Technological efficiency is one of the most important activities that associated with an organization, as it has the ability and tendency to assist the company to attain its long term objectives. The essence of technological efficiency is necessary for an entity because it has a direct linkage with the bottom line of the organization. This is the main thing, why organizations always emphasize to strengthen their information technology department in a perfect manner. There is a case study that associated with this assignment. The case study is all about Challenge of IT management in the Global Business Context written by Dube and Bernier (Bernier, and Brunelle, 2006).
Information Technology is basically a combination of two things, which are information and technology. It means that the utilization of information to enhance the level of technology. Information Technology (IT) infrastructure is the next big thing that identified in the case study. According to the case study, IT infrastructure referred to the composite of hardware, network resources and software that required specifically for the existence, operations and management of an enterprise and its IT environment (Bernier, and Brunelle, 2006). IT infrastructure enables an organization provides IT based solutions and services to its partners, employees and customers to enhance facilities and enhance the financial belongings.
According to the case study, the entire infrastructure of IT has been based upon numerous components, and some of the major components are mentioned below
- Servers, Hardware, Switches, Data Centers, Hubs and Routers
- The working and workability through the Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP), Model of Customer Relationship management (CRM), along with the core software that associated specifically with the productivity of the companies
- Internet connectivity, security and firewalls are come under the same ambit of analysis, and they act like wonders for the companies, and it is equally beneficial for Alcan Technology as well.
The biggest pros of the infrastructure for Alcan technology is that it strengthen the entire function and operations of the company with a positive mean. Apart from that the payment structure of Alcan technology along with their operations would enhanced considerably with the help of the technological infrastructure (Dube, Bernier and Roy, 2009). ERP has now emerged as one of the basics for the organizations as far as enhancing their productivity is concerned, and it is effective for Alcan technology as well, as it strengthen the ERP function and workability of the company.
There are some cons as well that addressed with Alcan technology, like adoption of the technological efficiency is not possible in the commencement of the operations, because of the complexity of the infrastructure, and low recognition from the others. Apart from this, there is yet another con which is a high amount of cost association, and it may be ineffective for the company in the future.
Ans-2)
According to the case study, the company gave charged of Vice President and Chief Financial Officer to Robert Ouellette in order to bring positivity and improvement in the current IT infrastructure (Dube, Bernier and Roy, 2009). The pros of the new IT infrastructure initiated by Robert are as follows
- The newly implemented and deployed IT management system will allow the storage of a large amount of information in an electronic database management
- The existence of the current electronic database enables and empowers Alcan technology to act in a faster and efficient way to enhance the level of communication among the business associates from different countries of the world
- The introduction of Voice over IP (VoIP) will certainly make the services quicker and effective for Alcan technology
- The new management function and system will allow the operation to reduce its times on applying on different tasks to provide better results and increasing the level of profits
- It also allows the budget control and identifications
- The newly implemented IT management system will certainly reduce the cost with a personal, and ultimately will increase the financial belongings of the company accordingly
Apart from the pros, there are certain cons that associated with Alcan technologies, identified in the case study, and these cons are as follows
- The introduction of a new IT management system will increase the job cutting within the company, and will consequently increase the unemployment rates
- The introduction of a new IT management system will lead to change the entire organizational structure (Dube, Bernier and Roy, 2009)
- The new IT management system don’t have a self-dependency system until and unless they cannot operate effectively and comprehensively
- The maintenance time of the new IT management system is extremely high, and high cost associated as well with this particular maintenance
- The software in the IT management system can generate altered responses
The level of pros is higher than of cons. Hence, the change proposed by Robert Ouellette in the year 2006 was a true success for Alcan technologies.
References
Bernier, C., Roy, V. and Brunelle, E. (2006) An ERP Story: Troubles Ahead (C). International Journal of Case Studies in Management. 4(1):March
Dube, L., Bernier, C. and Roy, V. (2009) Taking on the Challenge of IT Management in a Global Business Context: The Alcan Case – Part A. International Journal of Case Studies in Management. 7(2):May. HEC020
