INSS 605 University of Baltimore National Health Service Case Study Analysis

The questions below are based on various case studies of the transformational role of IT, contained in the following three articles. The first listed article contains 4 case studies, each corresponding to a separate business unit of the same high-tech firm. The remaining two articles contain 1 case study each, pertaining to other, unrelated organizations.

Address each question below in the context of each of the six cases.
 

• Political maneuvering during business process transformation – A pluralist approach (this article comprises four cases).
• Policy discourses of IT and patient-centered care (one case).
   
• Strategic actions in a platform context (one case).

QUESTIONS (ANSWER ALL FOR EACH CASE)

1. Consider the following two claims made in the textbook –
   • “There is a growing interdependence between a firm’s ability to use information technology and its ability to implement corporate strategies and achieve corporate goals.”
   • “To fully understand information systems, you must understand the broader organization, management, and information technology dimensions of systems and their power to provide solutions to challenges and problems in the business environment.”

Discuss whether or not each of the six case studies provides empirical support for the above two claims. (You need to show, by means of comprehensive review and discussion of the available facts in the case studies, how they do or do not uphold each claim.)

2.Business processes

A.Which specific business processes and/or management activities in the “business information value chain” (Fig. 1-7 of the text) comprise the focus of the IT efforts in each of the six firms/business units? (Be sure to independently research and study “business processes” in detail from extraneous sources before answering this question — go beyond the textbook figure, as it depicts only a few generic examples of business processes.)

B.For each firm/business unit, do the business processes and management activities you identified above seem to be well supported by its information processing activities? Explain your reasoning.

3.Which “strategic business objectives” of information systems are evident in each case study? Discuss.

4.What kinds of ethical issues (refer to Chapter 4) are evident in each case study, even if not mentioned explicitly? Discuss.

5.Which types of e-commerce (refer to B2C, B2B, C2C, G2C, G2B, etc., in Chapter 10), if any, are evident in each case study, even if not mentioned explicitly? Discuss.