Technology- a differentiating factor

IT has evolved very rapidly in the last few years. Its contribution to the business markets has been unimaginably high. As a cost centre, Technology is providing services like email, business application access, data storage, support services etc. But technology gives much more to the business. With policies and concepts such as information technology infrastructure library, IT has realized the valuable services that help the organization accomplish its objectives. Quality has become an important factor while developing any process of a business. A decade ago, the .com business model was more than unreliable; today it has managed to produce more millionaires than any other business.

Technology has been a key factor in the growing trade and commerce within nations. Businesses have been in existence since the time civilizations prevailed. The trade between nations started with a simple barter system, exchanging goods with goods, long before the concept of currency came into being. Then came Charles Babbage with a machine no human had seen, which calculated and stored data electronically. This simple machine we call computer, revolutionized the whole industry drastically. From a small shop to stock markets, nothing can be devoid of dependence on this beautiful invention. All businesses depend on technology for all levels of research and development, point of sale systems, database management, accounting and tracking, production, deliverables and post sales service. It is impossible for any business to deal with technology one way or the other. Even chuck Norris wouldn’t dare to stop this kind of progressing ideologies of technology.

IT isn’t just evolving businesses; it is the central determinant of every successful business model. It has become a core driver of growth, and there is a significant amount of variance in the productivity of firms, depending on the usage of IT. As IT becomes ubiquitous and cheaper to use, opportunities for co-invention and producing organizational models that realize the value of technological inventions grow regularly. A large fraction of future wealth creation will depend on how the technology progresses. Transforming potential to generate profits sitting on the backbone of technology will become a priority in the future.

Investment in IT is critical to the consistent growth of an organization. Successful managers would be able to predict and invest in technologies that are the best suitable business model in the market. They will find the right parameters to feed inputs into the model giving the maximum optimized output. There are governance rules to follow a particular code of conduct that would ensure smooth flow of information. Creativity and innovation in the application of data models is another important factor in determining successful maintenance of data flows models. IT recognizes the data blue print of an organization which guides how the businesses should work.

The most subtle invariant of technology is the sustained increase in programmability, wherein increased complexity can be aggregated, codified and finally integrated into standard modules. This allows competencies and capabilities to be added to the conventional devices just by addition of digital instructions to the software. Modularity is fundamental in the effective implementation of IT in business. The addition and improvisation of modular layers can be it a standardized code to be used anywhere else. This capability allows programmers to cross the threshold that makes them feasible and suitable for purposes that were considered conventional.
The interpretation of the recent visibility of a modular and shared IT infrastructure as evidence of the shrinking importance of  IT to business professionals misses a more intrinsic point, that the large shared IT infrastructures create considerable opportunities and threats for firms, which should be specially addressed while framing the business strategies.

Apple, one of the most successful firms of the world revolutionized the way we listen to music by giving the world iTunes and an iPod to use it. The inception of iphone into the market made telephones obsolete and changed the way everyone communicated. Apple’s own OS macintosh redefined the perceptions of using a desktop. iPad changed the way tablets were being used and processes were implemented on the run. Steve Jobs redefined the practices of using technology. Innovative sophisticated gadgets aren’t a myth anymore. Thanks to Jobs who thought way ahead of his team and gave the world something no one could have imagined.

Google’s android OS too changed the mobile industry. In a market where symbian was a ruler, android changed the whole market demand. Its smoothness, speed and ease to use have won millions of hearts across the globe. Before android, temple was just a place to worship, cats were animals which couldn’t talk and birds could only fly.

Biotechnology offers new opportunities for a better food security, decreasing poverty and helping people in developed countries who couldn’t afford a onetime meal. Uganda, a developing country, facing problems of hunger and poverty has been benefited by these advancements.

Genetically modified organisms have influenced the world around agriculture and nutrition. GMO’s are organisms created by merging DNA of different species and developing a hybrid which has characteristics of both its parents. Developing nations use these to enhance their crop productivity, eliminate pesticide usage and provide nutritional value.

There are uncountable instances where technology has changed the lives of people around. Today working in a business without the use of technology is unimaginable. If all technologies were to vanish with the whoosh of a wand, humanity would go back to the Stone Age. Electricity, communication, food, stock markets and almost every other man made invention would stop working. ‘World without technology is a wholesale death’. Another aspect of technology is the growth of hardware power, storage capacity, bandwidth distribution and various customizations of various devices. Moore’s law is the mathematical proof of the disruptions that may happen in the future. As the influence of IT crosses a certain threshold, it would trigger a series of fluctuations in the markets and society. Parallelization and dependency of data on the internal processes are accelerating this trend. Thus, we see how immobile and handicap one may become in a world like today’s.

Technology is bound is evolve further in the coming years, but the question is has it reached its threshold where mankind can go no further except his own destruction, or is there another dimension which would still bring prosperity to the world. Time will tell.