IT Management Challenge Essay Requirements
The post-course assignment is an opportunity to consolidate your learning by identifying one major IT challenge that affects your organization (or that you are interested in finding out more about) and then discussing how it might be addressed using ideas from the IT Management course and relevant literature. The objective is to research and discuss the chosen IT management challenge in more detail than we will cover in the course. The challenge you choose may be related to an existing technology that the organization is using or a new technology trend that is affecting your business/sector. Your answer should take the form of a report to your organization and should address the following:
(1) Explain the chosen IT management challenge in some detail focusing particularly on its relevance for your organization (or one that you worked for in the past) and/or industry,
(2) Its probable causes, current impact and likely future impact on your business/sector, and
(3) Potential solutions that might help address this IT management challenge. Please analyze the challenge using relevant theories/models and support your key assertions by linking to relevant literature, cases/examples and experiences where possible. You can also use excerpts from interviews with experts to enhance your report. Please cite your sources within the report using a standard citation format and provide a list of references used at the end.
Solution
IT Management Challenge: Research Report
The aspect of information technology management features a lot in the current world. Ideally, IT management refers to the general process involving the consolidation of all resources that directly related to the information technology of a given business organization in the pursuit of managing them according to the provisions of the needs and the priorities of the organization. In light of the above, IT management features resources such as networking computer hardware, the people, and other tangible elements. More so, it includes intangible elements such as data and software used in the organization’s information technology endeavors. The core value of IT management is using technology to foster value. However, it is common for IT managers to undergo some challenges in the process (Overby, 2009).
The Challenge of Keeping Up with Technological Advancement
There are many IT management challenges facing businesses across the world today. One of the primary problem in stands out as the pressure of keeping up with the technological advancements across every industrial sector. Notably, the nature of technological progress is overly dynamic. As highlighted above, the essence of technological progress is meeting all the priorities and goals of an organization through the help of resources such as computer hardware, computer software, and many other peripherals that relate to information technology. In light of the above, the challenge of keeping up with the technological advancement surfaces as a result of the following.
First, the information technology sector is highly volatile. The developers of various kinds of technologies are always working in the pursuit of coming up with something new (Dixon, 2014). More so, their intention is developing a new technology that performs far much better compared to all the technologies developed before it. Therefore, the above becomes an IT management challenge since there is nothing the IT professional in any organization, for example in a bank, can do to stop any technological advancement intended to bring changes in the banking system. The technological advancements are aimed at making work easier. Therefore, it is upon the IT management professionals to find out the best way to deal with such technological advancements since once they are made, there is no going back.
Secondly, new technologies in the industry help the businesses operating in the affected industrial sectors to perform better (Dixon, 2014). In light of the above, a bank that embraces technological advances ahead of its competitor’s stands at an advantage and is more likely to perform better compared to those that fail to embrace the new technologies. In light of the above, the IT departments in every organization must ensure the adoption of every new technology irrespective of how complex it is. Otherwise, failure to do so puts their organizations in the spotlight for lagging behind in their respective industrial sectors.
Cause and Impact
The primary reason behind the challenge of keeping up with technological advancements finds its basis upon the following. To start with, technological advancements mean that the IT departments of organizations operation in affected industries must update their information technology resources (Heibutzki, 2015). The above means the acquisition of new computer hardware, software and other complementary information technology peripherals. Secondly, it means that the IT department must ensure that all the affected stakeholders, mostly the employees, in this case, are in a position to effectively use the new technologies in the quickest way possible.
Notably, there are a couple of consequences that result from the rapid technological advancements that add up to the challenges facing the IT departments. To start with, technological advancements are mandatory. They ensure business survival in the industry – from the competitive point of view – and incur a significant amount of money. Therefore, the IT department requires money. Secondly, the technological advancements require new employees who have the ability to apply the new technology effectively in the manner intended (Heibutzki, 2015). Once again, it costs both time and money for the IT department to ensure that all the employees in the organization are in a position to implement the new technology to its fullest capacity.
In light of the above, the main short-run impact is the cost of keeping up with the technological advancements. In the long-run, however, there are two significant impacts. The cost effect continues as more technological advances continue. Additionally, there is the laying-off of the some employees as a result of the technological advancements being too sophisticated for their understanding or too efficient that it requires less human resource.
Possible Solution
There are two primary strategies applicable in the pursuit of overcoming
the above challenge. The first approach involves leasing or renting computers
and other information technology assets used in the organization. As a result,
the IT department will not have to buy new ones every time there is a
significant technological advancement that requires new information technology
assets. The second strategy is hiring employees on short contracts. With the
every technological advancement, the organization will only have to wait short
periods of time and hire new employees who are conversant with the new
technology.
References
Dixon, G. (2014). The Dark Side of Technological Advances [online] The Globe and Mail. Available at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/the-dark-side-of-technological-advances/article18952874/ [Accessed 23 Jan. 2016].
Heibutzki, R. (2015). Challenges of Information Technology Management in the 21st Century. [online] Chron. Available at: http://work.chron.com/challenges-information-technology-management-21st-century-28780.html [Accessed 22 Jan. 2016].
Overby, S. (2009). Globalization: New Management Challenges Facing IT Leaders. [online] CIO. Available at: http://www.cio.com/article/2422885/it-organization/globalization–new-management-challenges-facing-it-leaders.html [Accessed 22 Jan. 2016].