Identify appropriate business use of new technology
Appropriate business use of new technology 2
Aligning business and IT strategies 2
Types of business technologies 4
New technology and your business 6
Understanding your business 6
Locating information 7
Business planning and IT solutions 8
Defining organisational needs 8
The product selection process 8
Matching solutions with strategic directions 10
Identifying appropriate new technologies 10
Evaluating and selecting new technology 11
Productivity and efficiency issues 13
Identifying and examining processes 13
Testing proposed solutions 13
Summary 15
Check your progress 15
Appropriate business use of new technology
We have grown to accept technological change. Unless businesses exploit the advantages of the new technology, they will find that they can’t compete with businesses that do. Consider the changes to our lives that have been brought about by such things as telephone banking, the Internet, e-business, email and so on, and the competitive advantages such changes have given the organisations that implement them. Organisations need to be constantly aware of current or emerging technology trends and directions in information technology (IT). IT will continue to evolve and produce more and more new technology. Many IT managers are very keen to embrace new technology, anticipating better IT services for the organisation. However, unless new technology is used appropriately, it may not bring the desired outcome for the organisation.
If you buy a garment from a department store chances are that you can return it if it is the wrong size or does not meet your requirements. Unfortunately, this will not work the same way with your IT infrastructure. Let’s look at the case where you bought five high-speed backup servers in order to provide redundancy and distribute the load on servers. If all your five servers are currently working at 15% capacity, the equipment that you have purchased is not appropriate for your business. The idle resources are a waste of money. Rushing to purchase new technology without prior assessment of its appropriateness or relevance to organisational goals wastes your organisation’s valuable resources and money. Your objective is to not only apply new technology to solve the organisation’s problems, but to employ it in the most cost efficient and appropriate manner.
Aligning business and IT strategies
In today’s competitive business environment, an IT manager should understand the link between business objective, business strategy and IT strategy. If your company is to get the maximum benefit from the new technology, then the new technology must be properly aligned with the company’s business strategy. Unless you align your IT services strategically with the business, you will not have a case for management to invest money in any new technologies.
All IT managers should understand that IT exists to support the business objectives of the organisation and not the other way around. IT must support the business goals in every service it provides. The IT department must develop a vision and strategy to ensure that this is the prime focus of its existence. Management must take all measures to ensure that information technology is part of business strategy planning with a view to aligning IT with the business strategies of the organisation.
To ensure that IT is totally aligned with business objectives, IT managers need to:
· Provide business-focussed leadership rather than technology-focussed leadership. The IT leadership must be connected to business management.
· Think about the impact of tasks on business as a whole rather than provide solutions for individual tasks.
· Concentrate more on end-user experience with new technologies rather than the technology itself.
· Focus on the business goals and let the technology follow.
· Play a strategic role in the future of the organisation.
The relationship between business objective, business strategy and IT strategy
Business objective
A business objective is what the business wants to happen in broad terms. It is best if there is some way of measuring it. Some examples are:
· Reduce operating costs by 2.5% per year.
· Get BAS ready on time every 3 months.
· Improve customer satisfaction levels by 10%.
· Process orders within 3 working days.
Business strategy
A business strategy is how the business objective will be met. Some examples are:
· Automate a labour-intensive function.
· Implement an accounting package with BAS capabilities.
· Provide printed quotes over the counter.
· Implement an order tracking system.
Information technology strategy
IT strategy is about how IT will be used to support the business strategy. More than one strategy may be identified. Some examples are:
· Switch to barcode-scanner checkouts.
· Modify existing accounting package and retrain users. Or, purchase a BAS-ready accounting package.
· Build quotation report software. Provide networked PCs and printers to front counter staff and train them.
· Purchase an order tracking module of the existing inventory software and train staff. Or, purchase a stand-alone order tracking package and train staff. Or, build custom order tracking software and train staff.
Types of business technologies
Production technologies
Production technologies include:
· Technologies that boost, aid or enhance production/manufacture of goods. Tools, machines and utensils used for production would fall in to this category. The primary purpose of investing in these types of technologies in business is to reduce costs, increase flexibility and/or improve the quality of the product, such as machines that assemble car components with greater precision.
· Technologies for the ‘production’ of technical services such as a wide area network (WAN) and computer software development.
Automation
Automation technologies include:
· technologies that automate services such as payroll
· technologies that automate the tasks that are labour intensive or dangerous, eg human-like machines (robots) to perform very specific production tasks and point of sale terminals at a warehouse.
Technologies that improve services
Technologies that improve the quality of services will lead to increased profit by drawing clients back for more service, eg more accurate diagnostics in the medical field made possible by new technologies and automated patient monitoring in hospitals.
Technologies in design
Design technologies include:
· technologies that are used to design or develop a new product or service such as Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) and Computer Aided Systems Design (CASD)
· technologies that promote innovation by introducing new, more efficient, cost effective and improved quality services or products to the consumer.
New technology and your business
New technology is used to enhance service, promote innovation, improve communication and quality while reducing the costs, and increase productivity and profits. The appropriate business use of new technology should result in benefits such as:
· reduced costs
· improved quality of existing services
· existing resources being utilised to optimum capacity resulting in better products and better ways of conducting business
· increased flexibility.
A new technology that does not lead to real benefits to the organisation cannot be justified.
Understanding your business
To be utilised effectively, technology must fit with the users’ goals. It is no good developing a database that manages stock when the requirement is for a system that manages contacts of potential customers. To ensure that you get off on the right track it is important to have an understanding of the organisation’s business domain.
What is your client’s core business? What does the organisation set out to do and what are the main activities it undertakes to achieve this?
Sometimes it is apparent what the organisation’s core business is, but it is not always straightforward. How can you find out what an organisation’s core business is?
Documents produced by the organisation such as mission statements, strategic plans and organisational charts are usually a good source of information for determining the organisation’s core business. A mission statement states the main purpose of the organisation and usually incorporates its financial, social and/or environmental goals. A strategic plan defines how the organisation plans to achieve its goals, and includes the activities it will undertake to achieve them.
Organisation charts can provide a graphical representation of the business in terms of how it is organised to fulfil its core business.
Locating information
Where can you find information such as mission statements and organisation charts?
Many organisations publish these documents and can provide them when requested to do so. A source is the company’s annual report which may be available on the company’s website. You can see examples of these documents on Global Platform website at http://www.globalplatform.org by following the link ‘About Global Platform’.
Understanding an organisation’s core business is critical to understanding how technology can help it. This includes organisational features and functions as well as its structure. Certain organisational functions such as purchasing, selling, marketing, production and warehousing are common to many organisations. The control of these functions depends on the size and type of the organisation. On the other hand, the organisation structure gives a clear picture of how the organisation is managed and provides a picture of the communication hierarchy. This information will be very useful when planning for and implementing new technology.
An understanding of an organisation’s structure and functions, as well as how they interact, is essential for the organisation to be efficiently supported by available technology.
Business planning and IT solutions
To understand how the business planning process relates to the development of IT business solutions, we must first define the organisational needs and establish the business requirements.
Defining organisational needs
One definition of organisational need is a lack or problem that requires actions so that organisational goals or objectives can be achieved. Organisational needs are usually identified by the staff and/or the managers directly affected by them. Often users express their needs in terms of the hardware, software or services that they think are needed.
As a support person or an IT manager, you must determine the organisational needs, and then use your expertise to match solutions to those needs. Often those needs could be met with new technology, but you need to know how to determine which type or feature of new technology will best suit the need.
The product selection process
The product selection process establishes a set of criteria that must be matched by new acquisitions. The product selection criteria are drawn from business requirements of an organisation. An organisation’s business requirements will state high-level outcomes of any new technology. Often, new business requirements arise when organisations experience problems. This could range from the slow printing of invoices to poor response times of an online accounting system distributed across nation-wide branch offices. Problems are expressed in different ways by organisations, and, as we mentioned previously, they can be found in documents such as:
· corporate mission or vision statements
· long-term goals stated in strategic plans
· product specifications from project plans and designs.
From these high level outcomes stated in the business requirements, a set of criteria can be established for selecting any new technology that the organisation will acquire. For example, the high level outcomes of the business requirements could implicate all or any of the following criteria for selecting the new technology.
Compatibility
New technology will need to work with existing hardware, system and application software with minimum changes to both.
Interoperability
The new technology must be able to interoperate with the existing network.
Maintainability
The current IT staff should be able to maintain the system even after the introduction of the new technology.
Centralisation/accessibility
The new technology must be accessible by multiple users at various sites.
Security
The new technology must be accessed by authorised users only.
Ease of use
Existing users must be able to operate new technology with minimum re-training.
Scalability
The system introduced using the new technology should be able to cope with growth of the business, expansion of networks, and a growing number of employees, etc.
Matching solutions with strategic directions
IT staff are expected to have expertise in a range of IT products. Each support section has standard products that it supports, but because of the diverse range of offerings from vendors, there are usually more products than is possible to fully understand and support. IT staff usually have the skills to locate and interpret information about new technologies. However, standard products cover most expected needs. This means that it should be relatively easy to match existing technology to organisational needs.
Most large organisations have procedures in place to conduct feasibility studies. By following these procedures, the technical, economic, legal, operational and schedule feasibilities of applying new technology to an organisational need can be assessed.
Strategic direction is something that is set by upper management. It refers to the strategy the business will undertake to steer it through its planned future course. In order to formulate a strategic direction, upper management needs to take into consideration the current circumstances of the organisation. It is very important that you get the right technology to match the company’s strategic and technological directions.
To get maximum benefit from the new technology enhancements, you must also carefully analyse the market needs as well.
Identifying appropriate new technologies
Suppose you came across a new technology that most IT managers are excited about. How would you evaluate whether you need to implement this technology in your organisation? Remember that technology should be identified based on an organisational need and comply with the technical, commercial and economic criteria of the organisation. Here are some approaches you can use when selecting a new technology for the benefit of the organisation.
· Get together with a team of IT professionals in your organisation and put your heads together to identify a suitable new technology that will help achieve your business goals.
· Horizon scanning — talk to your circle of friends or other IT professionals. Browse through published reports. Read IT magazines and the World Wide Web to identify new technologies that are proven to be a success.
· Collective scanning — attend meetings of IT professionals such as the Systems Administrator’s Guild to discuss their findings.
Evaluating and selecting new technology
Usually there is a gap between what new technology promises and what it actually delivers. This gap will be narrowed if you align the new technology with current business needs and IT strategy of the organisation. Reducing this gap will result in maximising benefits of the new technology.