Silver Chain Group

Question: Write an essay on Silver Chain Group. Answer: Silver Chain Group is a not-for-profit organization that is based out of Australia. It provides community health services to people and has been serving them since over 110 years in Western part of Australia and for over 120 years in the Southern part of the continent. Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia are the locations where the services are expanded over (Silverchain.org.au, 2016). There is a wide range of services that are provided to the organization which are categorized as Health care services, Everyday Wellness, Support for Family and Care, Palliative Care, Household Tasks, Continence Management and Advisory Service, Community Connections, Country Services, Personal Alarms and Assessment Services. Requirement of IT for Silver Chain Group Silver Chain Group is composed of over 3000 staff members, 400 volunteers and provides the community services to more than 87000 people on yearly basis. The records of the clients were paper based and located in their respective homes which made it difficult to access the same. Even if the staff members could make efforts to gather this data, then the storage and management of such huge data emerged as a serious concern for the organization. The productivity and time was also compromised while commuting to the clients home. It was also difficult for the nurses and the staff to communicate with the doctors for general guidance and advice. It was the need of the hour to incorporate IT in the business of the Silver Chain Group in order to increase the efficiency and productivity of the staff members and also to improve the customer experience as a whole (LeMay, 2014). Importance of IT for business survival The following factors define the importance of IT in the survival of business of the Silver Chain Group. Preparation Preparation phase helps in the collection of customer data from several data sources in order to have all the information handy and easily accessible by the clients. Planning Planning also becomes easier with the help of IT as it would enable the personnel to decide the time of visit on the basis of preference of the client, provide target service to the target client and many more. Practice Standardization of all the processes, timely checks of the services and the simplicity of installation are the features that come easy with the application of IT. Progress checks Manual processes are difficult to keep a track of all the activities and the progress made by the organization. The checks are easy to execute and track with the aid of IT in the system Phases involved in the application of IT in Silver Chain Group IT in Silver Chain Group was implemented with the help of an enterprise level health care solution along with a mobile application for the same. The devices that were chosen for the deployment of these devices were chosen to be Samsung Galaxy series as Samsung Galaxy S2, S3, S4, Note and Note II smartphones, and Samsung Galaxy Note 8, 10.1 and Tab 10.1 tablet devices to direct care staff and clients (delimiter, 2016). Planning This is the first phase which involves the decision on the strategy and also the objectives of the business. The success of the project is largely dependent upon the well created and researched project plan. Requirement Analysis This is the phase where all the requirements are gathered from all the viable data sources. The data sources for the Silver Chain Group are from the various stakeholders that are involved with the business. These requirements are then analyzed to decide on what all is to be included in the scope and what is to be left and considered as out of the scope. The requirements must be clear to all those involved in the project to make sure that the successful execution of the same is achieved. Design This is the next phase in the development cycle of the application. High level design diagrams are involved in this phase such as data flow diagrams, flow charts, and functional hierarchies to provide a blue print of the design. There is also a Design Specification Document (DSD) included in this phase which explains the design of the project in a clear and concise manner. It is this document which enables the project members to get a practical idea on what is to be done and how exactly it should be done. Implementation The implementation phase gathers its required information from the earlier three phases and the designs are practically implemented. There are a number of teams involved in this phase such as development team, interface team, network team, database team and many more. The efforts and results of all of these teams are integrated to bring out an implemented solution. The cycle is repeated again and again unless all the target requirements are met and fulfilled as per the specifications. Testing Testing is an activity that is defined as a process carried out to validate and verify the results as per the specifications with intent to find out the bug. Requirement and Planning Phase: This is the phase where the strategy around the testing process is decided with the decision on the test approach along with the scope, milestones, deliverables and many more. Analysis Phase: Requirements are gathered and analyzed in this phase with the assignment of the roles and responsibilities to the various team members. Design Phase: Test data is finalized in this phase along with the decision on the test conditions and environments. Implementation Phase: Test cases are designed in this phase and are categorized in the test scenarios. Execution phase: The test cases are executed in this phase and the defects are also reported, if found any. These defects are also logged in the defect logging software. Completion and closure: Test completion is decided on the basis of the exit criteria and the closure report is designed on the basis of the same. Change requests are also dealt in this phase (Softwaretestinghelp.com, 2016). Deployment and Maintenance: The final code is deployed for the end-users and the maintenance is also done for the issues that occur post-production (Ghahrai, 2015). Use of IT in Silver Chain Group Silver Chain Group is an organization that provides community health services to a huge number of people. IT would allow the direct care staff to spend more time with clients by in a more effective manner. It also makes the clients allow easy communication with the nurses and the staff. Virtual support and video conferencing is also made easy with the help of mobile solution and application which is based upon IT. Medical assistance is made easy as it is possible to send out a notification to the nurses when a device shows a reading which goes outside the acceptance range. Social benefits have also increased with the help of IT as the mobile application allows the aged care clients to connect easily with their distant families and children. It allows them to have easy connections and accessibility to them. Risks involved with IT The solution that has been implemented for Silver Chain Group is based on IT and involves many mobile devices as well. There is also a to and fro of information across the network between the client and the staff members. The information that is associated with the organization is classified as below: Sensitive: It is the information that is extremely critical to the organization and requires a very high degree of protection as well. The health care information associated with the client is very sensitive and cannot be hampered with. Confidential: This is the category of information that holds high importance for an organization and needs to be protected carefully. The information around the stakeholders and the partners involved in the company is confidential in nature. Private: It is the personal information that is associated with the company and includes the details of the employees such as demographic information. Public: The information that is okay to bring out to the public view and knowledge comes under this category. The risks that are involved with the same are as listed below: Virus It is a program or a set of instructions that is malicious in nature which means that it has been designed for providing damage or harm to the system. It gets introduced in the system through storage media or network. Spyware These are the programs that capture the activity of the user on the systems and can be used to provide a substantial amount of damage (Spychecker.com. 2016) Trojan These are the malicious programs that do not have the characteristic to replicate themselves but have the potential to cause some serious damage once they get triggered. Man-in-the-middle It is an attack that takes place when an intruder or the attackers sits on the network and monitors all the activities that happen on the same. The same information is utilized to perform malicious actions. DoS A service is made unavailable for a certain amount of time as it is flooded with unnecessary traffic from malicious sources (Digitalattackmap.com. 2016). Spoofing Private or confidential information of a user is collected by impersonating as somebody else. The user is misled by the false identity with aim to gain this information (Ttu.edu. 2016). Phishing A fake website or e-mail message is used to impersonate somebody elses identity in order to gain sensitive information (Ttu.edu. 2016). Conclusion Silver Chain Group is a non-profit organization that provides community health services to the people of Australia. The organization is made up of a vast network of employees, volunteers and clients. In order to overcome the drawbacks of difficulties in management of data and handling the clients is overcome with the help of introduction of IT in business. An enterprise solution along with the mobile application is implemented for easier assistance, virtual support, medical assistance and video conferencing with the nurses. A phased approach is also followed to implement the solution. There are also risks that emerge with this introduction that can be dealt with the help of access control, encryption, firewalls and anti-virus. References delimiter, (2016). [online] Available at: https://delimiter.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/NBX-Case-Study_Silver-Chain_Mobility.pdf [Accessed 26 May 2016]. LeMay, R. (2014). Android in the enterprise: Three Aussie examples from Samsung | Delimiter. [online] Delimiter. Available at: https://delimiter.com.au/2014/04/14/android-enterprise-three-aussie-examples-samsung/ [Accessed 26 May 2016]. Silverchain.org.au. (2016). Silver Chain Group. [online] Available at: https://www.silverchain.org.au/wa [Accessed 26 May 2016]. Ghahrai, A. (2015). SDLC Phases - Software Development Life Cycle. [online] Testing Excellence. Available at: https://www.testingexcellence.com/software-development-life-cycle-sdlc-phases/ [Accessed 26 May 2016]. NueMD. (2013). The importance of proper IT implementation in healthcare. [online] Available at: https://www.nuemd.com/news/2015/07/20/importance-proper-implementation-healthcare [Accessed 26 May 2016]. Spychecker.com. (2016). What is spyware and adware?. [online] Available at: https://www.spychecker.com/spyware.html [Accessed 26 May 2016]. Ttu.edu. (2016). Scams Spam, Phishing, Spoofing and Pharming | Be in Charge of Your Digital Life | CPI: Lubbock | TTU. [online] Available at: https://www.ttu.edu/cybersecurity/lubbock/digital-life/digital-identity/scams-spam-phishing-spoofing-pharming.php [Accessed 26 May 2016]. Digitalattackmap.com. (2016). Digital Attack Map. [online] Available at: https://www.digitalattackmap.com/understanding-ddos/ [Accessed 26 May 2016]. Softwaretestinghelp.com. (2016). What is Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)?. [online] Available at: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/what-is-software-testing-life-cycle-stlc/ [Accessed 26 May 2016]. Silver Chain Group Question: Describe about the Silver Chain Group inAustralia. Answer: Executive Summary Silver Chain Group is not for profit organization that provides health services to people and is based out of Australia. The organization is engaged in providing the services for over 100 years now and comprises of a huge database of employees, volunteers and customers. The report revolves around the use and application of IT for Silver Chain Group. It discusses the requirement of IT for the organization along with the importance of the same for the non-stop survival of the business. The implementation of IT for Silver Chain Group is done in a phased approach such that a step by step process is created for better utilization of the resources. There are also certain risks that emerge with the involvement of IT in the services that are provided by the organization and the same have been covered in the report with a brief description of each risk. Introduction Silver Chain Group is a not-for-profit organization that is based out of Australia. It provides community health services to people and has been serving them since over 110 years in Western part of Australia and for over 120 years in the Southern part of the continent. Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia are the locations where the services are expanded over (Silverchain.org.au, 2016). There is a wide range of services that are provided to the organization which are categorized as Health care services, Everyday Wellness, Support for Family and Care, Palliative Care, Household Tasks, Continence Management and Advisory Service, Community Connections, Country Services, Personal Alarms and Assessment Services. Requirement of IT for Silver Chain Group Silver Chain Group is composed of over 3000 staff members, 400 volunteers and provides the community services to more than 87000 people on yearly basis. The records of the clients were paper based and located in their respective homes which made it difficult to access the same. Even if the staff members could make efforts to gather this data, then the storage and management of such huge data emerged as a serious concern for the organization. The productivity and time was also compromised while commuting to the clients home. It was also difficult for the nurses and the staff to communicate with the doctors for general guidance and advice. It was the need of the hour to incorporate IT in the business of the Silver Chain Group in order to increase the efficiency and productivity of the staff members and also to improve the customer experience as a whole (LeMay, 2014). Importance of IT for business survival The following factors define the importance of IT in the survival of business of the Silver Chain Group. Preparation Preparation phase helps in the collection of customer data from several data sources in order to have all the information handy and easily accessible by the clients. Planning Planning also becomes easier with the help of IT as it would enable the personnel to decide the time of visit on the basis of preference of the client, provide target service to the target client and many more. Practice Standardization of all the processes, timely checks of the services and the simplicity of installation are the features that come easy with the application of IT. Progress checks Manual processes are difficult to keep a track of all the activities and the progress made by the organization. The checks are easy to execute and track with the aid of IT in the system Phases involved in the application of IT in Silver Chain Group IT in Silver Chain Group was implemented with the help of an enterprise level health care solution along with a mobile application for the same. The devices that were chosen for the deployment of these devices were chosen to be Samsung Galaxy series as Samsung Galaxy S2, S3, S4, Note and Note II smartphones, and Samsung Galaxy Note 8, 10.1 and Tab 10.1 tablet devices to direct care staff and clients (delimiter, 2016). Planning This is the first phase which involves the decision on the strategy and also the objectives of the business. The success of the project is largely dependent upon the well created and researched project plan. Requirement Analysis This is the phase where all the requirements are gathered from all the viable data sources. The data sources for the Silver Chain Group are from the various stakeholders that are involved with the business. These requirements are then analyzed to decide on what all is to be included in the scope and what is to be left and considered as out of the scope. The requirements must be clear to all those involved in the project to make sure that the successful execution of the same is achieved. Design This is the next phase in the development cycle of the application. High level design diagrams are involved in this phase such as data flow diagrams, flow charts, and functional hierarchies to provide a blue print of the design. There is also a Design Specification Document (DSD) included in this phase which explains the design of the project in a clear and concise manner. It is this document which enables the project members to get a practical idea on what is to be done and how exactly it should be done. Implementation The implementation phase gathers its required information from the earlier three phases and the designs are practically implemented. There are a number of teams involved in this phase such as development team, interface team, network team, database team and many more. The efforts and results of all of these teams are integrated to bring out an implemented solution. The cycle is repeated again and again unless all the target requirements are met and fulfilled as per the specifications. Testing Testing is an activity that is defined as a process carried out to validate and verify the results as per the specifications with intent to find out the bug. Requirement and Planning Phase: This is the phase where the strategy around the testing process is decided with the decision on the test approach along with the scope, milestones, deliverables and many more. Analysis Phase: Requirements are gathered and analyzed in this phase with the assignment of the roles and responsibilities to the various team members. Design Phase: Test data is finalized in this phase along with the decision on the test conditions and environments. Implementation Phase: Test cases are designed in this phase and are categorized in the test scenarios. Execution phase: The test cases are executed in this phase and the defects are also reported, if found any. These defects are also logged in the defect logging software. Completion and closure: Test completion is decided on the basis of the exit criteria and the closure report is designed on the basis of the same. Change requests are also dealt in this phase (Softwaretestinghelp.com, 2016). Deployment and Maintenance: The final code is deployed for the end-users and the maintenance is also done for the issues that occur post-production (Ghahrai, 2015). Use of IT in Silver Chain Group Silver Chain Group is an organization that provides community health services to a huge number of people. IT would allow the direct care staff to spend more time with clients by in a more effective manner. It also makes the clients allow easy communication with the nurses and the staff. Virtual support and video conferencing is also made easy with the help of mobile solution and application which is based upon IT. Medical assistance is made easy as it is possible to send out a notification to the nurses when a device shows a reading which goes outside the acceptance range. Social benefits have also increased with the help of IT as the mobile application allows the aged care clients to connect easily with their distant families and children. It allows them to have easy connections and accessibility to them. Risks involved with IT The solution that has been implemented for Silver Chain Group is based on IT and involves many mobile devices as well. There is also a to and fro of information across the network between the client and the staff members. The information that is associated with the organization is classified as below: Sensitive: It is the information that is extremely critical to the organization and requires a very high degree of protection as well. The health care information associated with the client is very sensitive and cannot be hampered with. Confidential: This is the category of information that holds high importance for an organization and needs to be protected carefully. The information around the stakeholders and the partners involved in the company is confidential in nature. Private: It is the personal information that is associated with the company and includes the details of the employees such as demographic information. Public: The information that is okay to bring out to the public view and knowledge comes under this category. The risks that are involved with the same are as listed below: Virus It is a program or a set of instructions that is malicious in nature which means that it has been designed for providing damage or harm to the system. It gets introduced in the system through storage media or network. Spyware These are the programs that capture the activity of the user on the systems and can be used to provide a substantial amount of damage (Spychecker.com. 2016) Trojan These are the malicious programs that do not have the characteristic to replicate themselves but have the potential to cause some serious damage once they get triggered. Man-in-the-middle It is an attack that takes place when an intruder or the attackers sits on the network and monitors all the activities that happen on the same. The same information is utilized to perform malicious actions. DoS A service is made unavailable for a certain amount of time as it is flooded with unnecessary traffic from malicious sources (Digitalattackmap.com. 2016). Spoofing Private or confidential information of a user is collected by impersonating as somebody else. The user is misled by the false identity with aim to gain this information (Ttu.edu. 2016). Phishing A fake website or e-mail message is used to impersonate somebody elses identity in order to gain sensitive information (Ttu.edu. 2016). Recommendations These risks can be easily dealt with the help of effective countermeasures such as: Access control to be set up at all the entry and exit points such as on the network, user accounts and many more. Encryption techniques for the mobile solution through the use of private and public keys, cryptography and anti-virus along with firewalls. Security of the mobile devices with the use of passwords and PINs. Conclusion Silver Chain Group is a non-profit organization that provides community health services to the people of Australia. The organization is made up of a vast network of employees, volunteers and clients. In order to overcome the drawbacks of difficulties in management of data and handling the clients is overcome with the help of introduction of IT in business. An enterprise solution along with the mobile application is implemented for easier assistance, virtual support, medical assistance and video conferencing with the nurses. A phased approach is also followed to implement the solution. There are also risks that emerge with this introduction that can be dealt with the help of access control, encryption, firewalls and anti-virus. References delimiter, (2016). LeMay, R. (2014). Android in the enterprise: Three Aussie examples from Samsung | Delimiter. [online] Delimiter. Silverchain.org.au. (2016). Silver Chain Group. Ghahrai, A. (2015). SDLC Phases - Software Development Life Cycle. NueMD. (2013). The importance of proper IT implementation in healthcare. Spychecker.com. (2016). What is spyware and adware?. Ttu.edu. (2016). Scams Spam, Phishing, Spoofing and Pharming | Be in Charge of Your Digital Life | CPI: Lubbock | TTU. Digitalattackmap.com. (2016). Digital Attack Map.