Implementation of ICT Strategy

Requirement

The aim of the report is to investigate an ICT Strategy Issue relating to Digital Disruption. The Analysis must be between 1,500 +- 100 words, (excluding Appendices, References, Table of Contents and Figures).

Solution

ABSTRACT

This work elicits the implementation of ICT strategy in higher learning institutes that has enabled a better delivery of services and led to digital disruptions in the traditional model of education delivery. Digital services have become ubiquitous in this century and no business can ignore the utility of a sound IT strategy to boost its growth. The report tries to critically evaluate the different aspects of ICT implementation strategy in the light of innovation, leadership, disruptive technology and ease of use. Finally, this work throws light on how ICTs can play a pivotal role in the strategic and operational management of higher learning institutes to deliver a better service to all its stakeholders.

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INTRODUCTION

Digitization have challenged and disrupted the legacy systems of doing business world over. Leaders all over the world understand and accept the need for building sound ICT strategy to drive its revenue or customer base. The traditional marketing mix of any organization that is product, price, place and promotion is channelized and determined through information and communication technologies. Let us first understand in a clear way the meaning of ICT systems.

 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an elaborate version of Information Technology (IT) wherein the role of information and communication are intertwined through integration of information technology systems with telecommunication networks. Users are able to communicate, access, store and transmit data through a single network which hosts computer systems, middleware, software and an entire gamut of other technologies. However, it should be mentioned here that there is no universal answer to any ICT strategy since the methods and applications of ICT are continuously evolving in a rapid way(Wong, 2002).This work has chosen the implementation of ICT strategy in higher learning institutes to critique and analyse with special reference to digital disruption.

ICT AND HIGHER LEARNING INDUSTRY

Information technology fundamentally changes the level playing field for an organization through its nature and application in businesses. ICTs provide enormous strategic tools which when implemented wisely can bring about tremendous competitive advantage in terms of doing business. The increase of internet penetration and usage has fostered a new source of communication for businesses with their present and prospective customers. The same is applicable for higher learning institutes where if proper infrastructure for ICT implementation is created it can work wonders for them.

 ICTs also have great implications for the strategy and operations of a business. Businesses are destined to be driven by information gathered from different sources and boost their profitability if information is interpreted effectively. The ubiquitous nature of web 2.0 has forced businesses to rethink and reengineer their business models to sustain growth and profitability. ICTs also impart competitive advantage by entirely transforming a business through the use of technology. E-learning has become a buzz word nowadays and companies are cashing on this opportunity with proliferation of e-learning portals. The emerging mobile technology and mobile computing features are bound to revolutionize current industries and bring a paradigm shift to their strategic initiatives(Semaan and Mark, 2011).

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

Higher learning organizations already utilize a wide gamut of ICT technologies especially after the emergence of internet, it has become their prime mode of increasing their reach to prospective customers. They also use ICT to service all stakeholders and upgrade their performance.Technology has changed the definition of varied range of business functions like client communication, business environment observation, external stakeholder servicing and facilitating consumers at large.

They have gone ahead with implementation of intranets to facilitate their internal stakeholders to manage their daily work as well as extranets are also being established. These extranets serve the purpose of giving access to institute data to partner organizations who have legitimate authority on those. Additionally, they have developed several internal management applications which help in strategic decision making like marketing and public relations. ICTs support numerous business functions and they are required for the overall functioning of any higher learning institute. Educational institutes are the rare breed of businesses which have to rely on so many partners and collaborate with them on a continuous basis to have their desired output or service. ICTs help in that process by finding value added services and also niche segments to service their end customers in a better fashion(Anwar, 2013). Cost optimization, flexibility and maximising efficiency are some of the attributes imparted by ICT systems in any educational institute. As educational institutes are constantly dealing with data and information, ICT systems make life easier for the stakeholders by giving opportunity for faster communication, storage and transmission of data.

ICT MANAGEMENT APPROACHES

The call of the day is to have a hybrid mass-customized ICT strategy built on a sound IT infrastructure so that they can deliver high quality education at low-cost and also instil innovation in the process. The 3 ICT Management processes are as follows:

  • Integrated Approach – It has a focal unit of ICT implementation strategy that is completely integrated with the teaching and learning wings of the University, with special focus on the support development for professional programs. This approach is also intertwined with the institute goals.

  • Parallel Approach – In this methodology, the ICT unit is separated from the teaching and learning wing which runs in parallel to the ICT implementation and present staff development programs.

  • Distributed Approach – This bottom-up approach that divests the responsibility for ICT implementation from a central unit to numerous local stakeholders like faculty, staff, etc.

It is expected in a fast-paced world that as innovation sets in there will be other approaches of ICT implementation strategy generated that are quite differentiated from the present methodologies(Munro, 2008).

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DIGITAL DISRUPTION AND ICT

Digital disruption alludes to the changes that take place in our surrounding environment driven by technological advancement which challenges the legacy systems and ways of doing things such social interactions, conducting business and lastly our perspective as a whole. Digital disruption can show attributes from both sides of the coin and can be treated a boon as well as a bane(Burnett et al., 2006).
ICT induced alterations can trigger digital disruption since it takes place at such a pace that people are not able to change their entrenched thought process and cope with the evolution. Digital technologies offer new horizon of possibilities and open up new pioneering business models for the budding entrepreneurs. Digital disruption can occur at any sphere of one’s life namely:

  • Hindrances to established life-practices

  • Evolution of the entrenched work processes

  • Disruptive business models can change the way an industry is run

  • Breakout from the traditional societal structures and boundaries

Digital disruption cannot be understood by simply extending the present business practices to future times. Digitization challenges the fundamental assumptions on which the extrapolation would be made which makes it more difficult to predict such changes. So in order to understand such disruptions we need a paradigm shift for the values, communication techniques and information processing that is done traditionally. Our calculations fail when the predictive model is invalidated and hence all our forecasts seem meaningless(Law, 2009).

RECOMMENDATIONS

The need of the hour is a better understanding of the scale of disruption and the root cause for such changes. There should be initiatives for productive logical process building so that they can cope with the vagaries of the digital world. The standard checklists that can be drawn from the above discussion for a successful ICT strategy implementation with respect to digital disruption are as follows:

  • There should be strong fundamental research on which the ICT strategy should be based to understand the processes

  • Applied research initiatives should be taken to make a more suitable and sensible ICT implementation strategy which is more adaptable to the disruptive processes and the participants should be able to mould themselves to such changes(Peña-Lopez, 2009)

CONCLUSION

ICTs already play a pivotal role in the global reach and popularity of the higher educational institutes. Consolidation and integration of different ICT technologies with other processes in the industry is surely on the way. ICT systems not only contribute to daily operations of the institutes but also play crucial role in developing the strategic and operational management processes for the educational institutes. It is justified to state here that ICT will play crucial role in future to increase the reach of various universities to its potential clients and collaborate in strategic alliances with its partners. Towards the end of this report, it can be seen that ICTs have become inevitable for various higher learning institutes and they are closely integrated with numerous digital disruptive processes emerging to shape the future of the industry. This work has critically evaluated all the possible approaches for a successful ICT implementation strategy with special reference to digital disruptions. It has discussed ICT strategy in the light of innovation, partner collaboration, ease of use, customer satisfaction and generation of new revenue streams.

References

  • 1.    Anwar, R. (2013) An Operation Strategy Model of the implementation of ICT.

  • 2.    Burnett, C., Dickinson, P., Myers, J. and Merchant, G. (2006) ‘Digital connections: Transforming literacy in the primary school’, Cambridge Journal of Education, 36(1), pp. 11–29. DOI: 10.1080/03057640500491120.

  • 3.    Law, N., 2009. Teacher Learning Beyond Knowledge for Pedagogical Innovations with ICT. International Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education, Volume 20, pp. 425-434.

  • 4.    Peña-López, I. (2009) Measuring digital development for policy- making: Models, stages, characteristics and causes. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ismael_Pena-Lopez/publication/43669362_Measuring_digital_development_for_policy-making__models_stages_characteristics_and_causes/links/09e4150bddc513daa1000000.pdf (Accessed: 21 April 2016).

  • 5.    Munro, M., 2008. Why hasn’t technology disrupted academics’ teaching practices? Understanding resistance to change through the lens of activity theory. Computers & Education, 50(2), pp. 475-490.

  • 6.    Semaan, B. and Mark, G. (2011) Technology-mediated social arrangements to resolve breakdowns in infrastructure during ongoing disruption. Available at: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2063235 (Accessed: 21 April 2016).

  • 7.    Wong, P.-K. (2002) ‘ICT production and diffusion in Asia digital dividends or digital divide?’ Information Economics and Policy, 14(2), pp. 167–187. doi: 10.1016/S0167-6245(01)00065-8.

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