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Information technology (IT) refers to the management and use of information using computer-based tools. It includes acquiring, processing, storing, and distributing information. Most commonly it is a term used to refer to business applications of computer technology, rather than scientific applications. The term is used broadly in business to refer to anything that ties into the use of computers.

Role of IT in Business The role of IT is constantly evolving and has changed significantly from the days when the IT organization was often referred to as “data processing.” Today, in many industries, IT enables some businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Those companies that leverage IT for competitive advantage often differ from their competitors in two ways with respect to their IT organizations: they view IT as a strategic business enabler instead of as a cost center, and they work to maximize the efficiency of their IT operations so that they can focus their resources on providing value to the business and respond to today’s environment of rapidly changing business conditions. Mostly businesses today create data that can be stored and processed on computers. In some cases the data must be input to computers using devices such as keyboards and scanners. In other cases the data might be created electronically and automatically stored in computers. Small businesses generally need to purchase software packages, and may need to contract with IT businesses that provide services such as hosting, marketing web sites and maintaining networks. However, larger companies can consider having their own IT staffs to develop software, and otherwise handle IT needs in-house. For instance, businesses working with the federal government are likely to need to comply with requirements relating to making information accessible. Effective implementation of information technology would decrease liability by reducing the cost of expected failures and increase flexibility by reducing the cost of adjustment. The businesses reaction to the environment remains to be the vital determinant for its effectiveness. The capabilities and flexibilities of computer-communication systems make them gradually more appropriate to businesses by being able to respond to any specific information or communication requirement.

Impact Information Technology is having impact on all trade industries and businesses, in service as well as in manufacturing. It is affecting workers at all levels of organizations, from the executives to middle management and clerks. Information technology is increasingly becoming a basic factor of all types of technologies such as craft, engineering, routine, and non-routine. The advances in Information Technology would result in remarkable decline in the costs of synchronization that would lead to new, concentrated business structures. It enables the business to respond to the new and urgent competitive forces by providing effective management of interdependence. In the near future businesses would be facing a lack and a redundancy of information called information glut. To solve the information-glut companies will need to introduce methods for selective thinning out of information. Improvements in telecommunications will make it

easier to control business units dispersed over different parts of the world. Advances in telecommunications, would result in increased distance-communication. Indirect communication would be preferred for well-structured information for routine, preprogrammed and decision processes.

Critical Role Information technology (IT) plays a critical role in the current business environment for enterprises and businesses that are looking at higher productivity and newer business models. Different pieces of technology will increasingly collaborate to come onto a single platform. Any company that values technology will accomplish business. It plays a very critical role as people are interacting more with technology. The current economic situation requires IT to enable productivity, create new business models and show other growth opportunities.

Different Technologies There are different technologies showing a natural move towards developing countries. These range from very personal to highly scalable. Web 2.0 collaboration is a newer way of bringing communities together. Many people are using it in their personal life and many are looking at bringing it to an enterprise scale. For example, video technologies, which were primarily used at the consumer level, are now finding applications in large enterprises. IPTV, video communication and some other interesting individual technologies are coming together to create an enterprise scale platform where the foundation is communication and creation of virtual workplace. These are also equally important as they are looking at scalable technology. Collaboration is all about bringing the entire eco-system together and giving small businesses access to resources as well as the ability to create new business models.

Indian Scenario Corporate India consists of 5,000 large enterprises, 27,000 small and medium outfits (SMEs) and more than seven lakh home-office set-ups. This sums up into a huge opportunity for tech providers. “Since Indian companies are increasingly competing in the world market, they find a need to adhere to global best practices in their respective fields. Hence, we feel that the time is right for us to bring our global customer insights to the Indian market,” says Shankar Ganapathy, world-wide V-P of MicroStrategy, a $360-million US provider of business intelligence solutions that announced the launch of its India operations a few weeks ago. Various regulatory changes in India are creating new opportunities for technology providers to bring in best-in-industry solutions. For instance, the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to allow retail investors to invest in global markets requires technologies to connect broker terminals to international exchanges and also necessitates use of advanced risk-mitigating solutions. According to Nasscom estimates, the domestic IT services market has grown two folds to $8.3 billion in the three years ended March 2009. Over half of this revenue came from IT spends by small- and medium-sized companies.

IT in today’s economy With budgets getting cut and organizations being asked to do more with less, the first step is to take a look at how to improve your efficiency. After all, if you can free up time by improving or automating processes, for example, that time can be spent on activities that provide strategic business value. The reduction in workload management costs were in the thousands of dollars per server for high-value workloads (e.g. email, collaboration) for mature organizations versus basic organizations. Even lower value workloads (e.g. print sharing) showed reductions in cost in the hundreds of dollars when well managed. Once you have a plan to optimize operations, you need to work with your business units to understand their business needs and align IT as an enabler in meeting these needs. The companies that, in this economic downturn, come out ahead of their competitors will be those companies that don’t just tighten their belts to control costs, but actually invest in the business to offer new or improved products and services. By optimizing IT, that enables the company to leverage the use of IT in its investments. Obviously there are some business requirements that must be addressed, such as GRC-related (Governance, Risk Management and Compliance) requirements. But there also needs to be effort and investment to improve the quality of service and agility that IT provides the business. In summary, I feel that in today’s economy IT organizations should do the following: •

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Optimize, optimize, optimize! Assess your operations to evaluate where you can implement best practices to improve efficiency and free up resources to work on more strategic activities. Talk to your Microsoft account team if you would like Microsoft’s assistance to evaluate how you can optimize your infrastructure. Align IT with the business units within your company. Now more than ever it is important that the business views IT as a strategic enabler for the business to distinguish itself from its competitors. Review with the business executives the challenges and opportunities they face to identify how IT can be leveraged to address these challenges and opportunities. Invest in IT. Those companies investing in IT during this economy are the companies that will survive the downturn and then excel as the economy improves. And by optimizing your infrastructure first, you have the opportunity to invest by shifting resources from sustaining to strategic activities.

Conclusion: In today’s highly competitive economic environment having the right IT in business is a critical element of success. All businesses deal with some of the new technology whether it is just a basic computer system or highly sophisticated software to track sales from the time the initial contact is made until they close. The IT in business solutions are available and affordable for businesses both large and small. It is important to do some research to find the right company with a good reputation and that provides the services needed. Once that is done, any business can make the necessary moves to get a step ahead of the competition.