Managing IT Collaboration in Multi-Organizational Time-Critical Services

Managing IT Collaboration in Multi-Organizational Time-Critical Services

A recent article of the MIS Quarterly Executive states the need for Time-Critical Services and mentions that this kind of services has been evolved in the due time regarding the development of a well informed information system in the time of emergency and other related services. It is a multi tier model targeted towards harnessing information in regard to suffice the information in a timely manner for floating the information to the needy ones when it is required. The following image represents a general framework which has been identified for this type of system.

The article also finds out, for time critical services to function properly, well structured inter-organizational relationships are mandatory for effectively sharing data as well as exchanging information across multiple organizations and platforms along with integrating IT systems based on the IT governance guidelines, forming the governance mechanisms for the multi-organizational collaboration. The article also identifies a live implementation example of this kind of service which has been implemented in EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES IN SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA in year 2007 and critically examines all the modules so as to suffice necessary information in addition to identifying it as a prototype for the Time-Critical Services for implementation.

References:

http://misqe.org/ojs2/index.php/misqe/article/viewFile/259/255

Humans - A social approach

What makes us the "humans" to be termed as human being? The classic definition says that human being is a social animal. Yes, we are social and we live in society and this makes us apart from all the other animals that live on this planet but have you ever thought whether this definition is perfect? According to me it is not. Man has made colonies by carefully observing ants, which make them, live in those and sustain for their life. Whenever there's competition we say "it is survival of the fittest!" that is the "jungle law". Is it correct? Even after this much innovation and technological advancements we still refer everything close to animals, is this justified? 

I really pity sometimes whenever I see poor children begging whenever we stop at some signal in India. What has happened and why we do not care? We are turning everything into a jungle, where the carnivores (rich) are continuously exploiting herbivores (poor). When I was in India, I always use to hear from the people of another country that in India there are many poor people. When I came to U.S., I have seen a lot many poor people; the only difference is their appearance. Here the Government is supporting and is continually providing resources to uplift and maintain their GDP by providing free food stamps to the poor. I actually had an encounter with a beggar here, I was waiting for the bus at the bus stop and he asked "Brother! Do you have 75 cents?” I was not having change for $ 1 bill, so I politely replied "No Sir, but next time I will definitely give you". When I returned from the mall after buying my stuff, I saw him again and he was drinking Beer. Some of the people say, poor will always be poor because they don't know as well as they don't want to succeed in life. This is not true, everyone wants to earn money and live happily but there are many reasons behind their poverty. Either Government or people themselves.

Getting back to the point, Bill Gates (we all know this man as the world's "richest man") a true tiger in this forest as many of us have thought but he turned out to be an Elephant of this jungle after donating $ 2 Billion to charity, founding "Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation". Why did he give such a huge amount to a charity? Why Warren Buffet (Currently world’s richest man) did also donated $ 30 million to the same foundation for social uplifting? There's always a point in life when money does not matter a lot when you have acquired a huge sum of it, so people donate for the betterment of others. I really do praise these prominent guys who truly know what to do and what not to do with all the money which they have earned so far. These are true humans, after achieving so much in their lives they have come forward to help others. We must all learn something from our surroundings and give back to society from where we came and still are living; not just keep fighting with each others on the basis of caste, color of any other socio-political agenda. There are many economies in this world which are still struggling for the survival of their people. There’s no food, water or any other basic necessities available to many of the people in this world. We all are Humans and we must act like ones!

Life - A philospohical Approach!

Many a times I wonder and ask myself a question - What is life? For What we are here for? What are we supposed to do with it?
These questions are really very common and I am sure that many of us may have asked these in one form or the other. These kind of questions generally come into our mind when we are upset or you may say when you feel low. But in general we must always remember to ask our self, Why are we here? By only keeping this question in mind we cannot expect deviation from our path which we lead in life. I strongly feel that we are here for some very important tasks to perform. The attitude towards life determine "tasks" which you need to do or ought to do in life. For some people happiness lies in their children(like my parents), for some life means struggle they always strive hard to succeed, for some like me success means happiness. Now the question comes "everybody is happy, what's new in this? ", but I would like to make a point that there are many people in this world who are not at all happy. They do their work, they have families also, they do everything except finding ways to stay happy.
Doctors also give stress on this particular thing, they ask their patients to stay happy and keep off all the worries from their life. Though this is merely a theoretical aspect but still one can try to stay happy as much as possible in his/her life. There are only pros for this particular way of leading life and as far as I know it is perfectly harmless. So if you are reading this blog, I heartily pray for you to stay happy always and may God bless you with all the happiness in your life.
 

“The presence of a competitor is always beneficial to a company. Competition forces a company to change itself in ways that improve its practices.”

 

In my opinion, competition improves the performance of a company a lot. A healthy criticism develops one’s performance to a great extent. And I think that the criticism must always be taken positively, as it forms the basis of improvement. Any organization does well, if there exists the competition for either its products or for its services. It must be seen as, the zeal to perform “better” than others.

There are many reasons that competition is not at all beneficial for a particular firm as it may create the market situation more complex by introducing the same thing which either exists in some other or in the same form. It also declines the sales as well as it may also deteriorate the quality of the products which were being sold previously. A classic example of this can be China’s interference in electronics market. Though not all, many of the products not only lack in quality but they can also cause negative impact on one’s health. The batteries which were produced in China for Nokia phones were proved to be hazardous and some of them also exploded on people’s ears. As, stated in the beginning, healthy criticism helps to excel. It can be seen from the way, the opposition party which stands against the ruling party in the government assembly, not only helps the current ruling party to do well, but also it may be seen as the efficient way to keep a watch on the policies which are about to introduced in the system.

Competition forms the basis for development; it may be seen from the example of the ERP-software companies. There exits three big vendors- SAP-AG, Oracle and J.D.Edwards, they not only provide robust and intact software for any enterprise, but also are in continuous process of development for their products according to the customer needs and also according to the others ( their competitors). When there’s a competitor, then you are naturally more inclined towards self improvement and also imbibe good things from your competitors. It is not only necessary for the improvement of quality, but it also creates a healthy competition as well. When Google Inc introduced RC4-128 bit encryption based web mail services, many joined the league in order to provide better services to the clients; Yahoo, hotmail are among those few.

In sum, I think that competition is necessary to perform “better” and also it helps you to strive to reach to the acme. Competition must be taken positively and must be seen as a tool for development.