Current Challenges : Demand For More Applications

Overall, developing countries have populations that are ageing and becoming more demanding. This, coupled with technological progress, pushes up operational costs faster than the general growth in prices or even incomes. The resulting cost-control pressures are one of the main drivers of IT expenditure. Improving service is also important but is generally secondary.

The communication between the IT department and the HR department is a key factor. This will keep everyone in the loop to what is going on. That allows the necessary changes to be made in the early stages instead of the later stages. This communication will help save the company time and money.

The cost of maintaining this department tends to fall over time however modernisation and The provision of IT Support will be impacted by the costs of resources required as the organisation may not be able to afford to hire staff and hardware required thus having to hire external IT Support. If the organisation doesn’t have either an internal or external IT Support (or the organisation is large and has a small tech support department), the organisation will not function properly and may face many issues thus the provision of IT Support will be limited. Another impact of organisational constraints on the provision of IT Support is the licensing and cost of software.

Foundation of IT in a place is very crucial for most business. Organizations can use IT resource to create innovative and strategic process that helps business to reach beyond the status quo. Organization without new technologies resources can lose momentum and fall behind in competition. On the other hand, organizations with effective and updated technologies remain competent and superior; get competitive advantage thus acquire and maintain their big market share.

The company has decided to use different applications instead of using a single ERP system, which in turns would make their operations smoother. They have chosen to do this in order to be cost efficient and to focus on the specific need so each department uses a different application. That is connected by middleware that they don’t fully understand on how to operate, and are afraid that if they attempt to change it, it would crash all of their system. This in turn makes their operational capabilities not the strongest as it relates to their business model. On the other hand, some of the challenges that they face is that they will not be able to complete all orders or be able to implement improvements due to the increase volume of request that need to be processed during this time. Some of the IT related issues are those that are associated with the different applications that are being used. If an applications crashes then it would hold them up significantly in completing all orders and having them be delivered on time. Primarily the lack of staffing and the lack of IS improvements puts them at a disadvantage against their competitors who more than likely have significant more sophisticated IS infrastructure.

IT (Information Technology) management entails all the routine issues faced by any type of business manager in addition to the issues of software development, technology purchasing (not necessarily physical items), systems integration, the limits of technology and the related budgetary issues. General information literacy is important for any level of IT manager, as he or she needs to communicate successfully using many different modes, media, and technology with all types of IT workers, upper management, and technology product vendors. IT management also entails leadership of projects or departments. Information

Chapter 4: Results and Data Analysis.......................................... page(s) 69-91 • Introduction • Issues Categorization • IT Issues Database • Survey Respondents • Analysis of General IT Data • Analysis of Primary Data

The mini-case starts with “IT is a pain in the neck,” which is a wrong notion that most of the business managers have in an organization. The history of IT-business relationships in most of the organizations shows that there is a huge gap between both sides which is getting better over a period of time. Today, managers know the fact that it is the people, technology and information that realizes the value of a company and everytime IT cannot be blamed for everything. The days have gone when IT was looked at as the sole responsibility for a company’s growth or downfall. IT processes along with the

The role played by the IT in the company to the rest of the organization is reactive to business conditions rather than a proactive approach. IT has been busy establishing several IT processes, policies, and projects in order to catch up with current demand from customers, and has been relying on the “diving catch” approach of finishing things at the very last minute.

The IT department could outsource some activities to reduce some of the workload. They could also centralize some IT decisions to better align IT with the business strategies and provide more support to the affiliates.

IT personnel consumed a lot of time fixing the system, which have cause future technical innovation become luxury or afterthought.

The IT administration concerns have been changed since 2008. As per Kappelman et al Business Productivity, Business Cost reduction and IT Cost Reduction

All these factors are creating new challenges and new opportunities for businesses of all kinds and for the public sector. Adapting to the volatility and change is crucially dependent on, and in many cases driven by, IT. But to successfully meet these challenges and grasp these opportunities, you must focus on what you do best, not on becoming systems experts. Yet at the same time you must be 100 per cent certain that your IT support is efficient, cost effective and totally tuned to your needs.

In every long term strategic planning, many companies considered data collection and analysis as a fundamental activity. Big companies that strive to achieve a sustainable advantage over their competition made use of information management system to help them analyze their data. These activities have evolved to what is now known as business intelligence of BI.

Information Technology (IT) budgeting has become a constant struggle for companies, both big and small. The speed at which technology becomes obsolete, management’s expectations for quick deployment of new technology, and a supplier’s change of their operating model to focus on “as-a-service” (Feldman, 2015) recurring revenue, greatly affect how IT departments approach their budget these days. Other factors such as; lack of company vision or one’s inability to see how their IT department fits into the corporation’s goals and expectations are all huge pitfalls for the IT manager. The inability for IT and finance divisions to