The Davao City ERS office is part of the worldwide LDS humanitarian operation that aims to help individuals become career self-reliant through employment, education and/or self-employment.
The ERS Center offers four types of services: Trainings to help individuals plan their career, find opportunities and interact with contacts; Resource information in terms of a database on job resources, small business, education and other self reliance resources including interactive meetings with resource persons; Business equipment and facilities like telephone, fax and copy machines for employment-related needs; and placement for applicants and contacts for suppliers who have established linkage with ERS.
The ERS Center is equipped with state-of-the-art communication technology that can facilitate speedy access to information. It's a one-stop shop for career planning and the best part is that the center's services and facilities are for free.
The ERS Center offers four types of services: Trainings to help individuals plan their career, find opportunities and interact with contacts; Resource information in terms of a database on job resources, small business, education and other self reliance resources including interactive meetings with resource persons; Business equipment and facilities like telephone, fax and copy machines for employment-related needs; and placement for applicants and contacts for suppliers who have established linkage with ERS.
The ERS Center is equipped with state-of-the-art communication technology that can facilitate speedy access to information. It's a one-stop shop for career planning and the best part is that the center's services and facilities are for free.
First let me explain the structure of their IS/IT as I observed...
The office have good facilities. Their computers are not that far left behind in terms technology. Their computers are all at least having a Pentium 4 1.x processor, 256 mb RAM, and 80 G hdd. Their network structure is also state of the art. Their computers are connected via wireless network and the computers in their respective offices and the computers that are freely used by the job seekers belong to this network. The way they process their transaction is quiet fast. First of all, they have a website where the job seekers can register for free of course. The registration requires the job seekers to input their credentials and other information needed for job matching. After the registration, the job seeker could gain access to the section where the job offerings are posted by the companies that are also members of the said site. Their office also do the job matching process where their staff matches the members according to their capabilities. The office also offers seminars and other job awareness activities to help them be competitive in their endeavor.
Risks in IT/IS change?:
For me, with regards to the company that we visited, IT change is a bad idea. Before considering IT change it would be a smart way to first identify it's present situation and if IT change will benefit the company. And to better study about this aspect, it's a good idea to assign a committee for this agenda that will have a purpose to:
* Better align IT services to business requirements
* Increase visibility and communication of Changes to both business and service-support staff
* Improve risk assessment
* Reduce adverse impact of Changes on the quality of services and on Service Level Agreements
* Better assess the cost of proposed Changes before they are incurred
* Make fewer Changes that must be backed-out, along with an increased ability to do this more easily when necessary
* Improve Problem and Availability Management through the use of valuable management information relating to changes accumulated through the Change Management process
* Increase productivity of users - through less disruption and higher-quality services
* Increase productivity of key personnel through less need for diversion from planned duties to implement urgent changes or back-out erroneous Changes
* Create a greater ability to accommodate a large volume of Changes
* Enhance the business perception of IT through an improved quality of service and a professional approach
* Foster and facilitate a high level of communication amongst all IT departments
* Contribute to the successful implementation of configuration management within IT
* Establish change process accountability
* Enforce best practice change management controls
* Increase visibility and communication of Changes to both business and service-support staff
* Improve risk assessment
* Reduce adverse impact of Changes on the quality of services and on Service Level Agreements
* Better assess the cost of proposed Changes before they are incurred
* Make fewer Changes that must be backed-out, along with an increased ability to do this more easily when necessary
* Improve Problem and Availability Management through the use of valuable management information relating to changes accumulated through the Change Management process
* Increase productivity of users - through less disruption and higher-quality services
* Increase productivity of key personnel through less need for diversion from planned duties to implement urgent changes or back-out erroneous Changes
* Create a greater ability to accommodate a large volume of Changes
* Enhance the business perception of IT through an improved quality of service and a professional approach
* Foster and facilitate a high level of communication amongst all IT departments
* Contribute to the successful implementation of configuration management within IT
* Establish change process accountability
* Enforce best practice change management controls
With this, change in the IT structure will definitely be for the good of the company. These precautions and steps must be clearly understood and implemented because their are a lot of risk that is associated in terms in IT change. In the company that we visited, their IT structure is already providing them with the necessary benefits which greatly increased their capabilities in terms of costumer satisfaction and service. If they would insist in changing their IT structure these negative effects could be triggered.
*If the company will upgrade their hardware. These new devices may be sophisticated and thus would require the operators to learn new skills. And if any malfunction pertaining with these devices would occur, the company would be forced to hire other knowledgeable persons to fix the problem. And this would mean more expenses for the company.
*Because the technology will be new to the persons using it. The company will also be in a deciding problem where they will choose from hiring new capable employees or provide training for their old employees. But as I see it, in either option, it will mean further expenses.
*The company will also suffer from technology addiction if IT change is not properly managed. Addiction in a sense where the company will upgrade their hardware not because they need to but because they are amazed of the new technologies that are available.
But then again these risks in IT change are overwhelmed by its positive results if properly planned. These are some of IT change positive results.
Speed and Ease of Communication
Depending on your age, you might not even remember a time when you’d have to wait a few days in order to see documents or contracts. The fax machine made instant perusal of documents possible, but why waste the paper? Now a few clicks of a mouse and you can instantly share documents with a hundred people all over the world.
More “Stolen” Time
The desk of the average employee likely contains a playground of things to do other than work. The Internet is right there and his desk drawers contain an MP3 player, a cell phone and perhaps even a portable video game system. Studies about how much time employees spend not working while on the clock are surprising to many. Some studies say that employees are doing other things, such as surfing the net, for up to 4 hours a day. This is one of the downsides of small business and information technology. The internet is the most accessible temptation for many employees. Instituting rules about only using the internet for business related purposes don’t usually have a lot of impact. Open work spaces, where everyone can see what everyone else is doing is more effective, but such office arrangements are not the best option for every business.
More Opportunities to Work from Home
Thanks to information technology, many more people have the opportunity to telecommute than ever before. Telecommuting is a perk that many employees love, and if you can offer this option you may be able to lure some talented employees to your business without necessarily having to match their current salary. Super high speed internet connections and other business technologies are what allow many employees the opportunity to work from home. It’s hard to say what changes will come to small business and information technology with the next wave of technology changes, but one thing is for sure. Change is coming.
