This report identifies a major problem within my company, Company International plc, that is caused by employees’ hard copy files being stored on a different floor to the Human Resources department. This major MIS problem involves HR employees leaving their desks and wasting working time in manually retrieving an employee’s file from another floor. For the future, Company International plc would like to propose a managing information system which stores employees’ information and data electronically and retrieving this information from their computer.
This system is a MIS scanning document system. Company International plc (Company) are a leading financial services group, with clients all around the world making connections and delivering tailored solutions for success in today’s markets. At present my employer, Company, Human Resources Department, physically stores data relating to employees on a different floor to the HR Department, making it extremely difficult for HR employees to easily and freely access information relating to employees.
Moving forward Company would like to electronically store employee files to both safeguard employees’ data, as at present, the cabinets that currently store the employee files are not fire or flood proof. Therefore, if this information is lost or damaged, Company do not have any backup regarding this data. This scanning system will also provide a faster access mechanism to the Human Resources Department should an employee data contained within these files need to be referenced.
This will also save valuable time as retrieving the file from a different floor, is a costly measure as more time should be spent in producing valuable work, rather than wasting time in collecting the employee’s file numerous times a day. The aim of this report is explained in two specific factors. The first is to identify why Company need such a system in place and the MIS problem they have at present. It will also evaluate the key objectives as to why Company need this scanning system.
The second, will evaluate the solution and the potential savings it could make to Company. This report will consider how a system such as this will be designed and developed by evaluating costs and time saving. The current situation within Company’s HR Department is that all employees’ files are stored in a filing cabinet on a different floor to the HR Department. Therefore, HR employees have to manually retrieve information regarding an employee from going from the 6th floor where the HR department are based, to the 4th floor where the files are stored.
The flow diagram above shows an employee leaving their desk on the 6th floor, going down to the 4th floor to retrieve the employee’s file they require, coming back to their desk to manually search through the file, taking the file back down to the 4th floor and then returning to continue their work. On average it is worked out that a HR employee retrieves a file from the filing cabinet on the 4th floor, 5 times a day. There are 6 HR Assistants that are likely to retrieve a file for either themselves or their manager.
The flow diagram above is believed to take 5 minutes to collect a file from the 4th floor and then take the file back again. Figure 1 shows a positive correlation between the time saved per day and how many times a HR Assistant collects a file per day. This is a significant amount of time saved if the scanning system was in place as the employee would only have to sit at their desk to retrieve the information they need and not have to leave their desk.
If a scanning system was in place, each employee in the HR department, on average, will save 25 minutes a day (as per the calculation of collecting a file 5 times per day). The purpose of this report is to specify the system requirements that will be needed to implement and introduce a scanning system which will reduce paper and be a central document repository that can manage all incoming and outgoing documents along with the ability to index, view, retrieve, print and reissue stored content while providing secure access to a validated user.
This will save money for Company and reduce wasting paper for the environment. All content will be searchable, by applied index information and in a logical storage structure and a full audit trail of all documents is an important feature of this requirement. To recognise and understand the requirements for a scanning centric MIS system to address Company’s current and future business and procedural needs. The core solution products of this system are professional implementation and application support.
The documents e. g. Employment Contracts, Letters, Maternity Notification, Salary and Promotion Letters etc, will be scanned into this system and placed into the correct employee’s file. Therefore there will be on average 1,400 electronic files in this system storing electronic documents for all employees. Furthermore, if a new employee joins the firm, a new electronic folder can easily be created for an employee within this system and information regarding them will be freely available to the HR Department.
When using data it is useful to know how the data has been collected and processed in order to appreciate their reliability and to understand the full meaning of the statistics. According to Bee (2005) the developments in computer technology, and the way this technology is used by organisations, have taken us from the twentieth century, where personal computers performing simple tasks on individuals’ desks have been used to improve local efficiency – into twenty-first-century, where managing information effectively will be a key contribution to the achievement of organisational objectives.
To ensure that Company’s scanning system is clearly and unambiguously defined, it will need to manage information that supports the core business activity and enhance the performance of staff. This should be shared in process-related terms that is needed for the monitoring and controlling systems that enable important performance related questions to be answered and suitable corrective actions be taken (See Appendix A).
The information and documents that will need to be inputted and electronically stored in the database, will be scanned into the system, then the employee will be able to use their computer to manually locate where this electronic document will need to be filed. There will be an electronic file, alphabetically maintained by surname, per employee. Therefore, all the information regarding an employee will be in their electronic file in the database, if a HR employee needs to refer to any particular documents.
