Memorandum, Research Paper Example

Oncology Therapeutics Networks [OTN] is an example of a healthcare organization that has the structured to align itself with a more process centered concept.  At the core of the OTA business model is the need for “distribution of medication to customers, immediately as they need it.”  (Bell, C. 2012). In order to make work this OTN needs a real-time centralized customer communication concept.

We have achieved this by upgrading management information systems to run on Oracle enterprise resource planning software applications.  OTM have partnered with the business integrations solution software firm of Tibco in order to complete the business integration solutions that are required. The concept of using a centralised relational database system such as Oracle has offered numerous advantages to OTM.  Essentially OTN have placed the ‘Patient’ at the centre of its business operational model and built the management information systems around this.  In essence the firm has  built the services to directly meet the needs of its customers in a timely fashion.  ERP completes a cyclical process incorporating all of the business processes using single sources of data in a real time environment.    Fig 1 refers.

The internal factors that helped shaped the organization may in large be attributed to the flexibility of the organization and willingness to adapt to a new model. The type of management information required to operate the business was clearly understood. It was simply a case of logistics, resources and ability to handle large volumes of data for subsequent analysis. The computers could handle the power but we needed the software to interrogate the data and produce the reports. ERP was simply a logical destination for OTN to follow.  External factors were really reliant upon consultancy support; support from the suppliers and in particular the hardware and software vendors, the principle stakeholders and our customers in determination of service levels, quality and expectations.

The use of Enterprise Planning has allowed the size of the organization to expand and it has helped the business transformation in terms of streamlining the processes, elimination of redundancies and making general improvements to the management information and reporting structures.  There has been a significant improvement in inter departmental relationships and planning as a result of introducing ERP

Reference

Bell, C. (2012, 6 14). OTN finds powerful medicine in business integration. Retrieved from Tibco: http://www.tibco.com/resources/customers/successstory_otn.pdf