Aligning E-solutions Projects with E-transformation Strategies - Korea - Assignment Example

Aligning e-solutions projects with e-Transformation strategies Aligning e-solutions projects with e-Transformation strategies Korea Questionnaire: 1- Is your business you relying on technology? How? Yes. Several of our businesses are technology dependent. In fact, our country was ranked first in 2012 by UN on e-government assessment category. Currently, we have established Government Integrated Data Centre in which all Separately managed information systems are consolidated into National Computing & Information Agency (NCIA) Formation of Government is sharing Centre, which has resulted in a reduction of office walk inns. On-Nara Business Process System: which is an Integrated online management of Public processes Formation of e-procurement. Formation of online civil services. 2- Do you have technology strategy? Yes. The following are our technology strategy: Achieve the best mobile government in the World Establish a warm and safe society Provide services that are customized Establish a solid e-Government infrastructure. 3- Is it different from your business strategy? How Yes, it is different though fused together, in that we are trying to build strong e- Government brand recognition so as to attract external investors. 4- How do you plan your technology strategy? By creating a leading government service Creating a government based market that is supporting private business. 5- Are there trends in the development of technology? (The technology your business is relying on) What are these trends? Yes, three trends ICT Culture & Society Environment and Energy 6- How do you adopt new technologies to your present technology strategy? We are guided by demand determinant in that before adopting a new technology we have to carry out an assessment to find out if our people need that product. Also by supply behavior; we have to investigate if the provision of that technology will meet the demand. Micro-economic determinant; we have to carry out an assessment to see if the technology will improve boost our economic growth. Institutional and Environmental factors; before implementing any new technology it is important that we test it in our institution and also find out its impact on the environment. 7- Do you take disruptive technology into consideration? How? No. In most cases, we upgrade the existing technology. In the event that a new technology arrives then we have to evaluate it first, and then we come up with ways of introducing the new technology into our systems without disrupting the smooth running of the business. During the introduction of the new technology, we make sure that our staff members are well conversant with it before full implementation. 8- IS your technology strategy aligned with your business strategy? How? Yes. Our business strategy is fused with our technology strategy in that all our business strategies is aligned in promoting our technologies. 9- How do you plan your business strategy when you have unknown technology? Technology keeps changing it is dynamic and each year a new technology comes up. However, just as I mention in question 7, we do not rush into adopting a new technology just like that. We have our team of experts who carry out system assessments to find out how much we will gain from the new technology, in case what we stand to gain is so minimal then we do not adapt it but in the event we stand to gain so much and that our systems will be more efficient then we train our staff on the new technology and introduce it in stages. 10- Do you think that your strategic objectives are moving targets based on the technology development? How? Yes, most of our objectives are moving targets. As far as we are concerned we are never satisfied with where we are as far as technology is concerned. We keep setting new objectives every time we come to a new technology that can benefit our company. 11- Are your projects aligned with your strategic objectives? How? Yes. We have three main objectives; creating a leading government-wide service, Creating market-based government that supports the private sector and finally creating a more democratic and transparent government. In connection to this, most of our services for example procurement has been enrolled on e-government. 12- Do you think that your projects have to achieve moving targets? How? No. In most of the cases, we thrive to improve our current technology continuously by frequent training our staff members. 13- How do you plan your projects to achieve moving targets? In the event that we have to achieve a moving target then we plan for it as new technologies arrive. 14- How do you control your projects when you have to achieve moving targets? When we achieve our moving target, then we plan until we have a clear picture of the technology and how it will benefit us. Then we train our staff and then implement it in our systems. 15- How frequently do you revise your project plans? Why? In a period of one and half years, this depends on how technology changes. 16- How frequently do you revise your strategic objectives? Why? In a period of two years, this depends on whether the primary objectives are being met or not. 17- Can you provide us with an example of a challenging situation (story) you faced? The main challenge I have faced is overcoming staff fear of workforce reduction due to the deployment of e-government. 18- How your organization bridge the gap between the latest knowledge and the organizations knowledge. These gaps were bridged through frequent staff training. 19- Do you have advice for us? Thank you for making me be part of this interview process. My only advise for you is that you should try as much as possible to create awareness about e-business as not many people especially those in the rural areas understand. Finally, I wish we could have your results after you have completed the research. Thank you. Aligning e-solutions projects with e-Transformation strategies Primary data #1: Korea E-Gov (Interview with Strategic Planning Manager) Having carried out an interview with the Strategic Planning Manager of Korea e-Government on how they base their strategy for the unknown technology, the following information was obtained. General: (Technology, Technology Strategy & Business Strategy) Several of their business relies on technology, as a matter of fact; South Korea was ranked first by UN in 2012 on e-government assessment category. Currently, the country has established Government Integrated Data Center in which all information systems are managed National Computing & Information Agency (NCIA). Moreover, the government has formed a government information Center so as to reduce the number of people walking into offices. Also, the government has converted most of the government businesses into e-platform for example they have formed e-procurement. Strategic Objectives South Korean government has five strategic objectives: Achieve the best mobile government in the World, Establish a warm and safe society, Facilitate life balance, achieving work and smart work, Provide services which are customized and Establish a solid e-Government infrastructure. In achieving the best mobile government, the Korean government expects to convert all the services that are PC oriented into mobile services. Also identify other innovative services that can use the mobile applications. To establish a safe society, the government will establish a fast response system by using sensors and CCTV. The government also would like to give customized services to its citizen by encouraging them to take part in policy making processes through social Medias and also they would like to provide all the government services in one stop. Finally, they would like to provide a solid e-government infrastructure in they plan to use cloud computing to facilitate their service delivery. Finally, the South Korean government trends in development technology rely upon ICT, Culture & Society, and Environment & Society. In that ICT makes determines the type of technology they choose while their people’s culture plays a crucial factor in determining the technology trends also given that people’s values change and therefore they would like to keep that in mind too. On the other hand, the Korean government so much aware of the effect of technology on the environment, for example, global warming and, therefore, the technology that they adapt has to be environment-friendly. Technology & its effect on strategy According to the Strategic Planning Manager, there are some factors that play a crucial role in guiding the Country adopt a new technology. These are demand determinant, supply behavior, micro-economic determinant and Institutional & Environmental factors. The government is guided by the demand factor in that before adopting a new technology an assessment has to be carried out to find out if the Korean people need that product. On the other hand supply behavior plays a critical role in ensuring that the provision of the technology will meet the demand. Finally, Micro-economic determinant, and Institutional and Environmental factors determine the product will boost the economy and its impact on the environment respectively. However, in most of the cases they do not take disruptive technology into consideration, instead they upgrade the existing technology but in case a new technology has to be evaluated then a thorough analysis has to be carried so as to determine how it will benefit the organization. In case its benefits are enormous then it is adapted else discarded. After that, staff members are then trained on how to manage the new technology. On planning of business strategy when there is unknown technology, the Korean e-government prefers to continual improve their current technology. However, there are times they are forced to adopt entirely new technology especially when it is seen that it will contribute to the organizations performance positively. Hence, in this case, they resort to rolling wave planning in which they manage the phases as the project progresses. In conclusion, it was also noted that most of their strategic objectives are moving targets as they believe that technology is changing and developing with the time, and therefore they have to keep updating and adopting their strategies based on the new technologies. Aligning the project with Strategic objectives & Moving Targets. The Korean e-government has aligned most of its projects with its strategic objectives. To attain these goals, the government has; Improved both the transparency and efficiency of its administrative work by making the usage of electronic documents to become a standard practice and also several of the administrative businesses for example finance, personnel management, and procurement are all handled electronically. Also, a standardized Business Process System have been introduced in all the Central Administrative Organizations. The government is also providing company-focused, and people focused services by establishing a Civil Service Portal called (Minwon24). Also, the government has fully implemented an integrated online channels that enable its citizen’s file and pay taxes online. Moreover, several corporate functions are supported through a single business window called (One- Stop Business Support Service) for example trading, customs clearance and processing of logistics. The government is also involving its citizens in making of government policies. The government has opened a single window known as e-people that enables its citizen to participate in decision-making processes by the government. This single window is connected every administrative institution in the country. Also, the Korean people can check and request several administrative information, and also they can request for national records anywhere and anytime through a shared portal called e-Hanarominwon. Read More