Pre-implementation analysis of requirements for the intranet application of the Olomouc UH

Olomouc University Hospital is one of the largest inpatient facilities in the Czech Republic. It is part of a network of nine teaching hospitals directly managed by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic. It is the largest healthcare facility in the Olomouc Region and the sixth largest hospital in the country.

The University Hospital in Olomouc is planning a new intranet application due to moral and technical obsolescence. The existing intranet primarily serves as a document repository and a single place for communicating news and updates about the organisation's operations. 

The management presents a vision for the future state of the intranet, which should not only be a tool for accessing documents and news, but should also enable the delivery of effective communication among employees and create a suitable medium for building employee identity. 

The aim of the analysis was to identify the current trends in the design, creation and development of community and collaborative intranet sites and to capture the current requirements of the organisation for future intranet applications including the design of its promotion including communication, marketing, adoption and adoption strategies.

The implementation of software technologies into an organization's environment is often perceived as a technology-oriented activity. Change initiators assume that end users will receive training in the initial stages of software deployment or that they will find ways to use the new solution in their daily practice. The change implementers, i.e. the IT staff themselves, place primary emphasis on the correct setup of the technology with respect to the requirements of the organisation's infrastructure, ensuring routine operation and, last but not least, compliance with the information security management system. These facts cause that the requirements of end-users for the ergonomics of new or changed technologies are neglected or overlooked.

In particular, the underestimation of the preparatory activities prior to technology deployment and the processes related to user adaptation and adoption often have a major impact on the success of new solutions. Users generally perceive change (regardless of the claimed benefits of the new solution) as an undesirable phenomenon.

Reducing the initial rejection (and thus speeding up the process of adaptation and adoption and subsequent delivery of the benefits resulting from the implementation of new technology) of end users can be achieved by consistent observation of user behaviour (how they work with technology, what their needs are), understanding their daily work habits and activities and incorporating the observed facts and behaviour patterns into the functionality of the solution and its support systems such as help, tutorials or training. Last but not least, a coherent and iterative communication strategy needs to be developed to promote the benefits of the new solution, including a plan for continuous development, both of the technology itself and of its users.

Based on our decades of experience in delivering large-scale IT projects for our customers, a supporting architectural framework for change management called IT Transformation Marketing has been developed. The areas covered by the analysis could thus be summarized in a few points. At the beginning it was necessary to evaluate the state of operation of the FN Olomouc intranet application. In the same way, we focused on the user community and its behaviour - specific user needs, expected barriers, the necessary behaviour of the application itself and the appropriate user interface.

Secondly, we also designed a communication and marketing strategy to promote the deployment of the intranet in the organisation. We prepared a detailed plan for the eventual adaptation and adoption of users, including proposals for the creation of support structures such as help, online tutorials and training on the operation of the intranet. FN Olomouc is therefore ready for the eventual implementation of the new intranet application.