- February 17, 2010
- Posted by: admin
- Categories: Blog, Business Dynamics, Enterprise Agility
Technology has had an overwhelming impact in today’s business since it is considered as an essential factor in achieving decisive organizational goals.
Whether at workplace or otherwise, people have been utilizing it for their convenience. Particularly in the organizational context, it is considered as an imperative component to gain and sustain necessary competitive edge especially in this environment of severe competition. Therefore, it requires people working at the different places to be completely acquainted with the latest technological developments which can have a direct impact on achieving efficacy in their performances.
For this reason, automating and integrating the business practices with respect to the latest developments is the key to success today, along with providing employees with essential training so that they are in a good enough position to perform daily activities/tasks without any hesitations.
Kindly share your thoughts – to which extent, are you tech savvy? What efforts are you taking, personally to keep yourself updated with the latest technological developments?
PS: name any one or two devices/technological contraptions which are most important to you and why..
My pick would be PC and television since I like spending most of my spare time using them.
I would say we’re all tech savvy to a relative degree. I think we are limited by our spending power and the subsequent devices we have. for example, I may know alot about the Ipad, but I’m unlikely to invest in one and gain tech expertise.
In order to keep myself updated on new devices and tech advances I tend to read alot and talk to friends and colleagues about them.
My most important technological contraptions would be my Laptop and Cell phone. Because I need them both for work and pleasure.
Interesting.
Techology has been important since it enhances existing capability, thus giving you more time to pick up other tasks.
It has effected me both in personal and professional front. I’ll just list down a few:
Professional:
1. Internet – Its a one stop shop for me to gather any kind of information I need and mostly information is free
2. Outlook Express / Lotus Notes : Helps me communicate quickly in writing and also helps me organize my daily schedule
3. AC : Keeps you fresh at work. Imagine working in a non AC enviroment
4. Blackberry : Keeps you in touch always
5. WebEx: Helps you conduct net meetings with ease
Personal:
1. Washing Machine and Dish Washer : Load all you dirt and let it clean itself
2. Facebook / LinkedIn : Helps you be in touch with masses
I can’t keep up, it’s impossible to know everything that is available today but I do my best in the areas that are necessary to my work and personal life to keep it going. In this day and age no one can be a Renaissance man or woman. I am tech savvy enough for my own needs and continue to learn and grow as needed. I just launched a new web business, own a myriad of technical contractions as you call them – I love your wordage 🙂 – could not exist without my computers, blackberry, iPod, camera, and make sure I surround myself with people who are far more tech savvy than I am. I’m an Internet addict and go bonkers should I not have access to it. 🙂
Take an average work day of a ‘knowledge worker’, someone whose main work day is around information. For example, a programmer, a stock broker, and other office workers.
She probably has a cell phone, and an organizer. This is in addition to the land line she has on her desk. Of course she also has a desktop computer, or a laptop that she takes with her at home and on trips. On that computer, she must have email, e.g. Microsoft Outlook probably with immediate notification when a message arrives. She also has an Instant Messaging program, such as Yahoo Messenger, ICQ or MSN Messenger. She has client contacts on all of those means of communication, as well as family and friends too.
An MSN Messenger pops up with a client asking for a quote on something. Meanwhile, her sister pops up on Yahoo Messenger asking her about how a relative is doing. An email notification comes in with a SPAM announcing mortgage rates. Another email message pops up about corporate news. Her office phone rings with a colleague asking her something work related. Outlook Calendar pops up a meeting reminder. Her cell phone keeps beeping about an SMS text message she earlier got from a friend. She also needs to check the latest news on the web, the latest comic strip, some corporate information and newsletters.
Or someone at Starbucks with his laptop connected to the WiFi hotspot there, answering emails, using ICQ with people halfway across the world, and also answering the mobile phone, while talking to a co-worker who accompanied him there.
Well, I think you get the idea now. Life is turning into a series of interrupted interruptions. How is someone supposed to do any work or enjoy some reading/research without being interrupted?
The sheer number of ways that we can be contacted here and now are multiplying. Others have become like a 3 year old demanding a glass of water now.
At home, things are not much better. There is TV with the ever ‘useful’ remote flipping channels around all the time. Even watching a movie is interrupted by 15 second commercial advertisments with fast moving shots and loud noise passing in for music.
As a result, our attention span is shorter and shorter as time goes by. The only time for “peace and quiet” may well be on a remote lakeside with a book.
Another aspect of the problem is the sheer magnitude of information overload that one has to deal with. Since our brain has to deal with a lot of simultaneous information coming in, it often drops some information or fails to adequately process them, rendering the sum of this overload much less useful than each information piece alone.
Some have termed this life style of ‘multitasking on speed’ as hypertasking, driven by techngadgets, and life in the fast line. While people who do it tend to do things faster, they do not necessarily do them better. Don’t ever equate “being busy” with “being productive”.
Links:
* http://baheyeldin.com/technology/interrupting-interruptions-or-how-technolo…
I’m the typical Gen Y, more tech savvy than I can afford.
I have lots of friends in IT, so they keep me up to date.
My most important tech things: laptop and HDTV.
Now a day, most of people do not live without technologies in their lives.
First of all, most of people do not like to use home phone or public phone to call instead of they use their cell phones or I-phones to call.
Second, I do not see most of people of using the typewriting to print their documents instead of they use electric or wires keyboards.
Finally, I start to see e-textbooks provide from online companies instead of students are buying from their book stores.
I like the latest of technologies of nanotechnologies and AI systems of robotics.
Technology is part of life, it makes it easy. I use all kinds of technology. I surf net on my 3G phone and laptop. I access tv through dish. I have twitter, skype connectivity, i read write online etc. Ebook, Kindle are my latest possesions. I m a tech friendly person and use it to make my life easy.
Hi Salima,
I think the humble tea-spoon comes first (and einstein didn’t invent that !). Digital piano comes second (for sanity’s sake). Third would be the playstation (the television is only useful for that). Fourth would of course be the computer, without which I could not do business in the way that I do. That’s four rather than two. Well, the last two are very useful, but the first two have greater personal significance. A cup of tea at the piano is a nice combination.
cheers,
Martin
Best example according to me would be Evolution of technology in banking sector. Where it used to line up for transaction, in today scenario its happening on click. And has evolved so much that cannot imagine banking without IT infrastructure in place.
For manufacturing company, IT provides ease and transparency in all the areas of business. Be it operations (auto pilot manufacturing), logistics (GPS and inventory systems), Finance, Marketing (CRM).
Beyond facilitating todays operations, IT systems provides and manipulates data in system for analysis business trends and helps management in decision making process.
PC & Phone would be my pick.
Regards,
Umair Sayyed
I often think that without technology, how many of us would be out of a job! What would all of the IT consultants do? What would I do?
Seriously, however, I think technology is just one aspect of our human evolution – we constantly strive for ways to make things easier, more efficient, faster, cleaner and better. Is it necessary to survive? Probably not. But it has made changes to our lives, both business and personal, which would be almost impossible to go back on.
I am ‘tech savvy’ to the extent that I need to in order to live my life and be successful in things I do. As curious as I am though, I am aware of my own limitations when it comes to understanding highly complex technology. Fortunately, most of that doesn’t affect my life and so is not necessary for me to know.
I keep on top of things by reading a lot (arguably not a particularly technological thing to do in today’s terms?) and experimenting. I also make choices for my own efficiency – do I need this or not? If not, is it beneficial for me to spend my time with it?
My two devices would be my laptop and my GPS systems (both Garmin for running and TomTom for driving). Could I live without them? Yes. But both make my life easier and help overcome some of my own shortcomings (I am prone to getting lost!).
It is a fact that technology had an major impact on our professional but also personal life. By answering now in such question, it shows the possibilities to interact with other people, and it is right to say that with internet, the world is like a village.
But technology remains a tool to do a lot of things. It is a good performance measurement tool in a lot of discipline and areas. You can use a wonderful text editor, but it will not give you the talent to write. You can use spreadsheets to transform financial data into information, but you build then following your theoretical knowledge. You can only use the full power of technology by combining the offered possibilities with a strong base of knowledge and talent.
Technology is there to help you and to do things on a efficient way, to increase quality. Technology is not a goal on itself.
My pick is laptop and mobile phone.
Best regards,
Without question my blackberry is the most significant piece of technology in my life. I do not watch a lot of television, I spend a lot of time organizing and communicating with others. Although my laptop is important, I can do a lot with my handheld; call, email, upload docs, and presentations, and of course my music is on their too.
Wonderful question. Salima, I would not know you if it were not for technology. The PC and the web have opened doors that few could have thought imaginable twenty (20) years ago. I think that this has presented wonderful opportunities for all of us in business and in our personal lives.
However, with the advances in technology come change. (cause and effect) Here are the challenges that I think need to be addressed:
1. Please be able to put your cellular device away when at a movie, dinner, in a crowded place (no, I do not want to hear your personal conversations)
2. Please give me some space. Sometimes, I need a few minutes alone. With the cell it is hard to get “down time”
3. Identity theft
4. Decreased quality in much of the television programming
The two devices that are most important in my work are a Blackberry and a PC, with a laptop of more value than a desktop. As a “digital immigrant,” I am not as tech savvy as “digital natives.” I am savvy enough to use all the programs and applications I need for business and pleasure. I devote time and attention to stay updated, but rely on experts to do tasks like programming and using complicated programs.
Technology, people and processes are three main contributors for making a big and an eficient organization and regarding how much tech savvy i am, i spend most of my time with latest technologies like SOA, WEB 2.0, CRM softwares.
Most two important technology devices are my laptop and internet router
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with technology for decades. When it is the right technology working well, it is a major blessing. But sometimes the technology can get in the way of function–like the foundation of many of the early cell phone company buy-outs where the computer programming did not let customer service personnel have the opportunity to fix errors that were inconsistent with the customers’ contracts.
Refrigerator and computer–safe food and communication.
I have personally been very busy learning and updating technology, new computer, new network, better software software as well as a new web site integrating video and SEO optimization. I am also getting involved in social media more each day. As far as the recognition business, technology is allowing my team to help clients fully integrate all of their employee recognition and training into a single and comprehensive strategy that not only lowers costs, but gives us the tools to fully monitor and optimize processes. Reporting enhancements allow users to drill down and see who is participating and how they can keep programs fresh and effective. It is a very exciting time for new technology when efficiency and value are critical to surviving this challenging economy. I personally see this downturn as key to driver in implementation of new technology that will make all of our businesses run better for many years.