Healthcare in continuum for an ageing population: national self monitoring or remote offshore monitoring for Australia?

Australia is a country, similar to other developed nations, confronting an ageing population with complex demographics. Ensuring continued healthcare for the ageing, while providing sufficient support for the already aged population requiring assistance, is at the forefront of the national agenda. Varied initiatives are with foci to leverage the advantages of lCTs leading to e-Health provisioning and assisted technologies. While these initiatives increasingly put budgetary constraints on local and federal governments, there is also a case for offshore resourcing of non-critical health services, to support, streamline and enhance the continuum of care, as the nation faces acute shortages of medical practitioners and nurses. However, privacy and confidentiality concerns in this context are a significant issue in Australia. In this paper, we take the position that if the National and state electronic health records system initiatives, are fully implemented, offshore resourcing can be a feasible complementary option resulting in a win-win situation of cutting costs and enabling the continuum of healthcare.<br /

Achieving Operational Service Line Efficiencies in a Cloud Computing Technology Vendor

This action research aims to understand the challenges faced by a cloud computing vendor in achieving operational efficiency for a specific service line and provides a practical framework that can be recommended for achieving operational efficiencies. The emergence of business problem, mainly in achieving sustainable performance, was apparent through the increase in costs, reduced revenues, and declining profit margins. The research provides insights into how the service line can address these challenges to enhance its performance. The study utilized a qualitative approach to data collection through semi-structured interviews with a sample of 12 stakeholders from the service line who have experience in service line strategy, execution processes, and defined performance indicators. The interviews were conducted with personnel from a UAE-based cloud computing technology vendor to explore and identify the challenges faced. Action research was carried out in three cycles to identify focus areas, determine future recommended actions, and plan for their execution. The cycles included the identification of expected challenges and the development of strategies to mitigate them. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify critical areas impacting performance and success indicators, such as revenue, costs, services-sales bookings, and financial margin. The findings were developed collaboratively and ethically to empower company participants. The study outcome outlines four focus areas to achieve operational efficiency in a service line: establishing foundations for success to cultivate a successful work culture, growing cloud service sales bookings and consumption, ensuring project delivery excellence, optimizing project cost and maintaining sustainability measures. Future recommended actions for each layer are detailed in the study. The study examined specified theoretical organizational concepts and disciplines. The findings propose a significant contribution in terms of the cloud computing service company and its organizational development by providing a practical execution framework for achieving service line operational efficiency, that can be implemented. The study emphasizes the importance of collaborative stakeholder engagement to generate knowledge. The framework provides cloud computing vendors with a practical tool for enhancing their service line operational efficiency which allows sustainable service line growth focused on crucial performance and success indicators