The Strategic Use of Information and Communication Technology - Dissertation Example

?The Strategic Use of Information and Communication technology Literature Review Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is intrinsically strategic in its approach, which generates opportunities and possibilities. Koh and Maguire are of the opinion that the private sectors as well as the public sectors enterprises have largely benefited from the use of Information Technology (IT) in their work. The ability of expeditious data processing, configuring the platforms, using the Internet for works and web-enabled services has helped the enterprises in making their work more efficient and well organized. The Small and medium enterprises (SME) can also have a comparative edge in its functioning by taking the aid of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The findings of the paper reveals that majority of the SME enterprises have considered ICT as the catalyst of their business Apart from the gains that the SMEs are presently accruing from the use of the ICT in their operations the ICT can also be used to reap further gains by implementing the ICT in a more integrated and strategic manner (Maguire and Koh, 2007, 16). Franklin is of the opinion that the ICT can be used by the SMEs to improve their functioning. This would help in making the information about micro- credit facilities and production technology more accessible. Apart from this it facilitates the skills building of the organization by the method of distance learning (Franklin, 2006, 15). The three assets of the Information technology (IT) that is the human asset, the technology assets and the relationships assets helps in the planning, delivery and operation procedures in an organization (Ross, 1995, 16). The four pillars of IT in an organization are the “IT and the business alignment”; “IT strategic planning”, “security and privacy” and “attracting, developing and retaining IT professionals”. A company has to take in notice that the pillars are strengthened by the proper integration and alignment needed in the work (Luftman, 2004, 17). In more simple terms one may explain these pillars as follows in the context of the master plan, LANTERN. Training of professionals help in proper use of information technology equipments. Again provision of proper tools to the customers for ease of access to relevant information is also essential. Advertising and suggestions projected concerning the products of a firm is also a crucial step (Liebowitz and Khosrowpour, 1997, 221). Proper alignment of business activities is very much required in an organization. For instance, in case of Wal-Mart, information technology has been used in order to alter the model of business. The firm has allowed the suppliers to find place on the shelf of the company which would be paid for what they get (Light, 2005, 113). The study conducted by King and Teao reveals that the organizations which undertakes a strategic approach in their functioning emphasizes more on the use of the IT in their works than the other firms. The internal factors affecting the functioning of the organization lays down the need of strategic systems in their works. The strategic systems emphasizes on the need of IT in their works. This enables the smooth and efficient functioning of the organization (King and Teao, 1994, 10). The knowledge management, which is facilitated by the use of ICT in the organization’s operation, enables the enterprise in utilizing its tangible and non-tangible knowledge resources can be used in a SME by locating and capturing the innovative ideas and strategies, by sharing the information about the procedures, which are cost effective (Menkhoff, Wah and Loh, 2004, 19-21; Melville, Kraemer, and Gurbaxani, 2004, 284). Pillania in his work talks about the catalytic role that the aligned knowledge management strategy plays in firm’s growth. But he also observes certain limitations of the KM (knowledge management) in boosting the growth of SMEs. Hence it is advisable for the firms to manage its knowledge base in way so that the challenges can be overcome (Pillania, 2008, 3; McManus and Snyder, 2004, 24). In the sphere of the public works and services it has been found that ICT helps in the proper functioning of the government. Basu (2004, 20) considers that e-Government is the new slogan for the progress of the developing country. The facilities and the benefits that are accrued by the use of the ICT in a firm can be utilized as an opportunity by the government to re-organize its functioning instruments and its logic. The IT management can be utilized to achieve high level of pay offs as well. It has been found by Tallon, Kraemer and Gurbaxani that the organization whose Business strategy was closely aligned with IT has a higher pay offs than other firms (Tallon, Kraemer and Gurbaxani, 2000, 22). Apart from the functioning of an organization and the efficient running of the government the ICT can be used for the reducing the poverty in the developing country and to ensure sustainable development. The emphasis of the use of ICT in the field of education, public health, social and economic plans, will yield better results. ICT has to be used for the infrastructure development of the country. In the developing economies like Brazil and Mexico ICT has been used to bring in a growth in their economic activities. The usage of ICT in Brazil has been able to generate growth by integrating the human capital, technologies and institutional flexibility. Colombia has also benefited from the use of ICT in their schools functioning. E-Governance has been able to revitalize the democratic policies and reduce the bureaucracy by bringing in governmental transparency in their works (Finquelievich, 2003, 4-10). A firm usually has a framework of IT governance. Firms which perform well have a strong focus on IT structure. The officially framed model of IT governance in an organization might not tally with the in-effect decision making structure of IT (Peterson, 2004, p. 17). Syria has also built up a new strategy to develop its ICT sectors. The decision has been taken in order to enhance the economic and social development of the region (“Syria’s bold new ICT Strategy”, 2004). IT governance reached its boom phase with the effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in USA in 2002. This led the firms review their governing structures and incorporate IT in their system (Brown and Grant, 2005, 696). Taking the example of the nations like Singapore and Ireland it can be very well inferred that the integration of ICT in its various sectors has enabled the nation achieve growth (Al-Jaghoub and Westrup, 2003, 106). The countries have used the ICT in achieving competition regionally as well as globally. However certain applications like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) attempt to interconnect different firms in an industry and this finally reduces the competitive advantage of any particular firm (Avgerou, Ciborra and Land, 2004, 20). According to Michael Porter, global industries need an integration of the different operational components on global basis. This emphasizes upon the need for coordination in a firm which intends to compete (Boudreau, Lochi, Robey, and Staub, 1998, 120; Porter, 2001). Singapore despite of its geographical disadvantage has been able to achieve economic growth as well as sustain it by integrating its skills and diligence with education and technology. The “e-society” or the society which has been guided by ICT requires a different nature of education (van Weert, 2004, 226). The introduction of ICT in the country helped in leveraging the intellectual capital of the country. Similarly Ireland has also been largely benefited by the proper usage of ICT through the proper amalgamation of modern infrastructures, skilled labors and modern technology (Al Jaghoub and Westrup, 2006, 5-7). Stewart is of the opinion that if the companies or the organization involve the use of IT in their operation mechanically without making changes in the existing practices then they would not be able to reap the utility of the technology properly. This on the contrary will destroy the economic value of the IT used. He is of the opinion that the initiatives, which are mainly IT driven, if not implemented properly result in unexpected consequences. The use of IT in the operations of the companies are often associated with high risks as the implementation of IT is quite expensive and requires long time for implementation (Stewart, 2003, 2-3). For implementing the strategic information systems planning (SISP) in its functioning it is important that the business objectives of the organization is aligned with its organizational systems and technological strategy. But in practices the said alignment becomes problematic due to the complex and diverse nature of the strategy process. Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) can help the organizations in the process of identifying a range of computer oriented applications that might assist an organization in carrying out its strategies and meeting its goals (Ledever and Sethi, 1996, 37; King, 2009, 212). The work by Hackney, Burn and Dhillon brings out the fact that the SISP does not always entirely mirrors the current business strategy and thereby contains some wrong assumptions (Hackney, Burn and Dhillon, 2000, 2). The free and open source software (OSS) used in the public sector enterprises have helped the enterprises by saving the cost of the company, maintaining the security, stability and privacy of the organization and have provided the enterprises with more independence (Jayawardena and Das, n.d., 2-3). The Open source software used in an organization helps in generating positive network externalities for the enterprises. This help the company increase its consumer base (Cheng, Liu and Tang, 2011, 3; Lahiri, Dewan, and Freimer, 2011). Again, the Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) has assisted in rejuvenating the computing education scenario and helped the students in developing the software to help humanity (Morelli, Tucker, Danner, Lanerolle, Ellis, Izmirli, Krizanc and Parker, 2009, 67). Nagy, Yassin and Bhattacharjee are of the opinion that the OSS has the capability of reducing the time taken for software development. It enhances the software quality and the software can also be customized as per the company’s requirement (Nagy, Yasin and Bhattacharjee, 2010, 3). It has also been observed that the managing of the large group of people working in a project becomes difficult sometimes hence the solution to a management problem like this is the use of Project Management software. This would help in managing the projects in a more efficient way (Margea, and Margea, 2011, 2). There have been much emphasis on the success of the OSS but the work of Fang and Neufeld reveals that the OSS communities fails as there is limited volunteer (that is the individual developer) participation and hence 80 percent OSS projects fails due to the insufficiency in the long term participation from the volunteer (Fang and Neufeld, 2009, 1). The study by Sen, Subramaniam and Nelson reveals that the challenge of the OSS developer is the presence of moderate restrictions. The findings reveal that the OSS developers should develop a restrictive OSS license, which would attract more developers (Strom, n.d., 2). John Emerson the IT manager of the City of Ventura Calif is of the opinion that OSS can be utilized in saving money of an organization. Besides the customization of the code, the OSS can also be used to have a professional support in the organization. The websites of the OSS products enable the company with discussion forums, which help the companies in getting professional supports. The VMware managed OSS spring source project provides object management solutions, which are web based and automated in nature (Strom, n.d., 2). A study conducted in Sri Lanka on the workings of the government through the use of ICT has revealed that the free and open source software benefits the working of the government in any country by saving the cost of the country, by providing security to the functioning of the country. It also enables the government to have stable economic conditions and thereby provide privacy in the functioning of it. It provides independence to the domestic industries. The aiding of the domestic industry of any country is necessary for any nation to bring in sustainability in the country (Jayawardena and Dias, n.d., 7). Sambamurthy, Bharadwaj and Grover opine that the firm performance is influenced by the use of IT in the firm by the use of three important organizational capabilities of the IT. It affects the firm’s agility, digital options and entrepreneurial alertness (Sambamurty, Bharadwaj and Grover, 2003, 1; Devaraj and Kohli, 2003). The study conducted by Mata, Furest and Barney stress on the role of Information Management for creating comparative advantages for the organizations, which is sustainable (Mata, Fluerst and Barney, 1995, 2). Tapscott in his work shares the opinion that in the present generation the use of internet has enabled the new business entrepreneurs challenge the corporate structure of the industrial age. He opines that the use of the b-web has enabled companies like eBay, Travelocity, E-Trade and Amazon to grow dramatically (Tapscott, n.d., 3). The work by Loukis and Sapounas reveals that if the bargaining power of the suppliers is higher then it would result into a greater ICT business value generation. It has also been observed that if an organization introduces the new innovative products more often then that leads to high business value generation (Loukis and Sapounas, 2008, 1; Byrd and Byrd, 2010, 1). The IT governance in any firm involves the use of integrated set of technical choices that helps the organization in fulfilling the business needs (Weill and Ross, 2005, 27). DeLone and McLean are of the opinion that the use of the IT and especially the Internet had a beneficial impact on the business operations. They are of the opinion that the primary users in the context of e-commerce are the customers and the suppliers whose decision of buying and the information available on the Internet affects selling. This helps the company expand its market and reach more customers and suppliers (DeLone and McLean, 2003, 19; Earl and Feeny, 2000). John Mingers and Geoff Walshman in their paper “Toward ethical information systems: The contribution of discourse ethics” lays down the ethical issues related to the ethics for the practice of IS/IT in the present world. They points out that the ethical issues are important in the field of IS practice as well as in the teaching of IS. The effectiveness of the IT employed depends on how the system actually works. It has been revealed in the work that the efficacy of the work in any organization is the subordinate of ethics and morality. Hence the use of IT in any organization should not contravene with values and authenticity of the person who are involved in the usage of it (Sircar, Turnbow, and Bordoloi, 2000, 70). For any organization the sustainability and the long-term effectiveness depends upon how the manager manages the ethical and moral issues of the firm. Hence the organization has to confirm that they employ rigorous ethically justified issues in their proceedings (Mingers and Walshman, 2010, 16). From the above discussion a few aspects become clear. The interface between a company and technology focuses on adoption and implementation. The effect phase is also very important. The technology itself is important in this stage with respect to successful application. Accessibility is a significant aspect to be considered where it occurs at three stages – “physical accessibility, suitability and affective accessibility” (Bowman, Hooff and Wijngaert, 2005, 17). The first aspect helps in preserving the authenticity of any technology. Compatibility of a new technology with a certain existing technology is also crucial. 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