Technological change in organizations - Essay Example

?TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IN ORGANIZATIONS INTRODUCTION: The development of technology has changed the entire world of business. This change has encompassed activities from very basic level of idea generation such as through CAD (Computer Aided Design) to product or service production by CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) and post business activities (Riley, 2012). From the computer revolution to the Internet and most recently and constantly growing Internet based applications such as trading on the Internet, social media, etc., have all forced businesses to harness their adaption to high-paced change by anticipating it rather than following the change merely for survival. Fast pace of technological change has also proved to be proportional to the benefits it brings to business. Immense literature has been developed based on studying various aspects of the technological change to business. SCOPE OF REPORT This report is aimed at developing the critical analysis of the literature that has been developed so far. Since the literature developed in the technological domain of business is very extensive, the scope of this study has been confined to the evaluation of literature on technological change in Information Technology section of business anticipated for year in which this report is developed. Business News Daily Staff (2012) stated that business IT section has to face three challenges in year 2012, and they are as follows: Big Data Handling; Consumer Devices Invasion; Mobile growth giving proportional growth to threat. This report will develop critical analysis based on literature available on the mentioned areas that IT section of more or less every business has to combat. The critical analysis will be followed by developing an argument based on the insight from the discussed literature. Later a conclusion will be drawn. LITERATURE REVIEW BIG DATA HANDLING ISACA, global nonprofit IT association, has predicted that the entire year 2012, IT departments of business will be collecting huge data from various sources. Growingly conducting a complex procedure to manage the bulk of zeros and ones in a way that benefits the firm with growing return on investment will remain a challenge for IT departments of businesses (Business News Daily Staff, 2012). This big handling of data constantly grows on the horizontal as well the vertical bases with more of 40 percent projected growth in global data generated in year 2010 while spending on IT has increased by only 5 percent. The rise in demand for people handling big data is so steep that availability of big data analytical talent in US in year 2018 is expected to override the supply (Manyika et al., 2011). (Manyika et al., 2011) Data sources range from consumer behavior at physical outlets to a large number of internet subsections. The emergence of a ubiquitous phenomenon in 2000 has changed the entire business model, constantly challenging IT department to increase capacity to manage (Kenney, and Marshall, 2000). (Kenney, and Marshall, 2000) For instance, technique in retail industry such as bar code, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and vendor-managed inventory (VMI), etc. (Smaros, and Holmstrom, 2000), and similar techniques multiply pressure as retrieving and constantly updating data remains with the IT section. Similarly, Self Service Technologies (SST’s), mainly adopted in the financial sector with the Internet banking and ATM, etc., has already put extensive pressure on the IT section. Though these techniques have been developed in the past, constant efforts from the marketing side of business to offer various promotions and extracting information based on consumer activity require increased efforts from the IT section in respect of the program development, i.e. the way information can be retrieved or updated. Applications of social media such as Facebook, twitter, blogs; heavy video content such as Multimedia content, which already accounts for more than half of the Internet traffic, is expected to grow by 70 percent in year 2013, with YouTube only claiming to upload video content of 24 hours every minute (Manyika et al., 2011). Another fast growing domain of mobile connectivity for business-engaged IT departments is to constantly introduce and upgrade new interface for the company, alongside allowing businesses to have database management, which has been increasing the job task for the department in discussion (Siau, and Shen, 2003). Hence, the big data will increase exponentially with the increase in number of connecting nodes (Manyika et al., 2011). (Manyika et al., 2011) Each change in system requires undergoing exercise presented in the image below. (Morgan, 2008) With the incremental increase in big data, there is also a constant increase in techniques and technologies to extract due to insight (Manyika et al., 2011). Among other challenges that this growing data size pose to IT department is to remain aligned with the objective of business to gain optimum profit with minimum cost, whereas reaching customer with varied sources also increases cost, hence multiplying challenge to the IT section of business (Newsgator, 2009). CONSUMER DEVICES INVASION The IT section of business is responsible for the access given to critical corporate information to different members of the organization. There has been a growing trend of BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device, which multiplies pressure on the IT section. BYOD brings two-fold risks: the device itself and the data it can access (Business News Daily Staff, 2012). In order to increase the efficiency and productivity, the data is made accessible to employees from anywhere, and the IT section has to ensure that irrelevant device and data is not accessed by any professional. For instance, ISACA survey in 2011 regarding employees using official supplies for their personal use indicated that using company-provided supplies are being increasingly used by consumers (The Ketchum Global Research Network, 2011), and consumers / employees claim to increasingly continue the activity. Further details are mentioned below: (The Ketchum Global Research Network, 2011) There arises conflict of interest as allowing such access is necessary in today’s 24 hours running format of business, but on the same side, it increases risk as irrelevant access can cause leakage of firm’s confidential information. Balancing this see-saw of need and risk is highly escalating the challenge for the IT section of business. MOBILE GROWTH IS GIVING PROPORTIONAL GROWTH TO THREAT Business News Daily Staff (2012) has also mentioned that the year 2012 will present the IT section with a challenge based on the increasing use of mobile devices, including laptops, tablets, but mainly mobiles that allow access from anywhere possible (Business News Daily Staff, 2012). Increased mobility has led to increased access, and the trend is rising overall; in next five years, investment will follow the trend given below: (Oxford Economics, 2012) Businesses will increase their efforts to meet the customer on these sources, and advertising expenditure will follow the change, as shown in the table below: (Oxford Economics, 2012) Moreover, growth in mobile phone users taken alone will witness huge swell worldwide. In China, only this boost will be from 671.1 million in 2010 to 1.06 billion in 2015 (Oxford Economics, 2012). The ITU has presented conservative estimates of the world’s current 500 million mobile Internet users, and this will double to over one billion by 2015 (Oxford Economics, 2012). Business also stressed focus on the business intelligence hierarchy pyramid (image below) that includes focus on the mentioned mobile technology instruments (Harbor Research, Inc, 2011). This inter-connectivity has already led and will lead to constant increase in responsibility of the IT department, which has to manage the growing number of interfaces as well as applications. Alongside, the challenge to ensure the security remains, which proportionally increases the risk as the access nodes increase. (Harbor Research, Inc, 2011) CRITICAL ANALYSIS The analysis above only accounted for three facets of challenges in the business that have arrived from growing technological challenges specific to the information technology department of business. Despite the discussion above and the extensive discussion in the academic literature about the IT perspective, there is still confusion about what is known and what is not (Melville, Kraemer, and Gurbaxani, 2004). Melville, Kraemer, and Gurbaxani (2004) mention that dilemma exists due to the variation of the ground on which relationships are developed, and so the results are different. Also, the factors discussed above do not refer to any concluding note because of the destination of the high-paced growth in updating content, technology, interface, video, connectivity nodes, etc. In fact, businesses are also constantly striving to stay updated with the increased investment in every new interface or technology, with every business making extensive effort to keep up the pace. Despite huge investments in the business intelligence, none is aware of the destination. The blind following of every technology has not only burdened technological department of every business but also business itself. None of the investments has some visional destination other than increasing their connectivity. The blind following of these technological advancements has no restrain. This is where the opportunity lies. Businesses, mainly with their information technology sections, willl drive some module that connects intelligence from various connecting nodes to a point from where only analysis will follow. This will harness the pace with which information technology is burdening with big data and constantly striving businesses are investing heavily and continue to maintain the momentum in the long run. CONCLUSION Change in business technology is continuously increasing with every department of business having single endeavor to meet this high-paced change. Looking at the vast world of technological change, this report as discussed three dimensions of technological change specific to the IT department of business. The IT department of business is growingly facing the challenges to meet the capacity of managing huge zeros and ones with intelligence and risk management that is capable to bring benefit to business. List of References Business News Daily Staff, 2012. “3 Big Biz Tech Changes You'll See in 2012.” Business News Daily. [online] Available at [Accessed 23 October 2012] Cisco, 2008. Data Leakage Worldwide: Common Risks and Mistakes Employees Make. [online] Available at [Accessed 22 October 2012] Harbor Research, Inc. , 2011. M2M & Smart Systems Month. [online] Available at [Accessed 25 October 2012] Kenney, D., and Marshall, J., 2000. “Contextual Marketing: The Real Business of the Internet.” Harvard Business Review. [online] [Accessed 25 October 2012] Manyika, J., Chui, M., Brown, B., Bughin, J., Dobbs, R., Roxburgh, C., and Byers, A. , 2011. “Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity.” McKinsey Global Institute. [online] Available at [Accessed 25 October 2012] Melville, N., Kraemer, K., and Gurbaxani, V., 2004. ”Review: information technology and organizational performance: an integrative model of it business value.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 283-322. Morgan, T., 2008. Business Rules and Information Systems: Aligning It With Business Goals. Boston, Person Education. Newsgator, 2009. Delivering ROI with Enterprise Social Computing. [online] Available at [Accessed 25 October 2012] Oxford Economics, 2012. “The New Digital Economy: How it will transform business”. A research paper produced in collaboration with AT&T, Cisco, Citi, PwC & SAP, [online] Available at [Accessed 25 October 2012] Riley, J., 2012. Business & Technology. [online] Available at [Accessed 25 October 2012] Siau, K., and Shen, Z., 2003. “Mobile Communications And Mobile Services.” International Journal of Mobile Communications, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 3-14. Smaros, J., and Holmstrom, J., 2000. “Viewpoint: reaching the consumer through e-grocery VMI.” International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 55 – 61. The Ketchum Global Research Network, 2011. “2011 ISACA Shopping on the Job Survey: Online Holiday Shopping and BYOD Security.” ISACA, [online] Available at [Accessed 25 October 2012] Read More