Ladies and gentlemen, before I begin let me take this moment to state that I, being an owner of a business, am in favour of the vital importance of information technology in todays global economy. Information technology is necessary for the successful profitable functioning of any business entity. In the present day market we can see the new challenges for managers, and how these challenges need to be dealt with effectively for our organizations to attain the goals envisioned. Our managers will have to deal with the following issues: globalization and business reengineering. Globalization involves taking a worldwide perspective of the firm's business - its challenges and opportunities, markets, customers, suppliers, competitors, and employees. Business reengineering is the fundamental analysis and redesign of everything associated with a business area to achieve dramatic performance improvement. Information technology helps managers understand what's really happening in any given company at any given time. It helps managers make smarter decisions about investing your hard earned money and it makes your business more efficient.
Why must managers understand information technology? Let me point out the most important reasons. First of, managers must ensure that the use of IT supports corporate strategy. Some of the strategies include: 1) Become the lowest-cost producer of service provider within the industry. 2) Develop specialized services or products that set the company apart from others in the industry. 3) Concentrate on selling to a particular market or occupying a specific product niche. Secondly, managers are in the best position to identify opportunities to apply IT to achieve strategic competitive advantage. Some of the competitive moves are: 1) Product/service differentiation. 2) Lowering cost of product/services. 3) Innovation by introducing a new product or service. 4) Growth by producing voluminous products or by geograpbusiness-centered society.
In today's competitive world, business professionals are increasingly aware of the value of managing relationships and communicating effectively, both within the workgroup and with their customers. Information technology has become an important part of most businesses. Information technology is a system used to control, manage, process and create information though technology and computers.