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Riverview Hospital Essay

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Problem Summary

The Riverview Children’s Hospital is eight months behind schedule with the implementation of a new computerized financial system. Management wants the system to be in place by the end-of-year audit [April], which is only six weeks away. However, management estimates that there is only a fifty percent chance that the system will function correctly if its implementation is rushed. While this makes a case for delaying the implementation, it also pushes the schedule into another fiscal year, bringing a large set of expenses over with it. The board wants to avoid this. A decision must be made that weighs the pros and cons of pursuing implementation before the audit versus the delay of the implementation until after the …show more content…

Right now, the hospital has to choose between the risk of a bungled audit (which will require overtime from an exhausted, unmotivated staff, double the audit’s 15,000$ price tag and hurt their financial reputation) or hire Dovetail, who will potentially be able implement the system before the audit deadline, but at a heavy cost. The hospital administration needs to accept the fact that the bulk of the costs associated with bringing this computer system into production are labour costs rather than hardware and software. All the attempts to circumvent these costs have resulted in the need for greater expenditures.
Alternatives Analysis

Given the context in which Riverview finds itself, the following alternatives are viable:

1. Postpone implementation until after the audit

o Train hospital employees on software after audit

o Begin new fiscal year with new system.

2. Implement the system before the audit

o Parallel the systems for four months;

o Get Dovetail to correct purchase orders and train employees on the job before audit;

o Get Pam Smythe to do overtime and enter account payable invoices for the past four months.

Decision Criteria
Each alternative will be assessed against the following decision criteria:

• Time. Time is of great essence in the implementation

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