332 Dwivedi, Bali, and Naguib
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oncology solution, the ABC Group decided that they wanted to use Company X’s EPR
toolkit to implement a Clinical Knowledge Solution (CKS). The CKS was a suite of
operational solutions, which shared a common set of information such as patient
demographics, but which maintained its own patient-related information. The first
applications supplied by Company X were in general surgery, theater management, and
endoscopy. Company X and the ABC Group are currently examining ways of implement-
ing a Trust-wide CKS.
Typical of many solution providers, Company X had undergone several organiza-
tional changes. In the past year or so, the organization had acquired another healthcare
ICT solution provider (which created clinical systems for NHS Trusts). This had led to
a rebranding of its healthcare business. The company has entered the financial services
sector by creating an alliance with another solution provider in order to cater to business
opportunities in the banking sector, particularly in asset management systems and
securities trading systems.
At the time of writing, Company X was in discussions with a US-based solution
provider that was investigating organizations in the UK healthcare-ICT market in order
to form a joint venture, the precise details of which were still at a preliminary stage.
Company X was hoping to learn from the proposed American partner’s expertise as it
employed over 2,000 people, supplies clinical, practice management, and home health
solutions to over 100 US-based hospitals and practices, and processes transactions for
over 500 physicians.
PREVAILING ROLE OF
ICT IN DECISION MAKING
Within Company X, an evaluation of how knowledge was being created, stored, and
retrieved was carried out. It was felt that the intranet was being used only as a storage
area for company documents and more importantly, it was not serving as an enabler in
context of knowledge creation and transfer.
Case Description
The participants in the research program who were specialists in healthcare
management were given a brief which required them to formulate a strategy, the adoption
of which would enable Company X to be a leading player in the UK healthcare-ICT
solution provider market. These participants formulated a strategy for Company X. This
strategy was presented in the form of two reports. The first report was a preliminary
report, which presented an analysis of the challenges facing UK healthcare-ICT solution
providers. In the second report, high-level details for an alternate product (i.e., creation
of a software which would allow HIs to create customized KM solutions) which would
complement Company X’s existing main product offering (i.e., a set of integrated toolkits
for healthcare-ICT solution provider market) were presented. The main thrust of the
second report was that it was important for Company X’s future to start creating clinical
knowledge management (CKM) solutions for the healthcare sector.