Information Technology Organizational and Key Management Assessment and Analysis

Information Technology Organizational and Key Management Assessment and Analysis

This assignment discusses the MediaCorp and ITServCorp cases from an organizational viewpoint, and a common thread in the case is the connection between the environment and corporate interests. In Jason Pontin’s video, he asks the question “Why hasn’t technological innovations brought solutions to the world’s biggest problems…” He provides an insight that technological solutions need to meet four criteria and be managed by leaders with multiple competencies.
After watching the video, answer the following question and support your discussion with 3 outside references.

How can Pontin’s ideas help MediaCorp build the IT Hosting Services and ITServCorp build its product development back in-house?

There have been numerous concerns around the world on whether technology has been used effectively to address the major problems that are facing humankind. Jason Pontin in his video raises a number of reasons why the society has not been able to solve some of these issues. He associates this with the great focus and the direction of more energy in solving trivial and petty problems instead of addressing and solving the issue that could be largely affecting people globally.

Jason Pontin in his video presentation tries to explain the ability of technology to triumph some of the humanities biggest problems. He says that technology has achieved great results, which include the use of airplanes, having trips to the moon and creating vaccines for diseases such as polio and tuberculosis. Mr. Pontin’s view is that technology has a high capability and instead, it is more focused on things like the social media, development of apps and sophisticated mobile devices. In his view, he notes that technologists have diverted our attention to fewer crucial purposes of technology from what exactly it is meant to accomplish.

Pontin provides ideas on how MediaCorp build can develop IT Hosting Services and ITServCorp build IT product development back in-house. One idea is that there should be optimism in the power of Technology. He states, “Optimism about technology’s power has evaporated as big problems we had imagined technology would solve-have come to seem intractably hard.

In solving such a problem, companies should first create great optimism in the ability of technology.” According to Pontin challenges such as cancer and famine, have been great obstacles   and are still insurmountable by technology. This has made individuals and organizations to lose faith in what technology is capable of doing. The company should focus on solving greater problems instead of putting focus on trivial issues such as the social media, apps and new brands of phones.

Jason also mentions that another challenge that has hindered effective use of technology as the inability to identify a problem, which he notes to be a useful idea to companies. It is important to identify the problem at hand and device the mechanisms to solve it using technology. He gives an example of cancer, which is or has been a mystery to scientists, doctors, researchers, and technology experts. He notes that this hurdle emanates from emergence of new forms of the disease that becomes resistant to previously successful treatment. Thus, MediaCorp should develop a deeper understanding of a technological problem for it to realize the power and the potential of its technological services and products. Problem identification gives a clear pathway to problem solving. As Howland, Moore & Marra (2003) notes, many companies have failed to utilize technology well because of a vague definition of the technological problem (P. 24). In effect, this could result in frustrations when they find that the organization could not achieve its IT strategic goals

Another idea is the involvement of the political class and the public in solving technological problems. Mr. Pontin puts it clear that one of the reasons why technology has been reluctant in solving big problems is the challenge of political failures rather than having technological inadequacies. He says that bad governance and failure of the political class has a major influence on the success of a technological invention to solve problems. Political classes, state agencies, and other institutions should collectively support companies in their ambitions to making technology a reality in solving big humanity problems. MediaCorp and ITServeCorp companies could realize that a great success in their technological ventures if all they should have taken into account by involving other institutions in support for their technological solutions.

Investment in technology has also been an issue in the modern world. Many Companies have been concerned about the return on their investment in technology. This includes the question of determining how much to invest in process technology and how much of product technology. It is true that the power of technology becomes real when and only it brings value to organizations (Bharadwaj et al., 2013, P. 475). Unfortunately as Potin notes, there has not been enough investment in technology for many companies, and this has led to less realization of the power of technology to solving problems.

Mr. Pontin in his presentation outlines that venture capital systems have concentrated on funding solutions to ‘fake’ or rather trivial and petty problems instead of investing in technologies that seek to solve big issues that generally are seen to be of little or no commercial value. This idea is vital for the MediaCorp and ITServeCorp companies to have enough investment in their technological processes in an attempt to solve problems. They should put more investment in technological processes that at the end of it will bring forth bigger technological results. This could be a long-term realization of the value of an investment, which could go a long way to solving humanity problems (Dewett & Jones, 2001, P. 316).

From the discussion, one could realize that technology has been underestimated in its use to solve humanity problem. Many organizations have diverted their attention to solving minor and trivial issues while they should be concentrating on bigger issues that are today’s world major concerns. Priorities on the use of technology as Potin notes seem to have been neglected as it is visible from the past experiences and situation in countries like United States. However, he is glad to note that technology has proven to be capable of solving great global challenges in the past and thus we should seek to work hard towards providing those solutions today.