Managing Information Technology

Chapter 1 • Managing IT in a Digital World 5

intermediaries to sell all of their tickets. Advertising via the
Internet has also become increasingly common. Web sites
can be programmed to display screens using a different lan-
guage, different currency, and even perhaps local pricing,
depending on the user’s browser location or selected pref-
erences. Many businesses also buy, or sell, products using
Web-based auctions with suppliers or business customers
that they may never work with face-to-face.

New Ways to Work

Recent IT innovations in computer hardware, software,
and networks have also enabled people to work more pro-
ductively as employees in an office—as well as working as
telecommuters at a site far from a home office, as members
of “virtual” teams, or even as “free agents” contracted by
organizations for a short-term period.
Sales personnel and other traveling managers have
becometelecommuterswith portable computers and other
mobile equipment that give them access to company data
anytime (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) and essentially any-
where with an Internet connection. Some cities have also ex-
perimented with laws that require businesses to support
telecommuting by implementing work schedules that require
less commuting—such as four days working in the office and
one day working outside it—to help protect the environment.
Some new businesses might not even have a physical office
building or headquarters. Instead, the company might operate
as a “virtual organization” made up of individual profession-
als scattered across different domestic or global locations.
Working as a member of a virtual team—that is,
teams with members who are separated too far geographi-
cally to work face-to-face—has also become increasingly
common. Team members may use software that supports
online team meetings and document sharing as well as per-
haps videoconferencing from an online computer or in
specially equipped videoconferencing rooms. Team lead-
ers have learned to motivate workers and coordinate across
different time zones at different work sites on different
continents.
Individuals with specialized skills may also choose
to work independently as free agentswho contract out
their services without being a permanent employee of any
organization. Organizations may locate and hire free
agents (from a Web site such as guru.com) to take advan-
tage of time zone differences for designing slideshows,
Web site development, telemarketing, or other specialized
skills that are temporarily needed for a specific project or
only needed periodically. By using free agents, companies
also avoid having to make a long-term commitment to an
employee for salary and expensive benefits (such as health
care insurance).

Managing IT in Organizations

Within organizations, supporting these new ways of com-

peting and new ways of working with computer systems

and networks is the responsibility of the information sys-

tems (IS) department.Although essentially all modern

organizations today are dependent on IT networks and

applications for processing transactions and managerial

decision-making support, not all organizations have the

same level of dependency on IT. Some organizations may

still use IT primarily for back-office support but rely heav-

ily on person-to-person communications to operate their

business; others may be heavily dependent on information

systems up and running 247 for all their business oper-

ations but don’t aggressively invest in newer technologies

to enable newer strategies (Nolan and McFarlan, 2005).

Organizations also don’t always have the same level of IT

dependency over time. For example, a change in the

organization’s business leadership may result in more

aggressive IT investments.

Managing IT Resources

Today’s increased dependence on IT by businesses in many

different industries also requires IT leaders who know how

to effectively plan for and manage the organization’s IT

resources, as well as IT-savvy business leaders who can

envision strategic IT utilization (Ross et al., 1996; Weill and

Ross, 2009). In Figure 1.1, we introduce three types of IT

resources, which we discuss in more detail below.

TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE Managing technology

resources requires effective planning, building, and operat-

ing of a computer and communications infrastructure—an

information “utility”—so that managers and other employ-

ees have the right information available as needed, anytime,

FIGURE 1.1 Three Types of IT Resources

Technology Infrastructure

Computer, software, and networks that enable

an organization to conduct business and share

information across organizational units as well as

business partners

Human Resources

IT professionals and managers who have the needed

mix of technology, business, and interpersonal

skills to plan for, design, and manage the other

IT resources

Business/IT Relationships

Established relationships between business and

IT workers to ensure that the other IT resources are

aligned with business needs