Applying IT to business processes

Information Technology for Management
Making Connections for Strategic Advantage
Second Edition
Efraim Turban, Ephraim McLean, James Wetherbe
John Wiley & Sons
Price: Rs 553/-
Available at: The Computer Bookshop. Tel: 022-2070989

Changing scenarios in global business and the emergence of new competitors is driving many a business to re-engineer business processes. Such re-engineering requires, at some stage, the support of information technology. The growing dependence of businesses on IT, and the complexity of IT infrastructure management has prompted organisations to appoint a new kind of manager the CIO (Chief Information Officer) or CTO (Chief Technology Officer). His role involves procurement and management of the organisation’s IT infrastructure. While the CTO/CIO need not necessarily have extensive experience as a software programmer, network administrator or chip-level electronics engineer, he should have up-to-date knowledge of Information Systems and know how it impacts business. That includes security awareness, network architecture, knowledge of the latest hardware, operating systems, business application software, and network & storage management applications. At the same time, he should be well versed with the business processes and understand the role of IT (and its application) in business.

That’s the kind of audience Information Technology for Management is pitched at. The second edition has been updated to keep up with a global trend the movement of businesses to the Web and the increasing dependence on Internet for business communications. This is reflected in almost every chapter and the text often highlights the role of the Web in facilitating competitiveness, effectiveness, and profitability. Special importance is also given to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and the integrated information systems (such as SAP) that support it.

This book is based on the fundamental premise that the major role of information technology is to provide organisations with strategic advantage by facilitating problem solving, increasing productivity and quality, improving customer service, and enabling business process re-engineering. By taking a practical, management-oriented approach, the book demonstrates that IT can be provided not only by information systems departments, but also by end-users and vendors as well.

Many introductory texts in other books on information systems are geared toward yesterday’s environment, where the focus is technology, the construction of information systems, and the support of traditional business functional applications. The approach in this book is noticeably different. While acknowledging the importance of technology, system development, and functional transaction processing systems, the authors emphasise the innovative uses of information technology as a business solution.