Business Requirements and Project Plan of eBuy Pharmaceuticals - Coursework Example

Information Systems: Business Requirements & Project Plan: A case study of eBuy Pharmaceuticals al affiliation & code Date 1. Business requirements Introduction The online-based pharmaceutical business is one area where there is a lot of completion with the companies competing along the lines of information systems strength, among other factors such as an efficient web-based live support. Each and every company looks to be the market leader, and that’s where eBuy aspires to be in under two years from the time it starts operations. The information system is the greatest investment because it is the biggest eBuy Pharmaceuticals employee. Therefore, the department mandated with coming up with installing the entire information system should come up with a comprehensive information systems package knowing it substitutes thousands of employees. eBuy Pharmaceuticals as an online-based pharmaceutical business requires a heavy investment in some of the most sophisticated information systems infrastructure. At the start, it is necessary to look at the business sense of the entire process. There is so much to consider at this stage, including procurement issues and balancing between reasonable costs of the infrastructure and getting the highest quality of both the software and hardware systems. Good quality of the infrastructure will eliminate chances of online data thieves conducting their espionage. On matters procurement, the chief technology officer will give tender notices and invite companies interested in the supply of the materials to make applications which include comprehensive brochures. Costing should be included in the tender application documents as well. Brochures give specifications of the required materials. The chief technology officer and the tender panel will try to investigate the various companies’ contractual histories alongside their tender application details to be able to arrive at the one they finally decide to work with. This is not an easy stage. It require the chief technology officer to enlist the services of highly competent business specialist, and of course his panel of technological minds. This will ensure that there is a fine balance between the business and technological considerations of tender awarding. The company that finally gets the tender will not necessarily be the one with the lowest material costs, but the quality of those low-cost materials will be a major factor. Besides ensuring that the information system components are strong enough to take away fears of data theft, they are meant for posterity. It would be inappropriate to have to replace the components time and again. Good quality of the Information Systems components eliminates all these fears. The scope eBuy intends to operate on a global scale. The scope of operations is such a wide one, and this informs the kind of technology to use. There have been incidences in which global online-based businesses have had their operations put in jeopardy as a result of data thieves hacking the entire information systems and making alterations to the entire system set-up. This wide scope of the eBuy information system should be managed in such a way that it is as secure as possible, but again is not too complicated for the pharmaceutical clients around the globe. Managing such wide web-based scope of operations calls for a dynamic team of individuals who will always strive to get updated with every tiny development in the Information Technology field. Keeping up-to-date with growth in the IT field makes it easy to upgrade systems and also conform to the challenges that such developments bring to online business operations. Possible risks, constraints and assumptions The obvious risk for an e-business establishment is data insecurity. This might be perpetrated by other online-based businesses dealing in similar products. E-business rivals will most likely have espionage teams that hack into the information systems of rivals and manipulate everything in there and make it difficult to retrieve anything. Even if the retrieval is done, quite some damage will have happened, and this would be to the advantage of the rivals and obviously detrimental to the internal functioning of the systems. It is a positive thing to assume there are fierce business rivals who will do anything to jeopardize operations at rival companies. Once there is such an assumption, the Information systems department at eBuy pharmaceuticals will work to seal any loopholes that online data thieves and rival spy team may use to manipulate the functioning of the information system. Very strong, foolproof software will help to eliminate any chances of hacking. It is expensive to rent the services of a highly competent team of technological minds to carry out this, sometimes costing excess of $10 million, but it is very necessary. This is basically a budgetary constraint given eBuy is only just seeking to expanding and the budget for the expansion isn’t much, but would be profitable in the longer term. There is also the time constraint because there is a very short time within which to do a lot of things. Coming up with a comprehensive information system involves a lot of activities. Time might not be very long, but the short time should be apportioned so that every single activity is performed within specific pre-scheduled timelines. Integration with other systems and infrastructure The envisaged information system for eBuy pharmaceuticals has several components. There is the website that forms the core of online operations. Every website has an interface with unique designs aimed at attracting visitors when they just get to the homepage and haven’t yet done anything else. An interface creates an instant impression and impacts an attitude to a visitor at the website. The interface includes the color effects and the general structure of the website. The website will not be complicated because that locks out people who are much computer savvy. There ‘about us’ tab will provide as much information about the company as possible. Then there is the ‘products and services’ tab that lists down all the pharmaceutical products that are in stock at any given time, and of course their prices. Most importantly, the website should have ‘sign-up/create account’ and ‘log in’ tabs with the both the sign-up and log-in processes made simple. This attracts a lot of global subscribers. The social media will provide a platform for popularizing the website as much as possible. This would call for a partnership with popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The database is yet another key component of the eBuy Pharmaceuticals information system. it is more of an ‘inside’ component and must be kept very secure. The database is most secure when kept out of the cloud. This is because it contains all the confidential information about the company, which it would definitely not want to share with the globe. The sensitivity of the database is so much so that not even everybody within the company’s ranks should access it as it contains all the decision-making tools which are updated from time to time, and all the inside information that shouldn’t be leaked out. Any harm done to the database would strategically disadvantage eBuy Pharmaceuticals. Security Security of the information system is means a lot to the success of an e-business. It is, in fact, the most important thing. Security of all data should be enhanced. Essentially, the information system is nothing if not secure. It makes all the sense in an online business establishment. Foolproof software is used in this case to make sure the information system is not compromised by hackers and malware. Confidential and highly sensitive information should be kept out of the cloud. Data security will help to ensure the company’s most strategic information is kept within. If such information is leaked, it could land in the hands of business rivals and that would portend a business danger. Keeping such information out of the cloud and constantly carrying out background checks would guarantee the much needed information security. Networking There are two levels of networking at eBuy Pharmaceuticals. The first networking level is that within the premises of the company. It connects the various departmental divisions within the premises. The Local Area Network would best serve this function. Even at this networking level, the information must be sieved and protected. Data security will still be required at this level because there are cases where the most sensitive, confidential and strategic information have been leaked by people within the company. It is not uncommon to have spies within, and that makes it necessary to secure the database even at this most primary networking level. There is then the secondary networking level which contains a system of satellite dishes and transmitter boosters that send network signals with a global coverage. The global transmission will be coordinated in some central station, not necessarily within the new location of eBuy Pharmaceuticals. The company could enter into some contractual agreement with the government so that the transmission happens from the national satellite transmission center. This networking level should be most efficient as it connects the company to its online global clientele. The security at this level of networking should be the most enhanced because of the global data theft threat. Networking at both levels should be efficiently working all the time because a network hitch at any one level means that the functioning of the information system, on which the business is based, is jeopardized. The equipment for the global transmission can be very expensive to acquire, but there is the cheaper option of transmitting from the national transmission center at a fee. 2. Gantt Chart/Project Plan This is under time constraint of the project. Any organized business carries out all its operations within certain timelines. Designing and finally coming up with the information system for eBuy Pharmaceuticals took about six months, which is not a very long time given all that’s there to be done. The project plan is as follows: i. Consultative meetings- this will take 25 days and involves a series of meetings in which the different aspects of the project will be deliberated upon. This is the level where the PESTEL and SWOT analyses are carried out. ii. Recruiting IT experts and assigning roles- this is a very important activity where a team of technological experts are assembled. This is the team that will be assigned roles at the various stages of the installation process. Specialization and division of labor will be considered to ensure that just it is a lean team, but a very effective one. This will take a maximum of 13 days. iii. Invitations to tender- tenders are invited for supply of materials needed for the entire information systems installation process. The invitations to tender will take 14 days iv. Tender committee meetings- a committee of experts will form a tender committee which will convene to discuss the various tender applications, with very keen considerations of the cost and technical aspects of all the applications. Takes 7 days. v. Analysis of tender application documents- this would be done by the tender committee and would take 8 days. The committee should be able to come up with a final verdict on the tender issue. vi. Awarding tender- this will be done by the tender committee upon analysis of all the tender documents. It would take no more than 3 days. vii. Logistics- the logistics stage involves a special team looking at the logistical issues associated with the entire installation process and how to deal with issues that may come up from time to time to ensure that they interfere with the process. It would take about a week. viii. Installation of the information system- this is the final stage of delivering the envisaged information system. The installation process would take 116 days. When it’s all done, trials would be conducted for one month to ascertain the efficiency levels of the system. Gantt chart References John, W., & Joe, P. (2002). Strategic Planning for Information System. (3rd Ed). New York, NY: Routledge. Rainer, R. & Casey G. (2012). Information System: Transforming Business Fourth Edition. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Read More