Overview of Stakeholder Management and Assessment

Discuss about the Report for Business Stakeholders of Knowledge Management System.

Stakeholder refers to any person that has interest in the proposed information or knowledge management system. It is extremely important to research on the stakeholder requirement for these systems to understand the stake of the various technical and non-technical workers and also to determine the influence of the stakeholder on the activities associated with the project. Assignment of roles and responsibilities can also be efficiently done only after understanding the stakeholder requirement (Pouloudi, 2016).

There are a number of methods to collect information from the stakeholders that include one-on-one discussions with the stakeholder, group discussions, and conduction of collaborative workshops along with conference calls and surveys. It is suggested to record the outcomes of any of these methods in a formal manner (Abudi, 2010).

Stakeholder management and assessment is an important activity in a project and the steps in providing information to the external stakeholders should be managed well.

To provide the information to the external stakeholders without compromising on the information confidentiality, integrity and security.

To provide the information to the external stakeholders as per the project schedule

The following strategy must be followed while training the external users:

A training plan must be developed and shared with the trainer and the trainees before the training.

Resources necessary for the training that is a facilitator, trainer or group of trainers and trainees willing to attend the training must be identified.

Method of training shall be finalized on mutual consent. For a web based training, audio/video conferencing details along with the schedule must be shared with all the members and in case of an in-person training session, venue details must be shared and booked in advance.

The documents that will be followed during the training must be circulated in advance.

The success of the training activity can be judged on the basis of the feedback form comprising of a list of questions about the training material, schedule, trainer interaction level and likewise. The form must be filled and sent back to the facilitator by all the trainees.

The system can be promoted to the external users by arranging the introductory and training sessions for them that will provide a brief on the features of the same and the steps to use the same. User manuals and guides highlighting the advanced features and benefits must also be circulated.

Methods for Collecting Stakeholder Information

The system integrity while providing access to external users can be maintained by following strict access control measures along with the user authentication and authorization methods. Also, the information and data present on the system must be encrypted to avoid any security risks.

An automated sales management information system must be installed to keep the sales information maintained and secure at the same time. In case of the loss of sales report from the customer management system, the back-end team must be contacted for assistance to provide the same from the back-up and recovery database.

To avoid the data loss in case of a crash, effective back-up strategies must be adopted along with the disaster recovery for recovering the data as and when required.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software must be used by the organization to improve customer interaction and associated activities. In case of erroneous information sent to the supplier, the information must be reverted and replaced with the corrected piece of the same.

Order processing and inventory control systems must be installed to streamline the orders that are received from the customers and to avoid the issues of shipment delays and backorders.

Transaction Processing Information Systems are the systems which are used to manage the transactions at the operational level. These systems perform the task of validating, sorting, listing, merging, calculating and updating the information to provide detailed reports and lists. Some of the examples of transaction processing information systems include payroll systems, order processing systems, stock control systems and reservation systems (Al-Mamary, Shamsuddin, & Aziati, 2016).

These systems can handle several thousand transactions simultaneously without causing errors which is otherwise not possible through manual operations. This leads to saving of a lot of time and effort. These systems also enable the customers from all across the globe to access a system at any time as these are always available.

The biggest weakness of these systems is the security threats that these are exposed to. There is also hardware and network requirement that needs to be fulfilled to implement and use these systems. The maintenance that these systems ask for also adds to the weakness of the transaction processing systems (Fitzpatrick, 2016).

SWOT Analysis stands for the determination of an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is a strategic planning tool for the organization to understand the internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) factors that may affect the performance.

Strategies for Training External Users

SWOT Analysis can be used to determine the effectiveness of an information management system as it can easily evaluate the success or failure of the same. It also gives information on the features that distinguish the system from the rest which make it distinguished from the competitors (Chand, 2014).

The information system that has been chosen for assessment is the Transaction Processing System. The system has been found to be extremely effective and usable for the employees to perform operational transactions. It has also emerged as an essential component in the information systems that are installed in the organization.

The assessment procedure that was followed to come up to the conclusion stated above is described as follows:

A monitoring and evaluation plan was designed to perform the assessment of the system

Monitoring of the system was done by collecting the information through on-site visits, review of the data and examination of the reports.

Data was collected in the form of reports, records, indicators and formats

Evaluation to assess the performance was done by determining the achievements, impact, cost effectiveness and sustainability of the system (www.pathfinder.org, 2016).

The major drawbacks that were received while assessing the transaction processing information systems were in terms of the security. Security threats and risks are on an ever increasing pace in the world of information systems and the same has impacted the transaction processing systems as well.

The same can be approved by using stronger security mechanisms such as improved access control, use of latest anti-virus and internet security along with the installation of firewalls in the system.

Other employees that were involved in assessing the system and suggesting the improvements were the network engineers that determined the network security attacks affecting the system, internal and external users that use the system and the maintenance staff that provides assistance and support.

Objective

The objective of the report is to analyze the effectiveness and performance of transaction processing information system in the organization.

The stakeholders that are involved during the assessment of the system are the system engineers, network engineers, maintenance team and end-users.

• A checking and assessment arrangement was intended to play out the evaluation of the framework
• Checking of the framework was finished by gathering the data through on location visits, audit of the information and examination of the reports
• Information was gathered as reports, records, markers and configurations
• Assessment to evaluate the execution was finished by deciding the accomplishments, sway, cost viability and maintainability of the framework

The system has been observed to be to a great degree compelling and usable for the workers to perform operational exchanges. It has additionally risen as a key part in the data systems that are introduced in the association.

The real disadvantages that were gotten while evaluating the transaction processing data systems were as far as the security. Security dangers and dangers are on a perpetually expanding pace in the realm of data systems and the same has affected the transaction processing systems too. The same can be endorsed by utilizing more grounded security instruments, for example, enhanced access control, utilization of most recent tools against viruses and web attacks alongside the establishment of firewalls in the system.

References

Abudi, G. (2010). Best Practices for Gathering Requirements from Your Stakeholders – Gina Abudi. Gina Abudi. Retrieved 4 August 2016, from https://www.ginaabudi.com/best-practices-for-gathering-requirements-from-your-stakeholders/

Al-Mamary, Y., Shamsuddin, A., & Aziati, N. (2016). The Role of Different Types of Information Systems In Business Organizations : A Review. Retrieved 4 August 2016, from https://paul-hadrien.info/The%20Role%20of%20Different%20Types%20of%20Information.pdf

Chand, S. (2014). SWOT Analysis: Meaning and Importance of SWOT Analysis | Management. YourArticleLibrary.com: The Next Generation Library. Retrieved 4 August 2016, from https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/management/swot-analysis-meaning-and-importance-of-swot-analysis-management/25826/

Fitzpatrick, M. & Fitzpatrick, M. (2016). The Advantage & Disadvantage of Transaction Processing Systems | eHow. eHow. Retrieved 4 August 2016, from https://www.ehow.com/info_8708023_advantage-disadvantage-transaction-processing-systems.html

Pouloudi, A. (2016). Aspects of the Stakeholder Concept and their Implications for Information Systems Development. Retrieved 4 August 2016, from https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/hicss/1999/0001/07/00017030.pdf

www.pathfinder.org,. (2016). Monitoring and Evaluation and Management Information Systems (MIS). Retrieved 4 August 2016, from https://www.pathfinder.org/publications-tools/pdfs/Strengthening-You-Organization-A-Series-of-Modules-and-Reference-Materials-for-NGO-and-CBO-Managers-and-Policy-Makers-Monitoring-and-Evaluation-and-MIS.pdf