Importance Of IT Culture In Business

Management Information Systems

Everest University

August 4, 2012

No business in today’s age of the World Wide Web can survive without some form of IT culture built-in. Just about all transactions, accounting, and even scheduling is computerized making the business more efficient in this modern information age. IT is all around and is never going away as our culture, economy, and businesses depend on it extensively. Technology advancements are popping up daily and it is the job of the IT culture to apply them to needs of the business and aide the business with adjustments to changes.

The phrase IT Culture in my view is not only an expert in the ways of computer technology but people who understand how to use the tools that IT provides the business to make it more efficient and less costly to run that business. An accountant running accounting software such as QuickBooks is in the IT culture because he or she is trained in running that specialized software. Converting that data to usable forms for all levels of an organization is done with software programs designed for different purposes based on the needs of the organization.

What makes the IT Culture essential? The first reason is the knowledge to deal with the quick changes that come with the overflow of information that each person and business are bombarded with daily and even in shorter periods with instant updates and JIT systems. Second reason is the need to design, install, and maintain the software used by the organization. A single person cannot process all this information at the speed necessary for it to have any use by the business so computers are necessary.

The IT Culture has brought advancements in technology to the business world making international business easier than it has ever been. Sharing information used to take days to ship reports from branches of an organization from one country to another happens in just seconds over the Internet. This is accomplished by the use of databases are linked and shared from one site to another site anywhere in the world. This use of newer IT technology has decreased business costs as it refers to traveling abroad to share information and compare data. Now it is done at the click of a button on a computer. The IT Culture has to adjust to these technology changes by adapting the approach to their business use. Most recent change is cloud computing and this changes the design approach for creating systems and software.

Imagine the days before IT was used in business. Large corporations had to maintain their sales, marketing, and all other parts of the business manually and this caused inconsistencies due to lack of real time updates between personnel. So many systems have been developed by IT Culture to remedy this such as ERP systems which replaces “‘islands of information processes into a single packaged software solution” (Haag, Cummings, 2010, p. 10). Now all offices across the globe share information in real time making decision making more efficient as managers have real time accurate information.

Above all IT Culture adds value to the business. As we use IT religiously and without even thought in today’s world we add value to that technology and value to the business. Services offered by the IT Culture include the programs mentioned already as well as email, database access, Internet applications, and a multitude of in-house applications like instant messaging used in IBM software. Users “are switching between these services constantly throughout the day, probably consuming as many as 10-20 services at a time” (Charles Araujo, 2011).

The final statement in the last paragraph proves that IT Culture brings information and people together. Information is power in this information age and a business with the most up-to-date information has the competitive edge. This is especially important in JIT systems and CRM systems where information errors can be costly to any business in any market. As these systems are overly dependent on real-time data IT is a major resource I would put second to people on the list of resources a business has.

These reasons alone make IT Culture important to business as it eases the business process by creating the technology used to streamline business processes. Without the IT culture these advancements would not exist, no one would know how to train users on how to use them, and most importantly not maintain current hardware and software which always requires maintenance at some point in time. As IT Culture adds value to a business it is still not as important of a resource as people are but together they make a valuable and important resource to any business.

Reference

Haag, S., Cummings, M. (2010) Management information Systems: For the Information Age Ninth Edition McGraw-Hill Publishing

Itbusinessedge.com (2011) Charles Araujo: Creating Business Value Through Your IT Culture. Retrieved August 4, 2012 from http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/guestopinions/blog/creating-business-value-through-your-it-culture/?cs=47217