Management Information System Assignment: Importance of IS in COVID-19 Environment

Question

Task

You are required to read the following case study and write a management information system assignment report according to the assignment requirements:

You are one of the candidates; you have been approached by the Australian Federal Government and Chief Medical Officer to assist in developing systems that will help to minimize the risk of people to people transmission of viruses. Unawareness of disease transmission can put people at greater risk of transmitting diseases. They have asked you to develop a proposal on new systems as quickly as possible. They have a budget of $50 million to sp4end on implementing these systems. As an information systems professional, you need to address the following in your proposal to be presented to the government for consideration:

• Provide a brief description of your proposal and introduce two to three IS systems that are suitable to this current COVID-19 environment.
• Describe the current needs for information systems as much as possible such as the need to develop information systems to minimize person to person transmission, in particular maintaining social distancing.
• Analyze the suitability of these systems to the current environment, such as which group of people can use such systems and how they can benefit from them. How the new systems can reduce virus transmission?
• Discuss any downsides of the proposed systems in terms of any possible risks, security & privacy concerns, etc.
• What security measures would you recommend to the government in order to minimize security risks and privacy concerns associated with these systems?
• Calculate costs associated with these systems, such as cost of developing software and purchasing hardware, using cloud services, outsourcing, etc.

Answer

1. Introduction to management information system assignment

1.1. Brief Description of the Proposal
An infectious disease Covid-19 can spread easily from people to people. That’s why, the Australian Federal Government and Chief Medical Officer want to develop an IS system, which can assist to minimize the risks of spreading communicable viruses in people. It will be beneficial for the health of the people and can prevent diseases from transmitting easily. The Authority has already fixed the budget of $50 million to spend on the system. The two proposed IS systems for the current project are – “Covid-19Net,” a website for instructing people to obtain safety measurements regarding Covid-19 virus and a public health mapping feature for tracking the virus spreading areas. The current report will discuss about the importance of the IS system and how effectively it can prevent the virus from spreading.

1.2. Introduction to Proposed IS Systems Suitable for Covid-19 Environment
The Australian Federal Government and Chief Medical Officer want to prevent the transmission of the Covid-19 virus from people to people, that’s why they want to develop a website called "Covid-19Net", where the authority can easily put information about the spreading of Corona Virus. The website will give information about the outbreaks of the virus on daily basis and also aware people of how to prevent the transmission of the virus. It will also store the data about the Covid-19 patients and the recovery rates will also be shown on the webpage.

The website will also give information about Covid-19 and also helps to analyses the ratio of the infectious places on the global level through the "Public Health Mapping" system. It will be built within the website and give information about the containment places on a country, regional, and global level. The website will also give information about the safety measures that people should follow to prevent the spreading of the disease. The information system will give regular updates about the Covid-19 outbreaks on the website.

2. System Requirements

2.1. Description of the current Needs in the IS
The current needs for the IS in the Australian Federal government system, because of the pandemic situation. Covid-19 is a communicable disease and it can easily transmit from people to people. Developing a website, for the information system will regularly update the news of the Covid-19. People will get aware of the website and also know about the safety measures to prevent diseases.

The website will also give information about the appropriate diagnosis of the diseases with the help of advanced artificial intelligence. It will also help to store information about the collected data from people. The website will give information about medical information to control the pandemic (Gong et al., 2020). The data will be stored in clouds, which can prevent data loss from the system.

2.2. Development of IS in Minimizing Person to Person Transmission
Australian Federal Government has wanted to develop an IS system, which will help to give information about the latest update on the Coronavirus. The authority will get updated about the spreading of the virus, it will also beneficial for the people. It will give information about social distancing, and the other safety measures that one should follow (Salman and Abu-Naser, 2020). The people will get aware through the website, which will help to minimize the risk of transmitting the disease.

2.3. Articulate Argument in Achieving Social Distancing
In the current technology advancement era, Information Systems makes a significant impact on generating an effective solution to real-world problems. The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic led the whole world to a standstill for the longest of time. It has been identified that Covid-19 has provided an immense opportunity to the IS expertise and researchers in providing various solutions related to the data-level and documentation practices, tracking system and becoming a sustainable system development system for tackling problems like Covid-19 pandemic (Pan and Zhang, 2020). The implementation of the new IS system, "Covid-19Net," will help in understanding possible security measures that one can accommodate to rescue from the current situation. Besides, the system will also notify various areas in Australia to identify the maximum spread of the virus in different places through its Public Health Mapping feature.

3. Suitability Analysis

3.1. Suitability of Identified IS for the Covid-19 Environment
Information system plays a vital role in spreading news or awareness in people over a short period. At the starting of Covid-19, many public places have been closed to avoid social gatherings (Benzell, Collis and Nicolaides, 2020) .Covid-19 needs more attention to develop awareness among people. According to Covid-19 regulation, this situation becomes worse if the source of transmitting disease is not stopped. To avoid this transmission rate in pandemic situation, development of the “Covid-19Net” website and public health mapping will be a great initiative as suitable IS for the Covid-19 Environment. Both of these developing tools will be increasing awareness in public by providing update information through developing tools.

3.2. Identification of People Using the Identified IS System
Developing the website of “Covid-19Net” and public health mapping both will work as public awareness increaser to stop the social gathering. People, mostly from Australia, from the average citizen to the healthcare sector will be using the new IS systems. If people are unaware of their safety measurement these health tools work as an information system to aware them that if they remain unaware, they will increase health hazards through the increasing transmission.

Through the website, the current scenario of the pandemic will be informed to the public to increase their awareness. The other tools public health mapping will provide data, statistics regarding Covid-19. To handle the pandemic situation of Covid-19, the management should emphasize on the public health globally as a serious issue (von Tigerstrom, Halabi and Wilson, 2020).In this crisis implementing the IS system is a great initiative for public health.

3.3. Beneficial Aspect from the Identified IS System
Implementing an IS system in a global pandemic is very essential to enhance public awareness. Regular updating news will increase awareness in public to maintain safety measurement to combat the pandemic situation. Developing the website “Covid-19Net” will be beneficial for some groups and public health mapping will increase awareness through providing updated data. Media provide the morbidity rate that increases panic in public about Covid-19 (Garfin, Silver and Holman, 2020).IS system will develop awareness by providing health tips and safety measures so that the public can manage their safety in the Covid-19 pandemic. Public health mapping will provide the current scenario so that people develop a healthier practice to fight against this pandemic. The “Covid-19Net” website also provides health guard tips to develop protection against the pandemic.

3.4. Justification on Reduction of Covid-19 Virus by the New IS System
Covid-19 virus is spread because of social gathering and this is a vital source of transmission. To reduce the transmission rate of the Covid-19 virus, increasing public awareness is the most essential step that can be achieved by using the IS system. IS system provides updated information to the public to develop a safety guard against pandemic. “Covid-19Net” website and public health mapping feature, both will increase public awareness about avoiding social gathering and develop distance practice to prevent transmission of Covid-19. Increasing awareness is the only way to prevent the transmission of Covid-19.

4. Risk Analysis

4.1. Identification of Any Downsides of the Identified IS Systems
Information system plays a critical role in coping with data and other information at the required speed. During a pandemic situation like Covid-19, people need a high-speed information system to process situational knowledge and spread awareness about the current situation (Liu et al., 2020). They provide important information with required action, by providing a vast range of information, decisions, and adjusting various degrees of policies and terms for better intelligent action to improve public health and providing detailed information. Though Information technology provides immediate, coordinated data access and sharing available for the public but there are many downsides present in IS systems.

• Implementation of an information system will save time during a situation such as Covid-19. This produces instant paperwork and other important labor tasks that were formally done by human employees. Unemployment will rise with the rising technological capability. Job security will be at risk and this will lead to the rising poverty level.
• Information technology will connect the world in a global aspect. But it has a downside as well. One culture may dominate another weaker culture.
• With the rise of technological speed and application, online security can be an issue for information technology.
• Covid-19 pandemic affecting the entire world at a lightning speed. This influencing issues in different small, large, virtual, and some hybrid structures as well. Information technology needs an internet connection. But with the rise of internet users and work from home options. It is prone to network jamming.
• It is important to develop a well-arraigned website as an information system. A survey shows that the general business skill is more important than technical skills to develop an information system (Burns et al., 2016). Such skills are lacking in a catastrophic situation like Covid-19.

4.1.1. Possible Risks
Risks in the application of information systems are an important aspect to put light on. Security risks are the primary and most vital issue in the information system (Sanaei and Sobhani, 2018). Information system holds a huge amount of data and critical information about an individual as well as any particular nation. This can be a very vulnerable and risky platform to inform citizens from all over the world through an information system. Another risk factor in Information technology is implementing and regulating cost. New technology and its acceptance are a highly risky factor.

4.1.2. Security and Privacy Concerns
Information technologies are highly prone to use a proxy server. This intensifies the hacker and criminals to hack and data preaching activity (Boiko, Shendryk and Boiko, 2019). Some of these threats are Trojans, web spam, and fraudulent advertising links, malicious browsers etcetera.

Spyware can steal the information of a person or a companies' personal information, including personal data and confidential information. Once a user is affected by spyware or adware, they are vulnerable to be attacked by further infections. Spyware also has the power to generate arbitrary code to the users' device to completely control the device.

5. Security and Privacy Solutions

5.1. Recommended Security Measures in Mitigating Risks

• Each IS development project has some risks that can create a problem. The risks should be identified and categorized as soon as possible to mitigate them. In the “Covid-19Net” website, the users have to log in with their data such as name and date of birth which is a cause of risk in security measures as it harms user’s privacy. The Australian government should not store the user’s data on its website to protect user’s privacy.
• Not only that, the website requires the permission of the user’s location and phone permission to allow access to the website. Once a user allows permission, the website will get all the information of the user such as location, call records etcetera.
• The website developers will regularly update the news and outbreak of coronavirus so that the users can get detailed information about the corona virus outbreak.
• It can be seen that the data of the users are shared with third parties who will affect the privacy of the users. The involvement of third parties on the website will be removed immediately to mitigate risks in the Informational System.
• A large number of users depend on the Disease Outbreak News and Public mapping platforms to know about corona virus outbreak in the country as well as in the world (González, Gascó and Llopis, 2016). The data which are available on the website are not always correct. The users will be misguided by the wrong data and information. The correct data, figures, and stats of the corona virus will always be available on the Covid-19Net website.

5.2. Recommendation to the Government in Reducing Privacy and Security Risks

• The Australian government will implement various policies to protect the privacy of the users. The users will follow Covid-19 updates without login and giving any personal details. The website will not require any location and phone permissions to allow access to users.
• The government will make the website highly secure to protect data breaching. Along with that, no personal data of the users will be shared with any third parties to mitigate risks in data loss.
• The government will consider the IP addresses as personally identifiable information under the privacy act. It will not collect the user’s any data and information and store it on their datebook.
• The government will make the website end-to-end encrypted to protect security in the website (Hadjidemetriou et al., 2020). The features will be updated regularly to protect data from hackers. Antivirus and firewall will be installed on the website to make the website secure.
• All the data and information about Covid-19 will be correct and updated so that the users can get the latest information about the corona virus from the website. The users will get all information on the website.

6. Cost Analysis
The cost analysis of the current IS system development process requires an elaborate area to address. There will be a total of five major categories within the cost analysis process. These include the IS developers, software and hardware development and system, cloud service, and outsourcing. Currently, the technical departments are assessing vendors and outsourcing cloud services to mitigate cloud-related difficulties in the development process.

The visualization of the virtual environment is beneficial for developing cost analysis during development for sketching pathways (Chen et al., 2018). The development of both "Covid-19Net" and its Public Health Mapping feature will help the Australian Government and Australian Healthcare sector in developing effective Covid-19 measurement for assessing improvement factors. The table mentioned below has identified each area and its potential costs for the current system development process.

Table: Costs Analysis for New IS System Development for Covid-19

7. Conclusion
The implementation of two proposed IS systems – "Covid-19Net" and the Public Health Mapping system will help the citizen of Australia to ensure more integrated safety measures during the current pandemic situation. The new proposal will help the Australian Federal Government and the Australian Chief Medical Officer to provide an effective solution to the current healthcare and pandemic detection system. The appropriate implementation of the provided solutions to the potential risks will help in reducing remaining privacy and safety risk in the new IS system. The IS world is based on various opportunities in tackling problematic scenarios. The effective development will help the IS expertise in integrating a more critical and convenient system for the people in Australia to mitigate the transmission of the deadly Covid-19 virus.

8. References
Benzell, S. G., Collis, A. and Nicolaides, C. (2020) ‘Rationing social contact during the COVID-19 pandemic: Transmission risk and social benefits of US locations’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pp. 1–3.

Boiko, A., Shendryk, V. and Boiko, O. (2019) ‘Information systems for supply chain management: uncertainties, risks and cyber security’, Procedia computer science, 149, pp. 65–70.

Burns, T., Gao, Y., Sherman, C. and Klein, S., 2016. An Empirical Investigation into the Advantages and Disadvantages of Combining Information Systems and Operations Management into One Department. In Proceedings of the EDSIG Conference ISSN (Vol. 2473, p. 3857).

Chen, M., Gaither, K., John, N.W. and McCann, B., 2018. An information-theoretic approach to the cost-benefit analysis of visualization in virtual environments. IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics, 25(1), pp.32-42.

Garfin, D. R., Silver, R. C. and Holman, E. A. (2020) ‘The novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) outbreak: Amplification of public health consequences by media exposure.’, Health Psychology, pp. 355–357.

Gong, M., Liu, L., Sun, X., Yang, Y., Wang, S. and Zhu, H., 2020. Cloud-Based System for Effective Surveillance and Control of COVID-19: Useful Experiences From Hubei, China. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(4), p.e18948.

González, R., Gascó, J. and Llopis, J. (2016) ‘Information systems outsourcing reasons and risks: review and evolution’, Journal of Global Information Technology Management, 19(4), pp. 223–249.

Hadjidemetriou, G.M., Sasidharan, M., Kouyialis, G. and Parlikad, A.K., 2020. The impact of government measures and human mobility trend on COVID-19 related deaths in the UK. Transportation research interdisciplinary perspectives, 6, p.100167.

Liu, C., Zhou, Q., Li, Y., Garner, L.V., Watkins, S.P., Carter, L.J., Smoot, J., Gregg, A.C., Daniels, A.D., Jervey, S. and Albaiu, D., 2020. Research and development on therapeutic agents and vaccines for COVID-19 and related human coronavirus diseases.

Pan, S. L. and Zhang, S. (2020) ‘From fighting COVID-19 pandemic to tackling sustainable development goals: An opportunity for responsible information systems research’, International Journal of Information Management, p. 102196.

Salman, F. M. and Abu-Naser, S. S. (2020) ‘Expert System for COVID-19 Diagnosis’, pp. 1–13.

Sanaei, M. R. and Sobhani, F. M. (2018) ‘Information technology and e-business marketing strategy’, Information Technology and Management, 19(3), pp. 185–196.

von Tigerstrom, B. J., Halabi, S. F. and Wilson, K. R. (2020) ‘The International Health Regulations (2005) and the re-establishment of international travel amidst the COVID-19 pandemic’, Journal of Travel Medicine, pp. 1–4.