Manageable Trends

1
Manageable Trends

• Commerce 438
• Fall 1999

2
Manageable Trends

• Strategic Impact of IT
• Changing Technologies
• Organizational Learning
• IT Sourcing Policies
• Application Development Process
• Partnership of the Three Major Constituencies

3
The Strategic Grid
STRATEGIC
FACTORY
SUPPORT
TURNAROUND
4
Implications of Location on Strategic Grid
5
Integrating Changing Technology

• ITs ever-improving cost-performance
• Applications become obsolete dizzying quickly
• Hardware is no better
• Three-year life of PCs
• Telecommunications costs are declining rapidly
• 25 yearly decline long-distance
• Voice-over-IP
• Technologies are changing and merging

6
How to Manage Integration?

• How not to manage it?
• What are some more effective ideas?

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Phases of IT Assimilation

• Identification and Investment
• Learning and Adaptation
• Rationalization
• Maturity

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Identification and Investment

• Identify a technology of interest
• Start a pilot project
• Or, identify a current process
• Secure senior management support
• Problems?

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Learning and Adaptation

• What is the objective?
• The length of the phase depend on

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Rationalization

• What is the objective?
• How do you achieve it?
• Formal standards for development
• Formal maintenance standards
• Cost-benefit studies
• User charge-out mechanisms
• Consequences?

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Maturity

• What is the objective?
• How do you make sure enthusiasm continues?
• What about out-of-date technologies?
• What does Y2K problem tell us about this issue?

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Sourcing Policies

• The Make versus Buy Decision
• Strategy
• Competencies
• Security
• Partners
• Availability
• Cost-benefit
• Time
• Complexity

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The Applications Development Process

• Design
• Construct
• Implement
• Operate
• Maintain

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How is that process changing?

• End-user driven
• Bottom-up and top-down
• New tools
• New methodologies
• New technologies

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Managing IT in the late 1990sA partnership
approach