3 changes involving IT in the next 3 years..

The pace of change seems to increase relentlessly, especially changes involving information technology. Using your crystal ball, identify and discuss three changes likely to have substantial impact on your school services in the next three years. (1500 words)

Change is very likely to happen nowadays because of a fast changing environment. Even we belong in the 3rd world country we still encounter changes through the help of new technologies introduced to us. Many institutions have change from manual operations to automated one.

I enrolled in University of Southeastern Philippines as one of the lucky students of Bachelor of Science in Information Technology in the year 2005 but I was not able to continue my 2nd year in 2nd semester in the said school. Within that period of time, I was not able to encounter many changes in terms of facilities or even the services offered by the university. But I’m not also expecting much either since it is a state university. Luckily, I was also given a chance to study again after a year. I was a bit surprised because the enrolment system is not the same anymore. It was quite difficult not just for me but also for the other schoolmates because that was the first implementation of the new enrolment system of the university. In terms of acquiring information anything about the university a new website was also introduced for the convenience of anyone. With regards of the facilities, the only change that I noticed was the new units of our laboratory room, at least. I also consider this as a change and also a hindrance when the administration produced a memo forbidding the students and faculties to use the electricity of the university. We cannot deny the fact that they cannot provide enough facilities to the students, yet they are also the ones who are inhibiting us to use ours. And I consider this as one of the hindrances of learning especially in our case. These are some of the many changes in our university for 5 years now. Some are substantial enough, and some are not.

What about the changes for the next three years? Is information technology change good? How can IT help the organization in responding to the challenges of an increasingly complex and uncertain environment? How can IT help the organization achieve the flexible organization structure? Will this change be substantial for everybody or not? Change is the only constant thing in this world. And change is really important especially if the goal will be for the good of everybody or at least, for the good of the majority, the students.

In one of the survey article in The Economist, John Browning (1990) wrote: "Information technology is no longer a business resource; it is the business environment." His statement is not far from truth. Ongoing advances in information technology (IT), alongwith increasing global competition, are adding complexity and uncertainty of several orders of magnitude to the organizational environment. There are also factors to consider in an IT change especially in our case since we are a state university.

As what I have observed, there are many researches regarding information technology that are considerable for the progress of the university. I also think that only few knew that these researches exist. The sad part is they are not implemented and only remain in papers. In recent time, we are doing our documentation for our proposed system concerning the university. And hopefully in the next school year, we will be able to produce an efficient and functional product. And if not at least it will be implemented in three years time. Personally, I am really hoping that one day this will be implemented. I am saying this because being in this field is really not an easy thing. And it will really take time doing a particular system that will only come to a useless end.

For me, one the significant change involving information technology in the next three years is to have more hardware facilities like computers that are capable of handling a multi tasking jobs. These hardware facilities should have a higher standard of specs so that it will give convenience to the users. This may sound expensive but it will be beneficial in the long run. We cannot deny the fact that not all students of the university can afford to have a personal computer and there are some that are only relying in the school facilities and services they offered just like the free access of the internet. And it is quite disturbing that the students have to “paunhunay” or really have to run so that a student can have a unit, a good unit in order to be served first. I am able to relate to this because I was also one of these students before. This change could also help the students to enhance their abilities and skills regarding graphics design, multimedia, or anything that can’t be done with the facilities that we have now because of its limited capabilities. It is also very important to have a good hardware facility because no matter how good and efficient a software product is and there is no appropriate hardware facility it will only result to a failure.

With regards to the software side, it would be extensive to have an id that has a multiple use or an all purpose school id. This id has a barcode or something that can be detected electronically. This will serve as a gate pass and because of this, man power will be lessen. Another thing is for the library, this id will also serve as a login system whenever a student wants to access the internet or borrow a book. This can also be a locator of the owner of the id. For example, if you want to know where a particular student is, you just have to input his name and the locate him. These are just some of the few functions of the all purpose school id that can be a convenient way not just to the students but also with the users.


Conclusion:
IT and New Organizational Structures of Interdependence: Benjamin and Levinson (1993) emphasized that for IT-based change to be effective, technology, business processes, and organization need to be adapted to each other. Comparing the present information revolution with the Industrial Revolution, Malone and Rockart (1993) indicated that the latest changes in IT would lead to the evolution of new technology-intensive organizational structures. They project that the advances in IT would result in dramatic decline in the costs of "coordination" which would lead to new, coordination-intensive business structures. Rockart and Short (1989) suggest that IT would enable the firms to respond to the "new and pressing competitive forces" by providing for "effective management of interdependence." Interorganizational relations that are based upon trust and conditions of unstructured authority (Litwak and Hylton, 1962) would be created using newer types of coordination mechanisms. Malone and Crowston (1991) believe that in light of these new possibilities there is need to reassess our current theories of organizations, of markets, and of management.

I merely agree about the statement above from BRINT Institute's Book on Knowledge Management because it clearly stated that in order to attain an Information Technology change the first one that should adapt and accept the change is the organization itself. It has to adapt the changes that the environment has. It has to consider the cost of the possible change. And must also consider the cause and effect of a particular change if it these changes likely to have substantial impact in our university services in the years to come.


References:
http://www.brint.com/papers/change/conclusions.htm