bism_world bank report on information systems

8/19/2019 BISM_world Bank Report on Information Systems

1/15Group 8 | Section D | BISM - 2016

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, KOZHIKODE

Business Information Systems Management

FINAL PROJECT REPORT TITLE: WORLD BANK

SECTION: D

GROUP 8: AmritPaul Singh (PGP/19/188)

Barbie Jain (PGP/19/198)Mohd Talha (PGP/19/208)

Ram Garg (PGP/19/218)Vipin Sharan (PGP/19/238)



A) INTRODUCTION (Company background)

The World Bank is an international financial organization which offers loans to developingcountries for capital programs. The World Bank’s motto is to work for a world free of poverty.The World Bank has dual goals of ending abject poverty within one generation and also toimprove shared prosperity.

However, its Articles of Agreement mention that all its decisions shall be steered by anobligation to the promotion of foreign investment and international trade and to the facilitation ofCapital investment.

History:The World Bank Group is headquartered in Washington, D.C and was established in the year1944. Presently its strength is more than 10,000 employees in more than 120 offices worldwide.The current president is Jim Yong Kim, who is the 12th president of the World Bank Group.

Progress:

Since inception in 1944, the World Bank has expanded from a single institution to a closelyassociated group of five development institutions. The World Bank is a component of the WorldBank Group; comprising of two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment (IBRD), and the International Development Association (IDA).

Collaborators and partners:Their mission evolved from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)as facilitator of post-war reconstruction and development to the present-day mandate ofworldwide poverty alleviation in close coordination with their affiliate, the InternationalDevelopment Association, and other members of the World Bank Group, the International

Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the InternationalCentre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

Organization:

The World Bank operates day-to-day under the leadership and direction of the president,management and senior staff, and the vice presidents in charge of Global Practices, Cross-Cutting Solutions Areas, regions, and functions.

Functioning:They provide low-interest loans, zero to low-interest credits, and grants to developing countries.These support a myriad of investments in such areas as health, public administration, education,

infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture, and environmental andnatural resource management. Some of the projects are co-financed with governments, othermultilateral institutions, commercial banks, export credit agencies, and private sector investors.

The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countriesaround the world. It is not a bank in the ordinary sense but a unique partnership to reduce poverty and support development.



B) CASE FACTS

With the help of Information Systems international institutions like World Bank have managedto allocate the resources in accordance to the needs of various nations. And in achieving this,Information Systems has helped in making the entire process quicker, more simplistic and highlyreliable. The software and hardware has been designed to support a project and also to managethe disbursement of donor funds to community-based subprojects.

Management Information Systems- The management arm of Information Systems, MISfacilitates decision-making at all levels and improve decentralized operations at the same timeretaining data security and integrity. In nutshell below are the functions that the IS is able toachieve for this international body:

Functions achieved using IS

Reporting and Analysis – The MIS allows for easy periodic reporting (monthly,quarterly, annually) as well as occasional specific reporting. The export of data to other programs (such as Excel and Access) allows users to further analyze data according totheir specific requirements.

Targeting - A Global Information System (GIS) facilitates the assessment of social,demographic and other indicators related to poverty, and provides the project a means to prioritize applications to the poorest areas with the least access to service delivery. TheGIS hosts information from various censuses and social surveys.

Monitoring, Management and Decision Making - The MIS assists management intracking the subproject operations, identifying bottlenecks and measuring performance. Itis also essential for evaluation and impact assessment.

Financial Management - The MIS allows comparison between allocations,commitments and disbursements and the budget, and can assist in forecasting financialrequirements.

Procurement Management – The system monitors, and reports on, procurement andtenders processes. The MIS also maintains a data base of contractors, suppliers andconsultants.

Financial Management Information Systems:

Financial Management Information Systems -FMIS performs the function of supporting the

automation and integration of public financial management processes like budget formulation,execution (commitment control, cash/debt management, and treasury operations), reporting andaccounting. These solutions can significantly improve the efficiency and equity of governmentoperations. It also offers a great potential for increasing participation, transparency andaccountability.



FMIS data mapper & FMIS world map

The FMIS Data Mapper created by World bank provides quick access to 133 Bank funded projects in 74 countries in Google Maps. The FMIS World Map presents fundamentalinformation about 194 FMIS solutions in 198 economies worldwide again using Google Maps.

Other IS creations of World Bank have been:

1. Crisis Monitor: This technology compares a number of indicators, thresholds andtriggers associated with the World Bank’s Food Price Index. Based on the analysis, the

preferred trigger is observed when a crisis is likely to unfold & when prices exceed anabnormally high threshold that is defined using mean of the Bank’s Food Price Index.

2. Food Riot radar: The reason to have this kind of technology is that dozens of violentepisodes during the food price hikes like in 2007 shocked the world, & many similarevents since then have made worldwide news and highlighted the close relationship between food insecurity and conflict. As a result, there is an increasing interest on how

and also to what extent food price shocks are responsible for the origination andcontinuation of political conflict and instability.

This interactive map displays/ visualises the incidence of food riot episodes in eachcountry worldwide. Two types of riots are mentioned: Type 1 riots are mainly motivated by food inflation, whereas type 2 riots are mainly motivated by severe shortages.

FMIS Data Mapper & World Map Food Riot Radar

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=zjk3sMW9aA80.kxJssDtc7kA8https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=zjk3sMW9aA80.ks_yBlJQIw5whttps://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=zjk3sMW9aA80.ks_yBlJQIw5whttps://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=zjk3sMW9aA80.kxJssDtc7kA8



Crisis Monitor Integrated Framework

3. Policy Monitor: In order to monitor food price crises, it is very critical that weunderstand how the policies play a role in different scenarios. Commodity-related policychanges can re-inforce food price crises, while food price shocks may lead to drastic policy reforms. Copious panic policies have resulted in food price hikes, while theavoidance of these policies can often deter food price escalation.

Policy makers at both national and international levels need access to reliable andtransparent information on commodity-related policy developments in order toeffectively respond to unfolding food price crises. This interactive map outlinescommodity-related policy changes initiated in each country worldwide.

C) EFFECTIVENESS OF IS USING THE FOUR LENSES

Lens 1: Decision Making System using Information SystemsThe decision making can be analysed through the below mentioned broad dimensions:

1. Knowledge managementa.

Knowledge Management is an initiative of the World Bank Institute that aims toenhance the capacity of development oriented organizations in World Bank clientcountries to achieve high impact through the application of knowledge

management tools and practices. This is an initiative that is supported by theWorld Bank Institute’s Knowledge for Development (K4D) Program

b. The Knowledge Bank page has been established as a main repository for some ofthe key documents related to the World Bank's- Knowledge Bank strategy. Thesedocuments primarily describe the main KM activities/ knowledge managementactivities of the World Bank over the past decade, since the strategy was launchedin 1996.

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/WBI/WBIPROGRAMS/KFDLP/0,,contentMDK:20934415~menuPK:2882148~pagePK:64156158~piPK:64152884~theSitePK:461198,00.htmlhttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/WBI/WBIPROGRAMS/KFDLP/0,,menuPK:461238~pagePK:64156143~piPK:64154155~theSitePK:461198,00.htmlhttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/WBI/0,,contentMDK:20212624~menuPK:575902~pagePK:209023~piPK:207535~theSitePK:213799,00.htmlhttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/WBI/0,,contentMDK:20212624~menuPK:575902~pagePK:209023~piPK:207535~theSitePK:213799,00.htmlhttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/WBI/WBIPROGRAMS/KFDLP/0,,menuPK:461238~pagePK:64156143~piPK:64154155~theSitePK:461198,00.htmlhttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/WBI/WBIPROGRAMS/KFDLP/0,,contentMDK:20934415~menuPK:2882148~pagePK:64156158~piPK:64152884~theSitePK:461198,00.html



2. Business Intelligence:a. Big Data: World Bank launched a new program called ‘Innovations in Big Data

& Analytics for Development’ in partnership with its development economics,enterprise technology groups and Transport and ICT

i. To start the program, it launched the first WBG Big Data InnovationChallenge. This challenge was a huge success and also received anoverwhelmingly positive response wherein 130 proposals were submittedfrom across the World Bank Group and $1.5 m investment was made.

ii. World Bank has been using Big data analytics in variety of fields like-In India-using satellite imagery to monitor rural electrification, inGautemala-forecasting poverty & shared prosperity using cell phone data,

improving the financial inclusion and targeting of the poor using calldetail records, facilitating climate smart agriculture for enhancing andsustaining rice system using big data analytics, reduced congestion usingGPS data from Uber, improved emergency traffic management and planfor public transportation and road infrastructure needs.

b. Energy access: World bank has expanded energy access using advancedanalytics and by offering more flexible means of payment, using pay-as-you-go or pre-paid systems enabled by extensive mobile phone penetration in EasternAfrica, payment schedules like off-grid solar home systems, also empowering

price-sensitive customers to shift their load to times where power is quite cheaper(off-peak).

c. Energy efficiency: World Bank has also taken initiatives towards improvingenergy efficiency. Investments have been constrained by difficulty in measuringefficiency potential and efficiency gains. Energy analytics has helped to identifyefficiency opportunity, predict probable savings, estimate gross and net savings,and test technical and behavioral interventions for relative cost effectiveness.

d. Renewable energy: It is technically and financially feasible to Integrate increasedrenewable energy in the grid. In the future, primary challenges will become

operational challenges where data science will be very instrumental. It will beimperative for the utilities to predict solar and wind exposure on different parts ofthe grid in real-time, and also anticipate consumer responses to price signals. Itwill enable a responsive grid – with similar challenges for distributed storagemodels.



Challenges:

There are couple of challenges in going forward with the analytics approach: Data is easily available and technical challenges are being overcome and the key fact remains

that what is actually the problem to be solved or ask the right question

Cost of upgrading infrastructure that includes technological and capacity constraints,integration of analytics with existing technology infrastructure, and lack of capacity tomanage and infuse data analytics programs.

Limitation on Political and government fronts, including lack of awareness of potential of BigData in energy regulation, Privacy of data, Inaccessibility of data, improved sectorgovernance.

Lens 2 : Enabling Technologies for Digitisation

1) Infrastructure : World Bank is made of two development institutions:

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD): It reduces poverty in average-income and creditworthy poor countries by promotingsustainable development via loans.

International Development Association (IDA): It helps poor countries of world.

World Bank has about 10,000 employees in 185 member countries. World Bank changed from acentralized headquarter driven organization to a matrix-network type decentralised operation thatdepends on member countries to carry out their project development and make their owndecisions.

World Bank Enterprise Content Infrastructure



Content Integration Services Metadata harvest, rationalization and harmonization Access to metadata entries, content maps and content

Repository Services

Defined storage strategy for content over time High performance, accessible and scalable metadata and content stores

Content Access Services Bank-wide search and retrieval Access control for all bank records Syndication of content to partners institutions

Content Management Services Content management function oriented services including version, work flow,

check-in/check-out, collaboration

Security services and Metadata Management Services manage reference data, data dictionaries, thesaurus, taxonomies rules

of business (security, access, disposition) which cut across all services

2) Information and communication technologies (ICT) :

World Bank undertook Information and communication technologies (ICT) Strategy in 2012,which intends to help developing countries utilize information and communication technologiesto transform public services, productivity and innovations delivery, and improve competitivefactor. The strategy showcases large changes in sector over the last decade with increase in use

of mobile phones and internet, decline in the prices of computing and mobile internet devices,and the increasing influence of social media.

World Bank under this strategy in collaboration with International Finance Corporation (IFC)together with the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) concentrates on three priority areas:

Transformation: Development is made more open and accountable, and service delivery is

improved by helping citizen give feedback to governments and service providers.

Connectivity: Affordable access to broadband is scaled up, including for women, disabledcitizens, disadvantaged communities, and population of rural areas.

Innovation: Competitive IT-based service industries are developed and ICT innovation acrossthe economy is fostered focusing on job creation, especially for women and youth.

The Bank with ICT aims to empower people socially, economically, and politically to decrease poverty and enhance shared prosperity. Projects empowered by ICT have decreased barriers tomobile and internet reach, enhanced jobs, and increased government effectiveness andtransparency.



Lens 3: IS Strategy and Ethical consideration

1) IS Strategy

The IS strategy for an organization is formed of complex factors including structure, business processes, politics, culture, environment and management decisions. These are known as themediating factors between IT and organizations. A successful IS strategy requires a change inindividual routines and business processes. These together make a business process. Several business processes make up a business firm. An important part of strategy is culture whichencompasses a set of assumptions that define goals and products.

In 1997 bank selected SAP as its primary medium for IT improvement. With the SAP ERPsystem the bank changed disparate administrative systems and created unified IT environment,enabling same business processes to be used in Washington and in the 100 or so field offices.Eight SAP components were brought in to streamline procurement, management of material, project-systems and financial reporting.

— SAP Fund Management, SAP Controlling, SAP Financial, SAP Materials Management, SAPProject System, SAP Human Resources SAP Project Management, and SAP Enterprise Buyer.

Potter’s five-force analysis of banking industry in general

Threat of New Entrants: (Moderate): The average person can't come along and start up a bank but services such as internet bill payment could be capitalized by entrepreneurs.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers: (Moderate) Suppliers of capital might not be a big threat

but the threat of suppliers luring away human capital is a significant threat. If a skilfullindividual is working in a smaller regional bank, there is the chance that person will be

attracted towards bigger banks. Bargaining Power of Buyers: (Low) Individual don’t pose much of a threat to the banking

industry, but relatively high switching costs is a major factor. If a person has loan with one particular bank, it is extremely tough for him to switch to other bank.

Threat of Substitutes: (High) Banks offer lot of services over and above taking deposits andlending money but be it insurance, fixed income securities or mutual funds there is a chancethat non-banking financial services company that can offer similar services.

Industry Rivalry: (High) The financial services industry has been around for long periodand just about everyone has access to banking services. Thus banks are attempting to lureclients away from competitor banks.

2)

E-Business

The bank also built its own management dashboard, which enabled management to access SAPand Oracle data on the internet and modify key business metrics. It brought Lotus Notes as its e-mail and collaboration tool. IBM's Domino.doc which is commercial IBM Lotus product, was bought primarily for content storage.

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/switchingcosts.asphttp://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/switchingcosts.asp



In 2003 bank began using Internet Services Program (ISP), a multiple year project to enhance itsInternet capabilities. To bolster this, bank acquired IBM WebSphere Server, Netegrity-Websecurity software; WebSphere Portal Servers; iPlanet Directory Server along with Vignettecontent management tool.

For online collaboration, bank use Lotus Sametime which is commercial product that providescollaborative tools and workspaces. Google is used to extract information from the bank'sinternal and external Web sites, while Epublish which is home-built Web publishing devicesupported by Vignette content management software is used for caching content.

3) Ethics in IT

World bank falls under first quadrant following legal and ethical norms.

Information ethical policies followed by world bank:

Sharing of non-public information only on need to know basis and only with pre-approval. Information protection rule to follow even after leaving world bank group employment

Respect password management policy and never to share password to electronic systems.

Follow procedures while disclosing confidential information to third party.

Never use non-public information to advance personal interest or others interest.

Information Ethics Plot

Lens 4: Business Processes & IS Development

1. The World Bank Group played an important role in spreading ICT in developing markets.It provided $4.2 billion to support the ICT sector, 75% of which was to the poorestcountries, including in Africa. World Bank’s strategy focused on support for sector



reform, improving access to information infrastructure, developing ICT skills,applications by giving trainings.

2. The Bank’s most considerable contributions to ICT development have been throughsupport to sector reforms, and to private investments for mobile technology in difficult

situations and the poorest countries. One of the successful examples of such initiatives isan IFC supported mobile operator. It was the first to adapt a mass market strategy andalso established a Village Phone Program.

3. In other priority areas, including ICT applications, the Bank’s contributions have beenlimited. Support to universal access programs was largely overpowered by the roll-out oftelephone services by the private sector and not the bank per se. Also, access for the poorhas more supported through non-targeted interventions, general focused on the enablingenvironment and direct support to private investments. The record of world bank in ICTapplications has been modest, despite their significant role in Bank projects. This actuallyshows the high risks of IT projects and shortcomings in case of its delivery mechanism.

4. Database Management: a. Open Data initiative by World Bank’s is intended to provide all users with access

to the data, according to the Open Data Terms of Use. The data catalog is a listingof all the available World Bank datasets, including databases, pre-formattedtables, reports, and other resources.

b. The Joint External Debt Hub is jointly developed by the Bank for InternationalSettlements the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for EconomicCooperation and Development and the World Bank. It brings together externaldebt data and selected foreign assets from international creditor/market andnational debtor sources.

5. Customer Applications : a. The open data initiative of world bank made key data sets including the World

Development Indicators, Global Finance Indicators, Africa DevelopmentIndicators and Doing Business Indicators which is free for all.

b. Data Finder Mobile Apps- The new Data Finder app showcases the progressthat's been made at the Bank since the launch of the Open Data Initiative. Its forthe first time that the Bank's data are available to users on any of the three majormobile platforms - and in four languages with the following features:

Charts and Maps: visually and graphically compare countries and indicators Advanced Queries: create, edit and save custom tables Social share what you create on Twitter, Facebook etc. Current data: data can be pulled directly from the World Bank API Multilingual: works in English, Chinese, French, Spanish Cross platform: available on iOS and android

http://data.worldbank.org/summary-terms-of-usehttp://www.bis.org/http://www.bis.org/http://www.imf.org/http://www.oecd.org/http://www.oecd.org/http://www.worldbank.org/http://www.worldbank.org/http://www.oecd.org/http://www.oecd.org/http://www.imf.org/http://www.bis.org/http://www.bis.org/http://www.bis.org/http://data.worldbank.org/summary-terms-of-use



D) ANALYSIS

Programs ensured alignment and coherence between the design and implementationstages of the MIS. Smooth transition between the two stages was ensured

All program information was integrated into a single system. A central database whichenabled unique information sharing among institutions

Most of the 17 fully functional FMIS solutions (10T + 7F) had similar characteristics

Analysis of 15 pilot/partially functional FMIS solutions (4T + 11F) reveals longer preparation periods with less focus on alignment with PFM needs

Table 1 states the success factors of individual components in completed MIS, whereasTable 2 states the failure factors of individual components in completed MIS projects.

Table 1: Success factors observed in completed MIS projects



Source: Financial Management Information System, a World Bank Study

Table 2: Failure factors observed in completed MIS projects

Source: Financial Management Information System, a World Bank Study

E)

RECOMMENDATIONS

World Bank has had an extensive and rich experience with modern Information Systems for past25 years. In particular, the Financial Management (FM) unit of the World Bank have witnessedclear definition of functional and technical requirements and devised the right architecture forintegrated solutions.

The lessons learnt from this project, conducted in the ECA region of the Bank, are recommendedto be replicated across various other projects. The set of recommendations are basically underthree heads, viz.

Design and Implementation Performance Indicators

Quality and Reliability

Design and ImplementationIn the phase of design and implementation of the project answers to six questions is required i.e.what, why, where, how, when and who?



1. Identify the reform needs (What and Why)a. Assess existing capacity and practices to identify strengths and weaknesses b. Identify priorities and sequence of activitiesc. Establish and dispute whether an Information system is needed or not

2.

Develop customized solutions (How, Where and When)a. Develop the System Design to design functional requirements, technologyarchitecture

b. Needs pertaining to network requirement, infrastructure, central servers,hardware, security and network management system

c. Prepare realistic cost and time estimatesd. Develop specifications in line with the System Design

3. Manage projects effectively by strengthening institutional capacity (Who)a. Promote the use of systems for

i. coordination and administration of large-scale investment projects

ii.

financial management, accounting, reporting, and auditingiii.

procurement b. Prepare draft terms of referencec. Define performance metrics (KPIs and CSFs) to measure successd.

Design key activities for capacity building

Performance Indicators

A review of indicators (quality and quantity) in past projects suggest that development ofmore contextually meaningful indicator is necessary

For instance: In financial management projects, measures which measure impact on the

treasury and ability to manage finances must be developed

Assess the enabling environment to evaluate operational status of Information System infuture

In addition to indicators, results framework comprehensively establish clear linkages between objectives and intermediate results. Further, these corresponding indicators providea useful benchmark in measuring progress, and ultimately impact.

Quality and Reliability

The projects must be designed with special focus on quality and security of information. This isrecommended so that risk for corruption and loss of information minimizes. Also, it improves thereliability of the system. For instance, widespread use of centralized Web-based ICT solutionsavailable on high-speed countrywide networks has contributed substantially to the performanceof T/F systems since the early 2000s. In addition, simplification of procedures and stablelegislative framework are other key factors.Some instruments to improve reliability, quality, accountability, cost and effectiveness ofInformation System for Financial Management are listed below -


15/15

Use of an integrated and central gateway or server for payments (Ex: Web based T/Fsystem)

Reap benefits from digital and electronic signatures for all financial transactions Electronic Records Management Monthly reviewing and publishing of execution an performance results

Inter-operability and re-usability of Information System Use of open source software Development of Project management practices as per Industry standards

F) REFERENCES

http://www.worldbank.org/ ; Accessed on March 3, 2016 http://siteresources.worldbank.org/; Accessed on March 3, 2016 Margaret Bartel, Integrated Financial Management Systems: A Guide to Implementation

Based on The Experience in Latin America, (Washington, DC, Institute For Democratic

Strategies, LATPS Occasional Paper Series, 1996) Joint Financial Management Improvement Program. Core Financial System Requirement.

JFMIP-SR-02-01. (JFMIP, Washington, D.C., November 2001) Management Information Systems for CCTs and Social Protection Systems in Latin

America: A Tool for Improved Program Management and Evidence-Based DecisionMaking; October 2010

Financial Management Information Systems 25 Years of World Bank Experience onWhat Works and What Doesn’t; World Bank

bism_world bank report on information systems

Documents