Technology Management and Improving Department Performance
As the manager of a team of 25 customer service representatives our company, I've noticed the significant investments made in key technology, systems and processes are losing their effectiveness. Over the last year for example, the large investments in Customer elationship Management (CM) systems and training have only led to greater confusion on the part of customer service reps regarding escalation paths. The investments in analytics are leading not to a single version of the truth, but literally dozens of them. The intent of this analysis is to identify the issues, concerns and incidents leading to poor technology management, in addition to defining strategies and techniques to improve my team's and the company's use of technologies. In conclusion I'll provide a strategy for turning this situation around in 6 months.
Identifying the Causes of Poor Technology Management in our Company
Most systemic to the dropping effectiveness of…...
mlaReferences
Beldi, a., Cheffi, W., & Dey, P.. (2010). Managing customer relationship management projects: The case of a large French telecommunications company. International Journal of Project Management, 28(4), 339.
Colomo-Palacios, R. (2011). Managing it Professionals in Global Environments. Journal of Global Information Technology Management, 14(4), 1-3.
Harison, E., & Boonstra, a.. (2009). Essential competencies for technochange management: Towards an assessment model. International Journal of Information Management, 29(4), 283.
Mark Ramrattan, & Nandish V. Patel. (2010). Web-based information systems development and dynamic organisational change: The need for development tools to cope with emergent information requirements. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 23(3), 365-377.
The finding of this study is consistent with others that over time the organizational culture, communication and culture will also change to reflect the IT foundational elements defined, implemented and eventually engrained into the culture of a public administration office or ministry (Androniceanu, 2009). ealizing this, public administration IT planners and Chief Information officers are designing systems to allow for greater agility and speed to response to citizen's requirements. The study analyzed and reported on by the authors underscore how an IT system must be designed to support transparency to the analytics and reporting level, in conjunction with designing in the specific stakeholder requirements to the screen and field level, in precisely the sequence they are accustomed to working with them (Androniceanu, 2009). The study shows how the omanian public administration also took the extraordinary step of implementing measures of citizen responsiveness and satisfaction levels for its call centers…...
mlaReferences
Androniceanu, A. (2009). New Public Management Model based on an Integrated System using the Informational and Communication Technologies. Administratie Si Management Public, (13), 83-88.
Project Management
Like things information technology management, business intelligence typically implemented form a "project" --, a special kind organizational arrangement set specific things a specific period time, opposed a regular ongoing part organizational structure.
Project management: My experience
"To be successful in the field of BI, a project team needs members with an understanding of and appreciation for the information needs of the user community as well as the technologies" (Wu 2005: 1). It is not enough for a project manager to know how the technology works 'for himself.' He or she must know why, how, and if the technology will be useful to others and will have applications in the field. The project manager must truly be someone who can wear two hats: he or she must be fully abreast of developments in the field and thoroughly understand the technology of the project. Yet the manager must also be people savvy. The…...
mlaReference
Wu, J. (2005) Characteristics of an outstanding business intelligence project manager.
Information Management Magazine. Retrieved at:
http://www.information-management.com/issues/20050501/1026063-1.html
Vandalism
Vandalism is a major concern because of the nature of the products manufactured by the organization and the high rate of theft generally associated with motor vehicles and motorcycles. It is recommended that the organization conduct a thorough perimeter and site security audit for the purposes of ensuring the maximum mitigation of any risks of vandalism and theft. To the extent that internal vandalism is a concern, it is recommended that the organization invest in security cameras to monitor critical areas. Additionally, employee physical access to specific areas on the grounds of the company should be restricted appropriately based on responsibilities. Likewise, it is recommended that different degrees of it system access be assigned to employees on the basis of need instead of allowing universal system access to all authorized it system users.
Computer Viruses
Modern it systems are inherently vulnerable to many types of malicious attempts at unauthorized infiltration and theft…...
). Such security should also preplan strategic responses to attacks associated with the network (Dawkins et al.).
A book entitled "Surviving Security: How to Integrate People, Process, and Technology" explains that the rapid expansion networking and networking technologies necessitates greater security needs. The author asserts that parts of the network such as routers, switches and even network printers are vulnerable (Andress). The article further explains that the router or switch contained between the firewall and the internet access or between the firewall and the internal network are often vulnerable. Organizations with networks should work hard to secure them at these points. The article also states that if attackers can gain access to a network at these points, they can gain access to sensitive information and compromise the stability of the network. Also attackers who gain access to a network at one of the aforementioned points will also be able to develop…...
mlaWorks Cited
Strong Case for converged Networks." 24 October, 2008 http://www.networkmagazineindia.com/200206/cover2.shtml
Andress, Amanda. Surviving Security: How to Integrate People, Process, and Technology. Boca Raton, FL: Auerbach Publications, 2003
Bates, R.J. Voice and Data Communication Handbook. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2007
CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION Further Efforts Needed to Integrate Planning for and Response to Disruptions on Converged Voice and Data Networks. United States Government Accounting Office, 2008. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08607.PDF
Information Technology Management Case Study
Why is it important to have several status review and decision points throughout the project's life cycle?
It is important to have several review and decision points throughout the project's life cycle because that is the only effective way of identifying potential delays and other obstacles at the earliest possible point. That enables the team to mitigate the potential damage or delay to the project as much as possible under the factual circumstances, whatever they may be. It also allows the team leader or client liaison to communicate with the client and explain the reasons for doing anything that requires a departure from the original project plan, anticipated expenses, and timeline.
As the case study illustrates, the consequences of not pre-establishing several status review and decision points throughout the project's life cycle did the exact opposite. Instead of identifying potential problems and reasons for delay as early as…...
mlaReference
CNN.com. (1999). "Metric mishap caused loss of NASA orbiter." (September 30, 1999)
Accessed online:
Giving them the opportunity to participate in the product launch decisions from a marketing standpoint also highlighted an embarrassing point for marketing, and that was engineering often understood the competition and its true functionality better than anyone in marketing. The reason is that the engineers had taken great pride in working on their product features they were responsible for to make them the best in the industry, and it was clear some had taken great pains to make a statement in their work. Creating shared ownership of product outcomes strengthens morale of technical professionals and infuses an entire development team with more accountability (Voss, 1993) and willingness to internalize a strong commitment to the success of the product (Kochanski, Ledford, 2001).
The risk of recommending this strategy would be that the more dominant engineers would overrule marketing and turn the entire marketing strategy into more of a features discussion than…...
mlaReferences
David Baccarini, Geoff Salm, & Peter ED Love. (2004). Management of risks in information technology projects. Industrial Management + Data Systems, 104(3/4), 286-295.
Jain, S.. (2008). DECISION SCIENCES: A Story of Excellence at Hewlett-Packard. OR-MS Today, 35(2), 20
James Kochanski & Gerald Ledford. (2001). "How to keep me" -- retaining technical professionals. Research Technology Management, 44(3), 31-38.
Li, Y., & Zhu, K.. (2009). Information acquisition in new product introduction. European Journal of Operational Research, 198(2), 618.
A manager's duty is not to be liked but to be effective; a manager remains firmly committed to the health of his or her organization by following rules, regulations, and guidelines. "A leader is someone who people naturally follow through their own choice, whereas a manager must be obeyed," ("The Difference between Management and Leadership," 1997). Effective managers and leaders both motivate and inspire people to reach their highest potential.
In order for a manager to create and maintain a healthy organizational culture, he or she should develop strong interpersonal awareness, including mediation skills and respect for diversity. As a director of development at a private Catholic high school, I work in a stimulating environment that requires ascription to rational and financial goals as well as to spiritual, ideological, and interpersonal goals. With a diverse student body and a diverse staff, I must retain a strong emotional as well as…...
mlaReferences
The Difference between Management and Leadership." (1997). Retrieved August 20, 2005 online at http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/MENG/ME96/Documents/Intro/leader.html
Leading vs. Managing -- They're Two Different Animals." (2001). Online Women's Business Center. Retrieved August 20, 2005 online at http://www.onlinewbc.gov/docs/manage/leading.html
Maccoby, Michael (2000). "Understanding the Difference between Management and Leadership." Research Technology Management. Volume 43. No. 1. January-February, 2000. pp 57-59. Retrieved August 20, 2005 online at http://www.maccoby.com/Articles/UtDBMaL.html
Management/Technology
Management, Science, and Technology
Who Is a Manager?
A manager is someone who knows how to take charge, organize, direct, and be accountable for individuals and groups of people operating under his guidance. Anyone who shows leadership skills can be a manager. A manager's goal is to work towards the common good. This means keeping persons on pace to meet their objectives, budgeting time wisely, and instilling in his inferiors a desire to care.
Managerial Ethics
Top management impacts ethics within an organization by setting the tone and the standard for ethical practice. Superiors shape inferiors, not the other way around. Therefore, if top management encourages unethical activity through its own unethical behavior, an organization will, ultimately, be comprised of several unethical attitudes. A great example of this is Enron Corp. Top management of Enron encouraged poor ethical practices by practicing in a disingenuous manner themselves. They hoodwinked investors and encouraged their day traders…...
mlaReference List
Holmes, C. (2007). The Ultimate Sales Machine. NY: Penguin.
McLean, B., Elkind, P. (2013). The Smartest Guys in the Room. NY: Penguin.
Management of Technology in Developing Countries Such as Iran
Technology management arrangements of developing countries vary from those of first world ones. The requirement for skill in these states is not growing from within, but somewhat cropping up from new wares imported from first world countries. Technological growth in addition does not consequence from inner data and research, but resulting upon the technology transmission from abroad. In these environments, technology management by customary way is barely effective. These are troubles facing the Islamic epublic of Iran these days and as a consequence organizations controlling the technology management endure non-compliance, then technological development does not trail an accurate trend (obertson, 2002).
Lack of distinctive management, vagueness of technological precedence's, misunderstanding of policy-making roles and inter-organization implementation and management, tremendous government involvement in all fields and lack of specialist manpower are amongst the vital troubles of the topic (Sveiby et. al 2001). Even though…...
mlaReferences
(1.) Abou-Zeid, E.S. "A Knowledge Management Reference Model." Journal of Knowledge Management, 6(5), 2002. pp. 486-499.
(2.) Bender S. And Fish A. "The Transfer of Knowledge and the Retention of Expertise: The Continuing Need for Global Assignments." Journal of Knowledge Management, 4(2), 2008. pp. 125-135.
(3.) Beveren, V.J. "A Model of Knowledge Acquisition that Refocuses Knowledge Management." Journal of Knowledge Management, 6(1), 2002. pp. 18-22.
(4.) Bhatt, G. "Organizing Knowledge in the Knowledge Development Cycle." Journal of Knowledge Management, 4(1), 2009. pp. 15-26.
The modeling environments was so accurate it could deliver results that aligned at a 95% accuracy rate with the actual results achieved. Another advantage was the use of knowledge management to orchestrate multichannel selling, marketing and service scenarios across the client's specific requirements and needs. The analytics and knowledge management systems were also combined successfully to create a constraint-based engine as well. All of these factors were critical to the success of the system.
The cons of this modeling approach were the lack of precision on pricing ands the ability to model the more finely-tuned aspects of the programs. There was not enough data to create a profitability measurement and the use of constraint modeling at times could leave out the more unpredictable aspects of the marketing mix. hile the virtual marketplace proved effective for testing message, media and defining audience, it lacks the precision necessary for making long-term, highly…...
mlaWorks Cited
Ball, Leslie D. "IT Education Success Strategies for Change Management." Information Systems Management 17.4 (2000): 74-7.
Benamati, John, Albert L. Lederer, and Meenu Singh. "Information Technology Change: The Impact on IT Management." The Journal of Computer Information Systems 38.4 (1998): 9-13.
Bordum, Anders. "The Strategic Balance in a Change Management Perspective." Society and Business Review 5.3 (2010): 245-58.
Eastman, Doug, and Claire McCarthy. "Embracing Change: Healthcare Technology in the 21st Century." Nursing management 43.6 (2012): 52.
The vision Oracle has is one of unifying all of their enterprise applications into their Fusion architecture and creating a single unifying Service oriented Architecture (SOA) was first announced in 2006 (Krill, 13). Since that time Oracle has continually strived to create an SOA in Fusion that would appeal to its corporate customers. The proposed Fusion SOA platform has been designed to be robust and scalable enough to encompass enterprise-level applications including Enterprise esource Planning (EP) applications while also being flexible enough to provide for individualized application development. There are critics of SOA in general and Fusion specifically, with industry analysts considering it too difficult to create a process-centric model that allows for pervasive, in-depth applications necessary for mission-critical business while at the same time allowing for significant scalability (Handy, 2005). Despite these concerns however Fusion continues to gain market acceptance and provide Oracle with a path to the fulfillment…...
mlaReferences
Oracle
Alex Handy. 2005. Oracle Fusion: The 'Frankenstein' of SOA? Software Development Times, October 15, 6
Paul Krill. 2006. Oracle Does SOA. InfoWorld, August 14, 11-13
Security
The cloud computing platform has also made it possible for companies to integrate their information technologies and services into a common strategy; a goal that had not been attainable in the past (Buttol, Buonamici, Naldesi, inaldi, Zamagni, Masoni, 2012).
A second strategic technology that is driving a high level of innovation in organizations is mobility and the rise of mobile computing, incouding the latest generation of operating systems in this area. Apple's iOS, Google's Android and many other operating systems are the foundation of disruptive innovation throughout many enterprises today. The early advances in mobile technologies are a case in point, as are the continued development of medical applications for the Apple iPad (Wickramasinghe, Sharma, Goldberg, 2003). Mobility is also showing the potential to be a technology that can support precise geo-positioning and analysis of the best delivery routes for courier services and supply chain-based companies as well. The rise…...
mlaReferences
Arinze, B., & Anandarajan, M. (2010). Factors that determine the adoption of cloud computing: A global perspective.International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems, 6(4), 55.
Buttol, P., Buonamici, R., Naldesi, L., Rinaldi, C., Zamagni, A., & Masoni, P. (2012). Integrating services and tools in an ICT platform to support eco-innovation in SMEs. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 14(2), 211-221.
Kleis, L., Chwelos, P., Ramirez, R.V., & Cockburn, I. (2012). Information technology and intangible output: The impact of IT investment on innovation productivity. Information Systems Research, 23(1), 42-59,280,282-283.
Nambisan, S., Bacon, J., & Throckmorton, J. (2012). The role of the innovation capitalist in open innovation. Research Technology Management, 55(3), 49-57.
Often companies who have highly configurable products or services, such as Dell or in the services businesses, insurance and healthcare companies, need to provide customers with the ability to customize products in real time to their needs. Product configurators today are being used in e-business systems in these industries to provide suppliers with advance visibility of customer demand while capturing orders accurately at the same time (Aurich, Wolf, Siener, Schweitzer, 2009). The quote-to-order process encompasses creating customized products and services while staying within the constraints of profitability for an enterprise (Sawik, 2011). Studies also indicate the greater the level of system integration in these process areas, the higher the level of eturn on Investment (OI) achieved by companies who commit to making their systems work with each other in real time (Das, 2011). The greater the accuracy and velocity of information in the build-to-order, configure-to-order and engineer-to-order workflows of…...
mlaReferences
JC Aurich, N Wolf, M Siener, & E. Schweitzer. (2009). Configuration of product-service systems. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 20(5), 591-605.
Barrett, J. (2007, November). Demand-Driven is an Operational Strategy. Industrial Management, 49(6), 14-19,5.
Das, K. (2011). A quality integrated strategic level global supply chain model. International Journal of Production Research, 49(1), 5.
Hernandez, J., Poler, R., Mula, J., & Lario, F. (2011). The Reverse Logistic Process of an Automobile Supply Chain Network Supported by a Collaborative Decision-Making Model. Group Decision and Negotiation, 20(1), 79-114.
Call centers have become a very vital component of business today and employ several million people the world over. Their increasing role and place in operations have made them a target for researchers looking to study operations management. This has been the case in several fields including capacity planning, personnel scheduling, queuing and forecasting. Further, with the advancement of information technology and telecommunications, new challenges have arisen that call centers all over the world have to face and various technologies have complicated the operations of call centers (Aksin, Armony & Mehrotra, 2007). Operation Technology (OT) helps in the creation of physical value as well as in the process of manufacturing. It consists of sensors, software and devices needed for the control and monitoring of equipment in a plant as well as the plant as a whole. On the other hand, Information technology (IT) brings together all the required pieces of…...
Key Responsibilities of a Radiology Administrator in a Healthcare Setting
1. Strategic Planning and Management
Develop and implement short-term and long-term plans to enhance radiology services and align with healthcare organization's strategic direction.
Conduct market research, analyze trends, and identify opportunities for growth and improvement.
Establish and monitor performance metrics to assess radiology service quality and efficiency.
2. Fiscal Management and Budgeting
Oversee all financial aspects of the radiology department, including budget planning, expense monitoring, and revenue generation.
Ensure compliance with financial regulations and accounting standards.
Identify and implement cost-saving measures without compromising patient care.
3. Human Resources Management
Hire, train, and evaluate....
Offer management and order processing are critical functions within the logistics context of manufacturing industries. Efficient management of offers and orders can greatly impact customer satisfaction, productivity, and overall profitability. However, these processes often face various challenges such as bottlenecks, delays, and inefficiencies that can hinder the smooth flow of operations.
One of the key challenges in offer management and order processing is the lack of integration and coordination between different departments and systems within an organization. According to a study by Van Hoek et al. (2001), this lack of coordination can result in delays in processing orders and can lead....
The manufacturing industry is a complex and dynamic sector that requires effective offer management and order processing to ensure customer satisfaction, productivity, and profitability. A thorough literature review reveals the challenges and best practices in these critical processes, as well as the impact of bottlenecks, delays, and inefficiencies on organizational performance.
Several studies have highlighted the challenges faced by manufacturers in offer management and order processing, including the need for accurate and timely information, complex pricing structures, and the coordination of multiple departments. For example, a study by Smith and Jones (2015) found that delays in order processing can result in....
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