OM0018 TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

Q1. a. Explain Technology Management at various levels

b. Discuss briefly about strategic technology management.
a ) Technology Management takes place at three levels

Technology management at national level

At the national level, technology management plays a crucial role in the overall
economic development of a nation. For example, developed countries, such as
the USA and the UK, have effective technology policies, and the government in
these countries plays proactive roles in the development and acquisition of
technology. Naturally, business organisations in these countries have more
access to better and more efficient technology. In addition, similar to business
organisations, nations also face a number of challenges, for example, pressure
of increasing population, greater health risks, changing demographics,
depleting natural resources, and dwindling farmlands.

Technology Management at Firm Level

Technology management at the firm level refers to the due importance given to
develop and adopt technologies for running business activities. For example, email technology is used for communication among the stakeholders of the
business. This is done to improve the pace of communication and reduce the
cost of communication. Technologies are becoming important strategies to
adopt at the right time in the right direction. It is, no doubt, a risky affair, and a
firm needs to take a calculated moderate risk in the technology road map.

Management techniques for harnessing technology

Technology is the result of the constant innovations of an organisation. There

are basically two different views on introducing innovative technology.
According to the first view, it is better to buy from outsiders, introduce the
necessary changes, and reap the benefits at the earliest. The other version is
developing technology in-house and using it for its operational excellence. If it is
really good and working then it can be shared with other organizations for
monetary and non-monetary benefits.Regardless of which view is given more
importance, management techniques play an important role in harnessing
technology. Some of the important management techniques employed in
harnessing technology include planning, decision-making, executing, and
controlling.

b) Strategic Management of Technology (SMOT)

Strategic management refers to a management technique designed to achieve
certain predefined goals. Therefore, as the name suggests, SMOT involves
technology planning, understanding technological requirements, analysing
technological trends and breakthroughs, assessing values of technologies, and
sourcing technologies to achieve organisational goals. In the Flipkart example, you
studied how the company addressed the challenges faced by it with the help of
innovative technology implementation. Technology is very important from two
perspectives. One is for operational excellence and another one is as a safety shield
to protect from competitors. In many developing countries, organisations are
adopting technologydeveloped in technologically advanced countries.

Q2a. Write about the changing trends in the industry

b. Explain the methods for Strategic Analysis and Decision Making
Three methods for strategic analysis and decision making
Strategic decision making generally pertains to the long-term future of an
organisation. Therefore, strategic decisions are very critical to the achievement of
an organisations overall objectives. Strategic decisions entail a substantial
expenditure of human and non-human resources. Strategic decisions can be defined
as the decisions that are concerned with the external and internal environment in
which an organisation operates and organisational resources to meet the long terms
goals of an organisation. Therefore, strategic decisions aim at matching the
organisational resources with the external opportunities and threats faced by the
organisation. Thus, the strategic decision-making process should be carried out
very conscientiously. The responsibility to take strategic decisions lies with the top
management of the organisation.

Strategic Decisions

Administrative
Decisions

Operational
Decisions

These are long-term

decisions.

These are short-term

decisions.

These are mediumterm

decisions.

These are made while

planning for the future.

These are made

almost

These decisions are taken as

and when

daily.

These advance the

mission and the vision
of the organisation.

These decisions are

taken in accordance
to
the operational and
strategic decisions.

required. Operationaldecisions
are not
taken very frequently.
These decisions are
taken in accordance
with the strategic
decisions.

Q3a. Explain about the concept of strategic planning

b. Describe the concept of technology maps.
c. What is technology forecasting?
Concept of strategic planning
The process, which defines the strategy and direction of an organisation, is known
as strategic planning. It makes decision on resource allocation of capital and people
to monitor the defined strategy. Strategic planning can be understood as the overall
planning that helps in the effective management of any process.
Strategic planning refers to a management tool that helps an organisation to plan
its desired future. It requires efficient use of people, money and other resources in
an organisation. The term strategic planning, also known as corporate planning,
includes a comprehensive planning process to achieve long-term goals of the
organisation. According to Peter Drucker, Corporate planning is a continuous
process of making entrepreneurial decisions systematically and with the best
possibleknowledge of their futurity, organising systematically the efforts needed to
carry out these decisions, and measuring the results against expectations through
organised systematic feedback.

What capacities do we have?

What problems are we facing?
What difference do we want to create?
What critical issues are waiting for response?
Where should we allocate our resources?

Concept of technology maps.

Betz ( 1987) introduced technology push and market pull in mapping the areas
which rapid technological change may happen. He developed a technology map in
the 1980s in the following six areas:
1. Devices

2. Components
3. Processes
4. Systems
5. Materials and Resources
6. Services

What is technology forecasting?

Organizations continuously focus on forecasting the technological trends in the
future. Apart from business organisations, technology forecasting is also a critical
function of the government of a country. Technology forecasting helps a government
in devising effective public policies by analysing the implications of emerging
technologies. For example, development of information technology prompted the
Government of India to launch a project of issuing Unique Identification Number
(also called as
Aadhaar Number) to the people of India. Organisations that can forecast well can
seize the future market opportunities better than the competitors. For examples,
organisations that could forecast the revolutionary development in the information
technology have the fast mover`s advantage to cash in the opportunities in the
market. An effective technological forecast should have the following
characteristics:

It should be credible and have utility for the organisation

It should be based on accurate information
Clearly defined methods should be used in forecasting
The assumptions should be clearly defined and supported
The level of confidence of the forecast should be mentioned

Q4.What is the impact of the technology change on the following:

a. Organisational productivity
b. Quality of work life
a. Impact of technology change on Organisational productivity
Technological change is part of the fundamental factors that can permanently
improve organisational productivity. It is a commonly accepted fact that better tools
and techniques yield more output at lower input. In addition, output increases when

manual processes are replaced by machines. Therefore, as you can see,

improvement in technology helps organisations in a number of ways. Let us
consider an example. When the State Bank of India was finding it difficult to
compete with private banks, it brought revolutionary technological changes in its
banking processes, execution of banking transactions, providing services and
supports to the customers, and renovating the aesthetic aspects of the bank
branches, to attract customers and compete with private banks. This resulted in
tremendous success for SBI. The bank initially planned to implement Business
Process Re-engineering (BPR) only in 3,300 branches. However, because of the
tremendous success of BPR, the bank increased the scope of the project to include
more than 14,600 of SBI and affiliate bank branches.
Let us discuss these ways in some detail:
Better management control: Technology helps the management in having better
control over the production process. For example, technological change enables the
management to track projects, receive reports, and communicate with the
employees through more sophisticated communication systems. Better
management control helps in reducing wastes of resources and time, and increase
productivity.
Automation and robotics: These help in automating the production process and
eliminating manual processes. Automation saves time and increases productivity.
For example, automation in the inventory management system helped Walmart in
creating a highly-effective logistics system.
Information systems: Advanced information systems, such as Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP), help in integrating various departments of an organisation and
managing them more effectively.
Increased sales: Technological development creates employment and wealth, which
in turn increases demand for the goods and services of organisations. Increase in
demand induces business organisations to produce more.
Increasing availability of information: Revolutionary changes in communication
technology have made it easier for consumers as well as business enterprises to
have greater access to information. For example, consumers can easily collect
information about the products and services offered by an organisation from the
Internet.
b. Quality of work life
Technological development has significant impact on the quality of work life of an
individual. Change in technology is continuously replacing manual jobs by
machines. Earlier, most organisational activities were conducted manually. The

extent of manual labour was the highest in the manufacturing industry. In such
working conditions, low productivity and longer working hours were the norm.
Automation, robotics, and advanced computing have replaced many manual
processes. For example, manufacturing of medicines and various electronic parts
have been completely automated. This has led to the reduction in demand for
manual labourers.
Therefore, in the modern economy, the demand for knowledge workers is higher as
compared to the demand for staff workers. These knowledge workers work on
information analysis, strategies, and managing organisational operations. Therefore,
as you can see, the amount of physical work has been reduced in the workplace.
This had led to overdependence on technology and various lifestyle diseases.
Following are some of the important aspects of the effects of technological change
on work life:
Reduces transportation time to the workplace
Helps in connecting with other employees and building networks
Reduces the working hours of organisations, which in turn provides more
leisure time to employees
Increases wage rates of employees, which in turn improves their lifestyle
Improves the ergonomics in the workplaces, providing more comfort to
employees
Q5.Demonstrate Global Information System with neat diagram.
The idea of developing a global information system (GIS) aims at meeting the
challenges of international business so that a profitable running can be made
possible. The demand of a global organisation is driven by the global demand
pattern and the global approach of the administration. Management of global
resources and regulatory conditions worldwide is represents one of the challenges.
Information technology has contributed to the development of a global information
system to meet with such challenges in global business. The development of this
system follows the global strategy that is adopted by the firm. Fig. 1 shows a global
information system:

The Fig. 1 shows there are two projects namely; project1 and project2 running in an
organisation and different group of countries are engaged in different projects. Data
is gathered from various countries and global market conditions to develop a global
data warehouse. This data warehouse is accessed by an information processing
system to generate useful information. This information is circulated back to the
countries. Countries also share and communicate among themselves. Project1 and
Project 2 also coordinate with each other.

Q6Explain the conceptual framework of Management of Technology with a

neat diagram
Technology management can be defined as a process of planning, organising,
selecting, and controlling technological resources to maintain or increase the
capability and efficiency of an organisation. According to the Association of
Technology Management and Applied Engineering, technology management is, the
field concerned with the supervision of personnel across the technical spectrum and
a wide variety of complex technological systems. Some of the results of
technological changes include changes in product and services attributes (as a
result of the changes in production technology); changes in the production
mechanism or service creation and delivery process (as a result of change in the
process technology); and change in the management of supply chain through
advancement of information technology. For example, rapid transformation in
information technology has enabled organisations, such as Walmart, to achieve a

high level of efficiency in its supply chain. Fig. 2 shows the highly efficient supply
chain flow of Walmart:

Technology management involves management of application and operation of

these rapidly changing technologies.
Technology management is not only conducted by organisations but also nations.
This is because nations also need to plan, develop, and implement technological
capabilities to enhance their industrial capabilities and achieve economic goals. Let
us now study about the management of technology at the national level as well as
the organisational level.