by Mike Echlin

As your business grows, you will likely find more ways to use technology to increase production (and hopefully, profits). Making the decision to enhance your technology environment in order to achieve your business objectives is a necessary milestone, but it is equally important to identify the scope and budget of your project before jumping into implementation.

This article explains a phased approach that will help you maximize your budget and provide the greatest results when considering a technology enhancement.

Phase I – Business Need

This initial phase is designed to help you determine if you have answered the “why” questions as it relates to your objectives. You should be able to clearly identify the business benefit (return on investment) for your potential project after completing this phase. Here are the steps that will guide you through this phase:

1. What is the problem/deficiency that needs your investment in time and money to be solved?

2. Does your business challenge absolutely require new or enhanced technology?

a.Do your employees require additional training with existing systems?
b.Can the challenge be solved by changing the workflow or business practices?

3. Once the problem is clearly defined and the solution points to technology improvements, a preliminary budget can be established.

Phase II – Budget & Scope

In Phase I we qualified our potential solution within the realm of technology and now we need to define the scope of the solution. Without defining scope, you will run the risk of your project growing out of control in both time and money. This is the phase where you should spend the time to clearly document the business requirements or “what” will be implemented.

1. Bring all the necessary players together to discuss the objectives of the project.

2. Determine how the problem that was identified in Phase I affects all key players.

3. Discuss how the problem can be solved with technology and be specific as it relates to your current business practices and workflows.

4. Document your findings and discussions.

5. Once the solution has been identified, you can present your documents to your preferred vendor(s) and obtain proposals or quotes.

Phase III – Pilot

Implementing any technology project can be challenging in that technology itself changes so quickly and your employees may have different expectations with the solution. A pilot phase is very effective to “test” the solution and confirm all expectations are met.

1. Once your vendor has been identified, you can request a pilot or trial solution be put into place for limited use to test results.

2. After the pilot solution is implemented, be sure to measure the effectiveness and verify that the problems in phase I are being solved.

Phase IV – Implementation

So now you have confirmed that the pilot is solving some or all the problems identified in phase I, now you are ready to rollout the full solution. It is very important to closely manage your vendor and be sure they are delivering what they promised within their proposal.

1. Create a project plan that consists of key milestones for the implementation of your solution.

A sample plan is shown below:

* Project Kick-off
* Budget review
* Set timelines for remainder of project
* Determine training requirements
* Technology install/enhancement
* Document the changes in your existing workflow
* Create a forum for employees to provide feedback during this process
* Develop a suite of tests that verifies the newly installed technology does not break any existing processes.
* Develop a suite of tests that verifies the newly installed technology meet the expectation of the proposed solution.
* Insure your timelines are being met and budget is not growing.
* Implementation complete
* Begin training

2. After the solution has been installed, consolidate all the documents and training materials in one repository for quick reference.

Phase V – Project Review & Closure

Now that the technology solution has been successfully implemented and everyone has been trained, you will need to setup measures to ensure that the solution is effective.

1. Create an anonymous survey for employees to provide feedback.
a. Survey questions should include: overall project success, training materials and responsibility impact.

2. Develop metrics that can measure the profit and/or efficiency that was achieved as a result of this project. This will help you identify the true return on investment.

3. Continue to refine training.

This phased approach for managing a technology project is meant to be a guide. There are many details within each phase that would be too lengthy to describe here. There are also many books that can assist with successfully managing any type of project, not only technology. Here is a website that is a great reference for project management:

http://www.pmi.org

About the Author

Mike Echlin is a 20-year technology veteran who has helped many businesses optimize their use of technology. “Technology is an enabler for profits, period.” http://thefloppydisk.blogspot.com

Article Source: Content for Reprint

Boost your business with Information Technology Outsourcing! by John wircken

Outsourcing is the process of getting a work done with the help of a third party resource. Outsourcing basically means allocation of various operations of a large company or organization to other companies situated in different parts of the world. It is mainly done for activities that are less important, monotonous, tedious or extremely expensive when performed onsite. Usually, activities like payroll processing, accounting, sales, distribution and computer programming are outsourced to other companies. The most important benefit of outsourcing is that it saves time and money.

Information Technology Outsourcing has become the order of the day. Many big IT companies outsource their hard-core activities to others in order to save time, effort and money. They believe that time spent on such laborious tasks can be utilized for creative pursuits which can boost business prospects. Information Technology Outsourcing comes to mean outsourcing of IT-related services to other companies or service providers. It is widely prevalent in many companies in the developed countries.

As a result of outsourcing, there are enormous opportunities for companies and working professionals. Especially, Information Technology Outsourcing has boosted the economy of many developing countries. Large companies in the IT field like Microsoft are outsourcing their business processes to offshore partners situated in countries like India, China etc. IT outsourcing is aimed at getting jobs done in the most cost-effective manner within quick turnaround times. Outsourcing promises peace and freedom to software companies as it paves way for more constructive and growth-oriented activities. It also helps companies to plan their work power in accordance with the tasks at hand.

Software companies benefit greatly from the outsourcing trend. Many companies outsource projects on software and web development to other companies. This helps them cut down on their production costs and enables them to get their work done within timeframes. With the increasing number of online businesses, information technology outsourcing has become an essential thing for even small companies. Many projects can be placed on auction at certain websites. Professionals or companies bid on such projects and win them and work on them. Information Technology Outsourcing offers several advantages. Big companies need not hire employees and waste money on headhunting resources. They also need not spend money on resource-welfare programmes or infrastructure expansions. Employee strength can be kept at the minimum level as there is no need to employ an expert every time there is a short-time project.

Outsourcing allows every new internet marketer to put up their business up to interesting levels. Information Technology Outsourcing also allows companies to manage and streamline their business prospects. When managed properly, IT outsourcing can be highly beneficial in terms of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. It can also turn disastrous if there is quality-lapse in the end-result of an outsourced project or work.

The article is written by John Wircken. It is fully based upon Information Technology Outsourcing .

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

Careers in IT by Tony Jacowski

Information Technology is a discipline that has a major influence on how everyone lives. It entails almost all forms of technological advancements which are often used to create, save, interchange and make use of information in its different forms. This may include business data, still images, motion pictures and multimedia presentations. It has proved to be of immense significance, as its presence seems to be apparent in almost every section of life.

Applications

It is next to impossible to think of a day without computers and communications. Most of the common applications of information technology includes storage of information, data processing, analysis of statistics, word- processing, communications, designing, accounting, management of information systems, financial forecasts and the control over the manufacturing procedure. There is a continuous development mainly in two sectors, namely, computing and communications.

Basic skills

Information Technology is in a revolutionary phase of development. It is a great industry with respect to employment opportunities. Similar to many other fields, IT recruits hardworking, dedicated, talented and forthright people with some training and working experience. In order to be successful in this field you need to possess the following characteristics. They are:

a) Good Communication Skills
b) An inclination towards problem solving
c) Team spirit
d) Creativity
e) Respect for deadlines
f) Analytical and logical reasoning ability

Job Opportunities

Many career options in Information Technology are available. People with high as well as medium skills can also find jobs depending on their areas of interest. Some of the main positions in IT sector are as follows:

a) Systems Analysts And Designers: Systems analysts and designer’s main jobs are to examine and analyze a business problem, design an appropriate system in order to deal with a particular problem, install and check the systems.

b) Software Engineering And Design: It requires a substantial amount of technical experience. Software engineers and designers work on very complicated and advanced forms of software that are used to control high- tech equipment and on usage of programs for business purposes.

c) Computer Programmers: Computer programmers are those professionals who feed data for the computers in a language that can be easily interpreted by the computer. They even design programs from the detailed description provided by the system analysts and carry out the logical steps that can be used to do a job.

d) End-User And Technical Support: People who have the experience both regarding computer systems as well as a specific business sector. It can be of immense significance for people without any technical qualifications in IT.

e) Database Controller/ Manager: A database controller/manager’s job is to ensure that the database is accurate, user-friendly and is in accordance with the latest ideas and technology.

f) Computer Sales: You need to have basic knowledge of computer fundamentals, salesmanship, and around seven years of experience in computing in order to be eligible to become a computer sales person.

g) Information Technology Manager: The main responsibility of an Information technology manager is to ensure the availability of right equipment and properly trained staffs in the organization along with arranging for the requirements within the allocated budget, negotiating with the suppliers and adapting to the latest developments.

Information technology has become one of the largest fields in today’s world and offers good job prospects. You need to have the zeal to stay as well as enable others to stay connected with the world all the time, in order to succeed in this field.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Article Source: Hacked by mpu_gandring

Information technology is included in school curriculum by T

Information technology is included in school curriculum:
Information technology is a very important part of the computer world. Information technology is basically the technology involved in information processing that is made available with the help of computers and computer software. It is basically through information technology that one can convert, protect, transmit and retrieve any form of information from anywhere of the world, at any time of the day.
All the professionals dealing with information technology are called information technology specialists, or IT specialists. And the divisions of companies and universities dealing with any form of software technology are called the IT department. These IT departments are also known as managed service providers (MSP); information services (MS) and managed service providers (MSP).
Nowadays, because of the importance and need of information technology, we find that some form of information technology is usually included in school curriculum. The main reason for this implementation of information technology was that information technology is actually useful in all subjects of schools with the arrival of internet and broadband connections in schools. In fact, the implementation of information technology with digital equipment in schools is called Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Moreover, with society being more and more dependent on information technology, it has become very important for one to be fluent with the usage of information technology. So to help one develop fluency in information technology, there are many sites and online, self-study courses that help you become adept in information technology. It is very beneficial joining these courses. This is because they usually cover the contemporary skills, intellectual capabilities and foundational concepts of information technology in these sites and courses.
The necessary information technology skills mentioned are e-mail, searching for web information, word processing, and many other skills. Some of the foundational concepts of information technology are basic facts like ‘graphic user interface’ and knowledge of how networks send pictures, etc. and the capabilities related to information technology are thinking skills like thinking up some IT solutions and the art of troubleshooting problems.
A person fluent in information technology will be at an advantage of being able to apply information technology in both personal and professional life. In this process, it becomes rather easy for one to adapt to personally relevant goals. In fact, being fluent in information technology helps one in becoming a lifelong learner of IT to thus be able to keep in pace with the fast moving pace of information technology.

T. Joseph Hauenstien webnewsb@webnewsblog.com SEO & Web Marketing Consultant http://www.linkbuilding.net

Article Source: U Publish Articles