Managing Information Technology Author: Bhushan Dewan Publisher: Vikas Publishing Price: Rs 250/-

According to Bhushan Dewan, the author of this book, an organisation incorporates IT into its business processes, first for the customer’s benefit and then for profits. Those organisations that take this rather seriously, will most certainly have adopted all or some of today’s hottest technologies. Dewan identifies seven of them.

The seven technology areas that are the focus of this book are: ERP, SCM, CRM, Data Warehousing/Data Mining, Knowledge Management, Bluetooth and Wireless Application Protocol.

When Dewan calls some of these “the latest technologies existing in the IT field” you have to accept that with a pinch of salt. From past history, we know that some technologies are based on pure hype and are just ‘vapourware’. We also know that technology changes real fast what was “hot” yesterday is “dead” today. And so, it would have been more fitting if the author had updated us on what has actually been accomplished so far, and where these technologies are heading. For instance, ERP has now evolved into ERP-II. And where is the 802.11b wireless network standard heading?

Besides explaining what these technologies are, the author also discusses the benefits of implementation and the applications.

The best practices adopted by companies who have implemented these technologies, is bound to catch the attention of the target audience, the IT managers. Rather than experimenting and burning fingers, a manager can learn from someone’s experiences. So Dewan includes useful tips like ‘Ten mistakes to avoid’ when implementing data warehousing, and ‘Steps to ensure successful implementation’ of CRM.

This book takes the textbook approach and could have been more interesting if there were more practical examples, industry statistics and forecasts.