Excellence in Services: the Enabling Power of Well Managed Technology
Marinus Swanepoel , Technikon Pretoria, South Africa
http://www.techpta.ac.za/

Session: Design & Evaluation: Evaluation Criteria

One of the five main areas identified for this conference is Technology Enabled Services for Cultural Heritage. It can be stated as fact that all services are reliant on technology to some extent.

However, the real benefit of information technology in service delivery can only be achieved it is well managed. This statement provides some background as to why it is necessary to manage information technology. Information technology is probably the fastest changing of all resources utilized in the information industry and therefore one of the more difficult resources to manage properly.

It is observed that some managers are of the opinion that they are managing their IT if large sums of money are thrown at it. However, this is no guarantee that the competitive edge that IT can provide an enterprise with will be realized. Nor is following the market trends or buying the latest and greatest one can afford the answer.

However, a holistic and logical approach towards managing the information technology resources will go a long way in assuring success of the enterprise or organization.

The paper, based on the author's recently completed research for his doctoral thesis, proposes a meaningful way in which this can be achieved. The study is based on the premise that change management will provide useful guidelines for the management of information technology, as the rate of change experienced in the information technology arena is notoriously high.

The resulting management model has some elements of technology management and change management and provides a way in which information technology can be maximized to provide an information enterprise with the competitive edge IT is capable of.

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