Medici Capital > Articles > SECTION 2 - IT In Your Professional Life

Article By:
Andrew Sirianni

SECTION 2 - IT In Your Professional Life

Tuesday, 6 March 2007

A colleague and I presented recently at the Pharmacy Snow Business Conference held at Mt Buller and posed a question to the participants: "How many of you know the specifications of your personal computer (PC), either at home or at work?" To my surprise and amazement, one person in the entire room raised their hand. From that point, my discussion changed course from advancements in Information Technology (IT) to UNDERSTANDING YOUR I.T.

"How many of you know the specifications of your information systems?"

While the considerations of hardware in your personal life also apply to your business environment, the dynamics of a business provide additional factors that need to be considered in association with the identification of hardware. These are the processes, policies and procedures.

A recent IT article explained how the boundary between personal life and business life has diminished due to technologies that provide us with a lifeline between work and home. Email and mobile phones ensure that we are one step away from the business at every minute of the day. While I agree with this, I think that some common sense needs to be applied to this argument.

A pharmacist once asked me, "With all this new technology, isn't it an invasion of my private life? I mean, how can I 'log-off' off when I leave work." And the simple answer is turn off your phone and turn off your computer.

IT has enabled instant communication, but only because we have let it. When you need time away from the office, it is your option to take it. And you should do so knowing that you have the correct systems infrastructure to support the business in your absence. To explain my point, I have altered the question for this section: "How many of you know the specifications of your information systems?"

Computers and their programs can provide enormous benefits to an organisation. Yet poorly managed and poorly implemented systems can negate this benefit, and even be detrimental.

A computer system is a tool for a job. You identify a goal, a method for achieving that goal and select the appropriate tool for the job. Then you USE THE TOOL IN THE MOST PRODUCTIVE WAY.

How much do you know about the technology in your business and what it's capable of? How many of you have set procedures and training designed to assist your staff in making the best use of your systems? Who is responsible for the system and are they readily accessible to solve problems or assist staff? Do you have a procedure that is known for when there are problems with the system? Who trains your staff? Do you know how to use your technology to provide feedback on how your business is going?

1. KNOW YOUR SYSTEMS
If you are running a software suite, ensure that someone has read the manual or been briefed by a representative of the software company. These companies have learnt about what clients need software for and you may pick up ideas on how to make it work better for your business. Additionally, you many find better ways of completing every day tasks using the system.

2. ENSURE YOUR STAFF KNOW YOUR SYSTEMS
Ensure that your staff know how to use the system. Each system should be appointed a system champion. This person should be a staff member responsible to understanding how the system works and what it's capable of. Furthermore, they should be responsible for training and assisting staff members in use of the system. Where possible, ensure that an additional person works with the champion in case the champion is absent and problems occur with the system. Then, work with the champion to identify set methods of working with the system so that there is a pre-defined list of tasks required to perform each operation.

3. SYSTEM PROTECTION
Identify problems that could occur with the system. For example, loss of data, loss of internet connectivity, computer crashes, etc. Then identify first methods that you can implement to prevent these losses or errors from occurring along with strategies for implementing these measures when a problem does occur and ensure the staff understand these measures.

4. FEEDBACK LOOPS
Systems are powerful tools. A business should identify what they can harness from a system and how it can assist in business and strategic decisions. Use the reporting functionalities of a system to ensure that you conduct regular reviews of how your business is tracking based on the output of your systems and use this information to make positive changes to your system.

CONCLUSION

I hope that this article has provided you with some interesting discussion points regarding IT in pharmacy and your personal life. I realise I have created more questions than posed answers, but such is the nature of IT. There is no one solution. Each business must look at their needs and requirements and then take calculated judgements to ensure that they take steps to adequately meet these needs.

But to ensure you are filling your need, you must have an understanding of what your requirements are and how your IT solution will meet these requirements - both on a technical level (software and hardware) and on a social level (policies, procedures and interaction with the system).

As I stated from the outset, I am not asking you to buy the best IT solution money can buy, nor am I recommending that there is one solution out there that's the be all and end all of IT. What I am saying is this:

Consider what your goals are (always keep an open mind);
Consider the purpose your IT is going to serve and use the IT components that suit your needs;
Identify and structure the use of your IT;
Manage your IT solutions; and
Make use of your IT reporting functions to tell you how you're doing.

Your IT is the biggest information repository you may have, both at home and in the business. Hardware and Software can do some amazing things. But efficiency does not always result in effectiveness. Take steps to ensure you know what IT you and your business uses, why it uses it, and how you can harness the power it produces.

Please remeber to review your IT strategy on an on-going basis. Rapid developments in IT mean that technologies, costs and computer requirements change on a regular basis.