Adopt a business technology strategy to gain competitive

advantage: Forrester
Move beyond alignment by developing a business technology strategy

Today's executives are totally dependent on technology to achieve their organisation's goals and
objectives without technology they cannot compete. According to Forrester, CIOs have a vital
role to play in developing business strategy and framing the business technology strategy
defining the technology direction for the organisation in future years to achieve competitive
advantage. Forrester defines business technology (BT) as:
A slow but relentless revolution in which traditional technology management, historically
delivered only by an IT organisation, is changing to be pervasive technology use managed
increasingly outside of IT's direct control and measured by boosting business results.
Many alternative strategies are possible to achieve business goals, with the effectiveness of any
single business strategy increasingly dependent on, and enabled by, technology. "Pervasive
technology use... measured by boosting business results" requires the development of business
strategy that fully integrates technology capabilities and innovations; Forrester calls this "BT
strategy."
Developing a BT strategy requires CIOs and CEOs to fuse IT strategy and business strategy in
the development stage, making technology a fundamental building block of business strategy.
Because of this, we refer to the method of developing a BT strategy as "fused."
By adopting a fused approach to BT strategy development, CIOs can move beyond alignment to
an environment where IT is viewed as a business enabler. And by developing IT strategy in
conjunction with the business, IT has a greater opportunity to influence the business agenda
through technology innovation.

BT strategy must start with business and end with business

CIOs must adopt a business-first approach to developing BT strategy. Because BT strategy is
developed in conjunction with business strategy, a traditional waterfall approach to strategy
development does not work instead, CIOs and IT strategists must adopt an iterative approach
to BT strategy that begins and ends with business.

Model business differentiators using high-level business capability

maps. Start strategy development by focusing on the long-term vision for
the business and its goals. Business goals inevitably break down into a
number of interim objectives such as annual growth targets. Use a high-level
business capability map to identify the core business competencies that
differentiate the organisation from competitors these are the basic
business building blocks your leadership team believes will sustain your
competitive advantage over the long term.

Develop BT strategy scenarios. Developing alternative scenarios is at the

heart of BT strategic planning. Do this as a joint IT/business project: Bring the
expertise of technologists into the conversation to identify how emerging
technology can enable a strategy, and bring in business expertise to
determine the potential value of the strategy enabled by the technology.

Develop a technology road map. After agreeing on the best high-level

strategies, begin the detailed work of building the IT road map with a
technology gap analysis. Enterprise architects are important members of the
strategy planning team, helping map the existing architecture to the futurestate architecture. The gap analysis aims to identify the major architectural
changes requires in order to implement the BT strategy.

Plan the business of IT. The IT business plan is the final stage in the BT
strategic planning process, where the CIO determines how IT will function as
a services operation supporting and enabling the business technology
strategy.

CIOs must establish ITs credentials as strategic thinkers

The development of BT strategy is perhaps the most valuable responsibility of the CIO. Too
often, CIOs delegate the development of strategy to team members, taking little or no
involvement in developing the strategy themselves.
Highly effective CIOs lead the strategic planning process and take an active part in shaping
business strategy. It's not enough to get involved in the business planning once a year; CIOs must
engage in business discussions about all aspects of the business year-round in order for them to
be seen by their peers as having value to bring to the table when it comes time to plan business
strategy.
Also, CIOs should seek out experienced business strategists from other parts of the organisation
to join the IT leadership team. When recruiting to the leadership team from outside the
enterprise, CIOs should look for business expertise and MBA credentials as well as evidence of
strategic thinking.
Finally, flexibility is needed to cope with changing environments and market forces revisit the
strategy on a regular basis to verify it is still appropriate for prevailing business conditions.

Technology in Business Strategy

Role of technology in designing the business strategies of a firm ? discuss how technology
has become an integral part of business unit ?
Ans : The word technology comes from two Greek words techne- the skill or craft needed to
make something and logos (discussion or knowledge of something). So technology means
knowledge of how something is made.

Technology seems to be the most widely today in industrial world and several words or
nomenclatures connected with technology are in vogue. These includes Research &
Development, invention, technology development, technology strategies, technology forecast
technology assessment, technology planning, technology information, technology transfer,
technology absorption and adaptation, Industrial property systems, code of conduct and
technology management. It is difficult to find so exact definition for technology, for it has been
defined in many ways.
One definition identifies technology as an application of knowledge that leads to
production and marketing of goods and services. According to Betz, Technology develops
business by providing technological knowledge for the goods and services that a firm
produces. Technology innovation implies new technology creating new products and
services hence new business opportunity. Managing technology means using new technology
to create a competitive advantages which is quite a difficult Job; partly due to differing cultures
in a company.
Technology is often thought to be solely the domain of scientific and engineering personnel of an
organisation. Yet successful business use of technology requires strategic decisions about
technology by personnel in other functional areas, such as production, marketing, sales, finance
and so on. Thus two cultures-technical and functional need to be bridged, and management
should integrate technology strategy with business strategy. This is the essence of technology
management. Thus the integration of technology with business unit and business strategies which
otherwise called technology management, has become an important aspect of business for its
success.
ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN DESIGN OF BUSINESS
STRATEGY:
Technology and management of technology are critical for an enterprise for its successful
operation on long-term basis. Technology management however a part of total management
system. There are three basic consideration for starting any new firm based on technological
innovation.
a) The idea for a technological innovation
b) A potential market.
c) Team work in both technological and business experts
The above points underline the need for interweaving the technology framework eiht other areas
of business in an enterprise. The idea of a technological innovation should be based or linked
with the potential market and the technology team seam should closely interact with the rest of
the divisions of the enterprise leading to a successful logical conclusion in terms of
production/processes to be developed as per the set objectives set at the beginning. This strategy
is best reflected in the form of a Business Plan of an enterprise which needs to be prepared and
approved before starting the new business.
The Business Plan : The business plan is a strategy summery of a new venture. Its purposes are

1. To ensure, by clear focus in strategy, that important points necessary to the success of any
business venture have been considered and;
2. To persuade functional investors to invest in the new venture.
A new venture business plan could include the following :a) Current Business Status
-Business objective
-Management and organisation
b) Products or Services
-Product Description
-Technology Background
-competition
c) Benefits to Customers
-Market
-Market Strategy
d) Capitalisation
-Capital Requirement
-Financial Forecast
-Benefits to Investors
It is thus clear from the above that technology and technology management are only part of total
business activity or business plan of an enterprise.
TECHNOLOGY AND COMPETETION : Although technological competitiveness is
necessary for corporate survival, it alone is not sufficient. Of course a corporate with inferior
technology cannot compete at the same price level with a corporation with superior in
technology. The reason why superior technology itself is not sufficient is that business is a
system and there are many other systems(sub-system) that determine business success.
Therefore, if technology is to give a competitive edge, management must manage it as a part of
the business system. Technological innovation can be integrated with production, marketing,
finance and personal into a balanced business system. Managing technology essentially involves
for four central concepts of :

1. New ventures
2. Innovation
3. Research
4. Research Infrastructure
New Venture: Although new ventures centred around technology are an important class of the
business, new hi-tech ventures are difficult because they involve two major risk: developing new
product and creating new markets. Ideas central to new ventures are concerned with
entrepreneurial management, overall business plan and dynamics of organisational growth.
Innovation: it denotes the whole span of activity from creating new technological knowledge to
implementing it in new businesses. Ideas central to innovation include concepts such as types of
innovation, processes of innovation, the technology life cycle, economic life cycles sources of
innovation, business opportunities in a technological system, marketing and new technology,
corporate diversification through new ventures and technology in manufacturing strategies.
Research : Technological change is the new knowledge about what things to produce and how to
produce them and in the corporation, new knowledge often comes from corporate research. The
corporate laboratory is charged with the responsibility of looking after the present and future
productivity of the corporation. Managing and integrating corporate research with other
managerial functions and strategies is essential to technology management. Research
management includes organisation of research, project management, research personnel, and
corporate research strategy.
Research Infrastructure : the technologies of corporate do not exist in a vacuum but are part of
a larger technological context, first of the industry, then of the nation and then of the world. This
larger context is a research and developmental infrastructure, and it has an important influence
on the competitive conditions in a country. With the expansion and increased intensity of
international competition, the R & D infrastructure of a nation plays a critical role in economic
competition.

Cloud computing
Overview
Cloud computing is a marketing term for technologies that provide computation, software, data
access, and storage services that do not require end-user knowledge of the physical location and
configuration of the system that delivers the services. A parallel to this concept can be drawn
with the electricity grid, wherein end-users consume power without needing to understand the
component devices or infrastructure required to provide the service.
Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services
based on Internet protocols, and it typically involves provisioning of dynamically scalable and
often virtualized resources. It is a byproduct and consequence of the ease-of-access to remote
computing sites provided by the Internet.This may take the form of web-based tools or
applications that users can access and use through a web browser as if the programs were
installed locally on their own computers.
Cloud computing providers deliver applications via the internet, which are accessed from web
browsers and desktop and mobile apps, while the business software and data are stored on
servers at a remote location. In some cases, legacy applications (line of business applications that
until now have been prevalent in thin client Windows computing) are delivered via a screensharing technology, while the computing resources are consolidated at a remote data center
location; in other cases, entire business applications have been coded using web-based
technologies such as AJAX.
Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the
Internet. These services are broadly divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service
(IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The name cloud
computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that's often used to represent the Internet in
flowcharts and diagrams.
A cloud service has three distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional hosting. It is
sold on demand, typically by the minute or the hour; it is elastic -- a user can have as much or as
little of a service as they want at any given time; and the service is fully managed by the provider
(the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and Internet access). Significant
innovations in virtualization and distributed computing, as well as improved access to high-speed
Internet and a weak economy, have accelerated interest in cloud computing.
A cloud can be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the Internet.
(Currently, Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider.) A private cloud is a
proprietary network or a data center that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people.
When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their private cloud, the result is

called a virtual private cloud. Private or public, the goal of cloud computing is to provide easy,
scalable access to computing resources and IT services.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service like Amazon Web Services provides virtual server instanceAPI) to
start, stop, access and configure their virtual servers and storage. In the enterprise, cloud
computing allows a company to pay for only as much capacity as is needed, and bring more
online as soon as required. Because this pay-for-what-you-use model resembles the way
electricity, fuel and water are consumed, it's sometimes referred to as utility computing.
Platform-as-a-service in the cloud is defined as a set of software and product development tools
hosted on the provider's infrastructure. Developers create applications on the provider's platform
over the Internet. PaaS providers may use APIs, website portals or gateway software installed on
the customer's computer. Force.com, (an outgrowth of Salesforce.com) and GoogleApps are
examples of PaaS. Developers need to know that currently, there are not standards for
interoperability or data portability in the cloud. Some providers will not allow software created
by their customers to be moved off the provider's platform.
In the software-as-a-service cloud model, the vendor supplies the hardware infrastructure, the
software product and interacts with the user through a front-end portal. SaaS is a very broad
market. Services can be anything from Web-based email to inventory control and database
processing. Because the service provider hosts both the application and the data, the end user is
free to use the service from anywhere.

How Cloud Computing Works

Future of Computers

A typical cloud computing system.

Let's say you're an executive at a large corporation. Your particular responsibilities include
making sure that all of your employees have the right hardware and software they need to do
their jobs. Buying computers for everyone isn't enough -- you also have to purchase software or
software licenses to give employees the tools they require. Whenever you have a new hire, you
have to buy more software or make sure your current software license allows another user. It's so
stressful that you find it difficult to go to sleep on your huge pile of money every night.
Soon, there may be an alternative for executives like you. Instead of installing a suite of software
for each computer, you'd only have to load one application. That application would allow
workers to log into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need for his
or her job. Remote machines owned by another company would run everything from e-mail to
word processing to complex data analysis programs. It's called cloud computing, and it could
change the entire computer industry.
In a cloud computing system, there's a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer
have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers
that make up the cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user's side
decrease. The only thing the user's computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing
system's interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud's network
takes care of the rest.
There's a good chance you've already used some form of cloud computing. If you have an e-mail
account with a Web-based e-mail service like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, then you've had
some experience with cloud computing. Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer,
you log in to a Web e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn't
exist on your computer -- it's on the service's computer cloud.