Caregroup Case Study Analysis

1. What is the problem? What were the underlying causes of this problem?

The problem was happened because of the new knowledge management application, which was designed to copy information across network automatically, which also led to the main switch and consequently to the system collapse. Moreover, besides the problem with the new knowledge management application, the weak telecommunication network in CareGroup was the other reason for the collapse. The network was out of dated and should be upgraded.

The underlying cause of this problem was CareGroup did not put IT operation as an important role for the company. CareGroup was cutting the IT operating expenses from $50 million in 1998 to $25 million in 2001, and reducing IT capital expenditure

Evaluate carefully all of the ten lessons that John Halamka learned from the experience. Are these the right 10 lessons?

Lesson 1: Do not hesitate to bring in the experts to make sure your network is configured properly. I think it was a right lesson Halamka had learnt. Because the primary reason for the collapse was they did not treat IT as an important part of the company, which made the system out of dated, under budget and staff. So gaining support from expert was a right lesson for Halamka.

Lesson 2: Do not let any one individual in your IT group become the sole point of failure. IT group is a group, which means they should have team work. Individual should be following under the overall group decision. Relying too heavily on a single employee to maintain the network was one of the reason to cause the collapse, because no discussion within a group, doing work all by themselves individually, meaning that they were only following what they thought, no other opinions were taken.

Lesson 3: Keep your working knowledge current. Generally speaking, this lesson indicates that not only system need to be updated, people also need to. Without current, or we should say keep up to date knowledge, we cannot build an up to date

During the collapse, without having electronical support, they all went back to use paper system instead. However, because the lack of training, it went totally messy with paper-based system. Therefore, CareGroup should has a backup plan that they can maintain basic cooperation perfectly.

Lesson 9: Component redundancy is not enough; you need alternative access methods. For the system, they should have backup plan for accessing the system to operate the basic functions.

Lesson 10: Life-cycle-manage your network components. Equipment and components need to be maintained and replaced as needed.

I think these ten lessons are all rights. From the general to specific actions have been taken, CareGroup already realized the importance of IT group, and that was the most significant lesson they have.

3. Are there any other learnings that come from the situation? Elaborate.

I think there is a learning that come from the situation, which is backup plan. Not only for the system collapse, it should be applied to any situation. This collapse incident shows CareGroup did not have any backup plan for incident at all. Therefore, I think they should have learnt that everything has risk, even though the system that have been operated for a long time. CareGroup should have backup plans for incidents. They should pay attention to what incidents might be happened and make a corresponding response plan in