Banks' Soft Systems Illustration - Essay Example

SOFT SYSTEMS ILLUSTRATION Soft Systems Illustration According to Standing (2005) throughout the world wide researches, it has been repeatedly reported that standing for long hours is not recommended as it contributes to health risks. This has been seen in all continents and beyond doubt has been considered as one of the currently hazards affecting the bank sectors. A health survey reveals most banks and financial institutions have work conditions which force clients and their employees to stand while processes are going on (Messing, K 2005). A close look is given to the bank sector where banks are flooded with standing employees and clients waiting to open accounts, withdraw or deposit cash. As much as the current technology has enabled some banks to provide electronic deposit and withdrawal, there are still a significant number of people queuing for account opening and collection purposes (McCulloch, J. 2002). Therefore there is a need for IT Companies to develop and introduce an electronic account opening for these banks so as to gradually reduce and eliminate the social, physical and economic problems associated with standing in the banking industry (Working on your feet). A hazard survey in 2008 in UK shows that there is widespread problem and complications associated with standing at work (Standing 2005). It reports that bank union workers in UK experience problems with standing. In this research, when best bank employers were interviewed, they recommended that employees as well as clients should not be subjected to standing alone as the only option as this is unhealthy to them (McCulloch, 2002). In UK they feel that regulation 11 should be in force since money is something which can be handled while seated both from the client employee side. As surveys have revealed, standing is not health for the lower limbs. It can cause damage to the joints, aches in the limbs, side muscles and can sometimes extend to bunions and corns (Franco, G. & Fusetti 2004). The most common signs in research reports appear to be lack of comfort, fatigue and swelling limbs. These pains are concentrated in the thighs, knees, hips and the lower abdomen of the bank employees responsible for account opening and other transactions (Working on your feet). Further and the most recent research in UK indicates a lot of musculoskeletal disorders due to occupations and services in the banking industry with 17% affecting the lower limbs of 192,000 people (Franco & Fusetti 2004). Due to these complications, it is estimated that 2.2 million working days were lost between 2003 and 2004.Standind for long in a queue can lead to worsening of heart diseases, varicose veins and venous malfunctioning as UQAM’s professor responded to an interview conducted by Hazards. Personally this is quite true. People were fainting, sitting down, bending and looking very tired in banks’ queues while waiting to be served. When asked what normally happens, response was that the line normally moves sluggishly hence leads to a lot of time wastage and discomforts which may even result to instant deaths of people with chronic coronary diseases (Franco & Fusetti 2004). It therefore means that if an electronic bank opening system can be developed and introduced then it would save lives as well as time for the economic recovery for nations. This effect of falling while in the queue, even in African culture, has also caused a lot of shame when privacy is not considered, in scenarios where the victim is mother in law or father in law. Long hours spent in the banks’ queues also consume much of people’s time for other activities especially when one has drawn out his schedule. So when reaching the bank to open an account he find a very long queue which finally messes other plans. Other research reports that a person staying in an upright position for long risks developing hypertension which in turn contributes to cardiovascular health complications (Messing, 2005). This means that standing as observed in our banks should be discouraged as much as possible through the adoption and use of electronic account opening system so that the current generation is exempted from such health risks arising from the bank sector. On the side of women, intelligent witnesses confirm that pregnant women standing for so long to be served has resulted in abortion cases and some faint and die due to complications developed during standing in our banks(Krause et al. 2000). This is because of blood circulation complications developed. (Salzmann & Linder (1998) it was evident enough that Orthopaedic and joint paints are further caused by the compression of tendons and that long standing in banks and other industries is highly associated with carotid atherosclerosis which can in turn lead to stroke. Upright postures at work as in banks can contribute to further health risk factors associated with smoking and high cholesterol (Krause et al. 2000). In conclusion bank workers, especially those responsible for account opening, and the general public in need of account numbers are at great risk of health complications as revealed by research bodies and health related materials. Therefore if IT companies can develop such a system which would allow electronic account opening while one is seated, there would be a great relief in the bank sector and we would expect to bring up a healthy generation with long life span. In addition the system would eliminate the psychological, social and economic complications associated with account opening in the current bank systems. In this new system clients would presents themselves to account opening registration units distributed at various stations within the country. In a particular unit it should have video cameras, thumbprint recognition systems and a number of highly interactive desktop computers with the bank’s speech-enabled input form for capturing the clients’ details. In addition these computers should be WAN enabled to allow the data be transferred or accessed automatically in the Central system. Once inside the account registration office a person would be required to register his or her finger prints with the thumb recognition system. He would again feed personal details, such as name, national ID1 or passport number, and gender in to the client form, which has the fields even for phone number, address or email address. It is expected that a client does this without any assistance to avoid future complains. However if he is not IT literate then he must come with a trusted eligible helper who would do the entries on his behalf in accordance to the stepwise speeches generated during form filling. On the other hand, the system video cameras installed with thumb recognition systems would automatically capture the image of whoever registering his finger prints. These personal identification details in fed in the account opening form and thumbprint details are then sent through a secure network to the bank’s Central verification and validation system. In this system, there is imported information, which would only be available on system request, from the government’s registrar of Persons database. On the other hand, the video image details would also be sent through a secure network to the Central verification and validation system. This system would use either the national ID or passport number to access explicit details of the clients from the government database. The system would then compare and contrast the fed-in details from the account registration offices against the imported details from the government records to verify the authenticity of the records. If the details are correct and matching, the system would automatically generate the account number for the client. However, if the details are not matching in one way or another, the system would instead generate the mismatching fields. The system would then send the end results back to the client. For successful persons, it would send them the account details while for the unsuccessful people, it would send them regret massages with mismatching fields. The account details, number, branch and holder are then merged with the person’s passport from the video camera to form the record details of the bank clients’ database and backup database. This means that during the withdrawals or deposits, the end user systems like bank tellers would access this information for verification by both the bank and the client. On the other hand, another system can be introduced, with modification of the first one, to perform the same task. This can be done by elimination of the video camera, the thumbprint recognition system and the highly interactive desktop computers in the first system. However, the central verification system, the government database system, desktop computers and other databases with their functionalities still remaining in place. In this other system, the scanning system and the desktop computers with basic data entry form, would be the only data input systems. The client would enter into the station with either his or her ID or passport. He would then be required to fill in the details as required by the account opening data form. He would then scan his document, either the ID or the passport, on the system in place. If the person is having any inability to perform these, then a trusted eligible helper should be availed for such tasks. In this case the scanned image of the national ID or passport is forwarded through a secure network to the bank’s Central verification and validation system. Similarly the person is required to submit his coloured passport photo through his email address to the bank with his ID or passport number. The existing bank system should automatically forward these details to the clients’ database in wait for account details from Central verification and validation system for merging. In the Central verification and validation system, the image of the ID or passport submitted by the end user scanner system is compared and contrasted with details imported from the government’s database based on the thumb print, as in the case of ID, and number. If the details are correct and matching, the system would automatically generate the account number for the client. If the details are not matching in one way or another, the system would instead generate the mismatching details. The system would then send the end results back to the client using either the email address or the mobile number. For successful persons it would send them the account details while for the unsuccessful people, it would send them regret massages with mismatching details. The system would then merge the account details, number, branch and holder with the persons ID or passport picture to form the record details of the clients’ database and backup database. In the clients’ database, it should be able to compare what is coming in and the emailed details so that it further merges them as one to form a comprehensive clients’ database. This means that during the withdrawals or deposits, the end user systems must access this information for verification by both the bank and the client. Looking this system from the CATWOE’ s point of view, the most targeted group are men and women who are really suffering and develop various health risks due to the fact that they are standing for long hours in banks. This group of individuals comprises both bank employees associated with delivering these services and the bank clients associated with bank account opening. Thus they would be the primary beneficiaries of the outputs generated by the system in the long run. To achieve the satisfaction needed by these concerned parties, it is the responsibility of Information Technology companies or individuals to propose and develop such creative ideas to help solve the situation. This is done through further intensive and extensive data gathering. These data necessitating the introduction of this system were collected from both the public view as well as in banks by conducting interviews, observations and library research. This system supports both textual and non textual data as its inputs seen in the illustration; it allows both account details data and the photos or images. This is achieved by the use of advanced programmed database with high comparative modules so as to compare what clients feed to the system and the imported information from the government database. The system would generate either the account number details or regret statement depending on how the two data have been compared. In addition, this system has embedded or integrated automatic account generator sub-system. The sub-system is only evoked when the comparison yields no regret message. For good communication between the system and end systems or users, it support internet protocols and can easily link with teleconferencing and video facilities. In order to achieve all these, the system interacts with other independent systems such as teleconferencing facilities, exchange servers, external databases, internet and other secure communication links. It would be great relief to bank industry as they would see their employees performing with vigour and looks healthy all the time due to elimination of problems associated with standing. Similarly the public would welcome and acknowledge such innovations since they would no longer be victims of health complications associated with standing hence increased comfort. However this system would meet a lot of challenges and uncertainties. First, there is no clear understanding whether the government would allow her demographic data, like registration details, be accessed by external bodies like banks. This may be due to regulations as in the constitution in some countries based on integrity and security reasons. Secondly, although the system can be developed and installed to various banks, the majority of people from developing countries would get great challenges in using the system due to low technology levels. Therefore some banks in some countries would not readily adopt the system based on its return value if there are only few clients who can successfully feed in the information required at the account opening offices. On the same note those who may help them, if messes them, could lead to total rejection of the system. The public can blame the bank with this system as out to worsen their economic status. Moreover in an attempt to come up with this system, it spells out limitation on the required resources. This is because it would need advanced programmers, database developers, secure and dedicated networks, videoconferencing facilities, proper security and regulation measures on the use of internet. These human and non human resources are quite expensive to thus the only way out for a developer is to exhaust all avenues of resource acquisition. Similarly, the banks who wish to adopt the system would be required to upgrade their systems like the database so as to meet the functional goal for the automatic account opening system. This, to some extent, may cause rejection or slow implementation due to resource constraints by the bank. In addition the bank may be quite sceptical on their system upgrading due to the uncertainty of its short term and long term effects thus may thwart efforts in saving the public from standing health risks. Finally the developed system should be sold to banks which wholly take it as their corporate property. However, as in any Soft System requirement, the developers should be ready and willing to participate until it is fully operational and commissioned. List of References Franco, G. & Fusetti (2004) ‘Applied ergonomics.’ Bernadino Rummazzini’s early observation of the link between musculoskeleton disorders and ergonomic factors. 35, (1) Messing, K (2005) Pain associated with prolonged constrained standing: The invisible epidemic McCulloch, J. (2002) Health Risks associated with prolonged standing 19, (2) Krause et al. (2000). ‘Standing at work and progression of carotid atherosclerosis’ Scandinavian journal of Work, Environment and Health 26, (3) Standing (2005) Hazard [Online] ‘available from’ . [December, 2010] Salzmann, CL & Linder (1998) ‘A history of Medical scientists and high heels International’ Journal of Health Services 28, (2) ‘Working on your feet.’ Occupational Health clinic for Ontario Workers [Online] ‘available from’. [December, 2010] Read More