TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT PRACTICUM ASSIGNMENT

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Describe the process you would use to determine at which campus the newly consolidated Technology Department should be housed and where resources would be located.
In the determination of the campus in which the newly consolidated department should be housed alongside the location of resources, various issues should be considered. These issues include the quality of customer service delivery, consolidation’s effect on transport and logistics and technology among others. During the consideration of a consolidation, it is important to consider the effect of the consolidation on service delivery to the patients and decide for the best consolidation to improve service delivery. Transport and logistics are an equally important aspect of consolidation that requires consideration since this determines when and how departments receive their supplies. Technology and automation should also be considered during consolidation. This is because the determination of technology and automation mix to support the newly consolidated model is important for the business continued effectiveness and efficiency (Vakola, Armenakis & Oreg, 2013).
In the determination of the campus in which the newly consolidated technology department should be housed alongside the location of resources, there should be sound justification for each step. This should be observed with the aim of increasing service delivery and minimising costs. Each step of the consolidation process should justify the consolidation process. As a result, an analysis will be detrimental in making intelligent decisions with regard to each of the project’s aspect. The facility should also be designed to meet its set down objectives with regard to layout and technology among others (Zhang et al., 2013).
Support and buy-in is also a critical factor in the determination of the consolidated technology department and resources. This is because consolidations often result into change of operations and processes. As a result, lays are a frequent thing hence a high likelihood of workforce resistance. In this sense, buy-in and support from all quarters is relevant in making the difficult transition (Yamazaki, 2013).
Project leadership would also play a significant role in establishing the newly consolidated technology department’s housing and the location of resources. Leadership is detrimental in a consolidated project as it ensures proper communication among key stakeholders during the entire project (Zhang et al., 2013).
What criteria would you use to identify existing personnel positions that should be retained or eliminated during the process of down-sizing the consolidated department? What technology staff positions, if any, would need to maintain a presence at both campuses, and why?
During the process of downsizing the consolidated department, several criteria are used to establish positions to be retained and those to be eliminated. These criteria include
Performance & Competence
This criterion eliminates or retains personnel positions based on their competence and performance. A performance appraisal is usually conducted prior to downsizing and positions at the bottom of the appraisal list are the first to be laid off. The primary disadvantage of this criterion is that poorly designed performance appraisals fails to identify true performance indicators thus producing a wrong list that is fatal to an organization’s productivity (De Meuse & Dai, 2013).
Expendability
Expendability approach considers the amount of value added by an employee to an organization regardless of performance or period hired. In the case of a consolidated technology department, system engineers and network engineers are likely to be retained while call centre personnel are likely to be downsized (McDevitt, Giapponi & Houton, 2013).
Multiple Criteria Ranking
Multiple criteria ranking is also approach used to identify personnel positions to be retained or eliminated based on numerous criteria. These include the quantity and quality of work handled by a particular position, an employee’s tenure within the company, a position’s skills, abilities and knowledge among others (Martin & Davis, 2013).    
Legal Considerations
Legal considerations also play a significant role in establishing personnel positions to be eliminated and those to be retained during downsizing. WARN (Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) requires employees to adhere to formal procedures during downsizing. Similarly, personnel positions protected by an organization’s constitutions cannot be eliminated without altering the constitution. As a result these positions are unlikely to be eliminated since tampering with them is likely to result in lawsuits that will further consume the organization’s resources.
Describe the process you would use to determine the appropriate platform to host patient records and data such that it is secure, but readily available to authorized staff and medical personnel.
The healthcare industry has traditionally been known to generate huge amounts of data through record keeping, compliance, regulatory requirements and patient care among others. While most of the data is stored in hardcopy, dynamism in the healthcare industry has driven for the improvement of healthcare while reducing costs through online data storage. Through the utilisation of an electrical database, data has been made secure since it is safe from tradition data storage shortcomings. In order to ensure that the data is accessible by all the relevant medical staff, databases are linked to hospital websites thus making the databases online. In the case study of Sulphur River Medical District, the best online database of choice due to the complexity of handling medical data is Zoekeeper (Martin & Davis, 2013). ZooKeeper facilitates centralization of the system’s infrastructure with numerous services which goes along in providing synchronisation between servers. The centralization role of Zookeeper enables it to adhere to the four characteristics of data which are variety, volume, velocity and veracity. In addition, Zookeeper is also secure due to the use of 3 base algorithms in data encryption during transfer making it difficult for data theft. As a result, data access is made convenient and secure to all stakeholders in Sulphur River Medical District (Gandolfi, 2013).
Describe, in detail, the implementation plan and schedule you would propose to accomplish the consolidation process within the six-month scheduled time-frame.
The consolidation implementation plan and schedule should be effective and flexible for continued efficiency. Since the primary role of consolidation is improved productivity, service care delivery should be significantly improved. With a consolidation plan and a six month timeline, only the major aspects of the consolidation will be addressed (Pandey, 2012).
The first month of the consolidation plan will entail notification of the relevant parties of the decision to consolidate and reasons behind the consolidation through formal means. This stage also entails setting down goals and objectives to be met through the consolidation process. A competent and experienced team to spearhead the consolidation process is also selected at this stage. The second stage which is the most critical entails an analysis of all the relevant factors necessary for the consolidation process. An approximated timeline of two months is necessary as sales figures, labour, equipment and technology among others are analysed. The third stage is the design month and sets up a design based on the analyses found out. The design stage is likely to take a maximum of one month as new aspects of the consolidation such as facility design, layout and technology among others are established. The design phase is responsible for ensuring that an appropriate system is put in place to support the new processes and equipment (ZatZick & Iverson, 2006).
The third phase is the implementation phase and will take a maximum period of one month two weeks. In the implementation phase, recommendations from the analysis and design phases are put into action. The actual consolidation usually takes place during the implementation phase. The fourth phase is the evaluation phase. In this phase, the chosen system, technologies and processes are evaluated through key performance indicators according to their performances after implementation. Any shortcomings of the processes, systems and technologies are rectified at this stage. The evaluation phase often takes a maximum of two weeks (Trevor & Nyberg, 2008).
What Knowledge Management strategies would you employ to ensure a minimal loss of information during the consolidation period and make critical information more accessible to current and future staff members?
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 As a way of ensuring minimal information loss during the consolidation period alongside making pertinent information accessible to current and future staff members, I would use various knowledge management strategies. These strategies include knowledge sharing, transfer of best practice, collaborative technologies, knowledge fairs and expert directories among others. Knowledge sharing ensures that knowledge gained prior to the consolidation is retained by spreading it through sharing. As a result, knowledge cannot be lost in the event of downsizing and layoffs. Transfer of the best practice is also another knowledge management strategy that ensures that the best practice related to processes and systems is retained. This ensures that knowledge is widely shared thus minimizing chances of its loss even in the event of layoffs due to downsizing (McDevit, Giapponi & Houston, 2013). Knowledge fairs are open forums and workshops where knowledge is shared amongst all employees. This ensures that all employees are knowledgeable with regard to significant organizational concepts. Collaborative technologies are means of sharing knowledge using common online pages and applications which are accessible by a majority of the employees. Collaborative technology is efficient and effective since its highly accessible for future reference. Expert directories are a knowledge management strategy whereby knowledge seekers are able to consult experts thus retaining part of the expert’s knowledge. Through the above knowledge management strategies, knowledge is made available to the current and future staff members even in the event of consolidation (Yamazaki, 2013).

References
De Meuse, K. P., & Dai, G. (2013). Organizational Downsizing: Its Effect on Financial Performance Over Time. Journal of Managerial Issues, 25(4), 324.
Gandolfi, F. (2013). Workforce downsizing: Strategies, archetypes, approaches and tactics. Journal of Management Research, 13(2), 67.
Martin, W. M., & Davis, A. C. (2013). Alternatives to Downsizing: An Organizational Innovation Approach. International Journal of Business and Social Research, 3(7), 19-27.
McDevitt, R., Giapponi, C., & Houston, D. M. (2013). Organizational Downsizing During an Economic Crisis: Survivors' and Victims' Perspectives. Organization Management Journal, 10(4), 227-239.
Pandey, S., Voorsluys, W., Niu, S., Khandoker, A., & Buyya, R. (2012). An autonomic cloud environment for hosting ECG data analysis services. Future Generation Computer Systems, 28(1), 147-154.
Vakola, M., Armenakis, A., & Oreg, S. (2013). Reactions to organizational change from an individual differences perspective: A review of empirical research. The Psychology of Organizational Change: Viewing Change from the Employee's Perspective, 95-122.
Yamazaki, T. (2013). Deployment of a Divisional Structure. In German Business Management (pp. 175-209). Springer Japan.
Zatzick, C. D., & Iverson, R. D. (2006). High-involvement management and workforce reduction: Competitive advantage or disadvantage? Academy of Management Journal, 49, 999-1015
Zhang, T., Huang, G. Q., Qu, T., & Li, Z. (2013). Headquarter-centered common sourcing management through order coordination and consolidation.Computers & Operations Research, 40(8), 2011-2025.
Trevor, C. O., & Nyberg, A. J. (2008). Keeping your headcount when all about you are losing theirs: Downsizing, voluntary turnover rates, and the moderating role of HR practices. Academy of Management Journal, 51, 259-276.
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