8.+Role+of+IT

=Role of Information Technology =

Information technology, enables an organization to gather, integrate, analyze, and disseminate large amounts of information quickly and accurately to consumers throughout the world. Without information technology virtual organizations could exist -- as general contractors and subcontractors have existed for generations in the housing industry -- but its scope and the areas in which it operates would be limited by time and space constraints. The Internet and its progeny are a specific form of information technology that has and will increasingly enable virtual organizations by allowing timely and ubiquitous access to large amounts of information in varied formats. Because of the uncertainty of how the Internet will evolve, one cannot say what its impact will be other than that impact will be great and profoundly affect the virtual organizations ongoing form and operations.([|Miller, Engemann, 1997])

Venkatraman (1994), suggests that an organization seeking to achieve greater levels of flexibility should look at their business in terms of relationships and processes in order to refocus IT on business capability or cost reduction/quality issues. In the same article, he defines a business-oriented version of EDI called BNR - Business Network Redesign (cited below). What is interesting is that he defines BNR in the same way most organizations now define e-business. His comparison of EDI and BNR yield most of the same differences as between EDI and common e-business strategies. The former is technology driven and proprietary and the latter is business driven and uses an open platform that is the Internet. Given the strong business focus and cross-organizational context of BNR, we have adopted it as part of our operating definition of e-business (Crystal Ball Services )

The model below to highlight the various areas where technology and enterprise relationships intersect(Crystal Ball Services)



Cloud Computing
According to National Institute of Standards and Technology, Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models. ([|CSRC])

media type="custom" key="24648772" width="60" height="60"

media type="custom" key="24648776" width="60" height="60"

=References =

[|Miller, H. E., Engemann, K. J. (1997) "The Role of Information Technology in Managing Virtual Organizations". Fourth International Conference on Social Values, University of Oxford, England.]

[|The role of IT in VO - blog]

[|Innovation and IT in VOs - an empirical study]

media type="facebooklike" key="http%3A%2F%2Foale2group.wikispaces.com%2F8.%20Role%20of%20IT" width="450" height="80"