Social Change Training Manual

DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Presenter: Chris Harris

KEY ISSUE

The principal function of all environment groups and many other community groups is information handling and enhancement. This is true for most areas of work both internally and internally.

1. ENVIRONMENT GROUPS ARE PRINCIPALLY INFORMATION ENHANCERS

Environment Groups:

Take information from a variety of external sources, refine it and re-issue to the public and media
Internally individuals receive information and distribute to other staff to enhance their knowledge
Publicly groups and individuals propagate information via the news media, via newsletters , via the internet and directly to politicians and at public meetings

KEY ISSUE:

Information gathering, storage, management and distribution should be a priority for environment groups

KEY ISSUE:

Failure at information management should be seen as a critical organisational failure

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2. GOALS FOR INFORMATION MANAGEMENT: TO GATHER INFORMATION SYSTEMATICALLY

Many organisations fail to recognise their function as an information enhancer and therefor do not systematically gather information

TO REPRODUCE THAT INFORMATION IN A FORM THAT IS UNIFORM AND UNDERSTANDABLE

An examination of the information which organisations produce shows that it is of extremely variable quality, is not standardised and is often not easily understood by a lay person.

TO SORT AND STORE INFORMATION SYSTEMATICALLY

This is one of the most frequent failures of organisations. Very few organisations move, at the appropriate time to a centralised information system (filing system and library), that all staff and public can easily access and which provides information equally to all.

TO MAKE THAT INFORMATION EASILY ACCESSIBLE

Many organisations have a treasure house of information in their offices but most simply sits in filing cabinets or rarely used bookcases and is not made available to staff, public or media

TO REDISTRIBUTE THAT INFORMATION EFFECTIVELY

Requires a pro-active effort to make place information in the public arena

TO ENHANCE THE EFFICIENCY OF STAFF

Large amounts of staff time are wasted in both unnecessary personal filing and time consuming searches for information in badly managed (or unmanaged) information systems.

TO CARRY OUT THESE TASKS IN A COST EFFICIENT MANNER AND TIME EFFICIENT MANNER

Enormous amounts of money are wasted by poor information management and failure to invest in technology that could save staff time and resources.

TO PROVIDE PERSONAL EQUIPMENT (EG COMPUTERS) THAT ALLOWS STAFF TO ACCESS INFORMATION AND PERFORM EFFECTIVELY

The amount of time which is wasted as a result of failing to invest in modern, adequate equipment can be huge. Usually this is as a result of a failure to plan and budget for the provision of adequate equipment and a failure to properly assess the costs benefits of providing decent equipment.

TO PROVIDE PROPER TRAINING IN THE USE OF SYSTEMS

Many organisations provide equipment for which they never provide training. Apart from being frustrating to staff, this is a significant waste of valuable resources

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3. PLANNING INFORMATION SYSTEMS

SHOULD COMMENCE EITHER PRIOR TO OR AT LATEST WHEN ORGANISATION REACHES FOUR TO FIVE PEOPLE

Usually organisations can cope with a fairly ad hoc system until they have three people working in it. After this such systems become highly inefficient and wasteful

SHOULD CAREFULLY IDENTIFY TYPES OF INFORMATION TO BE GATHERED AND CATEGORIES FOR STORAGE

This should be based on an assessment of goals and on likely requests for information from the public and elsewhere.

SHOULD BE STRUCTURED TO ALLOW PROGRESSIVE UPGRADING AND GROWTH

It is pointless planning and investing in an information system which is going to need completely overhauling in a matter of one to two years. Systems should be capable of coping with information needs for 5-10 years

SHOULD BE MANAGEABLE WITHIN EXISTING STAFF AND FINANCIAL RESOURCES

For small and medium size organisations systems which do not require specialist staff or skills are preferable - but which are labour efficient. These should be capable of being progressively upgraded

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4. PRINCIPLES FOR TYPES OF SYSTEMS

4.1 Databases

Should be used to store the key information which the organisation utilises on a day to day basis. Accessing such information by key words is the simplest and easiest way to ensure that staff and public (where appropriate) can simply and easily find the information which they require. Development of a list of key types of information used by the organisation on a day to day basis (volunteers, media, politicians, companies, environment groups etc) are best stored in this way and available on line. Database software should be user friendly and should ideally be compatible with the membership database

4.2 Libraries

The key issues with libraries are making them accessible and relevant. It is noticeable how many libraries are not properly used because people either cannot easily access them, don't know what's in them, or don't know how to find the things even when they know they exist. They key to solving this is an online indexing system, cross-referenced with the filing system, with an easy search mechanism.

Simple programmes such as Papyrus can be used for these types of functions.

4.3 Filing Systems

The standard filing system in most organisations is a decentralised system where everyone keeps their own files in the way which they choose. The pitfalls and costs of this are addressed more fully in the paper "Of filing systems and libraries" but in general such systems are:

• Incredibly wasteful of physical resources
• Time inefficient
• Financially costly
• Inefficient in handling of information
• Poor at creating decentralised organisations with equal access to information
• Good at handicapping the campaign efficiency of organisations

4.4 Email Systems

A networked internal email/printing system should be an essential prerequisite of any efficient organisation of more than two to three people. For a number of reasons:

Networked printing is quicker and more cost effective than any other system

In larger organisations the ability to communicate and leave message by email is often the most effective way to communicate with other staff

Use of email is up ten to twenty times cheaper than sending the same information by fax and takes much less time. It can be done from the persons desk and with modern mail programmes formatted documents can be attached

5 Building And Workspace Design, Ergonomic Systems

The issue of workspace and working conditions is often one that is ignored by community groups. The actual nature of the building is one that can be difficult to address given the limited resources, however several other issues can be addressed which can make the working environment easier. These include:

• The provision of adequate lighting
• The provision of proper ergonomic furniture and proper training in its use
• Proper workspace designs so that equipment and resources are within easy reach

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