The Alignment of Emerging Technologies with Businesses - Research Paper Example

The Alignment of Emerging Technologies with Businesses Abstract The emergence of information technology has led to a major shift in the operations of many businesses in a bid to cope with the rising demand for quality products in the consumer population. This research explores how business enterprises are trying to align with emerging technologies depending on their needs. It analyzes the needs that form the driving force for businesses to align with emerging technologies. It portrays managers of business enterprises as the core towards a successful alignment. It also analyzes the planning phase of alignment, and the requirements that are necessary for a successful alignment. The role of managers is clearly stated in the alignment process, citing various articles from journals on information technology. The essay describes various factors that should be considered in alignment of emerging technologies with business needs. It depicts alignment as unique in various business enterprises. Feasibility analysis of alignment is portrayed as an important activity before undertaking the activity. Alignment is stated as a process which is supposed to be flexible in order to allow amendments to suite the changing business environment. Consumer needs are of utmost importance and are described as vital in the planning process. Other role players in the business enterprise are also given priority in the planning process. Time factor is also portrayed as very important for alignment in order for a business to reap maximum benefits from a business enterprise. Introduction Many businesses are facing the challenge of managing information in order to get maximum output. Managers have the obligation of ensuring information gathering, analysis and dissemination is successful in a business. This forms the backbone of any enterprise. In-order for a business to thrive, managers need to adopt the information technology that can assist them to achieve their goals. According to Paul A. Strassmann, “aligning information systems to corporate goals has emerged as the number one concern over the last five years in surveys of information systems executives”. Aligning information technology with business is establishing a constructive connection between a business and tools of information technology in order to augment performance. Most of the consumers of industrial products prefer services which help sustain expenditure that is in line with their preferences. Consumers’ preference is of utmost importance in the business industry. Businesses in a competitive market try to ensure that up-and-coming technologies are utilized before other competitors put them in to use. These are normally aimed at adding value to their product before any other player in the business field adapts to the new technology and that which increases production or sales volume. Many businesses tend to carry out market research in order to establish customers’ needs. Most of the customers expect better products from their suppliers every day. It is therefore important that the management teams of various business enterprises ensure that they introduce commodities of a higher value each time in order to retain their consumers. An industry that is able to satisfy the needs of its customers builds confidence in them. Most businesses fail in alignment due to their ignorance of the roles of the information technology experts and business experts. As much as it is an information technology issue, the business aspect is of major concern. Without the business aspect, there exists no avenue for alignment. It is the business managers who decide when and why to venture in alignment. It is routine in most cases for managers to combine business experts with information technology technicians. This ensures that the business needs are catered for by business experts while the information technology field is left for the experts.   An example of the banking industry comes clear whereby customers prefer the banks which have most innovations than all the other players in the banking sector. Customers prefer the banks that adopt the most recent information technology applications which are easy to use and time saving. The complexity of the technology does not matter much than the time saving and convenience aspect. Production of a variety of services to the consumers and innovative practices over short periods of time is an excellent way of building customers’ confidence. The same phenomenon exists in the communication industry. Many consumers of the communication products tend to flood in the companies that produce an array of services. The most important aspect that companies should consider is the availability of these services. Consumers’ confidence is strengthened by the fact that wherever they are they can always access the commodity of their choice. They tend to go for products from the companies that will save their time in acquiring the commodity and that which will offer the most efficient service to satisfy their needs. This is what has led to the success of most mobile telephone service providers. Planning for alignment Planning is of utmost importance for a business that plans for alignment. It ensures that before undertaking any activity, proper analysis is done to ensure that strengths, opportunities weaknesses and threats to a successful alignment project are identified in the beginning. This facilitates identification of possible stumbling blocks that could hinder success. It also helps managers to asses the possibility of a successful alignment. According to Linda McHugh, “Almost every company has some sort of formal planning process whose activities can be easily modified to enhance alignment and create an environment conducive to ongoing collaboration”. The planning phase should be flexible in order to allow fine tuning of ideas to improve on the original idea. Rigidity in the planning process in most cases will lead to a project that does not accommodate the changing needs of consumers and technology advancement. It may eventually lead to alignment with obsolete technology. It is important for managers in the planning process to conduct investigation in to the possible impact of alignment. Those who have a role to play in the business, employees, and consumers of the product together with suppliers of raw materials need to be considered in the planning process. It is important to consider the attitude of the employees towards alignment. If alignment creates a more conducive environment for them to work, then it might be perceived that alignment will bring positive changes in the business. However, if it tends to create unfavorable conditions for employees, it might not serve the purpose. With this knowledge acquired in the planning process, the managers will have an opportunity to make the necessary amendment in order to suite the business to achieve the desired output. Managers also need to explore the acceptability of the product to the destined consumers. In any business enterprise, the commodity to be produced for the market highly depends on the consumer preferences. It is therefore necessary to consider the effect that alignment will have on the end product and hence its demand in the market. Linda McHugh states that, “it may be better to start the process using an electronic survey and then follow-up face-to-face or in small groups to explore unclear or problematic input”. First hand information from groups of people who are directly affected by the alignment is fundamental. It is also important to obtain information from businesses that undertook this process before. This will assist in learning from the mistakes that others made and try to avoid them. Useful information can be obtained through interviews. It is important to do a baseline that will assist the managers to know the status of the business as at the planning stage (Richard G. Platt, 2008).With information and reliable data, managers will be able to evaluate where the business is, and where they would want it to be. Measures of success will focus on this baseline after alignment. Indicators of success should be outlined in the planning phase. These assist in monitoring the progress of alignment. Experts in business are essential in the planning process. According to Mike Fishwick and Gerry Rankin, “It may make sense to team the lead business person with the IT architect who will be designing the solution for joint observations”. Business experts have set targets for the business. The information technology experts facilitate the realization of these targets. Business experts have measures of success and have the ability to tell whether the business goal is realizable. They should also be informed in all the alignment planning procedures because they have the obligation of compiling budgets, which should be in line with the financial capability of the business. Analysis of the benefits of information technology to the business performance comes from the business experts. Mahesh Raisinghani states that, “business requirements are best gathered by a business analyst who reports, ideally, into the business function. When the business analyst reports to IT, communication and trust can be issues”. Factors to consider in Alignment of Emerging Technologies with Business Needs Alignment of information technologies is unique for each business depending on the product, and the intended market. Viability of alignment needs to be assessed before managers can input resources. Paul A. Strassmann further states that, “Before an organization can begin to align information technologies, management needs to know what evaluation methods are already in place for alignment to be feasible”. If a business enterprise has to purchase information technology equipment, then it should be aimed at enhancing production. For example, it would be prudent for a business carrying out on-line marketing to install internet in the business premises to increase the turnover. Managers should also be aware of changes that may occur as a result of introduction of information technology equipment, and the ability of employees to use the equipment. In many cases a short course for employees to assist them to adapt to the new system is necessary. Alignment should also take in to consideration future changes in the business environment. The needs of consumers vary over time hence the need for a flexible set up. Flexibility ensures that consumers’ changing needs are satisfied through out the business life. Successful alignment requires constant flow of information amongst all players in the business enterprise. Good information flow assists managers to make informed decisions which in turn raise the performance of the business. The initial capital outlay should be set in such a way to satisfy the budget for alignment. Insufficient of funds can lead to failure of an important plan. It is therefore necessary to ensure that the budgetary allocations are enough for the proposed alignment. Alignment needs to be timely (Jurgens P. 2005). It is important that the project progresses as scheduled to ensure that benefits are realized soonest possible. For example if a firm plans to purchase computers in order to improve on its out put, funds are set a side for that purpose. The time value of money may not be realized if it takes unnecessarily long to acquire the computers. The benefits of using the computers are lost in that period when there was a delay in their acquisition. Assessment of progress should be continuous in order to ensure that adjustments are made whenever necessary for a successful alignment. Managers should ensure that information technology serves multiple purposes. This ensures that the scarce resources are utilized to the maximum. Conclusion It is profound that for a successful alignment of emerging technologies with business needs the management team should comprise of information technology experts and business experts. The combined expertise in the two fields is a major tool for alignment. Planning should be done before embarking on any major activity geared towards alignment. This ensures that all alignment activities are carried out according to a particular schedule. The schedule should be flexible in order to accommodate various changes in the business environment. There are factors that should be considered in order to achieve the desired goals in the process of alignment. These are general factors that apply to any business whose needs are to be aligned with emerging technologies. Most prosperous businesses have succeeded because of proper planning, timely execution of the proposed activities. References: 1. Paul A. Strassmann, “What is alignment” Cutter IT Journal, August 1998 Information Economics Press, Sep 2008 04:53:22 GMT http://www.strassmann.com/pubs/alignment/>html Linda McHugh 2. Mahesh S. Raisinghani, “Pioneering The New Evolution” Coscend Communications Solutions, L.L.C. 2008 Harvard Business Press, ISBN: 29 Sep 2008 07:39:47 GMT http://faculty.babson.edu/gordon/jitcar/. 3. Mike Fishwick and Gerry Rankin, information skills Ambidexterity: “An Exploratory Case Study of Skills Development” 2008 Henley business School, UK, 29 June 2008 http://faculty.babson.edu/gordon/jitcar/.>html 4. Richard G. Platt, “A Sense of Urgency” information technology and business, 2008 University of West Florida, Florida, USA, 29 May 2008 http://exed.wisc.edu/it/itba/default.asp 5. Linda McHugh, “better use of technology to increase revenues” Journal of Information Systems,2008 2008, The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2005_Feb_22/ai_n9776638.html 6. Jurgens Pieterse, “Enterprise Design Strategy: Aligning IT & business Practices” 2005 Business Wire, 27 Sep 2008 12:24:49 GMT. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2005_Feb_22/ai_n9776638. Read More