2. 1. Analyse the main reasons for increased investment on IT in most business
organizations?
Large amounts of resources have been and continue to be invested in information
technology (IT). Much of this investment is made on the basis of faith that returns
will occur.
Investment was perceptually categorized by management objective (i.e., strategic,
informational and transactional) and tested against four measures of performance
(sales growth, return on assets, and two measures of labor productivity).
Heavy use of transactional IT investment was found to be significantly and
consistently associated with strong firm performance over the six years studied.
Managers acted in the interest of their organizations to start investing in
Information Technology (IT) with an insight that this would provide a solution to
all their organizational problems.
Managers were encouraged by the notion that investing in IT correlates with
higher returns and the delivery of expected results by replacing the human
component in organizations.
3. REASONS FOR HIGH INVESTMENT IN IT
A need to create wealth.
With the idea to improve output levels in production.
To benefit by producing quality products.
To improve service delivery.To control communication activities.
With the expectation to achieve customer satisfaction managers expected to
benefit from IT by improving efficiency through gaining competitive advantage
over their competitors and increasing profits in organizations.
They aimed to improve the quality of life of the information worker by enabling
them to share information and knowledge.
Managers anticipated that IT would improve workers’ performance, with an
element of facilitating document storage and trace business processes for
improved production. They also thought IT would enable workers to manage their
work effortlessly by saving time.
Finally, managers invested in IT with expectations that it would facilitate their
decision making processes, which is a trend in many organizations.
Most technology fund managers will also have a significant exposure to telecoms
companies as well.
4. The key to the IT sector is global development. The company has a global
presence although that is already reflected in its share price. Its technology is not
exactly unique, but competition is sufficiently small for it to hold a strong
position, supplying to companies like Nokia and Ericsson.
Its strength is that it is attacking the corporate market, signing up a client and
helping them develop their website and then developing other services from there.
2. Discuss the main issues and problems with an IS implementation.
The process an organization undertakes to improve its management information
system involves six core phases–project preparation, needs analysis, design,
selection, implementation and management. The IS Implementation Guidelines
are divided into six segments to provide you with instructions and tools to assist
you as your organization undertakes an IS initiative. Each segment corresponds to
a phase in the life cycle process.
5. ISSUES IN IS IMPLEMENTATION
1. Inadequate Project / Program Management Process :- The project was driven by
hard completion dates without having a valid work breakdown structure for a project
plan to really understand what it would take.
2. Information system defects :- A defect in an online ordering system may result in
e.g. the customer being charged for a service he does not receive at all, or the
customer unwillingly ordering several copies of the same product. A business is
responsible for the correct functionality of information systems such as online stores,
payment terminals or card swiping devices and the clarity of instructions pertaining to
those systems. By handling these types of problems promptly you can ensure that your
business maintains a reputation for reliability.
6. Type of Reason for Failure Comment
Failure
Quality The wrong problem is System conflict with
problem addressed. business strategy.
s
Wider influences are Organization culture
neglected. may be ignored.
Analysis is carried out Team is poorly
incorrectly. skilled or
inadequately
resourced.
Project undertaken for wrong Technology pull or
reasons. push.
Producti Users change their minds. New legislation.
vity
problem
s
Implementation is not May not be known
feasible. until the project has
been started
Poor project control. Inexperienced project
manager.
3. Loss of Key Talent and/or Poor Knowledge Transfer :- Outsourcing creates
uncertainty for existing employees and contractors who provide services to the client
organization. The uncertainty can cause this staff to look elsewhere for employment
and leave either before or during the outsourcing implementation.
4. IS development efforts have resulted in a large number of outright failures. These
failures are sometimes due to economical mismatches, such as budget and schedule
overruns, but surprisingly often due to poor product quality and insufficient user
satisfaction.