Assignment 7: ICT Related Ares In PGMA's SONA 2009

I did not actually saw or heard President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address last July 27, 2009 so I downloaded the full text of the SONA in the internet. When I read the text I found some areas related to ICT. There were many parts of the President’s SONA that were somehow related to ICT. However, these were the ones that caught me: The Creation of Department of ICT, Telecommunications issues, Best Fit Educational System, Technologies to Anticipate Natural Calamities, and the Fully Automated Elections.

Creation of ICT Department

This one caught me because I have been wondering if our country has a department which focuses on the issues related to Information Technology and the like. I remember reading “Let us have a Department of ICT” in the text of the Presidents SONA, it really caught my eye and made me read the full text. Part of this area was the BPO or the Business Process Outsourcing which enables our people to acquire work here in the Philippines and in abroad. BPO is a form of outsourcing that involves contracting of operations and responsibilities to a third party service provider. We cannot deny that our country, as I may say, has been left behind in terms of technological advancements (I don’t mean to demean my own country) but it’s what I have noticed. Compared to other countries that are in the first world, we should not be contented to be in this state, we should push through advancements to be in league with the first world countries. Our people are competent but I think we cannot acquire our edge without the aid of technology. I’m glad that our country is embracing technology and that we do not limit ourselves with what we have now. I know that some people are still resilient in resisting technology and honestly I don’t see the real reason why. I can just think of one thing, some people are just afraid to embrace technology because they don’t know how it’s done and how to use it and with an ICT department we can remedy it.

Telecommunications

Under this area was the issue of the telecommunications, especially the expiry of loads and the controversial loss of load even the expiring date has not yet occurred. I think this is related to ICT because of the fact that almost all of the people in the world have a cellular phone and cell phone devices has now become a necessity which was once considered as luxury (I think) we cannot deny that electronic devices such as phones which we use to communicate with whom we want to communicate with are important and essential. If we are in the business, we need these devices to communicate with our business partners or customers. If we are just normal people we need these devices to communicate with our loved ones. Whatever we are, rich or poor, communication devices are pretty much important to us. Now the issue at hand is the loss of load, this issue greatly affects the people, especially the customers of the telecommunications network that use their services. I do not know if the ones responsible for the loss of load are the telecommunications provider, it may be because of those spam messages and promos which we do not need but I have personally experienced losing my load even when I haven’t used all of it and I know that I’m not the only one who has experienced it. I’m also glad that the government has decided to take the matter in their hands and made an appropriate action for it. Now, the expiry dates have been extended but there are still cases of load loss, but I’m still glad the government made and action.


Best Fit Educational System

“Our educational system should make the Filipino fit not just for whatever jobs happen to be in offer today, but also for whatever economic challenge life will throw in their way” this line sure caught me because I want the people in the Philippines to be globally competitive and ready for the upcoming challenges. People should not always stick with traditions and should also consider innovations. In the past years I have heard news that our educational system is degrading and frankly I have witnessed students who are studying in schools but the amount of knowledge that they acquire is infantismal. We should have a best fit educational system for the new era of people to be properly equipped with the proper knowledge to be able to be competitive not only in the Philippines but also in other countries.

Technologies to Anticipate Natural Calamities

The Philippines is one the countries who is frequently visited by typhoons, storms and the like and these natural calamities have brought trouble in country not only in our economy but also in the lives of the Filipino people. It is good to know that our country is doing its best to acquire technologies that can help our lives and in this case, technologies that can help us anticipate incoming calamities and make us ready for it, considering the current state which is climate change. We really need technologies that could help us track typhoons and storms. I hope in the future we will be able to come up with devices that could all kinds of calamites like tsunamis and earthquakes because the people, especially those who live in calamity prone areas, can greatly benefit from these kinds of devices.

Automated Election

Many people fear the idea of automated elections. Just a day ago, I heard news related to this issue which was, the country could face great trouble if the first automated election would go awry. They say if the if the automation goes awry the country would not have a new set of leaders and there will be failure of elections. The companies that are going to administer the automated elections are not new to automated elections because they have already done this before and thus, they have already tested and proven it effective. I understand that the people are afraid of this idea because it is NEW and they fear the possible negative effects. Is it really the people? Or just the people who are in position? I think we should consider the automation to be in the benefit of the people of the Philippines. I think the companies involved in this automation would not decide to push through automated election if they think it is not effective. I mean, they wouldn’t just make a machine that will count all the votes. They must have tested and run simulations with it. These companies are not dumb to be trekking into something that is not fathomable. Automation can greatly ease the work of the people in terms of voting and in terms of counting the votes. Wouldn’t it be a lot easier and quicker if the one who will be counting the votes is a machine? Plus it could lessen the possibility of cheating.

Assignment 5: Barriers In Implementing IS/IT

In every organization, company or business it always aims to grow and improve the operation of their business or trade by means of optimization or requiring the aid of technology like computers. Now, in every innovation or improvement there is always what we call “barriers”. Barriers by definition is something that obstructs or separates, in the business or rather corporate world, barriers are the hindrance to their business growth.

I did not actually go to my adopted company, Concentrix, and interviewed them about the barriers that they went through in implementing their information systems and the barriers that they are currently going through. I recalled what I posted about the risks associated with business and IS/IT change and started thinking about the barriers. If I was the one to say about barriers in a company I think it would be the money or budget, the people in the business (the personnel and staff), the processes and the management, and awareness.

When it comes to business innovation or improvement the issue of money or budget will always come to play. It is one of the very important factors to settle with. Take the example of our school, the University of Southeastern Philippines, it is evident that the school lacks the budget to fund the improvement on the infrastructure, technology, etc. because every transaction involves money. Also, in a company, when someone proposes to implement something that could improve their operations like an information system, it would be hard to implement something like that if the company or organization lacks the budget to fund it and because it would surely cost a lot of money to be able to implement it.

There are many factors that should be taken into account when it comes to implementing and innovation in a company. For instance, the creation of the system, if they want to tap in-house personnel to make their system, or turning to outsource if they want to purchase a system that is already running and tested (creation means money). Not only that, they would need to consider the installation, maintenance, repair, training of staff and simulation to check for anomalies and these factors really involves a lot of money to be able to come up with a system. Looking at my adopted company which is Concentrix, I think that they are stable enough to be able to implement there IS/IT because they have been in the business for a long time and considering that they do have networks and other companies that are linked into their company, Synnex for instance.

When it comes to implementing IS/IT, the people who are going to use it are the personnel and staff of the company or organization. To make them knowledgeable and accustomed to the system they need to be trained. Now the one of the barriers in the implementation of the IS/IT are the inept skills or inexperienced personnel and staff of the company, maybe because they lack the training and seminars. Training and seminars are needed to keep the knowledge of the staff updated. We all know that technology advances are so fast that we need to keep ourselves updated in order not to be left behind.

Inexperienced personnel and staff usually are not acquainted to the existing softwares and development process and sometimes they do not understand it at all. They should be made aware or given the necessary skill and given a thorough understanding of the process to be able to perform well because personnel and staff are the workforce of the company thus, they are the ones who are always working with the system.
Without these trainings and seminars the successful implementation of the new system could not be achieved because of the inexperienced staff of the company which becomes one of the barriers in the implementation process.

Trainings and seminars should be given importance and should be made part of the policy whenever there are new employees to be hired or there are seminars and trainings regarding new innovations. In my adopted company, Concentrix, they regularly train their staff and it is part of their hiring process to give trainings before they hire employees. They make sure that they have experienced personnel and staffs to make sure that their business are run by capable and not inept staff. Concentrix is known to give their customers the best customer support which also suggests that they do have experienced staff to do their business.

Another barrier or hindrance in the implementation is lack of awareness of the management about IS/IT programs. How could the management think or provide the best solution to the needs of the company if they do not know anything about IS/IT? It would surely give a feeling like you’re company are being managed by unaware people or people who has not yet encountered new technology.

There should be a need to make the people, especially the management to be aware of the IS/IT programs in order to fully understand IS/IT and to be able to provide the best fit solutions to the needs and problems that the company are facing. IS/IT implementation is the process of adopting new organizational practices to address the problems of the company and the fact that IS/IT is an expensive and long term approach in addressing problem in the company and it usually takes a long time to realize the benefits of it.

It would not be healthy to the company if the management is not aware of IS/IT because of the fact that the management are the ones who are in charge of giving the decisions or final verdicts regarding implementations. Another barrier that could be identified if the management is not aware of IS/IT is the lack of support of the management in the implementation of IS/IT. Because they are not aware of IS/IT, the effect is that the management would most likely undermine or neglect initiatives or proposals regarding IS/IT. They would rather think that it is expensive and would give that proposal a low priority and eventually replace that proposal with something that is not even good enough rather than looking at the other side of things which is the benefit or benefits of IS/IT. Come to think of it, if you are going to propose for an innovation and you know that the management in your company is not aware of IS/IT, there would be an infantismal chance that your proposal would be approved.

Unaware management would most likely resist change in an organization, especially in the field of technology (we tackled about this ‘resistance’ during one of our sharing in the subject) because they think that they are already not capable of learning and that they are accustomed to their traditional ways. Resistance can be considered as a barrier in the implementation of IS/IT. Not to be offensive but most people in the management that most likely resist technology are those management composed of old people, but take note that not all old people are like this, just most old people (I’m not being rude). People who resist change feel threatened about change because they feel that they are considered obsolete and they would be replaced by machines, they do not know that change in technology or adopting the aid of machines does not mean neglecting the capabilities of a human being.

Another issue linking to the issue of resistance which could also be considered as a barrier in the implementation of IS/IT is the divisions in the company. Divisions, meaning organizations, groups, peers, people with the same insights, etc. it does not simply imply divisions like accounting division, etc. Groups are usually composed of people having the same values, goals, insights and interests. Some people call it unions in a company. When there are divisions and eventually there are conflicts between these divisions, the effect would be that these divisions would most likely resist each other’s proposal to change because their ideas contradict each other. It is just like the saying “What is moral to you may not be moral to me” the ideas and goals of the other group may not fit into the ideas and goals of the other groups, this issue can be labeled, in my opinion, organizational politics.

In my adopted company I do not know if there are divisions or unions in their company but I think that their management is fully aware about IS/IT because their business is made up of it. I certainly would not think that their management is not aware and does not understand IS/IT to be thinking that their company is one of the top call centers and customer support company.

Lack of time, this is also example of a barrier in the implementation of IS/IT. Lack of time or in other words, time pressure, is the process of meeting projects, demands on time and getting something that would not exceed the allotted budget. If a company does not consider financing as a problem then they certainly would have encountered time problems. There are projects that do not meet the given deadline for it because of unforeseen circumstances or for instance, other barriers. Happenings do not always come as how you planned it, there will always be anomalies. That is why a company must have a good plan as to the pre implementation process because it is a vital part of the implementation process. There should be ample time for the staff to work on a project, time which is workable and that is humanly possible and that before establishing time frames it should be agreed by the management and the people working on the project. Another way of avoiding time pressures is providing correct and optimized procedures so that the one working on the project will have a basis or a guide on finishing the project.

There many factors in the business that can be considered as barriers which I am not yet aware of. Maybe attitudes of the personnel and staff can also be taken into account. I would update this post if I would find something that can be added to this.