Analysis Report Two - Systems Integration and Decision Support

Author

Nora Miller

Executive Summary

Today’s healthcare and service organizations face a maze of regulations, rising costs, and increasing patient expectations. To operate efficiently, they must connect key enterprise systems—like Transaction Processing Systems (TPS), Management Information Systems (MIS), and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms (davenport2017?). By integrating these systems, organizations break down data silos and turn everyday transactions into meaningful insights that drive smarter operations.

But technology isn’t the whole story. Frontline staff need real-time, easy-to-access insights to make smart decisions as they care for patients or manage operations (hbr2020?). While integration helps everything run smoother, doing it poorly can cause problems like information overload or system failures when outages occur. This report looks at different integration frameworks, highlights healthcare applications, and reviews Northwind enterprise data to offer practical data strategy recommendations.

Introduction

Most modern organizations use a three-layer approach to turn day-to-day transactions into insights that help leaders make decisions:

  1. Transaction Processing Systems (TPS): These handle the flood of daily tasks, like patient check-ins or filling prescriptions. TPS systems focus on speed, keeping data accurate, and making sure everything runs smoothly and reliably (thanks to their strict rules, known as ACID properties).
  2. Management Information Systems (MIS): These systems gather all that raw TPS data and organize it into regular reports, such as how many beds were used or inventory numbers each month, so managers can easily track how things are going and spot trends.
  3. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): ERP connects different parts of the organization, like clinical care, supply chain, and finance, into one central system. This gives everyone a real-time, big-picture view of how the whole organization is doing.

To really support frontline teams, organizations need to do more than just share reports. In fact, 87% of business leaders say support gets better when staff have real-time tools to help them make decisions (hbr2020?).

Outside Research

When healthcare organizations link up Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), and ERP platforms, it ties together clinical, supply chain, and financial operations (davenport2017?). For example, if a nurse gives a patient medication through the hospital’s system:

  1. The integrated ERP automatically updates central pharmacy inventory.
  2. Automated reorder triggers alert the supply management team.
  3. Patient billing records update instantaneously.
  4. Decision support algorithms check for drug interactions in real time.

This smooth flow of information shows how keeping data secure and accurate, while also using it for real-time insights and predictions, can help both patients and hospital operations.

Data Visualizations

Visualization One - Low Stock by Supplier (Two Table Join)


SELECT p.ReorderLevel, p.UnitsInStock, p.SupplierID, s.CompanyName AS SupplierName
FROM Products p
JOIN Suppliers s ON p.SupplierID = s.SupplierID
WHERE UnitsInStock < ReorderLevel AND Discontinued = 0
ggplot(data = myquery1, aes(y = SupplierName)) +
  geom_bar() +
  theme_minimal() + 
  labs(
    title = "Companies That Need Stock Replenishment",
    subtitle = "Data taken from Northwind Database",
    x = "No. of Unique Products Needing Restock",
    y = "Supplier Name",
    caption = "Source: Northwind Sqlite"
  )

Visualization Two - Top 10 Products by Demand (Three Table Join)

SELECT 
    p.ProductName AS ProductName, 
    SUM(d.Quantity) AS TotalQuantity
FROM Orders o
JOIN `Order Details` d ON o.OrderID = d.OrderID
JOIN Products p ON p.ProductID = d.ProductID
GROUP BY ProductName
ORDER BY TotalQuantity DESC
LIMIT 10;
ggplot(data = myquery2, aes(x = reorder(ProductName, TotalQuantity), y = TotalQuantity)) +
  geom_col() +
  coord_flip() + 
  theme_minimal() +
  labs(
    title = "Top 10 Most Ordered Products",
    subtitle = "Connecting Sales Transactions (TPS) to Inventory (ERP)",
    x = "Product Name",
    y = "Total Units Ordered",
    caption = "Source: Northwind Sqlite"
  )

Recommendations for Industry

  1. Establish Standardized Data Governance: Establish clear data dictionaries across clinical, financial, and supply chain units to eliminate silos.
  2. Design Intuitive Self-Service Dashboards: Prevent information overload by delivering context-aware alerts to frontline staff rather than complex reports.
  3. Shift Training Toward Insight Application: Focus training on applying data insights to operational workflows rather than solely teaching software mechanics.

References

{DalleMule and Davenport (2017)}

{Laudon and Laudon (2021)}

DalleMule, Leandro, and Thomas H Davenport. 2017. “What’s Your Data Strategy.” Harvard Business Review 95 (3): 112–21.
Laudon, Kenneth C., and Jane P. Laudon. 2021. Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm. 17th ed. Pearson.