Problems Identified In The Las Cad System

First and foremost, from the investigations carried out, it is clearly shown that the CAD system was not fully mature or on time to be executed. Its users either were not ready or fully prepared to absorb it. The software itself was not comprehensive, it was not appropriately adjusted and finally it was not effusively tested. The flexibility of the hardware was also not tested when in operation and while fully loaded. Problems were also identified with the transmission of data from the mobile data terminals and back.There was also some cynicism about the accurateness of records of the automatic vehicle location system (AVLS). The people who worked in the Central Ambulance Control and the ambulance crew itself, did not trust the system and were neither fully trained about the system. The layout of the control room was changed with the introduction of the CAD system. The staffs working in the control were in a mix up because they were working in a very unfamiliar environment where ther e was not even any paper backup.Due to this, simple problems that they used to solve with their colleagues became monster problems. The CAD system was over ambitiously put in place. It was developed and put into operation in opposition to an impracticable timetable. The project itself was poorly managed and ambiguous from the development phase through the implementation process. Full time professional and qualified project management was lacking. A decision that had been made earlier to implement the full CAD system was erroneous.Putting into place a system such as CAD requires a step by step kind of approach, while establishing the efficiency of each step before moving on to the next. Each step should be justified by analyzing each aspect of it like costs and benefits. It’s true to say that the management, the supplier and all the concerned parties really put all their efforts into the implementation, but due to the fact that they implemented it as a single phase then they h ad no time to do the analysis and hence the couldn’t recognize the connotation of the numerous problems that were in due course to make it fail.Another cause of failure to the system was the fact that most of its users did not own up completely to accept the system. Some of the components of the system were recognized with certain problems over the previous months such that they created an atmosphere of distrust with the staff. Instead of wishing for its success, the staff rather expected a system failure. For the system to work efficiently, it required a number of adjustments to the existing working practices. The senior staff making the implementation had the idea that the system itself would bring about these adjustments.Btu instead most of the staff found it to be an outfitted line of restrictions within which they tried to operate and seem to be flexible with. This brought further perplexity rather than orderliness. The LAS management always attributed the problems of CA D to the misuse of the system by some ambulance crews. But the management did not coincide with the inquiry team which indicated that this would only have been one of the contributing factors, together with many others, that brought to the system failure. In some of the days of month of October (26th and 27th), there was an increase in the number of calls.This was not because of the increase in the number of patients but rather as a result of anonymous replica calls and recalls from the public as they reacted to ambulance delays. On this day the system did not fail from a technical sense but it did what it had been designed to do, though the response times were unacceptable. A substantial amount of the design had terminal defects that cumulatively lead to all of the systems failure. On this day several changes were made to CAC that made it very difficult for the staff to intervene and make corrections to the system.Therefore the system could only identify the location and status of fewer and fewer vehicles. This in effect led to poor, duplicated and delayed allocations; the awaiting list and the exceptional messages piled up in the computers; this pile up caused the system to slow up; this further led to an increase in the number of call backs and finally delays in telephone answering. Each effect reinforced the other. In the morning when the system was fully implemented it was lightly loaded therefore the staff could cope with the various problems and hence the imperfect information in the system about the fleet and its status.As the incidents increased, the incorrect information about the fleet, received by the system increased. Due to the new room configuration and method of operation the allocators were limited in solving the errors. The amount of incorrect information increased with the effects that the system made incorrect allocations thus many vehicles were sent to the same incident or either the closest vehicle was not sent; the system had less resour ces to allocate thus increasing the first effect; the system then placed covered call that had not gone through the amber, red, green status cycle, back on the attention list.a) The system made incorrect allocations: multiple vehicles sent to same incident, or not the closest vehicle sent; b) The system had fewer resources to allocate, increasing the problems of effect a); c) As previously allocated incidents fed through the system, placed covered calls that had not gone through the amber, red, green status cycle, back on the attention waiting list. The last two effects contributed to incorrect allocations, a slowing of the system and uncovered incidents all this leading to delays to patients.Incorrect allocations led directly to patient delays and crew frustration. Crew frustration was further heightened by the prolonged delays before arriving at the scene and more so the reaction of the public. Crew frustration the could be held responsible for those instances when the crew did no t press status buttons correctly or in an incorrect sequence and also, the crew taking different vehicles than those that the logged onto or a different crew or vehicle reporting to the incident.In the month of November, this frustration led to the increase of radio traffic which having been brought about by the radio blockages increased the number of failed data mobilizations and voice communication delays. The increase in the volume of calls together with a slow system and too few call takers caused significant delays in telephone answering and thus an increase in delays to patients. After CAD had developed problems, the staff reverted to using a semi manual mode of operation. They were comfortable with operating this system because they found the computer based call talking more reliable.The vehicle crews were also comfortable owing to the fact that the stations still had limited flexibility in deciding which resource would be allocated to what incident. The radio voice channels were available to assist in clearing up any enlistment understandings. An additional call taking staff had been allocated to certain shifts thus the average call waiting time was considerably reduced. But on another occasion the system failed due to minor programming errors that caused the system to crash.The protocol to be used when changing from the crashed system to the back up system had not been sufficiently tested and therefore at such a point the whole system had to be brought down. Quintessential Glitches As I have put it across here above, there were numerous rudimentary defects in the CAD system and its secondary organization. These problems can be classified simply into three, to bring the whole issue to a summary: i) The need to have a near perfect input information in an imperfect worldii) The meager crossing point between crews, MDTs and the system iii) Unpredictability, sluggishness and operator interface. The system had put so much faith into the near perfect informa tion it received from the vehicle location and the status of the vehicle or its crew. The system did not have accurate information of the vehicle location and the status of that vehicle or its crew. Therefore it became very hard for it to allocate the ideal resources to a certain occurrence. Some poor allocation was attributed to the allocation routines.But though this may be true, it is believed that the majority of allocation errors were caused by the fact that the system did not actually know where the vehicles were located, nether did they know the status of the crew in the vehicles or the vehicles themselves The second point pin points on the poor interface between the teams, the Mobile Data Terminals and the system. The system required perfect or almost perfect information on vehicle location and the status of each of the player parts of the chain. This ran from the crews to the dispatch systems, all of which were expected to operate and cooperate perfectly.But this was not th e case because investigations a few reasons were evident for the system not really knowing vehicle locations or vehicle status. These included a failure by the system to collect or receive all the data, accompanied by a genuine failure by the teams to press the appropriate status button due to the state and the pressure brought by certain incidents. In some black spots there was also poor coverage of the radio system which went hand in hand with the crew failing to press the status button due to frustrations from the re-transmission problems.There was also a radio communications blockage for instance when staff reported for duty and tried to confirm arrival via their vehicle units or Mobile Data Terminals, more so, on very busy periods. Also identified were the missing or swapped call signs. There were defects in the grip routines between the MDTs and the dispatch system. For instance sometimes the MDT would indicate Green and Ok but back in the systems screen the status would be sh own as something very different. Also some crews would intentionally press the wrong buttons or even press them in an incorrect order.Some of the crews would even take different vehicles rather than the ones they logged onto or different crews would respond to different vehicles allocated to them by the system. Some of the vehicle locations were also missing or incorrect. Another fault is where there was very few staff to take calls. All of these faults and defects used to flow in a very connected manner such that the errors were sometimes running concurrently. The third point came about after the system collapsed a number of times just before the end of October in 1992.The most common was the incarceration of computers. The staff had been instructed to reboot their computers incase they locked up. This happened mostly when the computers were doing their back ups or when they were fully loaded. The most common inadequacies included the failure to identify duplicated calls; the lack to prioritize exceptional messages; these exceptional messages and attentions on queue scrolling off the top of allocators’ or attention rectifiers’ computers.The software resources had also been allocated incorrectly; there was general heftiness of the system and finally there were also slow responses to certain computer based activities. THE WAY FORWARD FOR CAD; A SOLUTION TO CAD After going through and analyzing the problems of CAD, the enquiry team had to make certain recommendations so that the implementation of the future CAD would not have any errors. By following these recommendations, then LAS will have a solution to all its problems with CAD. The future CAD system must have the following objectives;i) It must be fully dependable and flexible with completely tested levels of backup. ii) It must be fully owned up by the staff and management within CAC and the ambulance crews. iii) It must be developed and introduced within a time scale which will allow for adeq uate consultation, quality assurance, testing and training while still considering the fact that they want to introduce it earliest possible. iv) The management and staff must have entire, verifiable, poise, in the steadfastness of the system.v) The new CAD must be geared towards improving the level and quality of the provision of ambulance services in the capital. vi) The new system should be introduced step by step while introducing first the steps that give maximum benefits. vii) Finally, any venture in the new system should be safe guarded and put forth into the new system if and only if it does not compromise the above objectives. REFERENCE Anthony Finkelstein (February 1993): Report of the Inquiry Into The London Ambulance Service. International Workshop on Software Specification and Design Case Study

Documents in a Business Environment

The different styles of documents that could be used are spreadsheets, data sheets, slide shows, letters, fax documents and memos. The documents could be printed or they could be electronic format. 1. 2. When you create a document and store it onto your computed you can save it as different formats e. g. plain text (. txt) Microsoft word (. doc). PDF is another format that can be used but is not editable but you are able to change the formats from PDF to Microsoft word when saving. . 3. The documents I produce reflect the company itself so if I produce low quality ocuments with mistakes it doesn't give the company a professional image. A good quality document gives the customer a professional feel for the company and makes it easy to read, this also attracts the customers to the product. If the document is high quality it makes the documents easy to follow for the customer which gives them less work to do. 2. 2. 1 . To produce high quality documents there is many ways to do so.A high quality printer is a must for quality print outs, also a high quality photocopier so you get a neat clear print. A scanner is also very useful so you scan documents to their original orm. To make the documents look good quality you can add pictures to the document to give it a friendly look e. g. adding your company logo. You should also use a simple layout for a near look using a font size that everyone will be able to read. 2. 2. Different resources to produce documents could be the internet, spreadsheets, PowerPoint, Photoshop. 2. 3.Different types of technology available for inputting, formatting and editing text could be – A Computer (monitor, keyboard and mouse) or laptop. Printer or scanner and also word processing software. A normal way of adding text into a computer is hrough a keyboard that usually comes with the computer itself. All keyboards are laid out in near enough the same format. You press the letters on the keyboard that is then transferred onto your word document on the computer screen. In most organisations the word document that is used is Microsoft word.Microsoft word gives you many different ways to help you input and edit your text. You are able to use many different styles of fonts and are able to choose what size font you would like to use. You are also able to do a spell check which scans your full document looking tor any spelling mis ption to correct them. takes that nave occurred and gives you 3. 3. 1 . The benefits of agreeing the purpose, content, style and deadlines for the production of documents is that all documents are written to a specific audience and have a consistent message.The information in the document is easy to access and is clear, accurate and is readable. 3. 2. Before you start getting your documents together and organising them you need to find out how the documents is going to be presented, the information that is going to be in the document, who the document is for. You need to plan how long the ocum ent can be as you don't want to make it too long but don't want to not include not enough information and most importantly you need to know what the purpose of the document is.If you are producing a document you have never done before it would be best to do a rough plan of your work before you do the real copy and also you need to write in the right format (formal or informal) 3. 3. Text and non-text can easily be added into Microsoft word as it enables you to insert pictures, graphs, clip art and also text boxes. Microsoft excel and PowerPoint are other examples of programs that you can also add text and non-text to. . 4. Most word programs have integrated spell checkers that are constantly checking every work you type onto the document.Spell checkers are not always correct, for example it could try to correct â€Å"your† to you're† when it is not needed. Also, spell- check does not have every word so sometimes you will need to add your own words to the dictionary so n ext time you type it, it will show as correct. On Microsoft work to do a full spell check you go to ‘Review on the top bar and click ‘Spelling & grammar' on the left. 3. 5. Important documents whether majorly important or hardly important still have o be stored securely following certain policies and procedures like the Data Protection Act. It could be physical storage e. . putting into files or boxes and put away. Or it could be digital storage e. g. storing onto a hard drive or usb stick. Files that are stored in anyway have to be stored safely that no one else other than the people authorised can get access to. 3. 6. If personal information gets released to people without permission to see it can have serious consequences as it should be protected by the data protection act. t is important to meet deadlines because it saves time which means it saves oney and also we want to meet deadlines so we get things done quick and we are ahead of our competitors.Not meeting your deadlines means other people who are working on the same case can also not meet their deadlines as they have to wait on you. For example, if i do not get a pack out by 4. 45pm on the day the deal is sold the advisors have to wait another day on top of waiting to receive the pack back to submit the pack to the lender. This overall effects the income of the company which effects everyone else's salary and disrupts any bonus system put in place.

Virtual Collaboration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Virtual Collaboration - Essay Example tal technologies that enable organizations or individuals to collaborately plan, design, develop, manage, and research products, services, and innovative IT and E-Commerce applications† (Turban, McLean and Wetherbe 144). The current discourse hereby aims to present virtual collaboration through lessons learned from in-class and online events summaries, as perceived to be applicable in a future career. Virtual collaboration through social events was recognized to be the most popular, by far. The most relevant lessons learned from social events include the following: (1) selection of topics which are interesting to prospective participants; (2) using communication medium that would reach the target audience: social networking sites, email, smartphones, among others; (3) use of innovative approaches, like gamification; and (4) assignment of roles, or delegation of tasks by events’ organizers. One learned that there are disparities in techniques in in-class versus online events. For in-class social events, there are opportunities for face-to-face interactions to augment virtual collaboration, when needed. For instance, organizers could require weekly face-to-face group meetings to resolve conflicts, iron out concerns, and monitor the progress of assigned tasks. In contrast, in purely on-line social events where there are no opportunities for face-to-face interactions, the participants rely solely on online or electronic medium to communicate. As such, there should be regular interaction using various social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter) and other electronic medium (Skype, university sites, email). Major lessons learned from in-class activities that enriched one’s understanding of the topic are categorized as follows: (1) enhance opportunities for personal interaction with other members of the class which improved one’s confidence in interpersonal communication; (2) commitment to cultural diversity within the university encouraged one’s respect for

Perception and attitude of British customers towards cruise travel Essay

Perception and attitude of British customers towards cruise travel - Essay Example This  «Perception and attitude of British customers towards cruise travel » essay, describes the impact of cruise travel on the economy, problems, and prospects, and compares this tourism sector with same one in other countries. The Mediterranean and Baltic are the two most prominent stamping grounds in Britain for cruise liners. There has been a growth in need for ‘turn round’ traffic at UK ports this has not caused a commotion as more tourists are ready to extend their stay so that they do not have to book flights in return due to the traffic. They have found this hectic especially because it may mean for them to book from a new embarkation port (Miller 94). The maritime weather and climate in Britain is not truly a setback when it the cruise ships involved in the travel are large vessels and especially since most of these vessels start their journey in the United Kingdom ports and still end them there. Summer time is when there is the majority of the cruising around the beautiful British Isles. A major concern over time has been the lending of the smaller vessels by Britain. This is a serious risk especially since the ports have shallow waters that are likely to be disrupted in case of any summer squall that may occur (Lingard 32). The passenger embarkations at UK that are the majority are mainly the residents of Britain themselves. The overseas guests that take the cruise ships from the ports enjoy an incomparable experience with access for just about every part they may wish to travel and tour. For fantastic pre and post cruise travel extension, London is close to Dover, Southampton and not forgetting Harwich. This is notable because it has played a vital role in job creations and generation of income for some people in the region. This works across a great spectrum of businesses that tourism related that not many would notice was a result of the cruise ship travel in the region (Markham 45). The weakness of sterling pound provides a greater incentive for cruise lines to consider London as an extension destination due to the position of the city (Moutinho 175). Since this is a condensed island with convenient transport infrastructure and a number of

Personality and Employee Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Personality and Employee Performance - Essay Example Employee Performance The concept of employee performance is the most practical and applicable in the organizations these days. It refers to the performance or the productivity given by the employees with reference to their jobs or assigned tasks. This performance of workers, in essence, gives rise to the performance appraisals and other such measures to assess the criteria for their rewards and punishments. The concept of performance appraisal, also known as performance evaluation, pertains to a periodic and systematic procedure of assessing and evaluating the performance of employees and their productivity at jobs (Muchinsky, 2012). The performance of employees considers elements such as accomplishments, organizational citizenship behavior, weaknesses and strengths, and the future improvement potential. The concept of employee performance and the systems to measure it tend to align and manage all the resources of the organizations for the purpose of achieving a performance which is possible to the maximum. The performance management is the tool that organization largely utilize to establish the failure or success at the workplace. Thus, the highest priority of the present day organizations is to keep a track of the employee’s performance. Moreover, the performance appraisals also elaborates upon the incentives or reinforcements required for the employees regarding their output at the assigned tasks, punctuality and attendance, dependability, interpersonal relations, and needs for further performance improvement and development. Personality Traits The concept of personality entails wide perspectives within the term and belongs to the field of psychology. However, this term is widely used and applied in the scope of business as well. The term ‘personality’ can be described as an organized and dynamic array of characteristics which an individual possesses and which are capable of influencing the person’s emotions, behaviors, cognitions, and motivations in diverse situations. Personality may also pertain to the patterns of feelings, perception, thoughts and behaviours which the individuals depict with the passage of time. These patterns also have strong influences on the values and attitudes, self-perceptions, and have the ability to predict the individual’s responsiveness to the other people in the times of stress and problems. Relationship between Personality and Employee Performance The high demands and stress posed upon the employees at workplace in the present times generate a need for the employees, managers and all the workforce that deals with the everyday requirements of the organziations, subordinates and the pressure of workloads (Francis, 2007). The position of employees, specifically the middle and higher level employees such as managers and supervisors, requires a lot of stress and responsibility, as they are expected to give the outcomes which disregard elements of favourable or unfavourable s ituations. The leaders and managers are required to figure out solutions and take up variety of challenges which accumulate in the business every other day. Many of these demanding tasks inculde staff reassignment, limited budget, withdrawal of finance, reorganization of units, government policies, and lack of availability of resources which keep

Sap Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sap - Essay Example That is what kind of approach to procuring will be suitable for the organization. Approaches that can be used include group related, plant-specific or enterprise related. Group related approach is one where the organization is responsible for all company codes in a client. Enterprise related is responsible for one company code. Plant specific is one where purchasing organization is responsible for one plant. Defining purchasing organizations helps in availing of the conditions and contractual agreements contained in the reference purchasing booklet. This agreements act as a guide on the relationship between the purchasing organization and the company. SAP ERP offers a lot of possibilities in procurement services. It has an increased importance for companies and individual business departments. The first importance is that SAP ERP has enabled the integration of processes that business department have had to bear. Assign purchasing organization to company code: This involves assigning a unique number to the company. You can either use the transaction O*01 or goto IMG and select among the options. The following options may be included: Assign standard purchasing organization to plant: This involves defining one plant where several purchasing organizations procure as standard plant. Reasons being to enable the system to automatically utilize this standard purchasing organizations. Assign purchase organization to reference purchase organization: This step involves making appropriate settings to enable the purchasing staff to incorporate conditions and contract release orders for a cross-purchasing-organization basis. Contracts can be accessed by several purchasing organizations. Other purchasing organizations can use the conditions of reference of other purchasing organizations. â€Å"When configuring the SAP enterprise structure for procurement I would advise companies with more than one legal entity (=

Marketing strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Marketing strategy - Essay Example TOMS shoes has been successful in coming up with trendy shoes that not only make their customers look good but also feel good. Their customers feel that they are making a difference by just purchasing TOMS shoes. The company uses the WIIFM philosophy which means ‘What’s in it for me’. They do this by offering high-quality shoes and also make their clients feel they are supporting a good cause (Russo 84). As you walk in the streets, you are likely to see a number of young people wearing TOMS shoes. This is because the company designs and markets trendy shoes that appeal most to the younger generation. To keep up with the current market trends, TOMS shoes has been forced to expand its product line and now offers a variety of shoes to their customers. One factor that distinguishes TOMS shoes is the fact that they have kept their promise of delivering free shoes for every shoe purchase made. Many businesses start with a good cause, but greed for money ends up ruining the company. The company also has goals and ensures that it meets its set goals. It is interesting to note that TOMS shoes are a profitable business and not a charity

Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 42

Discussion - Essay Example This is evident with regimes or political parties whose organizational structure utilizes racial bases (Abdul 428). Mostly, the segregated category or race assumes the low class whereas the thriving one emphasizes on using the discriminating policies to maintain its class (Abdul 427). Unequal wealth distribution is a matter of concern especially to the society or state where it requires effective and timely rectification. This is because in many occasions, it yields to wrangles or wars especially if it entails diverse geographical and political blocs. Unequal distribution of wealth usually leads to uneven development especially in a state where the most favored people or region due to political influence, continues to thrive compared to others. Hence, indirectly this usually makes the state’s economy lag behind despite the most benefiting people belonging to the top class or the favored region (Abdul 427). It also leads to increased state of poverty where the affected people are unable to stabilize economically. This is because the already set policies usually act as a barrier between them and their destinies (Abdul 427). Therefore, I believe the implementation of policies by regimes or any authority to ensure unequal wealth distribution is unethical. Besides, it leads to more economic predicaments even to the favored categories, though indirectly. Abdul Aziz, et al. "Problem Of Unequal Distribution Of Wealth And Role Of Infaq (Donation) In Its Solution." Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business 3.2 (2011): 426-429. Web. 27Th October

Spiritual Assessment of Mentally Retarded Patient Essay

Spiritual Assessment of Mentally Retarded Patient - Essay Example This discussion stresses that FICA serves as an imperative tool for the spiritual assessment of the patients in order to cure them from spiritual and psychological disorder. The medical advisor concentrates upon the nature, influence, community and application of the patient’s faith in order to pacify and soothe him in the light of his religious and spiritual beliefs. â€Å"The connection between spirituality and medicine†, Puchalski observes, â€Å"has been receiving a lot of attention in both the scientific and lay presses recently, but research and anecdotal evidence all indicate that spirituality is central to the care of the chronically ill and dying.† Consequently, almost all therapeutic and healthcare centers take spiritual needs of the patients into serious consideration in order to rescue them from emotional trauma on the basis of their spiritual needs.This paper discusses that  Mrs. Wilson claimed to be a spiritual person, as she aptly heard the call of conscience and virtue deep in her heart; consequently, she used to offer charity and donation to the disabled persons and orphans through non-governmental and charity organizations. She endorsed the very reality that religion maintained imperative significance in her life. Since the noble teachings of St. Perpetua had left indelible imprints upon her mind, she felt great relief by studying the marvelous sacrifices made by her. She also sought support from Heavens to get cured immediately, which revealed her strong belief in her Creator.