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Anatomy of a Business |
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How can IT Help This SOMETHING could be better machines, faster and reliable modes of communication, faster access to organized data and reports, faster access to market intelligence, better trained and motivated human resource and a host of other productivity, efficiency and cost reduction measures. All this and much more can be achieved with the Help of IT. IT can lead to global economies and externalities. IT can take various forms and shapes to do this. Almost all IT Solutions/Products can be categorized under the personal/business issues/areas which they address to. Some key areas where IT can make invaluable contributions are: IT can take various avatars to address the above mentioned issues. Some popular Forms are: These IT Solutions (Business Enablers) sit atop IT Infrastructure. IT Infrastructure itself consists of Hardware and Core Software which Drives the Hardware. On top of the Core Software resides the Environmental Software. Environmental Software is the one which drives the Solutions. So your ubiquitous Desktop Machine is Driven by the Operating System (for example Linux) and a plethora of Drivers and Helping Software. However, to run your favorite Chat Applet you need to create a enabling environment in the form of a Java Runtime Environment (courtesy Sun Microsystems). Something which must be noted here is that IT when introduced into business creates its own set of Processes. Any Organization with more than 10 Desktop Machines and a Mail Server would understand this. There has to be a full time System Administrator on call, Data Protection, Security, System Updates, License Compliance Protocols have to be created and followed for IT to be of any consequence in the Business. Thus, it would suffice to say that IT brings along with it its own set of Processes and associates Costs. There is a recurring Cost of Ownership associated with IT adoption in any form. The secret of success lies in creating a Return on IT Investment (ROI) with exceeds the Investment itself (cost of Procurement of the IT Solution plus recurring maintenance and change costs) IT Systems are created by so many Vendors. Every Vendor wants to produce the best according to its own knowledge base and wisdom. Initially this created myriad systems each of which had its own standards and protocols. Now thankfully, almost all processes and technologies have some globally acceptable standards and protocols. For example regardless of the Database Vendor, every Database has to conform to ANSI Standard prescribed for Structured Query Language (SQL) Even though there are organizations like ANSI/ISO/Consortiums which prescribe Standards and Protocols, Software and Systems are created using different Languages, Data Repositories and Architectures. Given lack of planning, time lags in procurement, technological obsolescence, and human inertia, Businesses do get straddled with often disparate software and systems. However, Data and Functional Commonality is a Reality. Business Processes are such that Data and other Intelligence needs to be shared amongst various functional areas of an Enterprise. Given the fact that most Businesses have invested huge sums of monies varied systems which in most cases are CLOSED, even if quite efficient, make the task of data interchange amongst them a diabolical anathema. This invariably causes Data Islands and consequent Data Duplication and loss of Data Quality. Thus was born the discipline of Enterprise Application Integration. This dilemma gave birth to the concept of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems - Integrated Software to handle most common business functional areas/department and processes embedded therein. Recent times have seen a rising cost of entry to IT Systems. This meant that small business entities could not take advantage of the efficiency and productivity gains associated with IT. So was born the concept of Service Oriented Architecture. For example Application Service Provides (ASP) provide access to System functionality and its associated benefits at low cost rental basis without the Business having to invest huge amounts in procuring IT Systems. Of course the underlying technologies of Networking and Internet have made possible such IT Solutions Delivery and Business Models. There is also the fact that most of the functionality embedded in similar Software are inherently the same.
For example the functionality of User Registration is almost common in all e-commerce sites. Similar Personal
Information and Address fields are required to be filled in by the Customer. Thus every e-commerce site has to
create a Customer Registration Functionality within its e-Commerce System/Software. Cost could be saved
if the e-Commerce application could use ready-made functionality without having to re-invent the wheel. |
Service/Product Delivery and Procurement
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