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Transcript of XIMB Competition
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8/3/2019 XIMB Competition
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Shilpi GhoshShweta VermaIIFT, 2011-13
Future drivers of IT: Building Capabilities and Devising Comparative Strategies for
Tomorrow
Cost-effective and efficient information management is vital for todays businesses. Theneed to make information speedily available and easily accessible to the decision-makers in an
organization is not the only role of IT today. Facilitating the analysis and communication of
business data as well as supporting the implementation of business strategy are near impossible
tasks without the use of modern information technology. The innovations arising in the field of
IT in the face of challenges confronting companies to maintain a competitive edge over their
rivals are truly remarkable and will pave the way for the success of the IT organizations of
tomorrow. This paper focuses on the benefits of cloud computing technology, process
virtualization, advancements in business intelligence as well issues pertaining to strategic
alliance of IT with business goals.
Within a business organization, the primary purpose of IT and IT infrastructure is to
facilitate business goals and implement business strategy effectively. The alignment of IT
strategy with business strategy has been the goal of the CIOs of businesses for several years.
However, there has been poor alignment of IT and business in several businesses over the years.
Project demands from the business units of companies that IT managers do not understand very
well lead to poor translation of requests into business tools or strategies. For a long time in most
companies IT projects have missed targets such as the reduction of costs or improved customer
satisfaction. Often the CFOs of companies have suggested that the IT professionals be allowed to
work in other business departments for short stints so that they may develop a working
knowledge about those areas. However, such ideas are difficult to execute given the limitations
of time, money and other resources that businesses need to use very smartly in todays world to
avoid financial or strategic disasters. Rather than struggle with the problems that the companys
IT department faces, the company can decide to outsource its IT projects to a firm that can
provide cost-effective and speedy solutions given its experience in handling projects in the same
field of work as the company. Suggestions for opting to a centralized vendor for solving IT
issues and outsourcing projects rather than maintaining an insular IT department that cannot
deliver value to the various business units of the company have considerable worth in them. For
instance most banks such as ICICI Bank outsource their business requirements for possible
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solutions to IT organizations. In order to enhance the role of IT in solving business problems and
providing cost-effective data management through cheap and easy to manage infrastructure, a
new concept of cloud computing has come to the rescue. There are several broad definitions of
what cloud computing is based on its use with respect to organizations and individuals. However,
here are a couple of them that cover the ideas this paper would like to focus on:
Applications and files are hosted on a cloud consisting of thousands of computers and
servers, all linked together and accessible via the Internet. With cloud computing,
everything you do is now web based instead of being desktop based. You can access all
your programs and documents from any computer thats connected to the Internet.
(Miller)
a style of computing where massively scalable IT-related functions and information
are provided as a service across the internet, potentially to multiple external customers,
where the consumers of the services need only care about what the service does for them,
not how it is implemented. Cloud is not an architecture, a platform, a tool, an
infrastructure, a Web site or a vendor. It is a style of computing. Many architectures can
be used to support its implementation and use. For example, it is possible to use cloud in
private enterprises to build private clouds, but there is only one public cloud based on the
Internet. (Gartner Research)
Cloud computing today can be compared to last centurys electricity revolution.
Businesses now no longer need to generate electricity from their own individual generators, but
can buy power from electrical utilities hence, cutting costs and improving reliability. Similarly,
cloud computing liberates businesses from having to generate and maintain their own computing
power, frees them form the mainframe an desktop-centric frameworks of the past and opens a
future where they can conveniently access computing resources that others create, provide and
manage in the cloud. This IT change heralds the onset of a potential management revolution.
While it stands true that this powerful technology brings with it concerns of privacy and security,
the fact that businesses will get great economic benefit, conveniently delivered computing
services and most importantly a strong competitive advantage cannot be ignored. The adoption
of cloud technology by modern organizations along with certain appropriate safety measures is
likely to benefit them greatly. In the meanwhile, IT organizations and scientists can keep
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working on not only devising methods for keeping data secure and private, but also on improving
the technology.
Globalization and virtualization come together to enable cloud computing. Virtualization
can be defined as any process which is devoid of human interaction. Many people confuse virtual
processes with automated processes, which essentially does not require any human interference
or interaction. On the other hand most virtual processes require active human intervention.
Automated teller machines (ATMs) are the most common examples of the same. Sometimes
simulation also forms a part of these virtual processes. But we need to keep in mind that these
virtual processes are not purely simulations as they are conducted in reality.
For any process to be virtualized a feasibility check is essential to be run across the
parameters of sensory requirements, relationship requirements, synchronism requirements, and
identification and control requirements. Heavy dependence on these parameters reduces the
possibilities of adoption of virtualization for the process. IT enables the moderation of this
dependence over these parameters thus facilitating the virtualization of the process. It is
imperative to note that there have been virtual processes existing amidst us since before the dawn
of IT e.g Books, Catalogs etc.
IT uses three constructs of representation, reach, and monitoring capability to incorporate
moderation. Representation is information presentation relevant to a process including
simulations of actors and objects. This though does not completely outweigh sensory
requirement but allows moderation to enable feasibility. For example grocery shopping is very
difficult to be virtualized owing to heavy dependence on sensory requirement. Telemedicine on
the other hand is an example of virtualization despite heavy dependence on sensory requirement.
Dynamic representation is a key advantage of IT driven virtualization over non IT virtualization.
Reach allows process participation across both time and space thus counterbalancing if
not entirely the relationship and synchronism requirements. It enlarges the pool of potential
relationship partners to have better selection group. Example MySpace and Second Life provides
forum for interaction between like-minded people. Also Co browsing technology permits people
in different locations to engage in a virtual shopping process at the same time even when shops
and stores are closed.
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The third IT construct of process virtualization is monitoring capability, which is ITs
capacity to authenticate process participants and track activity. Monitoring capability facilitates
the virtualization of processes with high identification and control requirements. Although
identity spoofing remains a risk however advent of biometrics has greatly reduced it.
Once a process exhibits high degree of feasibility to be virtualized, it should be
virtualized and effectively implemented using IT. In such cases increased productivity has been
observed owing to the advantages of accessibility, availability and usability.
In addition to the benefits of cloud technology and process virtualization, the innovations
in the field of business intelligence and analytics can greatly help a company in leveraging
computing power to identify, extract and analyze business data. The objective of business
intelligence is to support better business decisions and is hence, also referred to as a decision
support system (DSS). Business intelligence applications often gather data from a
datawarehouse and transform raw data into useful information that can aid managers and
business executives to devise effective business strategies.
Recently a business intelligence project was implemented in Toyota Motors called the
Product Quality Analytics system. It allows Toyotas quality engineers to search through and
analyze data extensively from highly disparate sources. The engineers are able to explore and
search for patterns in the data that they would not have thought to look for previously. The
reason Toyotas business intelligence (BI) group was able to deliver the BI system much faster
than it would have been able to normally, was by taking advantage of technology developed
previously by an IT organization called Endeca. This is an instance of strategic alignment being
achieved by smartly harnessing the power of an externally developed technology by the IT
department of a company which understands the particular need of its parent business.
Finally, with the adoption of these new technologies, business organizations will be
impacted dramatically. Cloud computing will change the way IT professionals work and also the
way managers will think about business and coordinate tasks among people. In a process-
managed enterprise that cloud computing will give rise to, every member of the business team
will be a leader. Decisions and execution of strategies will be more effective as those who will
lead will be the ones most suited to do so in a particular situation given their area of expertise.
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The advancements in business intelligence and analytics will also change the way businesses will
be managed and the way managers and top executives will think about strategy. Today there is a
greater integration of the IT department with the various other departments in the business.
Rather than standing isolated from every other business function and failing to deliver any value
to their project demands, IT is facilitating their work and making information easily accessible to
them. In the face of these radical changes that IT innovations are bringing to the business world,
it is becomingly increasingly important that managers understand and accept the way IT
professionals think and function so that they can leverage the most out of the innovations the
latter create as well as allow them to effectively perform for business organizations.
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References
1. A. Bento, R. Bento. Cloud Computing: A New Phase in information technology
management. Journal of Information Technology Management. November, 2011.
2. Gartner Research. Definition of Cloud Computing. DevCentral Weblog, 2008.
3. M. Miller. Cloud computing: Web-based applications that change the way you
work and collaborate online. Que Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2008.
4. Jaikumar Vijayan. Business, IT collaboration drives new BI system at Toyota.
May, 2011.
5. Shankar Babu Chebrolu. Assessing the relationships amog cloud adoption,
strategic alignment and its effectiveness. Journal of Information Technology
Management. 2011
6. Eric Overby. Process Virtualization Theory and the Impact of Information
Technology. Organization Science. March, 2008.
7. www.computerworld.com
http://www.computerworld.com/http://www.computerworld.com/