Enterprise-wide information system

Enterprise-wide information systems, by their definition, must be networked. The physical hardware and configuration supporting the applications must be specified, which is a combined effort between the hardware supplier and the internal IS function. 

Similarly, conceptual and information modeling can be used to describe complex decision-modeling problems (Biswas and Narahari 2004 Kim and Rogers 2005). Besides the descriptive capabilities of information modeling techniques helping to understand the problem, developed information models provide a link between decision-modeling and the enterprise-wide information system. 

The enterprise-wide information system makes the organization as a whole more agile. Employees at all levels are more conscions of risks they can control and more alert to opportunities to make improvements. Annnal or bi-annual audits help gauge certain measures of success, but bottom-up information management enables companies to become more proactive and make faster, more confident decisions that drive incremental improvements in operational efficiency. 

A computerized information system designed to promote integration of information across an organization (the term enterprise-wide computer systems has been used by many authors) will be based on hardware and software systems, which I divide into three elements (1) hardware (2) operating systems and environments and (3) application software. All three elements must work smoothly together in order to have a useful system. 

These considerations are primarily enterprise-wide in scope. With integration being of primary importance to healthcare in general, it is still necessary to obtain best-of-class software solutions for specific pharmacy activities. Recommendations that will help select appropriate applications and technologies that are backed by reliable implementation, support, and services will be the focus of the remainder of this chapter. Refer to Tables 1 and 2 (used with permission from ComputerTalk) as you read this chapter. These figures contain an extensive evaluation of the current information systems market. 

Supply chain management advances rest firmly on the flow of information. Overwhelming paper flow, separate computer systems and databases, and nonnetworked computer systems are unacceptable in the supply chain era. Linking computers on a single platform of information with fast access to all information needed to make decisions fosters enterprise-wide solutions that make up supply chain management. 

The business process model is represented using the BPMN notation. AU other models are represented using the UML notation. Utilization of the widely accepted notation helps to narrow gap between supply chain modeling and related enterprise modeling and information systems development activities. 

Developing a global operational excellence (OE) information management system is a long-term commitment. Much like the enterprise-wide financial information systems that most large companies have installed over the last few decades, it represents the work of many years, not months, and is a very large undertaking and because of the nature of the OE objectives—there are no shortcuts. 

An enterprise-wide OEMS enables a company to do on an operational basis what well-known enterprise resource planning systems enable it to do on a financial basis. It affords a clear line of sight into corporate activities, from the individual operator level up to the enterprise level. Unlike financial information systems, which track what employees, facilities, and departments are earning or spending, the operational information system tracks what they are actually doing and measures how they do it. 

---