HOW HAS IT CHANGED THE WAY BUSINESS OPERATES TODAY

How has IT changed the way business operate today

How has IT changed the way business operate today

Introduction

Information technology (IT) - the convergence of computing, telecommunications and imaging technologies - has had radical impacts on ITusers, their work, and their working environments. In its various manifestations, IT processes data, gathers information, stores collected materials, accumulates knowledge, and expedites communication. In fact, it plays a role in many, if not most, of the everyday operations of today's business world.

The integral role has come about with the recognition and realization of the potency of IT. In prior years, IT had been viewed only as a supporting player within the overall strategy of the firm. Automation was, for example, limited to existing organizational functions. But opinions have changed with the emergence and successful implementation of IT innovations. We observe that IT is now taking significant roles in business processes - creating new needs, causing new product development, and commanding new procedures.(Barau,2001,36) Following full implementation of IT in an organization, these internal changes may also lead to broader shifts in products, markets, and society as a whole.

In this paper, we propose and expound on a framework of the roles of IT as an initiator, a facilitator, or an enabler. In this framework, IT can assume any of the three roles, depending on the business environment and how the technology is being applied. We will also see these roles conceptually in the context of different business activities leading to business-need establishment, product innovation, and/or process innovation. In terms of physical implementation we may observe the different establishment and implementation of different functions, operations, and procedures. (Bruce,2008,45) And, then logically, we view the triplet as addressing the Why-What-How questions in a business process.

Role of IT - a framework of understanding

Our proposed framework that is designed to help us understand the different roles of IT in a business process is depicted in Figure 1. We earlier proposed a framework to break down the roles of IT (in the context of business process reengineering) through a What/How spiral of analysis (Chan and Choi, 1997). We presently further expand this framework to include a new dimension, alternately recognized as the Why dimension. Thus, in our proposed framework in this paper, we define the roles of IT as initiators, facilitators, and enablers. We then elaborate the framework in three related aspects: the logical view, the physical view, and the conceptual view. The logical view provides a rational understanding of interrelationships of the roles of IT. IT may be involved in answering the Why/What/How questions of a business process in an organization. The physical ramification and implementation can be observed in the organizational functions, operations, and procedures.(McGloin,2004,91) Finally, from a conceptual perspective, we see the results of the effects of IT, as IT plays different roles in an organization. In essence, IT may be causing the establishment of a need, a product innovation, and/or a process innovation.

Logical view - the Why-What-How

We observed that there is ...