Information Technology & Information Systems in business : Present & Future

" This is a vast topic and so couldn't cover the entirety of the subject but tried to convey the generic message in this article about the present and future role of Information Technology and Information Systems in business"

In the late 17th century the pace of the industrial revolution picked up, but with limited skilled manpower, need grew for the intervention of machines to share the human workload. This lead to the birth of Information technology and information systems which eventually helped the organizations to level play till the heat of globalization picked up. The globalization and internet have played an important role to convey the world the importance of information technology and information systems. Today, every organization, individual and every society lives on information systems and for the organizations, be it big or small the IT and IS has become the lifeline. Currently, with the rapid, drastic and disruptive pace of technological advancements and with complex businesses and dynamic environment in global markets the prediction of the future has become hard to predict.

In this scenario, with lots of global competition in this space, the information systems are susceptible to various vulnerabilities if they are not properly controlled. There would be no value generation for investments in IT and IS if there is no proper strategy and planning. Also, as the frequency of products, businesses and business practices are changing at a very fast pace there need to be a mechanism to help the organizations for a smooth transition. This is only possible if one can evaluate technological investments and their value generation, managing the knowledge, data and information by accurately controlling the information systems.

The majority of the organizations today with IT and IS as business moved from the traditional on-premises data centers to cloud derived solutions. This is an effect of the ongoing evolution which is said to be the biggest, most disruptive and yet most opportunistic transition in the history of information technology revolution. But this is not the end, the future of the IS and IT would completely change the way the business is done and how strategic plans are executed. The beginning of this can already be seen with organizations shifting from the customary transaction models to subscription models (Office 365, Adobe Creative Cloud etc.)

The IT and IS infrastructure today revolves around the virtual and hybrid technologies which still speaks about speed and feeds, which still partners with other organizations to cut the sales expenses and still sells strategies and proofs for obtaining the expected results. This model of operation is not sustainable in the long run considering the competitive market as the imminent threat of disruptive technologies is increasing briskly.

Here are some of the facts indicating how rapid advancements in information technology infrastructure has changed lives of people, organizations and world as a whole (Source: Google):

*By the end of 2013, there are more mobile-connected devices than people on the earth.

By the third quarter of 2017 Facebook has 2.07 billion monthly active users and it's almost 05 times the population of USA.

The e-commerce industry today is responsible for about $2 trillion in annual sales.

Over 40% of the companies that were at the top of the fortune 500 in the year 2000 are no longer there in 2010.

The amount of data storage is doubling every 18 months.

Newspapers have lost $40 billion in advertising revenue since 2000.*

If one could analyze the developments in IT and IS from the year 2000, the linear graph of advancements took a sudden spike vertically up from the later part 2010 due to rapid increase and usage of internet-enabled mobiles devices, availability and development of free open source software’s, increase of the data speed and storage etc. As explained in porters five forces, with the entry of disruptive technologies, the organization would not only face the rivalry among existing competitors but also the threat of new entrants, threat of substitute products or services, bargaining power of suppliers and the buyers which is increasing day by day and this in fact is the present scenario in the world.

Source: Google

At present, the organizations are in a phase wherein the present infrastructure of information technology is connected to the future through a bridge which may not sustain in the long run if not updated and upgraded due to highly competitive market. The organizations have to utilize this opportunity to swiftly analyze the market, study the dynamic environment and plan with an accurate strategy for smooth transition. This will also pave the way to the survival of the fittest in the market who can intercept the prospect customers on the web, speaks business, access data, show value and sell the services. This would also see the shifting of phase from descriptive analysis to predictive analysis and finally to prescriptive analysis.

Source: Google

All the while in this article I am talking about vulnerabilities, control of systems and bridging down the gap from the present role of IT and IS in business into the future and here are some areas the organizations should introspect now :

*Today we talk about supercomputers and still, we have a constant threat of security to the systems. What would happen if supercomputers give way to quantum computers? It would allow hackers to get into systems very easily if security gap is not taken care off.

Speed, network and data is the biggest concern for all the businesses today and with rapid technological advancements, these won’t be an issue in the future. The Organizations which are successful in handling these issues today may have to revamp and if required, re-engineer the complete strategy in future.

With IoT’s getting added into the system, the machines which were just analog are upgraded to digital and finally, internet enabled. However, development of IoT’s today lack global standard and if the organizations go ahead with the same strategy there is an imminent threat of complete collapse.

Environment plays an important role in our lives. Today we talk about e-waste and with the rapid pace of advancements in IT and IS the world will see more and more e-waste which is an ultimate threat to the survival of humans.*

In order to be the survival of the fittest, the organizations have to adopt the latest additions and up gradations in the information technology and information systems infrastructure. This can be achieved by setting new standards and effectively following them. Also, the organizations need to follow the innovative business model approach to stay on top of the market and have to strive hard to derive new businesses from the existing models. Finally, collaborating to accelerate development with other organizations would eventually lead to consolidation by leveraging the expertise, sharing of resources and transference of technologies thereby, realizing the mutual organization goals.

The copy of the article is also posted on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/information-technology-systems-business-present-future-kiran-kumar/