Nursing Informatics

Answer

Nursing Informatics

The traditional information technology (IT) infrastructure is fast being reshaped by universal commercial digital transformation. Within the present ultra-competitive universal economy that brings unlimited openings for disruption as well as need for constant innovation, the demands placed upon IT are substantially changing far faster than expected. Presently, the success of a commercial establishment is determined by a combination of utilizer experience, extra enticing business models, as well as fast time-to-value (Hanna, 2016). Digital infrastructure refers to a focus upon enabling commercial agility as well as powering utilizer experiences that propel customer loyalty and engagement (Xu & Quaddus, 2010). Business agility directly relates to the ability of an organization to speedily respond to the shifting expectations and needs of the business. Commercial aspirations ought to be re-structured with a knowledge that within the hyper-competitive market, time is a crucial factor. Digital infrastructure employed by organizations must focus upon the fast creation, deployment, and building of new services and products. To this end, this paper will explain: (1) the basic infrastructure for digital organizations and electronic commerce (EC); (2) how ethical issues create pressures or constraints on organizational operations and the use of IT; (3) major managerial activities that are supported or enabled by IT; and (4) the concepts behind Web-based systems and information infrastructure including details of the major components of the infrastructure. 

1. Basic Infrastructure for Digital Organizations and E-Commerce

According to Gloag (n.d.), electronic commerce (e-commerce or EC) is a way of buying and selling of merchandises over a computer network. E-commerce transactions can include supplier purchases, online retail sales, online bill paying, along with Web-based dealings/auctions. E-commerce uses a number of technologies, like electronic money transfers, electronic data exchange, e-mail, and credit cards, among others. EC has made it possible for business operators to be able to have a business electronically and make their products worldwide with use of computers and internet. In order for it to function properly, there is a basic infrastructure for digital organizations and electronic commerce (EC) which include hardware components and software components. Some of the components of e-commerce are network/telecommunications know-hows (wire(less) transmission), web page development, multimedia management, data mining, browser, security, web server maintenance, database management, internet service provider, smart card, and human computer interface, among others. However, Park and Howarth (2013) add that every single business needs an infrastructure to back up its operations and customers, and these include an organization’s software, hardware, and networks. Kar (2015) explains that hardware components are those that are used for EC in information repository are servers, proxy servers, load balancing systems and for information security includes firewalls, encryption devices and interactive voice response units. The software components consist of software modules such as content management systems, application programming interface (API), database servers, and middlewares. Analytics software component include web analytics, text analytics and big data, while standards component of software include object oriented communications protocols, data base and application specific (Kar, 2015).

Hardware

According to Turban, Volonino, and Wood (2015), hardware consists of the physical devices associated with computer system.  The servers in the hardware part of the computer program which accepts and responds to requests or queries made by another program such as a client. From a hardware viewpoint, the e-commerce infrastructure entails several components. First are the servers. Servers are computers that function the processing needs and requirements for a digital organization’s IT infrastructure (Park & Howarth, 2013). Second are the proxy servers, which act as intermediaries between an organization’s outside world and the company’s EC infrastructure (Ryan & Jones, 2009). Third are load balancers, which are devices that split a work to be executed so that it is ultimately distributed evenly among a company’s e-commerce infrastructure (Anumba & Ruikar, 2008). Next are the firewalls. Firewalls are fortification devices that function to limit what an e-commerce utilizer can perform an organization’s e-commerce infrastructure (Xu & Quaddus, 2010). Encryption devices are other components of the e-commerce infrastructure, which function to translate information/figures/statistics into non-human comprehensible forms as well as safeguard it from prying eyes. Last among many other components are the interactive voice response units. This is computer-produced voice that one hears when uses voicemail, or when an individual calls an organization’s automated/computerized/programmed support centre (Hanna, 2016).

Software

Zhou et al. (2008) define a software as an assemblage of computer or data instructions that instruct a computer what to do and how to work. There are several components of e-commerce within digital organizations’ IT infrastructure. First, among the fundamental ones is content management systems. Content management systems is a software, as Anumba and Ruikar (2008) note, that controls a user’s access to an organization’s IT infrastructure’s content (utilizer accessible information) that are stored on the organization’s e-commerce infrastructure. Second is web analytics, which are software apparatuses that function to provide different web statistics (like the number of utilizers or the users’ IP addresses) regarding an organization’s e-commerce infrastructure (Ferratt et al., 2018). Third is text analytics, a software which provides distinct text-based potentials or capabilities such as spell checking and speech-to-voice or voice-to-speech conversion (Ryan & Jones, 2009). Next is application programming interface (API). API provides users with access points that software manufacturers can employ to incorporate potentials and capabilities of an organization’s e-commerce infrastructure into their individual offerings. Additionally, there are database servers, which handle stored figures, statistics, and information, such as customer accounts, in a digital organization’s e-commerce (Anumba and Ruikar, 2008). Last among the many fundamental components is the middleware, which are software that function to ‘glue’ together various components of a digital company’s e-commerce infrastructure, and are characteristically employed where exceptional systems must function in concert (Hanna, 2016).

2. How Ethical Issues Create Pressures/Constraints on Organizational Operations and the Use of IT

Ethics refer to what is wrong or right with reference to handling of human behaviour (Dyck & Mulej, 2014). Ethics can influence organizations both positively and negatively depending on the organization’s leader. Ethical issues can negatively influence an organization in several ways; employees that work in unsafe, unfair, and unclean environments will seek alternative employments which could lead to an organization registering a high rate of turnover (Skarlicki et al., 2007) as well as lose highly on talented employees (Ferratt et al., 2018). Essentially, ethical issues serve to influence an organization’s productivity (Schwartz & Harris, 2013) and the feeling of satisfaction among an organization’s staff members (which consequently influence the degree of commitment to their jobs) (Malleck & Wankel, 2010). For instance, the positive influence of ethical issues within organizations is that they boost the organization’s productivity and makes the organization’s members feel more appreciated as well as push the organization’s employees to be more committed/dedicated and work extra hard to attain their individual and organizational goals (Dyck & Mulej, 2014). Additionally, ethical issues within an organization influence an organization’s consumer’s loyalty. When an organisation makes its customers feel that they are being cheated or taken advantage of, and that some dishonesty is being practised toward them, the organization is likely to register a fall in its profits and revenue (Zhou et al., 2008).

Ethical issues, thus, create several constraints or pressures on organizational operations as well as the use of IT. The first category of pressures and constraints are technical limitations of e-commerce. Currently, there are serious security concerns both in organizations and among consumers/customers; data are frequently being hacked, allowing crucial information belonging to individuals and organizations to be leaked to the general public, to the hackers (who use such information for their personal gains/benefits), and to individuals’ or organizations’ rivals (Trim & Upton, 2013). For these reasons, some companies are slow at embracing e-commerce due to several security risks associated with it, both for the organizations and their clients. Schwartz and Harris (2013) reason that there is absence of sufficient organization’s reliability, security, communication, and standard protocols. These concerns are forcing companies that have employed e-commerce to continue upgrading their systems and employ IT security experts (strategies that are significantly costly) (Ferratt et al., 2018). Closely related to security is privacy. According to Dyck and Mulej (2014), privacy and security of IT use in organizations is contributing to more than 20% of the reasons why some organizations and individuals are shying away from embracing e-commerce in the transaction of their businesses. These concerns are particularly crucial in the business-to-customer setting; they affect organizations since organizations have to ensure that privacy and security measures are improved with advancement in technology since security and privacy issues are perceived by customers to be very crucial. This makes e-commerce-dependent organizations to have very difficult and long task of persuading customers and potential customers that their online transactions as well as privacy are fairly secure.

Another ethical concern affecting organization’s operations and IT use is trust and resistance. According to Trim and Upton (2013), 5% were found to be unwilling to transact their business activities on online platforms due to resistance and lack of trust. The study hinted that customers have no or little trust on paperless transactions, faceless sellers, and electronic money, as supported by Skarlicki et al. (2007). For this reason, switching to a virtual from a physical store may be hard for some organizations because they are not likely to make profits by employing e-commerce or IT. For these reasons, companies are forced to use strategies that will help build/restore confidence and trust in their customers while minimizing their customers’ resistance. This has necessitated special web servers and other infrastructures alongside network servers, which are generally additional costs (Dyck & Mulej, 2014). The trust and confidence is also influenced by the fact that there are possible challenges with interoperability of e-commerce or IT use, implying that some of a company’s e-commerce software do not fit with certain organization’s hardware, or may be incompatible with certain of the organization’s operating systems (OS)/components (Schwartz et al., 2014). For this reason, some companies are forced to seek special web servers among other capabilities, which is essentially an extra price. Additionally, there are also issues relating to ethics with regard to the use of e-commerce: the absence of touch-and-feel online, several unresolved legal concerns, interruption of human associations.

3. Major Managerial Activities That Are Supported/Enabled By IT

Progress in computer-associated IT in the recent past has resulted in a wide spectrum of systems and functions that managers can employ in carrying out their functions, which include planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting (Trim & Upton, 2013). There are six different ways in which managerial activities are enabled/supported by IT. First is that IT helps in bettering organizations’ transaction procession systems. Through the use of IT, companies’ managers have the ability of gathering, processing, and storing transactions that daily happen within their companies (Zhou et al., 2008). Through the system, managers have the ability to cancel/modify transactions that were done in the past should there be a need. A characteristic that enables this system to effectively work is its capability to record accurately several/multiple transactions regardless of whether different transactions take place at any single time simultaneously (Skarlicki et al., 2007). Second is that IT allows for creation of office automation systems (OAS). OAS refers to a collection of computers, communication know-how, and people to execute official tasks (Schwartz & Harris, 2013).OAS executes office transactions as well as supports an organization’s official undertakings at all levels of the organization. Several applications are employed by managers to relay and get information from within their organizations, including word processing, email, and voice mail services. These systems help the manager to disseminate necessarily and aptly to their juniors for effective and increased production.

The third way in which managerial activities are influenced by IT is through knowledge work systems (KWS). KWS is a system that is specifically built to promote knowledge creation with an organization and to ensure that technical skills and knowledge are suitably integrated within an organization (Malleck & Wankel, 2010). KWS assist knowledge employees within an organization to create and propagate new knowledge and information/skills by providing them the analytical communications, graphics, and document management paraphernalia (Zhou et al., 2008). Also, since companies’ knowledge workers need to search for knowledge without their organizations, KWS gives them easy access to outside databases and other sources of information needed for their excellent functioning (Trim & Upton, 2013). Some of KWS employed by companies include computer-aided design (CAD), financial workstations, and virtual reality systems.

The fourth way regards IT and executive support/information systems (ESS). ESS is a tool employed by organizations to report enterprise/company-wide data to organizations’ executives (Grisot et al., 2014). ESS provide companies with easy and quick way of using reports that are graphically presented for easy comparisons (Joo & Hovav, 2016) and can be taken as specialized decision support systems since they offer information needful in assisting to better the quality of decisions made within an organization (Schwartz et al., 2014). Huang et al. (2013) add that ESS help in monitoring performance, identifying opportunities available for a company, tracking activities of a company’s rivals, forecasting a company’s trends. They equally help company’s senior managers to answer/respond to several questions relating to what their company ought to do, how their company’s rivals do their business, and which units can they sell (Grisot et al., 2014).

Fifth is IT and management information systems (MIS). Park and Howarth (2013) state that MIS employ IT to assist managers in making sure there is an efficient and smooth running on an organization. Information gathered by MIS is structured with the goal of allowing managers to easily evaluate their organization’s present performance against previous outputs (Malleck & Wankel, 2010). Among the common types of MIS employed by most companies are process control systems, sales and marketing systems, human resource management systems, office automation systems, inventory control systems, enterprise resource planning systems, management reporting systems, and accounting and finance systems. Essentially, MIS are specifically developed to support controlling, planning, and decision-making processes of middle managers (MM) since MIS extract a company’s transaction information/data from the company’s underlying transaction processing and management reporting systems (TPSs), compile them, and produce information/data products in display, report, and response forms (Joo & Hovav, 2016). Such information are instrumental in providing data that conforms to a company’s managers’/supervisors’ decision-making requirements. See the figure below for summary of support provided by MIS for managerial activities. See figure 2 and table 2 in the appendix for more information on IT and managerial activities. 

Fig 1. Support Given by MIS for Managerial Activities

Source Schwartz et al. (2014).

4. Concepts behind Web-Based Systems and Information Infrastructure and Major Components of the Infrastructure.

Web-based systems, according to Grisot et al. (2014), refer to applications/services that reside on a server that is accessible only by use of a web browser. Examples of web-based systems include extranets, the internet, intranets, storefronts, e-commerce, electronic exchanges and marketplaces, mobile commerce, and corporate portals. Conversely, IT infrastructure refers to a combined set of software, hardware, networks, and facilities, among other components that are used to develop, deliver, monitor, tests, support, or control IT services. There are several concepts behind web-based systems as well as information infrastructure. To begin with is that they comprise of software, hardware, data, procedures, as well as people (Huang et al., 2013). Another fundamental component of an information infrastructure and Web-based services is a minimum of one smaller information system (IS): IS gathers, processes, analyzes, and distributes information for a particular function (Schwartz et al., 2014). For instance, a company’s information system may contain hundreds of smaller ISs, commonly referred to as “applications.” These programs are designed for purposes of aiding a particular function or an organization’s specific process. There are several application programs within a company’s functional area. For instance, within an organization’s human resource system, there are possibilities of finding an application meant for screening job applicants while another for monitoring workers’ turnover (Ryan & Jones, 2009). While application programs may be independent from one another, the basic fact is that application programs within a single division of a company is regarded as a departmental information system.

Another concept is that information systems are often linked by means of electronic linkages/networks, with the connecting networks being wireless and/or wireline. Web-based services can link a whole organization, or even several organizations. Similarly, another basic concept is that information infrastructure and web-based services are built to achieve a number of objectives/goals, one of the fundamental goals being to economically process a company’s data into knowledge/information. Also important to note is that information infrastructure and web-based services are build out of parts that can be put together in several distinct configurations to produce various information systems as well as applications.

With reference to topography, there are eight components. First is switching. Huang et al. (2013) state that a network switch is the tool that provides linkage or connectivity upon a LAN (Local Area Network). A switch comprises many ports that physically link to other network apparatuses, including other Reuters, servers, and switches (Ferratt et al., 2018). These switches allow two or more devices within a network to communicate with each other minus having to forward communication traffic to all tools within an organization’s network. The second component are routers, which move packets between one network and another. Routing, therefore, allows Web-based devices that are separated on various LAN to communicate with each other by gauging the next possible “hop” that will function to allow the connection packet to ultimately get to its terminus (Huang et al., 2013). The third component are firewalls, which are security devices installed at network edges. Skarlicki et al. (2007) argue that a set of principles defines the type of network traffic that will be permissible via a firewall and what will be stopped/blocked. There are also servers. A network server merely refers to another computer yet often larger with regard to resources as compared to what most people usually think. A server permits a number of users to access as well as share its resources. There are different types of servers: file servers, directory servers, web servers, and application servers, print servers, and database servers among others.

The next component of an IT infrastructure is a physical plant. Physical plant connotes all network cabling within an office/organization’s buildings as well as datacenter/server room. There are two fundamental types of cabling within IT infrastructure: fiber optic and CAT 5/6/7. The next component of an IT infrastructure are the people, datacenters (the location wherein servers belonging to an individual/organization are kept), and infrastructure software, which entails computer hardware platforms, operating system platforms, enterprise and other software applications, and telecommunications and networking platforms among others.

Conclusion

To sum it up, this paper has realized its objective by comprehensively explaining the basic infrastructure for digital organizations and e-commerce, how ethical issues create pressures/constraints on organizational operations and the use of IT, major managerial activities that are supported or enabled by IT and the concepts behind Web-based systems and information infrastructure including details of the major components of the infrastructure.