Information Technology (IT) Industry Overview

Overview/Description
 Though estimates on global spending for information and communications technologies run in the trillions of dollars, this giant industry continues to struggle through fluctuating markets and must concentrate on continuous improvement to survive. Most agree that the demand for IT products and services will continue to increase, but at the same time, the customer is demanding more value per dollar in order to justify IT spending. Rather than ad hoc purchasing to solve a specific problem, customers are evaluating IT purchases in light of how they will serve strategic business needs and fulfill more fully defined processes and architectures. This reflects a fundamental change for the business IT industry, which affects and blurs the line between all segments including hardware, software, data, applications, and communications platforms. At the same time, this change offers numerous opportunities for those who can adapt. This course provides a roadmap for the rapidly converging IT world, identifies regulatory factors and business drivers, explores industry challenges, and offers examples of current strategic solutions.

Target Audience
 This course is designed for management consultants and sales personnel seeking an overview of the IT industry, as well as corporate and enterprise-wide business managers who will be dealing with or seeking business opportunities in this sector.

Expected Duration
2.5 hours

Lesson Objectives:

IT Industry Overview

  • recognize the benefits of understanding the key characteristics and trends within the IT industry.
  • match the technology segments of the IT industry with examples of the products they produce.
  • identify examples of key focus areas for technology development in the IT industry today.

    • Business and Regulatory Drivers

  • select the advantages of knowing how regulatory and business drivers affect the industry.
  • recognize the characteristics of IT/business alignment in specific scenarios.
  • identify key drivers for mergers and acquisitions.
  • identify the challenges of regulatory compliance for the IT industry.

    • Strategic Challenges for the IT Industry

  • recognize the advantages of understanding strategic challenges to the IT industry.
  • recognize examples of the types of security risk management challenges.
  • differentiate between examples of the characteristics of open source and proprietary technology.
  • identify the challenges for utility computing solutions.
  • identify the challenges facing industry collaboration and standards efforts.

    • Strategic Solutions for Competitive Success

  • recognize the advantages of understanding strategic solutions for the technology industry.
  • match examples of problems with the appropriate outsourcing, licensing, or service solution.
  • sequence the steps for effective supply chain management .
  • determine whether the single-source or best-of-breed approach is appropriate for a given example.
  • recognize scenarios that exhibit the characteristics of good customer relationship management.

    • Course Number: IND0212