Jim Barton

This article makes up Chapter 1 of the free, open access book titled, Information Systems: A Manager's Guide to Harnessing Technology, by John Gallaugher. Please ensure that you read the entire Chapter 1 of the book consisting of 3 parts (Part 1 Introduction; Part 2 Don’t Guess, Gather Data; and Part 3 Moving Forward).

Case Study Assignment KL Worldwide Enterprises Inc.: Putting Information Technology to Work Submitted by Mark Lemoine September 14th, 2012

Third, there is resistant to across-the-board employee cuts. Many offices were already operating with a very tight staff whereas other offices were allotted a larger employee budget. Fourth, there was strong perception among line workers within the organization that senior management, who were generously rewarded, would not effected by the difficult decisions that had to be made. Last, the CEO of Broadway Brokers was proposing to release a memo to all employees explaining the decisions that had been made. The management teams was asked to look over both the concerns highlighted above as well as consider and prioritize a list of suggestions for change. The team would meeting for the next few days and needed to have a tentative plan in place for top management in three days.

In the time it has taken me to complete the IT Management course of study at Webster University I have learned that there are additional tasks that I was previously unaware of in regard to the management of Information Technology. Although I work in the IT field, my adult education was anchored in the Psychology field where the use of IT assets is limited at best. Learning the importance and relevance of organizational behavior, finance, communication systems, project management, procurement, systems analysis, and communications security in regards to IT management was mostly new to me. I chose to write this essay to show the way each subject that was required for the IT Management degree affected my capstone project.

“No longer is IT just another tool the CEO might use to accomplish costs saving and operational ends. Today, information technology can help solve product problems, set new levels of service and create new distribution and communication channels.”

Pressure to keep costs down, maintain a consistent infrastructure and to innovate, has left many CIOs flat-footed, playing a catch-up game trying to integrate new innovations rather than driving them. CIO's role is to help organizations in identifying most apt technology, according to the needs and business strategy, then select and deploy it.

iPremier’s IT was in the offensive quadrant /strategic mode of the IT strategic grid and to detriment remained at stage one of the evolution of IT governance (Nolan and McFarlan, 2003, Rau, 2004). All of their business was conducted online with highly affluent clientele, therefore any service loss/failure could have detrimental effects on the business in a very competitive industry sector. I have identified business continuity, governance and performance measurement issues as the three key factors that led to the iPremier crisis.

Information technology has played a crucial role for WestJet Airlines. However, as the IT organization grew in the business, it was necessary for WestJet to keep up with the change so the executive team made a decision to hire a chief information officer, Cheryl Smith, who could keep WestJet’s IT systems up to the required standard (Marrone, 2015). To achieve this, “IT governance must be implemented to sustain and enable business objectives and to mitigate associated risks” (Devos et al., 2012, p.4). Therefore Smiths’ plan to transform IT focused on the five key areas of IT governance.

At the end of the day the CEO, Jared, announced a very special appreciation to Jacky in front of everyone in the company. He told everyone a proverb saying, “Working hard for something we don’t care is called stress. Working for something we love is called passion”. By this means it showed how Jacky and the crew have been working hard and dedicated they are to the company. In this day he offered Jacky to be the next Chief Financial Officer of the company. Because he knows that he can trust on her with no doubt especially she is his best friend as well. The

Over the past 10 years my work experience has been focused on IT work both from a technical standpoint and as a leadership role. While not dealing with pressures public companies face in terms of financials, there are parallels that can be drawn to how IT practices are done. Information Technology, as well as in many other professions, there is always the constant pressure to meet objectives quickly as possible to meet internal and external customer demands. In these moments opportunities present themselves to make the shortcuts in those tasks to not meet your responsibilities. Example areas include areas such as security, documentation, and the quick fix vs the solution. These decisions and consequences are considered

He dedicated all his time and skills towards ensuring that he improves the company’s performance. The company had not been performing well until he exhibited his skills and expertise in the sector. He possessed great dreams and had great plans for the company right from day one he became the CEO. The company had been in the industry for more than 80 years and was a big name already. There were times it used to be the industry’s giant, but Greg came with a lot of potential and desire towards changing it completely. He didn’t have a choice but to work for its growth through teamwork, hard work, commitment and more innovations. He had the desire of changing the railroad industry through the company and worked to be the leader in the North America region.

A Critical Review of “Chasing the hottest IT: Effects of Information Technology Fashion on Organizations” Introduction In his article “Chasing the hottest IT: Effects of Information Technology Fashion on Organizations”, Paul Wang seeks to examine the effects that IT fashion has on organizations. He collected data from 109 Fortune 500 companies, and this helped him to establish that the firms that were reputable for implementation of IT fashions in the media did not particularly experience higher performance, especially in the short term. Paul Wang’s article used easily comprehensible language and presented the results in an impressive manner. However, the methodology used in obtaining the data and subsequently the results was heavily dependent on independent commercial firm and this thus raises credibility questions. Summary There has been consistent evolution of new technologies and managers are faced with the tough choice of deciding whether new technologies are merely passing fads or important “next big things”. There is a big difference between these two types of technologies. A passing fad will often attract high amounts of interest and attention and trigger embellished expectations concerning its benefits during its short lived stint. However, the next big things in IT, are usually important innovations that potentially transform organizational practices and performances hence are widely adopted and institutionalized. Nevertheless, both types of technologies have to

Businesses need to understand the strategic relevance and importance of ICT, and how it relates to success in today’s high tech societies. ICT’s impact is vast and can touch many aspects within an organization; things like reducing cost, improving processes, boosting innovation, increasing productivity, and opening additional channels for communication are a few of the ways ITC can shape an organizations success. A recent online survey of executives showed that 79% of executives rate the strategic importance of ICT for their

The year before Galvatrens’s board hired Chip, it had reached an impasse with longtime CEO Walter Nikels over strategy and management style. Walter, who had taken the helm when Galvatrens was a midsize firm, had run it in an authoritarian, hierarchical fashion. As the company grew larger and more complex, the board urged him to delegate more and inject some fresh blood into the executive team, but he resisted. As a result, top-performing employees were defecting to the competition, and Galvatrens recruiters were having a hard time getting MBA students to sign up for interviews. The word was out that Galvatrens was not the

Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary The Idea in Brief—the core idea The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work 2 Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference 11 Further Reading A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applications