ICT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY

ICT Management Framework for Telecommunications Industry



ICT Management Framework for Telecommunications Industry

Introduction

Information Management has become a strategic resource. A crucial step just step before achieving total Knowledge Management (KM) in an organization, it's considered as foundation to running any successful organization which can have potential to grant adequate Return on Investments (RoI), over its IT spending, in near and far future. (Mulkeen, 2003, pp. 290)Whilst observers and forecasters describe and predict the oncoming of an information society, or information economy, firms and their managements have been investing in information technology (IT) to seek strategic and competitive advantage. A number of well known exemplars have had headline impacts as they create apparent competitive edge, produce significant productivity and performance gains, or provide new ways of managing and doing business. The exploits of Merill Lynch, American Hospital Supply, or American Airlines in the USA, Reuters, Thomson Holidays, and the Nottingham Building Society in the UK have excited or alerted even the sternest critic of computing and IT. (Ball, 2004, pp. 100)

Discussion

Telecommunication infrastructure and new technologies in enabling high speed transfer of data over Public Switched networks, has brought about changes in Information Management as well, indirectly affecting how we conceptualize the organization and as to how, managers and specialists work. (Mulkeen, 2003, pp. 290)

All this speculation and analysis is predicated maybe at a conceptual level on organizations being seen as systems or structures of communication and information processing. (Finn, 2008, pp. 60)

Measures and strategies on ICT infrastructure development, implementation, maintenance, and support during operations are of great importance. It is required for banks to deliver their services 24 hours a day or ensure quick recovery if an incident occurs; these measures will help to develop action plans to ensure continual delivery of information. (Rocky, 2001, pp. 25)

Finally integrating all these elements to converge to sustainability and achievement of business objectives is of great concern when developing and implementing a single ICT Management Framework, especially when collecting best practices from different sources. (Rocky, 2001, pp. 25)

The flow of information to arrive at integrated ICT management can be found in the value diagram presented is self explanatory with the different components feeding the “integration practices”. The use of specific ICT management best practices will be determined by specific organizational needs and skills. (Rocky, 2001, pp. 25)

Concerning data collection techniques, apart from reading published materials on ICT management and different frameworks, which constitute the secondary data, the selected technique for primary data collection was semi-structured interviews (including personal and mini-group interviews) that regroup together participants (two to six people) who are experts in ICT management at the same organization to discuss the research topic. Business partners, which include customers, suppliers, retailers, and other stakeholders who have access to organizational ICT infrastructure on site or using remote access (this includes even contractors);

Core business and related processes; this includes the understanding of the organizational activities and processes to complete them, data and data infrastructure; it includes the organization of data used ...