Week 2 Discussion Comments
You made some very good points this week. I also appreciate the examples you included from work environments. My comments on each discussion follow.
W2D1 Does IT Matter article
Google and Dominican are different: There is a distinction between IT companies and other companies. In IT companies, there is the "normal IT" (back office systems, accounting systems, internal e-mail etc.). The same rules that apply to "normal" companies apply to these systems. IT companies also produce systems for direct delivery to customers such as the Apple iOS operating system in the iPhone, Google apps and Google search for direct use by customers, and Microsoft Azure (Cloud services). Most of these are or were strategic investments in new product development and not just "IT Investments".
Training for new systems: Some postings talked about the need to train employees to use new IT Systems. Employees must be trained in new systems in order for the investment in the system to be most effective. When you are in a management role, you will need to deal with the trade-off of temporarily reducing capacity and output in your department in order to provide your team with training. When faced with this trade-off, you can remember this Discussion.
Is the IT Build out finished? I think we are just at the beginning of "The Internet of Things" where snow plows, refrigerators, and cars will be loaded with digital technology and communicating with the Internet. This will give rise to significant new applications for businesses.
Is the IT Build out finished? The build out of data centers at non-tech companies may have peaked. For example, Dominican is running Canvas on servers in Utah instead of at Dominican. Student e-mail is no longer handled on servers at Dominican. Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, HP, Google, Oracle and others are building huge data centers which, in my opinion, will take over most work currently done at individual companies. As an analogy, individual companies used to generate their own electricity before this work was taken over by electric utilities. Think of the big cloud companies as the new information technology utilities. Note: There are always changes in the on-site / off-site balance. Some people are now installing solar panels so not all electricity generation is being done centrally.
Cost of technology: It is now possible to start a business without making a major up-front technology investment (data center, servers, software licenses). A startup can get as much infrastructure as is required by making pay-as-you go arrangements with an information technology utility (cloud provider).
The only way to support Carr's claim that IT management is boring is if you only consider the routine management of technology infrastructure such as the PCs in Dominican's classrooms and the routine operation of Dominican's administrative systems (registration, grading,...). Deciding where to apply technology next and how to change business practices because of the availability of new technology is far from boring.
Personal: I really do manage my IT hardware and software to minimize vulnerabilities. I will comment on that the Week 3 Disaster Recovery Discussions.
I usually do not lead in technology. In 2019 I donated my 2011 MAC book and replaced it with a refurbished 2015 Mac book. in early 2019, I retired put my 2013 Dell in a storage box and ordered a 2018 Dell XPS. This paid off because I made a large number of new videos in Fall 2019 and the greater processing speed of the new machine made me much more productive. I have no plans to upgrade my iPhone 6-plus although it will not be able to run the next version of IOS.
One person mentioned that IT is important in health care. I have a personal example. My wife was in the hospital in San Diego in March, 2019. In May 2019, her primary care physician in Chicago was able to access records on everything that happened in San Diego including the results of every blood test. This worked for two reasons. First, both Chicago and San Diego were using the same Electronic Medical Records system (EPIC) and second, my wife had the foresight to fill out a ton of authorization forms while still in San Diego.
W2D2a Carr 10 Years Later
You observed significant new and improved systems and Dominican and other businesses. You identified driving trucks remotely, online education, hotel mobile check in and Internet of Things (such as drones) as examples of technology that could disrupt business models. See https://edinburghsensors.com/news-and-events/uav-drone-methane-monitoring/.
"Things" such as drones, airplanes, cars, appliances, and mobile phones can generate large amounts of data in a short period of time. This, in my opinion, will keep cloud providers that have cost effective data storage like Amazon and Microsoft in business for a long time.
I took three online courses in Data Science using the Python programming language from UC Berkeley. The grading of Python homework was totally automated. The lectures were on video. It was possible to correspond with professors and teaching assistants by email. Large semi-automated classes like these can pose a competitive threat to educational institutions that do not change.
Now that online courses are increasing, I wonder of US News will lower the weight that they place on campus landscaping in determining college ranking.
W2D3 - Netflix/iTunes/Dominican
Several of you identified that ITunes and Netflix had proprietary technologies but now other companies such as Spotify, Pandora, Disney and Hulu have caught up.
One of you referenced the most recent 10-K statement from Netflix (Available at: http://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDF/NASDAQ_NFLX_2019.pdf ). 10-K filings are a good place to find what management says about their business. Netflix says that they have "added an increasing amount of content".
Companies will need to compete on content since they now all have access to streaming technology. That is why Amazon Video and Netflix are developing original content. Companies with large libraries of content like Disney will have an advantage.
Both Apple and iTunes innovated in content licensing as well as technology. Apple convinced some artists and record companies to allow Apple to distribute their work for 99 cents a song. My wife has both a Netflix DVD subscription and a Netflix streaming subscription because movie studios will not allow Netflix to stream some movies but will let Netflix circulate a limited number of DVDs for those movies.
Several of you mentioned the advantage of systems like Canvas being available to all. Dominican replaced a proprietary system used for IT support requests with Team Dynamics and then used Team Dynamics for IT support requests as well as for non-IT support requests such as building maintenance issues and parking pass applications.