Design patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software
Design patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software
Steps to the Future: Fresh Thinking on the Management of It-Based Organizational Transformation
Steps to the Future: Fresh Thinking on the Management of It-Based Organizational Transformation
| Hi-index | 4.10 |
Over the past decade, the role of information technology as a key business enabler within the telecommunications industry has increased significantly. One reason for this increase has been the continuous change in enabling technologies available to IT organizations. These include operating systems, distributed computing environments, middleware, user-interface technologies, server-side facilities and services languages, and software development methodologies. At the same time, the telecommunications industry has itself undergone continuous change, altering how we think about the industry and how it operates. These changes are influencing, and in turn being influenced by, information technology. To illustrate the growing impact of IT within GTE, this article chronicles the evolution of GTE's Network Management System. Although the authors focus primarily on the NMS, they broadly identify three major phases in the application of IT within GTE: the initial, reengineering, and reinvention phases. Each phase exemplifies the larger forces at play, from both a business and an IT perspective. Their case study depicts the successful strategic alignment of a typical telecommunications company's IT and business sectors. Developments in information technology provided the opportunity for this alignment; changes in the information services industry made seizing that opportunity an urgent priority. As always, the challenge now is to find the next opportunity.