Information and Communication

Technology

AEB 201

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EFFECTIVE ICT MANAGEMENT

ICT AS A STRATEGIC TOOL

LESSON EIGHT

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 Learning outcomes
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Define what is a Strategy

• Example of Strategic Pillars
• Examples of Business Goals

• Examples of ICT tools that can be adopted to meet

business goals

• The importance of ICT as a strategic corporate

resource

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What is a Strategy?

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 What is a Strategy?
A careful plan or method for achieving
a particular goal usually over a long
period of time. : the skill of making or
carrying out plans to achieve a goal.

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 ICT STRATEGY
The World Bank Group's ICT Strategy
The World Bank Group’s new Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) Strategy aims at
helping developing countries use ICT to transform
delivery of basic services, drive innovations and
productivity gains, and improve competitiveness. The
strategy reflects rapid changes in the ICT sector over
the last decade, including a dramatic increase in use
of mobile phones and the Internet, plunging prices of
computing and mobile internet devices, and the
increasing prevalence of social media.

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 The Strategy's Three Pillars
Transform: Making development more open and
accountable, and improving service delivery – for
instance, education, health, and financial services.

"ICT has contributed to global growth and

democratization and is transforming governments
and people’s lives.“

-Dr. Bitange Ndemo, Former Permanent Secretary in

the Ministry of Information and Communications,
Kenya
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 The Strategy's Three Pillars

“Now is the time to make use of all that we

have built [ICT infrastructure] so this strategy
comes at the right time. We now have to move
to the other two pillars – Transform and
Innovate. And delivering quality education
comes on top of our list.”
-Parvez Iftikhar, former CEO of USF Co., Pakistan

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 The Strategy's Three Pillars
Innovate: Developing competitive IT-based service
industries and fostering ICT innovation across the
economy – with a focus on job creation, especially for
women and youth.

“It will be important for us to look at how young

people in urban areas are already at the forefront of
using ICT to address the issue of information poverty
and to create an enabling environment for them to
grow and flourish.”
-Anantha Krishnan, Director of Research and
Development, Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory ISTVS 9
 The Strategy's Three Pillars
Connect: Scaling up affordable access to broadband –
including for women, disabled citizens, disadvantaged
communities, and people living in remote and rural areas.

“Broadband access is still limited and concentrated in urban

areas in many countries. Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) will
be necessary to achieve further network deployments and
upgrades as neither operators nor the government will be
able to achieve country-wide broadband coverage by
themselves. However, not all countries have experience in PPP
of large infrastructure projects and therefore many countries
will benefit from global experiences.”
-Luis Scheker, Indotel, Dominican Republic
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 ICT and BUSINESS
Business and ICT strategies cannot be
developed independently and that ICT
strategy cannot be derived simply from
business strategy.

Business strategy defines the core business

of the organization, separating core business
processes from supporting business
processes, which in turn are supported and
underpinned by the adoption of appropriate
technology. ISTVS 11
 ICT and BUSINESS

The goals and future strategy of your

business must come first and they will
enable you to make decisions on the right
course of action.

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 EXAMPLES OF BUSINESS
GOALS

Your goals don’t have to be broad and ambitious – the aim

could be something as simple as:

1. To produce written documents more efficiently

2. To analyze sales to provide:
• Sales by customer summary
• Sales by customer detail – product / service specific
• Sales by region
• Sales by customer category (reseller / end-user)

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 EXAMPLES OF IT TOOLS TO
ENABLE GOALS
Key technology and operational issues can
broadly be categorized as follows:
1. Messaging, email and collaborative
technologies
2. Desktops and Office Productivity tools
3. Network operating system and network
services
4. Data and voice networks / convergence
5. Applications and database technologies
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 EXAMPLES OF ICT TOOLS TO
ENABLE GOALS

Key technology and operational issues can

broadly be categorized as follows:

1. Websites and online systems

2. Relationships management systems (CRM /

SRM)
3. IT security, including: Firewall management,
Anti-virus, Anti-spyware & Backup/ restore
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EFFECTIVE ICT MANAGEMENT
Effective ICT management requires people to
deploy the right technology in the right way for
the right reasons, commonly referred to as
‘People, Process and Technology’.

The goal is to provide appropriate Information

and communication technologies that enable
everyone access the information and services
necessary to do their jobs efficiently.
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Scope of ICT Strategic Planning
Where are we today?

1. Complete the business strategy plan, key performance

indicators and strategy implementation for the
organization.

2. Develop a ‘strategy map’ and common language about the

key strategic activities of the organization.

3. Examine the current information systems identifying what

information systems are in place today and who are key
users.

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Scope of ICT Strategic Planning
Where do we want to be?

1. Undertake detailed analysis and prepare recommendations

for information, information systems and technology needed
to support the business strategies of the organization.

2. Review Business Strategy and Key Performance Indicators to

identify systems to be significantly impacted by business
strategy.

3. Identify issues and opportunities with in the current systems

– this may lead to early wins within the implementation plan.

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Scope of ICT Strategic Planning
How do we get there?

1. Very often the success or failure of an IT Strategy

project rests on the ability of the organisation to
understand and resource the implementation plan.

2. Prepare an implementation plan to document effort

and financial resources required to move to the new
ICT infrastructure. The plan will need to be phased
to consider business resource constraints.

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 ICT Strategic Objectives
Meeting current and future service needs

ICT can be used to transform business processes to improve

current service delivery and will support the development of
enhanced future services.

Adopt leading business processes

ICT can facilitate adopting and using leading business

processes that improve utilisation, build capacity, drive
consistency, minimise risk, create knowledge and allow the
provision of better service delivery.

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 ICT Strategic Objectives
Progress productivity and cost efficiency

Strategic investment in ICT can ensure the efficient use of

resources, encourage capacity building and ensure the
ongoing management of ICT assets.

Sharing ICT services where practical may offer economies of

scale and more viable resourcing opportunities.

Support staff in their roles

ICT solutions can allow staff to improve service delivery by
sharing and improving access to information and by
providing staff with the best tools that the organization can
make available.
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 ICT Strategic Objectives

Measure and report on performance

ICT will provide increased access to real time performance

monitoring through the use of business intelligence and data
analysis tools and platforms.

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 Questions

• Define the word ICT Strategy?

• Give any 3(three) examples of Business Goals?
• Give any 5(Five) examples of ICT tools that can
be adopted to meet business goals?
• What is the importance of ICT as a strategic
corporate resource

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 References

1. ICT Resource Supporting Strategy by XtraPal from

http://xtra.strategypal.com/audit/learning-growth-
questions/ict-resource-supporting-strategy/
2. World Bank ICT Strategy

3. Prepare an implementation plan to document effort

and financial resources required to move to the new
ICT infrastructure. The plan will need to be phased
to consider business resource constraints.

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