HRHIS in Tanzania

The Tanzania Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) identified health workforce information as a key area needing to be strengthened for fast tracking implementation of its Human Resource Strategic Plan. In order to address this need, HRHIS (Human resource for health information system) was implemented as an effort to improve human resources for health (HRH) management. A situation analysis indicated the existence of several databases within and outside the ministry dealing with HRH, That too, with similar information fields. It was agreed these sources should be harmonized, and housed under Health Management Information System (HMIS) for consistency. The HRHIS software thus became part of the HMIS and was fully integrated with the District Health Information System (DHIS) software with the help of import/export mechanisms. 

The HRHIS was built using free and open source technologies PHP (server scripting language), PostgreSQL (database management system) running on multi-platform (Windows, Linux) architecture, and designed to be user-friendly, hence allowing administrators or authorized users to add additional elements when new needs arise. The initial database was populated with the minimum dataset as requested by the MOHSW. 

The HRHIS provided import/output mechanisms for data at different levels, this includes: national, regional, district or facility level. It was designed to provide flexibility to the following:

• Capture and store health personnel's data and history by organizational unit, cadre, and other characteristics;
• Add any number of datasets or elements required by any sector (such as the central health ministry, local governments, civil services or private providers);
• Update organizational unit details according to users' requirements (e.g. allowing additional regions, districts and health facilities to be added dynamically without entering into system codes);
• Generate web-enabled reports in different formats (general and aggregated), including graphical reporting.

The HRHIS system was developed with high security measures for protecting the data entered, since human resource information/data are personal and confidential. Security measures include a login mechanism such that only authorized personnel can use the system, and also a Users Administration functionality which allows the system administrator to limit users' access to certain functions.

EMPLOYEE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM (ELDS)

I found that Employee Learning Development system function where by plan and observe the employee training, career development and employee’s performance. ELDS provides the opportunity to improve and correct employee’s performance and the organization itself by providing the right training program to the right employee in the right time when they need. Right training for the right employees ensures that the employees can keep competitiveness and will perform their job well. With the help of this system, employee is able to access the detail of the training program and can choose to attend. An ELDS consists of employee information, performance before training, the training course, the transfer of training and program evaluation for each employee. ELDS helps manager in promotion in an organization because with the help of this system, manager can view all the detail and the working performance in the system.

The advantage of ELDS is cost saving and accessibility. Employees can access the information about the training by just logging in to the account. Second advantage is helps to empowerment and facilitation. ELDS enables the employee to make self-assessment and development by letting them choose the training program that they want. In this way, employees will be able to enhance their own Knowledge, Skill and Ability (KSA).

The disadvantage of this ELD system is lack of human contact because all the information is delivered by the computer only and only have participate between computer and the employee. Thus, if the employees have some question about the training content, they cannot straight away ask and have to leave the question and wait for the admin to answer

As a conclusion, the ELDS can help the process easier to implement, facilitate timely information sharing and enabling a consistent coordination between elements and the organization.

DSS IN WASTE MANAGEMENT

Waste management is a company operating in North America. Soon after the establishment of waste management, company planned to expand its business. As soon as the business expanded operations were becoming complex day by day, because the business was in growth stage, investments were coming in so it was becoming difficult to manage the organization. The business now needs some management information system in order to maintain smooth business operations. So the management decided to install a SAP information system in order to respond business issues more quickly. These issues can be classified as pricing, customer care, billing and activities. More over what company wanted to achieve was to improve customer care and business operations by reducing costs. Apart from that their main objective was related to decision making in which their information system should provide them such internal and external info which should help them in decision making.

Once the information system was implemented the system was failed badly. The reason behind the failure was that the staff was not properly trained as they do not know that how to operate that system, secondly their structure were weak and by structure I mean that the research they did was wrong. Based on the research and their objective SAP installed the system but once their representation of data was wrong the SAP system failed to work in that context.

So the reason why I wrote this article is that if a company is implementing a system it should consider some aspects which can be related to proper planning, results, objective, staff training etc. Otherwise instead of reducing your costs it can further increase your operating costs thus decreasing your efficiency.

ROYAL MAIL DSS

Royal mail is a company operating worldwide that is providing parcel and post offices services in different regions of the world. It’s basically a UK based company. By the end of 1999 royal mail started enterprise system programme, in which their main goal was to bring finance and human resource into single platform.  The main reason behind combining them was to manage royal mail as single enterprise system. The system provided the following features:

• Deploying innovative solutions in support of a holistic approach to strategic enterprise management which was consistent with Royal Mail Groups data management principles.
• This provided senior management with different king of information which helped them to make better and good decisions which further added value to royal mail.
• After implementing the system royal main can get the desired financial data for the analysis purpose.
• Provided a vital source for strategic data which at the end of the day resulted in flexible decision making.

The whole system resulted in improved decision making especially in the fields of revenues, planning and costing. After this step the data was available for all decision makers and this resulted in transparent decision making. More over this helped royal mail to centralize its business standards all over world.

MARRIOTT USING CRM

Marriott is an American diversified hospitality company that manages and franchises a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities. Due to their huge business all over world Marriott decided to introduce CRM in their operations so that their operations run more efficiently. They started using Siebel Systems Inc.'s customer-relationship-management package. This CRM helped Marriott in number of ways like with the help of this they can avoid cross selling of Marriott property secondly it would also help in centralized management. This also helped Marriott to maintain their reservations and inventory level because after implementing this CRM their inventory was connected to catering which was part of single data base which resulted in good inventory management. Basically the working of CRM was four dimensional as the CRM was capable to collect and consolidate information, booking of Marriott property, personal planning services, and creating guest profiles and booking.

The hotel chain is planning upgrades to central reservations, revenue and property management, and CRM systems. For example, the property-management system is used around the world to manage everything from room inventory to kitchen supplies. Four years ago, franchisees were using 19 different systems, including some custom-made ones and one from the Micros-Fidelio division of Micros Systems Inc. Now, they're down to six, and Wilson plans to take another look at consolidation this summer.

So at the end of the day the customer loyalty was increased which in the long term increased profits for Marriott.

MIS IN FRITO-LAY

Frito-Lay North America is the division of PepsiCo that manufactures markets and sells chips, potato chips and other snack foods. The business of Frito-Lay is too vast that every day they have to track 14 million products sold all over world through their hand held devices. These devices used to record data that was stored in the main headquarters of Frito-Lay. Once the data is stored its combines with previously stored data which is collected through different sources and ways and then vital market information was provided through that which provide them key information regarding the market. The information was provided in real time that was related to every aspect of the business.

Secondly this helped them to have complete market information ranging from competitors information to future expectations of the market. In logistics, the use of the standardized reports generated by the Management Reporting System [MRS] has permitted Frito Lay to consolidate four hundred sales routes. This ability to better control the use of company resources has allowed Frito-Lay, with a leaner sales force, to increase sales volume dramatically. The scheduling of deliveries has been improved, so that "stales" -- products which have exceeded their shelf-life, are almost totally eliminated, thereby improving product quality and eliminating wastage. Even the packing cartons used to ship the product are monitored to insure their return, reducing environmental waste and saving millions of dollars in packing costs.

The implementation of MIS system provided them a competitive advantage as it can provide them Executive Support System [ESS] in order to see competitor’s strategies. It also helped them in trend analysis that which product is in high demand and what are the causes for that more over it also helped them to analyze that in which area a specific product is in high demand.

Among the most important advantages of Frito-Lay's information systems comes through centralizing data yet allowing managers of regional operations access to this vast database and software to use it effectively in a distributed processing environment.

MIS in central bank of India

Central bank of India was established in 1911. Central Bank of India provides a wide range of corporate, international & net banking with financial services. It is dealing in complex financial banking services and solutions for the commercial banks of India. The bank was growing at a rapid growth rate as a result it used to face different kind of problems like need to timely submission of financial reports that include income statement and balance sheet, need for inter-branch reconciliation of accounts within a definite time frame, need to undertake risk management strategies and for this purpose build up appropriate set of data and market intelligence reports etc. secondly apart from these reasons central bank was dealing in diversifies services like at the same time it was dealing with businesses, employees, customers etc.

Moreover the bank was providing different complex services like global network, internet banking, ATM in which over 2 million transactions were made daily. So to solve these issues and to maintain a sound banking system in the economy central bank of India implemented an MIS system. Soon after the implementation of MIS the bank was benefitted in many different aspects like now the date is easily accessed and can be analyzed easily, decision making was made easy as accurate and timely decision can be taken now, more over cost was reduced through which overall efficiency of the banking system was increased.

Eglo Pakistan Pvt Ltd

EGLO Pakistan Pvt Ltd is a subsidiary of the European company EGLO LEUCHTEN GmbH. EGLO LEUCHTEN GmbH (in Austria) formed a joint venture with an individual, Iqbal Rajabali (in Karachi, Pakistan) and incorporated Eglo Pakistan Pvt Ltd in June 2008. This organization is introducing European decorative lighting in Pakistan. In November 2010, Iqbal Rajabali and Taha Iqbal established a branch in Islamabad and have started their dealership in Lahore. Eglo Pakistan’s main target is to grow and spread EGLO products in Pakistan. Their basic activities are retail and wholesale of lights. The main dealings taking place at Eglo are Sales, Purchase, keeping track of the Inventory and managing the Finance.

Each business has its own separate dealings and requirements. Living in the world today, everything has become computerized and businesses now have all their operations automated due to several reasons. This is when businesses require software for their company specific to their operations.

Eglo’s application software is known as ‘GL Sales and Purchase.’ It is kept in the name because the software is doing basic accounting of the business and Sales and Purchase because Eglos’s main activities are to do with sales and purchase. It is designed by Eglo’s in-house programmer Mr. Tasleesm Ahmad, who is also the administrator of the software. GL Sales and Purchase has options required by the business, which is why it is very specific. The front end in what the employees use simply to add data of transactions or edit and delete. The back-end tool is where the database is generated and the reporting takes place which employees usually do not access unless required.

As Eglo has a lot of records, it needs a database to keep all its records in one place safe. SQL Server is used as a database tool for GL Sales and Purchase. The database is emailed daily to Eglo’s email id for backup purpose of its records. The security of the software is such that employees have their own username and password and can only access those areas which they are assigned. For example the finance department will login through his username and password and will only be able to access data related to his are of work. This way each employee is responsible for actions undergone in his department.

The advantages of the software are that this software helps in keeping records. It operates like book keeping, you just put in the purchases and sales and it keeps track of the inventory. This software is easy to use and user friendly. It’s not complicated like other software’s. This software helps in reporting each and every transaction. For example what is being purchased, by whom is it being purchased, if it’s on cash or credit, after the sales how much stock is left, how much needs to be ordered, etc. it gives a collective report on everything. This software will help in decision making as it will automatically generate reports and the summaries would be in front of the executives of this company. That would help them determine what needs to be ordered more, which lights have the most sales and which should not be imported. The setbacks are that this application software is limited to desktop only and it cannot be used on smart phones or PDAs. Additional software is required to run this software. It takes up a lot of space on the hard disk.

All in all this Management Information System has helped the company not only record the purchase and sales in the company but it is a mean of decision making. It specifies the number of stock in the inventory. It does all the general accounting functions for example which customer bought the lights on credit and which customer has paid off the bill. Eglo’s software takes care of the payment methods though cash or cheques. This software has a few limitations but its strengths overtrump the weaknesses. Over all the software is relevant to this company’s current requirement and serves the purpose for TPS, OAS and DSS.

Almurtaza Machinery Company (Pvt) Limited

Almurtaza Machinery (Pvt.) Limited is a small business organization, it has four branches across Pakistan and it needed software which would help its employees manage different aspects of the business. Almurtaza is involved in apparel, embroidery and textiles. Hence, Almurtaza decided to employ Alrashid Microcomputers (Pvt.) Limited to do the basic development of the application software. After the basic development, Mr. Arfan Ali Rashid continued to add onto the system and now, finally, the management information system is complete.

Almurtaza needed and inventory control system which would have different modules, inventory and accounting. These modules are interlinked with each other. When a business wants to sell a product, they put in the amount of that particular product they want to sell into the software input screen. The software will check if this product is available or not; if available, an invoice will be made and the Billing System linked to the Inventory Control System through the Accounting module will decrease the business’s inventory. It will then check if the customer is a regular customer or not and if the customer is regular then the order for the product will go into his ID and payment will be made. If the customer is not regular then an ID will be created for him automatically for future reference of the business. In this way the Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable is controlled and monitored.

The back end of the software was developed in the Oracle RDBMS (Relational Data Base Management System) Database. This gives it the added feature of a single database being spread across several tables. The reporting screen was developed using Oracle Reports, a tool used for developing reports against data stored in an Oracle database. The front end of the software, the screen software was Visual Basic 6 and was used to develop some of the screens. The system requirements for this software are; a large hard disk, because the business will have a lot of records to keep of transactions over the years and a powerful operating system.

The system is very detailed and each entry in controlled tightly. It is fast and efficient because the data is timely and the management team can pull a report instantly see how many units are on the floor, how many have been sold and which products are selling the fastest. There is automatic generation of accounting documents like invoices, cheques and statement of account, also all data is automatically posted to various ledgers/accounts. A computerized inventory system helps management control the inventories, in turn lowering overall operating costs in different areas such as labor and it also improves customer service. This system is relatively cheaper than maintaining a manual inventory control system, allows greater efficiency and storage capacity efficiency. A computerized system’s hard drive will take up a relatively small amount of space and can store a large collection of business or personal documents. In contrast, a paper based system would talk up at least one, and usually more, considering also how long Almurtaza has been in business, file cabinets for storage of the same document collection.

PANORAMA: A SPECIALIZED ERP FIRM

Before talking about Panorama Consulting Solutions I would like to give a brief definition about ERP. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning, which is business management application that permits firms to use an inter connected network/system to manage the business activities. It connects all the facets of a work, which includes development, manufacturing, sales and marketing.

Panorama is a consulting firm specializing in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and IT market for mid to large sized companies across the globe.  IT helps business to evaluate and choose ERP application, manages operation of the application and facilitates all related firm changes to make sure every customer knows the all the benefits of their ERP implementation. It also offers IT strategy ERP staffing and expert advice services. This firm also provides input and leadership proven techniques to minimize IT projects risks and accelerate the success and value of the ERP goals. It means a lot to those organizations that tries to find out how to gain maximum returns from the present one. 

This ERP monitors how the collection of information that is being share and used. One key benefits of using this is increment in amount, type and accuracy of data. Out of loop data means that key metrics are missing that engage clients and create sales. Also the ERP not only focuses on existing consumers but also on potential ones as well. 

ERP system usage should be transformed into a key distinguisher as market like to know how businesses stand out from the rest. ERP system can be used in such a way that it increases efficiency and smooth operations.

Panorama’s customers include Microsoft, who purchased the OLAP technology which they used in making SQL server. Now SQL is used mostly in saving database management system.

One of the clients of Panorama Consulting Solutions “Starz Entertainment” believes that they were well underway with this process to the point of reviewing vendor proposals. Panorama was asked to review documentation describing their business processes, checking the RFP responses for accuracy and truthfulness, and use that knowledge and contacts to provide a detailed analysis and recommendation, so Panorama did well as it can quickly adapt to their requests and provide a quality product on time. Panorama sends a number of people in Starz Entertainment project, analyzed their documentation, learned business processes, and provided them a comprehensive analysis and recommendation for the ERP system that we ultimately selected. In short their analysis of the implementers was also on time and on target.
Another client Memory Supplier says that Panorama consultants traveled to their site several times and conducted sessions with their team to ensure they captured all of their key requirements. In addition, Panorama facilitated workshops that enabled them to define and optimize their business processes to align with their company goals and position us for future growth. Through business process management, they were able to provide desired processes to the software vendor. This enabled them to mitigate the risks and reduced overall expense by practicing their software solution 20 percent faster than anticipated. Here is another client Cold Water creek who has been working with Panorama since many years. This company made help them by training consultants. Later onward Cold Water hired them to train and the lead the organizational change. Another Client United Electric Controls is satisfied with the methodology of Panorama consultants. The experience of Panorama helped them to select system process plan for the company. Panorama’s impressed them with the flexibility in adapting to UE’s specific needs and occasional variations in project pacing.

INTEGRATED FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (IFMIS)

Integrated financial management information system (IFMIS), is an information system that tracks financial events and summarizes financial information. In its basic form, an IFMIS is little more than an accounting system configured to operate according to the needs and specifications of the environment in which it is installed.

An IFMIS stores, organizes and makes access to financial information easy. It not only stores all the

financial information relating to current and past years’ spending, but also stores the approved budgets for these years, details on inflows and outflows of funds, as well as complete inventories of financial assets (e.g., equipment, land and buildings) and liabilities (debt). The scale and scope of an IFMIS can vary, from simple General Ledger System to a comprehensive system addressing Budget, Revenue, Expenditure Control, Debt, Resource Management, Human Resources, Payroll, Accounting, Financial Reporting, and Auditing processes across central government or even including local government and other public sector and quasi-governmental agencies and operations.

There is broad agreement that a fully functioning IFMIS can improve governance by providing real-time financial information that financial and other managers can use to administer programs effectively, formulate budgets, and manage resources. Sound IFMIS systems, coupled with the adoption of centralized treasury operations, can not only help developing country governments gain effective control over their finances, but also enhance transparency and accountability, reducing political discretion and acting as a deterrent to corruption and fraud.

IFMIS implementation requires patience. The full project life cycle—from definition of objectives, to system specifications, to system procurement, configuration, testing, and rollout—can easily take seven to ten years, or longer, to complete. This type of time horizon is usually well beyond the attention span of donors, which is why it is advisable to divide IFMIS implementation into clearly defined stages with clear objectives and milestones. As each stage is completed, stakeholders should carefully assess project progress and ensure that the system underdevelopment still meets the needs of the government, and that government commitment to the IFMIS is still there. The ultimate goal should be to put in place sound systems that are well understood and embraced by counterparts and in the end will be self-sustaining.