. Retrieved from http://www.sh.lsuhsc.edu/policies/policy_manuals_via_ms_word/info_man_plan%2003-04.pdf May 7, 2014 Merdi, K. (1999). Managing Information Technology Resources in Organizations. Scammell, A. (2003). Handbook of Information Management. London: Routledge. Sven, D. B., (2007). Six Sigma for ITS Management: A Pocket Guide. Zaltbomel: Van Haren Publishing. Vlatka, H., 2007).Knowledge and Business Process Management. Hersley: Idea Group Inc.   Read More