The IT Business

JOURNAL #ONE [DES501]

The IT Business

The business of IT is an area that I am familiar with, particularly some of the areas discussed in the course topics such as:

• Inventory Management Systems
• Management Information Systems
• Customer Relationship Systems

All these technology tools are essential for businesses to communicate with customer, partners, suppliers and stockists, and to manage the functions of their internal organisations. I have been fortunate to be able to implement these tools in organisations to improve the speed and effectiveness of departments, which can tangibly improve the offering to customers through automation and the electronic storage of information.

The adoption of technology is not only useful for businesses moving from a manual or paper-based process to a digital way of working but also when developing or replacing older technologies with newer alternatives. The benefits of implementing technology should be communicated to stakeholders to gain their support and lead to the success of the project.

Experience throughout my career has allowed me to witness first-hand the benefits of technological systems. My partner and I established an online clothing store and after investigating several options from a bespoke build developed by a local web developer, to an ‘off the shelf’ content management system, we decided to deploy a Shopify store. From a business user point of view, we couldn’t have asked for a better start for our start-up business.

Shopify allowed us to create an online business quickly, with limited technical expertise and with minimal capital expenditure. The system they offer provided all the features we had hoped for including:

• Web-based Store
• Inventory Management
• Sales Tracking
• Customer Communications
• Integrated payment processing
• Design templates
• Systems security

Technology has never made setting up a business so easy. It was invaluable when we went travelling for 3 months, allowing us to continue the business whilst on the road. The flip side of all of this, however, is that it is all too easy to get lost in the crowd. Getting noticed on social media platforms requires a significant amount of work and effort, consistency and quality of both the product and advertising materials were key to maintaining a loyal customer base.

Important IT Roles

I am aware of the various roles in IT however, it was good to discuss these in class - it reaffirmed some of the courses choices I had made for my final academic year. It also gave me confidence in my skill set and my career background, I have experience managing teams with a heavy reliance on IT systems, this has involved developing new systems and adapting existing systems to perform different functions in other departments.

The experience gained is from a business user perspective, and it was a desire to understand how systems are developed from a technical IT perspective that led to my pursuing a degree in IT. The intention is to be of greater value to businesses and organisations by being able to speak the language of both business and technical users of systems, operationally and at all stages of the system development lifecycle.

Product Planning

I am familiar with goal-orientated workflows having had experience setting key performance indicators (KPIs) for teams, organisations and personal goals in financial and operational management. There is overlap with the principles of the objectives and key results (OKRs) strategy in its aim to increase the transparency, alignment and focus of teams around their responsibilities and shared objective’s.

The OKR framework consists of three elements that support the goal of the business or organisation:

1. Objectives: Description of the long-term goals
2. Key Result: Performance indicator with a starting and target value
3. Initiative: Outline the various tasks to achieve the target

Where my experience in the assignment of KPIs differs from the OKR framework, is that OKR allows the freedom for employees to help formulate goals for the business or organisation. I have often found that those users with hands-on operational knowledge of the system are well placed to add real value with systems analysis, design and development. More traditional models tend to set attainable goals that can easily be accomplished, OKR encourages teams to set ambitious goals and accepts all of them may not be met. This approach is more bottom-up than top-down, which allows employees to set their own goals that align with the corporate objectives.

The OKR framework has other tangible benefits, for example, progress reviews are conducted at more regular intervals, which is necessary for today’s fast-paced operating environment. Furthermore, the fast-paced structure places the focus on the activities that lead to achieving the ultimate goal, making the method structurally more quantitative.

Product planning is well suited to the OKR method, objectives are aligned directly with the user problems that the planning team must solve. These problems might be how to improve the user experience of a system, enhancing system performance, or working on new projects as part of the planning life cycle. The benefits and popularity of OKR are clear when thinking about agile teams, who need to measure the tasks they do and measure outcomes when adapting to strategic change.

References

Objectives and Key Results (OKR)—Overview, How It Works, Advantages. (n.d.). Corporate Finance Institute. Retrieved March 18, 2021, from https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/strategy/objectives-and-key-results-okr/