ICT led Business Transformation

0

ICT MANAGEMENT case studies report

Tulin Dzhengiz (Cengiz) Passport No: 381441179

Abstract

Compilation of all the assignments and case studies discussed in classGeneral conclusions on the ICTM course

Tulin Dzhengiz-Case Studies Report

ContentsList of Figures........................................................................................................................................3

1. Assignment 1 – Fabel case study....................................................................................................4

1.1. Characterize the patient..........................................................................................................4

1.2. Identify the symptoms............................................................................................................4

1.3. Understand the Causes............................................................................................................4

1.4. Prescribe Treatment................................................................................................................4

2. Assignment 2- Nestle case study....................................................................................................5

2.1. Characterize the patient..........................................................................................................5

2.2. Identify the symptoms & Understand the Causes...................................................................5

2.3. Prescribe Treatment................................................................................................................5

3. Assignment 3- Business process modeling.....................................................................................6

3.1. Exercise 1- Sears Roebuck Appliance....................................................................................6

3.2. Exercise 2- Agricultural Chemicals Corporation....................................................................7

3.3. Exercise 3- Using E-commerce for Purchasing......................................................................8

4. Assignment 4 – How are ICT’s transforming business?.................................................................9

4.1. Classification of Trends in ICT...............................................................................................9

4.2. Description of Trends...........................................................................................................10

4.3. Main Managerial Challenges Posed by ICT Trends in Business...........................................10

4.4. Comments and Suggestions Regarding New Trends............................................................10

5. Assignment 5 ‐ IT doesn’t matter!................................................................................................11

5.1. Summary of Carr’s Thesis....................................................................................................11

5.2. Arguments against Carr’s Thesis..........................................................................................12

5.3. Comments on the Importance of IT in Business...................................................................12

6. Assignment 6 – Smart grids..........................................................................................................13

6.1. What is a smart grid? How do smart grids differ from the current electricity infrastructure in your country?...................................................................................................................................13

6.2. Which managerial and technological issues should be considered when developing a smart grid? 13

6.3. What challenge to the development of smart grids do you think is most likely to hamper their development?...........................................................................................................................13

6.4. What other areas of our infrastructure could benefit from “smart” technologies?................13

6.5. Would you like your home to be part of a smart grid? Why or why not?.............................13

7. Assignment 7 – Too much technology.........................................................................................14

7.1. Research on Infoxication......................................................................................................14

7.2. Research on Herbert’s Simon “bounded rationality” concept...............................................14

1


7.3. Research on Time-wasting as the new digital divide............................................................14

7.4. Do you think that the more information managers receive, the better their decisions?.........14

7.5. As future knowledge worker /digital worker, which are the most important skills you should develop?...........................................................................................................................................14

8. General Conclusions on ICTM Course.........................................................................................15

References............................................................................................................................................16

Appendix..............................................................................................................................................17

2


List of Figures

Figure 1 Organizational scheme of company.........................................................................................4Figure 2 Existing Process of Searse Roebuck Appliance......................................................................18Figure 3 suggested improvements in the system of searse roebuck appliance......................................19Figure 4 Existing Process of Agricultural chemicals corporation.........................................................20Figure 5 suggested improvements in the system Agricultural chemicals corporation...........................21Figure 6 If the company continues to purchase in traditional ways......................................................22Figure 7 If Company chooses to move towards e-purchasing via grainger.com...................................23

3


1. Assignment 1 – Fabel case study

1.1. Characterize the patientFabel is an electrical engine company with 1000 employees. The company is managed in a centralized way, which is because the system they are used to is the same mentality in SMEs. However, the size of the company is grown, and the company is not small any more, therefore some tasks are needed to be delegated and the CEO Olozaga must accept the change and be able to change the organizational culture.

FİGURE 1 ORGANİZATİONAL SCHEME OF COMPANY

1.2. Identify the symptoms According to the text, the specs are changing so fast and this creates a high stock of old parts. Because, each time the specs change; the workers and managers need to manipulate and modify once again for the new specs they need to learn again. This phenomenon is explained by the learning curve. As they don’t spend much time, when specs change; they cannot make it cheaper. In order to produce cheaper, they will need to be familiar with the changed specs for more time. Therefore, the product costs are high, the quality is not good enough, and delivery dates are long, which finally creates customer complaints and unfilled sales.

1.3. Understand the Causes In general, the company is struggling due to misinformation & lack of communication, the need of delegation, bad execution, endless changes in product specifications, and unrealistic promises of sales department. The main cause is identified to be the endless changes in specs and the need of better communication and delegation of tasks.

1.4. Prescribe Treatment The company should change the organizational culture and a way of doing this can be adopting an ERP system, so that all departments can be integrated. The integration of departments by using the same software and data will reduce the misinformation and communication problems. Also, the company will need to identify business processes in the beginning and develop the best practices and improve their business processes (TO BE). This will essentially change the organizational culture, because then all tasks will be delegated in a better way, that CEO Olozaga will have clearer information than he has right now. For the change of specs, the company should start implementing a pilot program, until they get used to producing the new spec versions and they should make the price/quality better with prototypes before producing for actual clients. All these problems can be managed by implementing a change management in the organization and using information systems (ERP integrating manufacturing, sales, planning & finance).

4

CEO (olozaga)

HR COO CMS CEngO CFO


2. Assignment 2- Nestle case study

2.1. Characterize the patientNestle is the global manufacturer of pharmaceuticals and food company that has 500 facilities in 80 countries with 253,000 employees. Each company makes their own decisions regarding supply chain and product variety to meet the local customer and supplier requirements in the region.

2.2. Identify the symptoms & Understand the CausesDecentralized model decreases the productivity and efficiency, increases misinformation and decreasing the bargaining power as the company is positioned to be very competitive in the market. The current situation, especially related to suppliers is not competitive due to variety of prices in different countries and the information is not even compiled properly, because of decentralized information flow. The product names were also different in different markets, which is again confusion for global management.

Nestle USA, decided to use SAP/R3 software in order to manage the discussed problems better. However, in the first trial of implementation the Project management is poor. Because, the management is not training the employee or not motivating them through this change to make them feel safe that this change in the IS will not affect them. Another major problem is time management, the first implementation is very strict with time and this also puts pressure and creates stress on employees, which later on ends up with unwillingness to use the software. However this change has to happen gradually and all departments should be implementing at the same time. If the data is not accurate, ERP will not give correct results after.

During first trial of implementing SAP, the company made another major mistake, which was to underestimate the size of the change in the company. In a global company like this, changing the information system will not only change the system but change the culture completely. This can also be related to understanding the strategic goals, because ERP will help achieve goals for the company, but the goals and expectations from the software must be clear. If the company wants to achieve more, they should define their performance measures well. In a case like Nestle, the company should also consider how to be consistent in all other 500 facilities in the world, so they should standardize a lot of data etc…

2.3. Prescribe Treatment The Project co-leader and Dunn took over the project after the first trial of implementation was not successful and this time, they initiated the project with clearly defined goals, expectations, including all stakeholders. They also changed the module of SAP, which was more appropriate for the company. This time project and time management was better. Because they extended the deadlines and deadlines were reasonable. This time transparent relationship was established with workers. They managed to motivate all stakeholders, and integrate the data from different departments. Therefore, data was accurate. Taking into account that a person only for change management was assigned, the organizational culture was adapted to the changes in the system and they benefited from the ERP, as they achieved better numbers and decided in the end to implement the system globally.

5


3. Assignment 3- Business process modeling3.1. Exercise 1- Sears Roebuck ApplianceThe impact of existing process on operational efficiency and customer relationships

Existing process takes up to 36 days and it is found to be really lengthy process, so the relative costs were high. Another reason of low efficiency, is the lack of control of inventories. There is no database management system to check internally and create orders externally. If the inventory system is automized, they will be able to see which components they are missing on time, so they can order automaticly. They do not coordinate with suppliers efficiently and have control of their own system.

Customer satisfaction is low due to waiting time and there was no tool to measure customer satisfaction. The services provided were not efficient that would end up losing profitable customers. Customers wait a lot and visited twice for a problem that could be solved easily. The existing process should get more customer oriented. Even on the first phone call, they should try to diagnose the problem by listening to the sypmtomps customer describes. There is no database of common problems and most used parts, to prevent the shortage. The part is sent to customer, but the customer will not be able repair the machine, therefore not only information flow but also material flow is not efficient and fast. To sum up, the customer satisfaction is not expected to be high under these circumstances. Appendix/Figure-2 shows the AS-IS crossfunctional diagram of the existing system.

Suggested System to Improve the Business Model of Searse Roebuck Appliance

An ERP software will be able to solve the problems of the existing system. Fist they should create a database of commonly used parts/ common breakdown causes. When they have this database, then they will be able to analyze which parts they should keep in their inventories and prevent of shortages. To be more efficient, they should work with their suppliers and maybe automize the orders. The ERP will warn if they have shortage in most used parts and order automaticly. Also, diagnosing can be shorter, at the phone call, according to description of customer they can try to diagnose and have an idea of what the problem is, therefore have the part that could be necessary ready when they are visiting. To understand what should be done better, in the end they should ask for feedback from customers for continuous improvement. Appendix/Figure-3 shows the TO-BE crossfunctional diagram of the suggested system.

6


3.2. Exercise 2- Agricultural Chemicals Corporation

Analysis of the problems due to the existing process

Estimation of demand is not accurate and once the estimation is done and master plan is made, there is no way to change it. The system should be more flexible and sales and production should work together for estimation. There should be only one database used in the company that is integrated, also they should try to integrate better with customers to have better idea of their demand and with suppliers to increase the chain efficiency. The cooperation between departments must increase, as in the existing system the collaboration is not sufficient. The needs of customers and demand of the market is not being tracked well. Therefore, the forecast is not working well. Appendix/Figure-4 shows the AS-IS crossfunctional diagram of the existing system.

How could an enterprise system solve these problems? In what ways could it lower costs?

To lower the production planning process and make the system more flexible especially open to changes coming from customer, the firm should be able to forecast demand, produce MRP, Production Plan, Inventory planning using the same database. Suppliers and customers should become a part of their system. An ERP system will be able to solve the efficiency problems and lower the time for processes.

It will lower costs, because non-value added time will decrease. ERP will use different forecasting models, so the analysts will spend less time on basic maths and they will have more time thinking about strategies of improvement. ERP will also provide more information on how to manage internal supply chain and will create MRP plan. MRP will help the company organize their resources better, they will be able to forecast their needs ahead and if raw materials are needed orders will be created by ERP system automaticly. Inventories will reduce, because the forecast will become more accurate, because the system is integrated and the models of ERP are more accurate. So, the company will eventually spend less money on their planning activities, and focus more on value added activities. Inventory holding costs will decrease. Eventually, the company will be able to optimize their capacity usage and increase their efficiency. Appendix/Figure-5 shows the TO-BE crossfunctional diagram of the suggested system.

7


3.3. Exercise 3- Using E-commerce for Purchasing

Analysis of the traditional business process

Traditional business process can be time consuming. First of all the person who is responsible, should check all available options online or on paper and analyze which option would be the best solution for them. Even in SAP, the managers and sometimes finance departments need to approve the purchase, on SAP though it is just clicking and sending approval. Once the approval is sent, if the system is integrated with supplier, the supplier will receive an automatic order. However, in a traditional system, the order will be made by email and the company will have to wait until the quotation is ready. Once the quotation is received, they may need to negotiate on payment terms. Appendix/Figure-6 shows the traditional business process for procurement.

How might this process have to change to make purchases electronically from the Grainger site?

The purchasing process will be automized and utilized. The time to choose the most appropriate product needed will be reduced. Because Grainger already offers a very detailed catalogue of products, including their specifications online on the same page. Grainger also has an option to deliver the product more than once. So according to the needs of the company, same purchase can be repeated automaticly. Before, company needed to wait for supplier to inform about the availability of the product and the delivery time, however with Grainger delivery time will be fixed and the availability of the product can be checked entering the Zip code on the website. Managing invoices will be automized as well, once the order is finalized and checked out, the invoice will be received in email box, so there will be no need for paper work, or waiting for invoice to be received by post. Grainger will offer usage reports, so the monthly spending will be obtained regularly so order management and financial analysis will be much easier to estimate. The whole procurement process will be automized. If you want your raw material to be delivered at another time, but you want your product to be kept in inventory Grainger has inventory management services. So not only your procurement but also your inventory management will be automized as well. To sum up, the order management system from choosing the product to receiving invoices will get simpler, the risks of not receiving the product will be over, the time spent on purchasing will decrease. The website will customize the process for the company and in general the whole system will be optimized. Appendix/Figure-7 shows the TO-BE business process if the company decides e-purchasing from Grainger.com.

8

4. Assignment 4 – How are ICT’s transforming business?4.1. Classification of Trends in ICTTABLE 1 CLASSİFİCATİON OF TRENDS İN INFORMATİON TECHNOLOGİES

Classification Trends ExamplesRelationships/Networks/Social Matrix

Distributing Cocreation Loncin/ lets suppliers to work together to create the best of product,P&G Vocal Point Network, Wikipedia-Open Source Software Developers

Using consumers as innovators OhmyNews/ citizen reporters engaging customer with businessTapping into a world of,Talent Collaboration at a Scale Experimentation and Big Data

TopCoder/ Gathering software developers and companies in the same platform, offering variety of pricing schemes. Bechtel/ open collaboration database of design and engineering information, Dow Chemicals/ Social Network to create a pool of talent to pick the right people for the right project, Kraft Foods/ internal social network to raise the level of collaboration and knowledge

Extracting more value from interactions

Wikis, Virtual Teams, Videoconferencing

Managing Capital & Assets The age of the multisided business model

Spiceworks offers IT-management applications to 950,000 users at no cost, it collects money from B2B customers who advertise

Expanding the frontiers of automation The growing 'internet of all things'

FedEx, UPS/ internal tracking system connected to internet, Sensors to control process conditions and automate adjustments to reduce waste, downtime etc…

Unbundling production from delivery

Amazon/ expanding business model to be used by other retailers, making assets available for internal and external use

Imagining anything as s service and the e-volution of commerce

City CarShare, Zipcar end users as an integral part of the system, managing assets, New mobile payment platforms

Leveraging information in New Ways

Putting more science into management

Intel/ prediction market-better demand forecast or Amazon/ advanced customer segmentation

Innovating from the bottom of the pyramide

Alibaba,China’s leading B2B exchange, with more than 30 million members, helps members share data on their manufacturing services with potential customers and handles online payments and other transaction

Integrated digital/physical experiences

Tesco, the UK-based grocery chain, and Delhaize, based in Belgium, have tested virtual store display in subways in South Korea and Brussels, respectively, which allow commuters to “shop” via mobile devices

Making business from information

Zillow-portal for real estate information/ digitization of processes

Sustainability- International Development

Wiring for Sustainability Smart buildings showing energy usage, Softwares to get the optimized transportation to reduce energy consumption advertising from B2B companies that want access to IT professional

Producing public good on the grid- Transformation of government

Sensors in buses and trains provide transportation planners with real-time status reports to optimize routing and give riders tools to adjust their commuting plans, Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile banking system has doubled its subscriber base in Kenya in the past two years and has more than 15 million subscribers in Kenya alone, plus 9 million in Tanzania

9

4.2. Description of TrendsRelationships/Networks/Social Matrix: Creating networks, portals, forums to co-create value with customers, connecting users or suppliers for new product development, using the social networking to bring more value or be more customer-oriented. Managing Capital & Assets: Creating new business models, Automation of everything, using assets and capital in smart ways and become more efficient in processes and eventually gain more profit.Leveraging information in New Ways: Turning information into knowledge and innovative integration of our physical life with digital life using mobile apps or internet, managing data more efficiently such as forecasting, market research or segmentation. Sustainability- Sociocultural Improvement & Development: The social aspect of trends, contribution to international development and contribution to the sustainable world by the use of technology. 4.3. Main Managerial Challenges Posed by ICT Trends in BusinessData Security, Privacy and Intellectual Property Rights would be one of these challenges in business. Companies sharing information on social media has already caused several problems with customers for instance. Data being stored in databases that are available on the internet will make companies vulnerable to digital crimes.

Another problem will be managing the data. Gathering the data might be easy and maybe automized, even analysis of that big data could be automized. However, the overall processing capability of softwares will be low. Also, the softwares will use models, frameworks, analytical tools. If the user is not trained, the information gained by the help of the software will not be accurate; correct tools should be selected for accurate results. If the system collapses, the data will be lost or hard to regain. Time management has become a greater problem, due to big data managers need to control.

The fact that e-businesses are increasing and the need for companies to physically exist is vanishing, many bussinesses will lose clients due to competition. Therefore, many companies need to remodel their business process and create added value in innovative ways. Remodeling business processes may require a professional help of consulting companies. Therefore, companies have to invest in services of consulting firms more often. As businesses are getting more specialized, companies need to differentiate themselves constantly to survive in the competitive environment.

The accountability of data has decreased, business decisions may rely on internet forums or not reliable resources will not be the perfect choice. However, decision makers will be exposed to a lot of data and it will not be easy to focus and make the right decision.

4.4. Comments and Suggestions Regarding New Trends Technology is being developed and we are in a constantly changing world. To cope with the changes is not easy anymore and users need training to understand the high-tech they are using. Businesses are becoming more virtual, bringing advantages and disadvantages. After all, it is obvious to see that we are moving to a cloud based networking world, where each process is automized. To control and benefit from this movement Social entrepreneurship and transforming healthcare, education and transportation systems in a way to make them available for everybody will create the biggest difference in our world. Hopefully, new technology trends will contribute to a better world.

10


5. Assignment 5 ‐ IT doesn’t matter!5.1. Summary of Carr’s ThesisThe number of companies investing on IT to differentiate their services/products and trying to get competitive advantage has increased to 2 trillion dollars, however this does not necessarily mean IT will bring competitive advantage.

Intel- the invention of microprocessor led today’s world full of IT (computers, softwares, LAN, WAN, Internet). In year 1965 in USA, 5% of capital expenditures of companies were invested on IT. Whereas, with the development of personal computers, it increased to 15%. Early 90s the percentage was 30%. Late 90s, it became 50%. Today, IT is believed to be bringing change and innovation to companies more than ever-compared to the belief system in 60s. In the beginning, IT was a competitive advantage, but since its availability and commonness increased, its cost decreased and IT became ‘ubiquitous’.

Carr mentions the difference between proprietary and infrastructural technologies. Proprietary technologies are owned effectively by a single company, whereas infrastructural technologies bring more value when shared. Sometimes, the earliest phase of infrastructural technology can appear a form of proprietary technology. Like the phase when electricity was still scarce. However, when electric generators became available it was no longer proprietary. Infrastructural technologies, often lead to broad market changes and gaining advantage from infrastructural technologies will happen for a short time. Because, a lot of investors are trying to gain the same advantage and the competition is high. Eventually the capacity increases, and the prices fall down increasing the availability. Even the best practices of the use of that technology become commoditized. So, infrastructural technologies still affect the competition and the market but on a macroeconomic level.

Commoditization of IT: IT has shown the same pattern as all other infrastructural technologies, and at some point it is standardized and it brought greater homogenization. IT has also become replicable, companies tend to buy ready software but generic application means generic business process as well. By the help of Web services more companies purchase these generic applications to replace with their customized applications. American Airlines, Fedex, Mobil Oil, Reuters, E-Bay they either change the direction of their industry or area by the use of technology or bring major competitive advantage. This of course bring reputation and superiority in the market.

Suggestions to companies: Carr says ‘When a resource becomes essential to competition but inconsequential to strategy, the risks it creates become more important than the advantages it provides’. Carr points out the vulnerabilities of companies due to IT, and yet not many companies work on identifying and working on their vulnerabilities. Also, unnecessary spending on IT is pointed out by Carr. He suggests delaying the IT investments as a way to cut costs. Dell and Wal-Mart in the 90s stood back from cutting edge technologies until the best practices are certain and the experimentation phase was over. There is also a misunderstanding that IT will bring high Return on investment, however the studies showed the opposite was true.

11


5.2. Arguments against Carr’s ThesisCarr pointed out that companies should manage IT as a commodity input and IT will no longer bring strategic competitiveness. However, Carr doesn’t say that IT doesn’t matter, IT’s importance to bring strategic differentiation is decreasing. Companies who sees opportunities and act will gain advantage, even though IT is becoming ubiquitous. If IT is seen as commodity; it is because it is not being considered as a tool to create new business practices. It is not IT that brings the advantage, but the new practices enabled by IT is the competitive advantage. Classifying IT as infrastructural wouldn’t be correct, because the pattern of IT has been different than other infrastructural technologies. And IT’s potential is increasing, when the business still hasn’t adopted to all so far. Therefore, there are still many opportunities brought by innovation through IT. The long term view with incremental steps and cumulative effect will create a strategic advantage. IT is not a solution to all the problems a company can have, but IT with incremental changes will eventually bring competitive advantage. In short, it will be dramatic for the industries to miss opportunities that IT will create.

Another argument against Carr, is the citations he has made in his article being of dubious validity. Carr is being criticized for not mentioning the improvements brought by the use of IT and underestimating the innovation, creativity, smarter ways that IT has contributed and will contribute in businesses and everyday life.

IT bringing competitive advantage is up to the users. If it is implemented cleverly, even though it is a risk, IT will bring competitive advantage. If not, IT could be disastrous. But this is already known and therefore, Carr is argued to be tautological.

Another argument is about IT losing its strategic value, however if the companies are able to reduce their marginal costs, IT will bring profit and generate value-added. Also, the use of standard software’s are discussed as well. Carr believes they will destroy the value of a company, however standards will help managers to organize better; but businesses still differentiate even if they use the same software.

Carr puts IT business in mature stage of its life cycle. On the other hand, Carr has not shown any proof related to IT showing its life cycle. Carr just classified IT as infrastructural and assumed same will be the future of IT as electricity.

5.3. Comments on the Importance of IT in BusinessAs discussed previously, I don’t believe that IT business has been matured. The business trends in technology reported by Mc Kinsey are the proof that IT will bring a lot of change. However, I do believe that IT has some downfalls and users must be careful about data privacy, security etc…Companies or individuals do not live inside walls, they are all integrated and connected through networks, this will be a driving force to externally and internally share data, which eventually cause the need for IT. Therefore IT is necessary. However, how much money to spend on IT depends on the outcomes. Therefore, companies should make clever financial choices and see pros and cons objectively before spending million dollars on IT.

12


6. Assignment 6 – Smart grids6.1. What is a smart grid? How do smart grids differ from the current electricity

infrastructure in your country?Smart grids refer to a technology where electricity is delivered from suppliers to consumers using digital technology. The use of smart grids reduce costs and increase transparency. Smart grids differ from the current electricity infrastructure by giving information regarding the usage of the energy, so it doesn’t only distribute more efficiently, but also give insights about how it is used. Therefore, the information flow is back and forth and more clear. By the help of smart grids, users can program their electricity usage in a better way to reduce their consumption, which will comply with the sustainability approach. This will lead to 5-15 % decrease in the total consumption of electricity, which will lower the costs and the pollution. The automation technology will control each device from a central point and outages will be found quicker, so the service quality will increase as well.

6.2. Which managerial and technological issues should be considered when developing a smart grid?

Information flow will be essential to track and only will be available if technology is provided. New job opportunities will be available, if the electricity system transformed to smart grids. Turning homes into ‘miniature power plants’ for backup will be costly, the costs may be unbearable by the users. A lot of companies are working on it nowadays, therefore the competition is increasing.

6.3. What challenge to the development of smart grids do you think is most likely to hamper their development?

An intuitive end user interface needed to be created, because users found it too high-tech and hard to understand and analyze. Smart grids are not cheap, the consumers may not be able to or willing to pay the upfront costs of this technology. Privacy of information, and threat of cyber-attacks will be another tackle for consumers. They may not be willing to share their electricity usage details with utility companies. Less expensive methods to reduce electricity consumption exist and can be sufficient, like air conditioner controllers.

6.4. What other areas of our infrastructure could benefit from “smart” technologies? Smart grids can be implemented also in water utilities. Similar smart meters can be used to utilize and decrease waste of water, as well. Transportation has already benefited by the use of ‘smart’ technologies; navigation in maritime, electric vehicles etc… Another area will be communications and transactions, such as ‘smart money=paperless transactions’, distant health care etc…

6.5. Would you like your home to be part of a smart grid? Why or why not? I would prefer my home to become a part of smart grid. Even though, I know the threats as a user, and my privacy may be violated; I am also aware that the world is changing into a more technological but also a sustainable world. Knowing how much you consume, and how you can contribute to your economy and to your environment would eventually make me a happier person. Also, being able to trust companies more by developing transparent relationship is also a new trend that all companies will have to follow. As the mid class increases, the technology advances and we suffer more from environmental pollution or climate change, the need for a better world collaborating with the industry is a need. Therefore, I would like my home to be smart, so as my city and my country. However, I also believe that we develop technologies that not all of us are able to use. For some people, it will be so hard to use and control the system in their houses. As a user, I would definitely demand a training and understand how the system works and how I can benefit more from it, so as the Mother Nature.

13


7. Assignment 7 – Too much technology7.1. Research on InfoxicationInfoxication is being exposed to too much information causing misleading. Because the amount of information received by different sources in a small amount of time, it causes fallacies. Infoxication causes problem to focus and identify what is really useful [1].

7.2. Research on Herbert’s Simon “bounded rationality” conceptBounded rationality explains that the people tend to make rational decisions, however they cannot always do due to environment they are in. Demands from external environment and incentives from internal environment are two sources of the limitation. Risks, complexity of the problem and assuming not having sufficient information will make the decision maker bound. In literature; models, frameworks, heuristics and algorithms are developed to make the decision making process simpler, however computational complexity is another problem. Also, not all uncertainties can be defined in computational algorithms [2, 3].

7.3. Research on Time-wasting as the new digital divideThe intentions to help lower income family’s children by providing computers, later on showed that the children from these families spend more time on leisure time activities. Computers and internet have great educational capability, however the use of it is more time- wasting. It is discussed that the purpose of computers in education is not fulfilled and even has become a distraction for learners, rather than becoming sources. By creating a digital divide that is more democratic and equal, the disadvantages of income inequality and its impacts on education was the purpose, however studies demonstrate that, digital divide has become a time wasting activity more than an educational tool, although the digital divide do not promote it [4,5].

7.4. Do you think that the more information managers receive, the better their decisions?The quality of decision making will decrease when the amount of digital information increases. Multi-tasking may sound a good quality, although it also makes us less productive decision makers, who is easy to get distracted and having difficulty to focus. Therefore, I don’t believe that the more information managers receive the better their decisions. However, IT will offer tools to analyze that data, tools to classify verified and trustworthy data for decision makers. Also, the use of internet also help managers observe the trends in the society, like Zara analyzing what the trends will be according to the likes they get on Facebook. Therefore, this topic is controversial, but I believe older generations were able to focus, think and analyze better than us.

7.5. As future knowledge worker /digital worker, which are the most important skills you should develop?

Ability to communicate ideas face to face, still reading books- but not disconnecting from the social networks, managing knowledge-not getting lost in big data, seeing the big picture, being able to distinguish the important information from non-value added information, always bringing change and different perspective by respecting nature (being eco-friendly) and contributing to society.

14


8. General Conclusions on ICTM Course

ICTM course has focused on subjects such as ERPs, SCMs, CRMs, KM systems. The introduction to the systems that eventually will be used in the organizations was great. However, the more outcome was brought by the case studies.

The key learning from Nestle and Fabel Case studies was similar. Organizations will need change and adapt to new conditions as the demand, technology, customer needs and all surroundings are constantly changing. However, the change in organizations will not be easy. Leading the change will be the real deal, that not everybody can achieve and leading this change can only be done by clear communication with all stakeholders.

The key learnings from ‘IT doesn’t matter ‘by Nicolas Carr and Too much technology articles were that, organizations should focus how much they spend on IT. It has become a trend to spend on IT, how much of it will bring the real competitive advantage and what changes it will bring on our business processes should be identified. IT has also brought new challenges like time wasting, infoxication and the external environment is full of various information- which will decrease the rationality of our decisions. Not only as decision makers, but also as users in big organizations should be aware of data privacy and security and always beware that what the software offers is only accurate if we are entering the accurate data and choosing the right tools.

Smart grids were introduction to smart technologies and it was actually one of the technology trends in business. ‘Smart’ technologies will be an efficient change and it has already started by the use of RFID, GPS, sensors for routing etc… The key learning from the IT trends in business from Mc-Kinsey reports was that IT industry will always be innovative and we should be up to date and innovate to keep being competitive, by differentiating services using the information technologies. Another important outcome is the change in our society. We have become a networking society and connections, contributions of all stakeholders’ matter, so connecting people to bring change is very important.

To conclude with, we have made an introduction to the limitless world of information technologies and their use in variety of businesses. Personally, most interesting for me was to find solutions by co-creation and the use of this idea while transforming the government organizations and the impacts for IGO, NGO based organizations and the power of information technologies to achieve a sustainable and equal world.

15


References

1. Benito-Ruiz, Elena. , Infoxication 2.0, http://www.irma-international.org/viewtitle/21938/ , Date of Access: 13.12.2014

2. D. Jones, Bryan. , Bounded Rationality, https://www.princeton.edu/~smeunier/ JonesBounded1.pdf, Date of Access: 13.12.2014

3. Simon, Herbert. , http://mx.nthu.edu.tw/~cshwang/teaching-economics/econ5005/Papers/Simon-H=Theoriesof%20Bounded%20Rationality.pdf , Date of Access: 13.12.2014

4. Beispielaufgaben aus dem Wettbewerb 2013, Wasting Time Is New Divide in Digital Era, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/new-digital-divide-seen-in-wasting-time-online.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all& , Date of Access: 13.12.2014

5. Kassam, Alnaaz. , Iding, Marie. , Hogenbirk, Pieter. , Unraveling the digital divide: Time well spent or “wasted’’?, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10639-012-9233-9 , Date of Access: 13.12.2014

16

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10639-012-9233-9

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10639-012-9233-9

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/new-digital-divide-seen-in-wasting-time-online.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/new-digital-divide-seen-in-wasting-time-online.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&

http://mx.nthu.edu.tw/~cshwang/teaching-economics/econ5005/Papers/Simon-H=Theoriesof%20Bounded%20Rationality.pdf

http://mx.nthu.edu.tw/~cshwang/teaching-economics/econ5005/Papers/Simon-H=Theoriesof%20Bounded%20Rationality.pdf

https://www.princeton.edu/~smeunier/%20JonesBounded1.pdf

https://www.princeton.edu/~smeunier/%20JonesBounded1.pdf

http://www.irma-international.org/viewtitle/21938/


Appendix

17

Diagram of AS-IS Process- Searse Roebuck Appliance:

FİGURE 2 EXİSTİNG PROCESS OF SEARSE ROEBUCK APPLİANCE

18


Diagram of TO-BE Process- Searse Roebuck Appliance:

FİGURE 3 SUGGESTED İMPROVEMENTS İN THE SYSTEM OF SEARSE ROEBUCK APPLİANCE

Diagram of AS-IS Process:

19


FİGURE4 EXİSTİNG PROCESS OF AGRİCULTURAL CHEMİCALS CORPORATİON

Diagram if ERP is used

20


FİGURE 5 SUGGESTED İMPROVEMENTS İN THE SYSTEM AGRİCULTURAL CHEMİCALS CORPORATİON

Traditional Purchase Process

21


FİGURE 6 IF THE COMPANY CONTİNUES TO PURCHASE İN TRADİTİONAL WAYS

22


FİGURE 7 IF COMPANY CHOOSES TO MOVE TOWARDS E-PURCHASİNG VİA GRAİNGER.COM

23

ICT led Business Transformation

Business

Transcript of ICT led Business Transformation