The City of St. Petersburg Organization’s Software Issues

Executive Summary

The report sought to identify the main problems of the current registration system and to suggest an improved version. The report aims to identify and eliminate errors in the registration system. The report is divided into two parts: an overview of the theoretical background and practical activities. In the theoretical part, the report sought to research relevant literature that might be useful while implementing this project. Next, the report presented the outline of this project which includes a brief introduction followed by an analysis of existing practices. A list was made of improvements for this registration system. Finally, the report presented some possible risks with implementing such a solution, followed by a final recommendation for implementing artificial intelligence into the online registration process for various activities and provided services.

The report recommended that to solve the problem of software delays, the City of St. Petersburg organization should use artificial intelligence (AI) to provide a search for different criteria simultaneously. Implement artificial intelligence into the online registration process for various activities to optimize the search and eliminate errors in the online registration system. The integrated software will allow searching for various activities at once; moreover, it will be possible to find available specialists at different locations on a certain day after selecting a desired type of activity. The AI will help to eliminate comparison to other systems that use similar functionality.

It will reduce the number of searches that lead to irrelevant results, which inconveniences parents and professionals working with children in sports activities. The rationale and overall objectives of the project include seeking and identifying possible applications of AI and designing a new registration system, and developing solution concepts by integrating AI into existing services to increase service quality.

Introduction

The City of St. Petersburg organization provides services for citizens and activities for children. Many of the activities require online registration from parents to ensure their participation. The current system has some problems that need to be solved. For instance, parents face issues with the incorrect work of the system. They have problems with online registration for various activities and provided services. Parents also face issues with the absence of available specialists, ineffective schedules and other problems. The online registration process involves complex issues impacting employees, parents, and the organization. The current status suggests there are numerous opportunities to improve the provided services. Such as offering monetary incentives in exchange for specific work, which should positively impact business procedures and improve customer service. The enhancement will result in being able to schedule activities regularly. The project aims to solve these issues while making a better software system. It will help make parents’ lives easier.

The increased use of online services should produce better results, including quicker overall performance and fewer delays in various activities and services. Implementation involves forming an effective team where all participants have clear choices as to where their focus lies, for example, as employees, as parents, or as recreation department employees. Currently, the software is seen to cause problems with online registration for various activities and provided services. Parents face issues with the incorrect work of the system, or absence of available specialists, or ineffective schedules due to a lack of staff. The current situation has resulted in situations where a parent could not attend an activity because of a lack of available staff. It is vital to create an effective team where all participants understand their role in solving the problem.

The Opportunity

The Current Situation

The current situation in the City of St. Petersburg is that the software that is used for online registration purposes impromptu stops leading to delays as well as problems with obtaining the requested information. Overall, the department has a very slow pace regarding fixing software problems and maintaining scheduled activities. The slow pace cannot be attributed only to external factors but to the small size compared to other large recreation departments. In addition, this has led to incorrect work of the system because online registrations were often several months behind.

The online registration software of the recreation department is passive, thus causing problems with service quality and healthiness. Another situation in the organization is that there is an absence of available specialists, which has led to the inactive work of the department, as well as incorrect work of the system. There are no specialists on weekends and holidays, which has caused issues with registration and scheduling. As a result, the City of St. Petersburg has had to postpone activities because of the department’s inactivity, which has led to ineffective scheduling.

Key Success Factors

The City of St Petersburg will benefit from this organizational assessment by identifying an external agent that can provide an overview of the issues arising from the current situation. The organization must assess the available resources and take advantage of them during the implementation of the new system, ranging from process capabilities, institutional services and functional skills (Malhotra et al., 2021). The online facility will allow employees to locate answers based on their requests. The key success factors are:

1. The ability of the current system to meet users’ needs
2. The ability of the current system to meet staff needs
3. The potential for the successful functioning of a new system
4. The potential for new systems to meet user and staff needs

The organization is required to demonstrate key success factors in the following areas:

1. Appropriate budgeting plan
2. Appropriate implementation timetable; and
3. Clear system development plan.

The organization should see a different solution to this problem, such as improving the system’s quality, creating efficient schedules for employees, and seeking volunteer teachers for different classes. To ensure that the organization is well organized, it is vital to investigate several essential areas linked to the problem. First, the work of the software should be evaluated within the new requirements; otherwise, there will be no positive change in the system’s quality (Venkatesh et al., 2020). To create an opportunity for the recreation department to be more effective in their work by using the new software that will be developed using open-source technologies. The organization can create a site for a new online registration system. Developing a system which allows users to register for different activities without any errors or coordination issues between parents and employees.

Analysis of Alternatives

The alternative solution to the problem that parents face, such as the issues with the incorrect work of the system, absence of available specialists, or ineffective schedules, include:

1. Address the problem at the level of the organization. The city of St. Petersburg should provide a direct way to resolve issues that parents face so that they can take positive action instead of just waiting for an answer. It can be done by creating a system to automatically and effectively address issues. It can be done by implementing a system that checks for errors in the schedule and provides notification to employees responsible for providing services (real-time monitoring).
2. Address the problem at the level of software. Improve the functionality of existing software, which will provide a solution to problems with schedules and other functionalities (e.g., all-day closure, expansion of hours, finding availability), as well as reduce errors caused by incorrect work of software.
3. Agree on training and equipping employees, including parents, based on the needs analysis provided by students of social work at St. Petersburg State University (SPSU). They work in the organization’s department for children and adolescents. It will help the organization in greater efficiency and effectiveness and offer better services to parents and students.
4. Review software to identify any potential errors to ensure it is developed efficiently and performance is expected from it (Hanley et al., 2014). The organization should develop a new version of the software or rebuild the existing one to ensure no errors occur in the future.

Strategic Solution Option

The strategic solution option to the problem is that the company can implement a new system. An interview with management and employees should be conducted before the implementation to prepare them for the upcoming changes. With this information as a base, an analysis will be conducted to outline a specific plan that would allow the organization to ensure that all employees are prepared and engaged during this change management process (Langenwalter, 2020). The available solution is to provide feedback to both stakeholders- parents and employees using an online facility for resolving the conflict based on their needs.

Benefits and Risks of Strategic Solution Option

Benefits

The benefit of this strategic solution option is that parents can register their children for various activities and services they may be interested in without having them queue; this also helps parents reduce their workload. Parents can communicate with the recreation department and ask questions about available services. Once they are informed, they can select the service they need and make timely appointments (Hernández et al., 2019). In addition, parents will be able to learn more about the organization, its activities and its services. They will also get the required information, online registration and the provision of timetables to enable them to make appointments for their children for various activities. Parents will be capable of providing feedback about their needs and expectations regarding the development of the current system.

Benefits to employees include accessibility to a comprehensive online schedule, which helps them manage their time more effectively. Time management positively affects work performance, which in turn affects the overall performance of this department (Hernández et al., 2019). Also, employees will learn more about the activities and services provided by the recreation department; get detailed schedules of available specialists to assist parents with various issues. It should enable them to complete all tasks within time limits.

The benefit to stakeholders includes less time to find staff, and less time means less stress for the recreation department. The recreation department has more time to focus on providing a comprehensive service with effective coordination. In addition, the benefit of the strategic solution to management is that the solution will enable managers to ensure that qualified individuals are available to help parents register their children in activities.

It also ensures proper monitoring of all registration processes. Managers will also evaluate the computer system’s performance and possible causes for errors to prevent issues from happening. Implement solutions applied by other organizations to improve workflow efficiency(Hernández et al., 2019). Lastly, the benefit of the strategic solution to the department is that the current working schedule will be adjusted as required; this implies an enhanced ability of students and specialists to adjust schedules if the need arises, thus ensuring greater efficiency and effectiveness of the organization’s staff.

Risks

According to Zio (2018), some of the risks of this strategic solution option(implementing a new system) include the following:

1. Lack of understanding and training regarding the new system. The problem can result in parents entering incorrect data to register their children for a particular event, which could serve as a reason in the future for rejecting an enrollment request;
2. Time wasted during the implementation of the new system. The implementation process may take longer than expected, and utilizing the current system could be viewed as favorable given that employees are already familiar with it and it is easy to access; and
3. A weaker customer relations service due to lost information may lead to further customer problems if they do not receive the answers they need or at least an answer within a specified timeframe. Management must ensure that all employees ensure prompt responses.
4. The other risk is confusion and conflicts due to the dubious schedule. The employees may be confused due to the unclear and disparate schedule, which can lead to conflicts between employees or parents.

Final Recommendation (include implementation plan)

The final recommendation to solve the problems with online registration for various activities and provided services is to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize search and eliminate errors. Parents face issues with the incorrect work of the system, or absence of available specialists, or ineffective schedules. Using AI within the system will allow for searching for different criteria simultaneously, for example, type of activity, days, location, and time (Raisch & Krakowski, 2021). The integrated software will allow searching for various activities at once; moreover, it would be possible to find available specialists at different locations on a certain day after selecting a desired type of activity. The context requires a database interaction that implies a high workload, thus requiring engaging artificial intelligence (Raisch & Krakowski, 2021).

One of the vital components of AI is machine learning, known as ML. ML is used to analyze data and learn from each experience, changing its behavior in response to new experiences over time (Ameen et al., 2021). The application domain includes both past events and future events, which makes it applicable here. According to Raisch and Krakowski (2021), the application of AI systems to solve the problems of online registration for various activities and provided services will provide the following advantages:

1. Searching for available specialists and scheduling online, eliminating errors.
2. Using artificial intelligence to improve system performance and efficiency in searching for available specialists reduces the number of hours spent finding a specialist.
3. AI could also help to eliminate comparison to other systems which use similar functionality, for example, I-Play. It would reduce the number of searches that lead to irrelevant results, which inconveniences parents and professionals working with children in sports activities.

Conclusion

The implementation plan includes having an interface that shows available specialists by city and by day, avoiding wrong scheduling and eliminating errors. Using AI increases the efficiency of searching for available specialists and eliminates the need to search for them in other cities or countries. The implementation plan involves using artificial intelligence to solve the problems of online registration for various activities and provided services. AI is used to improve search and eliminate errors, making searches more effective and efficient. It is because there are many specialists, but they can only be found on days that fit certain criteria.

There are also cases where the existing system does not give any results or gets results with incorrect information. It leads to inconveniences in scheduling, such as not being able to find available specialists on time. The City of St. Petersburg organization should encourage using artificial intelligence in online registration for various activities and provided services. Therefore, applying AI in administrative tasks is necessary to optimize service provision to the parents and ensure good working conditions between professional staff and parents.

References

Ameen, N., Tarhini, A., Reppel, A., & Anand, A. (2021). Customer experiences in the age of artificial intelligence. Computers in Human Behavior, 114, 106548. Web.

Hernández, F. Y., Ramírez, R. P., & Laguado, R. I. (2019). Communications management in the success of projects. Case study: Provincial university. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1388(1), 012048. Web.

Langenwalter, G. A. (2020). Enterprise resources planning and beyond: integrating your entire organization. CRC Press.

Malhotra, P., Singh, Y., Anand, P., Bangotra, D. K., Singh, P. K., & Hong, W. C. (2021). Internet of things: Evolution, concerns and security challenges. Sensors, 21(5), 1809. Web.

Raisch, S., & Krakowski, S. (2021). Artificial intelligence and management: The automation–augmentation paradox. Academy of Management Review, 46(1), 192-210. Web.

Venkatesh, V., Thong, J. Y., Chan, F. K., Hoehle, H., & Spohrer, K. (2020). How agile software development methods reduce work exhaustion: Insights on role perceptions and organizational skills. Information Systems Journal, 30(4), 733-761. Web.

Zio, E. (2018). The future of risk assessment. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 177, 176-190. Web.