IT and the Organization

What effect does IT have on the organization? (the implications of IT)

"A stable, formal, social structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs."
Definition from Laudon

Organization Characteristics
Hierarchy of authority Written rules (operating procedures and policies) Specialized division of labor Efficiency (maximal organizational efficiency) Communications (memos, meetings, etc)
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Organizations

Culture: Military Google

Information Decisions Workflow

See: http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Weber/Whome.htm

Org. Units & IT Systems

Org. level Strategic Senior Management Time-Series Charts/Graphs Management Management (Summary Reports) Knowledge Professionals (Information) Operations Clerical (Transactions) Human Resources Labor force needs Data Use Strategy

Range & Distribution of wages, benefits Design possible career paths Track employee training, skills & evaluations

Decision-Making

Knowledge and Information Data

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Insurance Office (1965)

Giuliani, V. E. The Mechanization Of Office Work. in Forester, T., ed. The Information Technology Revolution. MIT Press; 1985.

This was Your Office in 1965

Affect of Technology
Movable type printing Before Gutenberg there were only about 30,000 books in Europe. By 1500 there were more than 9 million books Expansion of Libraries
Book stacks Library catalogs (3x5) LCSH
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Technology Changes Everything

1964 - 1980 Mainframe Era
Data and programs stored centrally Islands of information Few staff had a terminal (limited access) Focus on finding efficiencies in automating routine work transactions Computers were seen as the property of the organization Tight control and centralization of IT functions

Technology Changes Everything

1981-1999 Personal Computer Era
PC seen as personal productivity to serve the needs of the user (professional/mgmt) Need to link equipment for sharing 1 to 1 ratio of staff to PCs (wide access) Information stored locally De-centralizing of IT controls and functions (user controlled the PC) Open market in software 9

Market share accrues to the lowest-cost producer

Moores Law

$$

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This Was Your Office in 1995

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Monopoly

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PC Model Problems

Costs rise and innovation declines in a monopoly situation A PC for each user is expensive, wasteful and inefficient Costs of Managing PCs have risen
Support Maintenance
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Cost Reduction Strategies

Hardware Standards (1 size fits all) Applications Standards (approved software, ie can only use MS Access) Electronic Software Distribution
Automatic installs based on approved list No user-installable software

Automatic remote virus detection and repair, and data backup

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This is Your Office Now

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Thin Computing

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Technology Changes Everything

2000Internet Era
No islands of info Global 24 x 7

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Internet Age
Mobile devices for mobile users Data can be stored online Applications are online Users wont have to worry about installing software or upgrading, or viruses or backups Being connected
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Internet Age Characteristics

Mobile high speed connectivity anywhere/anytime Communication and collaboration tools Online Applications and Services Computing power is on the server and the user gets free computing Users work from multiple locations Replacement of desktop applications with web applications E-mail, Mapping, Photos, Bookmarks Benefits of open standards Free market + low barrier to entry = innovation Good quality, low-cost development tools
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Internet Era Characteristics

Users just need access to a web browser Web-based applications are appealing when separate computers for home, work and travel are common and people are used to sharing calendars, photos and other data with co-workers, friends and relatives. While computer-intensive applications like Photoshop or full-featured programs like Microsoft Office won't come to browsers anytime soon, many users do not need the advanced features or cannot afford the cost Major brands such as Google and Yahoo enjoy name-recognition for online applications/services
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Web Applications
A web application is an program delivered to users from a web server over a network such as the internet or an intranet Web applications are popular due to the ubiquity of the web browser as a client, sometimes called a thin client. The ability to update and maintain web applications without distributing and installing software on potentially thousands of client computers is a important advantage over the desktop PC model
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Web 2.0 Characteristics

Free market rapid innovation New web technologies Internet Economics
lower costs
Creation Distribution Advertising Content
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Web Programs
Keep your social calendar at Eventful or Upcoming Organize your to-do items at Gootodo Store a gigabyte's worth of documents at Box.net Create podcasts and audio memos at Odeo
http://www.sacredcowdung.com/archives/2006/03/ all_things_web.html
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Your Future Office?

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Digital Natives?
Generation who grew up with the Internet and digital technology what effect will this have on library services? Will the value of an application may become its ability to connect to, and interact with, the web? Technology changes everything but not necessarily in ways we can predict
Think about this for next week
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Economic effects of IT on the Organization

Information technology costs generally fall, labor costs generally rise. IT has been substituted for labor, resulting in fewer middle managers and clerical workers. Information technology lowers transaction costs and there are more external transactions (e.g. through outsourcing, e-commerce). Information technology can lower internal management (supervision and coordination) costs
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Contract Employees
May not be as knowledgeable as the previous full-time staff Lack corporate memory and are not part of the culture (for good or bad) Result in higher turnover costs as they tend not to remain very long Lack incentive to look after the organizations long-term interests.
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Trends from IT
Globalization Movement from industry to knowledge and service based economies Transformation of the business enterprise (and the non-profit enterprise) Emergence of the digital organization
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Impact of IT
PRE-IT
Workforce Larger

POST-IT
Smaller

Information
Skills

Limited access Broad access

Low High

Culture
Control

Hierarchical
Follow Rules

Networked
Process-based
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Impact of IT
PRE-IT
Tasks specialized compartmentalized repetitive Workflow Batch orientated (ie process overdues)

POST-IT
generalized interconnected varied/novel Event-driven (patron complains about fines)
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