SRI SHARADA INSTITUTE OF

INDIAN MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

Approved by AICTE
Plot No. 7, Phase-II, Institutional Area, Behind the Grand Hotel, Vasant Kunj,

New Delhi 110070

MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY AND CHANGES

ON
LMMS AND FACEBOOK

SUBMITTED TO:

SUBMITTED BY:

Prof.N Venkatshwaran

Vijay Krisna (20100107)

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PGDM (201012)

DECLARATION

We, hereby declare that we have completed this project on TECHNOLOTY AND
INNOCATION LMMS AND FACEBOOK . The information submitted is true to
the best of our knowledge.

Vijay Krisna (20100107)

(PGDM 2010-12)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Writing is a solitary task. However turning of millions of bytes of information

requires an army of talented folks. We have been fortunate enough to be assisted by
many talented people. We wish to express our thanks to all those who have helped
us and have given valuable suggestions.

Synopsis
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes services,
technologies, or ideas that are acceptedby markets,governments, andsociety.
Innovation differs from invention in that innovation refers to the use of a
new idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the
idea or method itself.

Global innovation index

This international innovation index is part of a large research study that looks at
both the business outcomes of innovation and government's ability to
encourage and support innovation through public policy. The study comprised a
survey of more than 1,000 senior executives from NAM member companies across
all industries; in-depth interviews with 30 of the executives; and a comparison of
the "innovation friendliness" of 110 countries and all 50 U.S. states. The findings
are published in the report, "The Innovation Imperative in Manufacturing: How the
United States Can Restore Its Edge." The report discusses not only country
performance but also what companies are doing and should be doing to spur
innovation. It looks at new policy indicators for innovation, including tax
incentives and policies for immigration, education and intellectual property. The
latest index was published in March 2009.] To rank the countries, the study
measured both innovation inputs and outputs. Innovation inputs included
government and fiscal policy, education policy and the innovation environment.
Outputs included patents, technology transfer, and other R&D results; business
performance, such as labor productivity and total shareholder returns; and the
impact of innovation on business migration and economic growth.

CASE STUDY 1
Last Mile Mobile Solutions (LMMS): Technology and Partnering for Social
Innovation

World Vision and our Information Technology (IT) partners have developed innovative software
for use on robust mobile computers to meet an unmet need in humanitarian applications. This
Last Mile Mobile Solutions initiative is applied to fieldbased data collection, management and
analysis processes in an effort to eliminate duplication, streamline business variations, and
remove complexity. Results from the foodprogramming domain verified substantial benefits
including a reduction in the time to generate key reports by 60% and a reduction in beneficiary
preprocessing and verification times at aid distributions by approximately 75% .

Case Study Summary

These positive outcomes have led to overwhelming support from within World Vision and our
partners for the expansion of these innovations. As such, LMMS is now at the start of a 60
month expansion drive across all World Vision foodprogramming activities. This case study
describes the innovation process and demonstrates how IT and effective partnering with the
private sector can foster opportunities for significant social innovation.

Background Information and Rationale for Innovation

Delivering aid to the right people, at the right time, in the right location, and in sufficient
quantities is challenging enough, let alone when complicated by war, civil conflict or natural
disasters. Experience also shows that having access to reliable, valid and timely data can
significantly improve the analysis of the situation on the ground, and contribute to more effective
decisionmaking and better targeting in responses. While the collection and management of field
data is seen as vital, the current processes used by humanitarian operations tend to be extremely
labour and time intensive. The reliance on paperbased procedures to track the aid that
beneficiaries receive is more time consuming and costly to audit and insure against inaccuracies,
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loss or theft. World Visions efforts to integrate better monitoring and to assess the efficacy of aid
programs often requires duplicating data collection and the processes suffer from the
aforementioned challenges associated with remote, fieldbased data collection. To redress these
notable gaps in the remote, fieldbased
data management needs World Vision began partnering with key players in the IT sector.
Working closely with Canadian software specialists, LMMS issues computer readable identity
cards to primary beneficiaries. These are capable of being printed in the field or at centralized
locations at low cost. Households are registered once into a particular food project or are
transitioned into new programs using the same identity card, thereby avoiding multiple data entry
over time.

For example, in 2007 World Vision International assisted over 12 million people in 36
countries with 440,890 MT of food (about 60% of it from WFP) valued at US$253 million with a
loss rate of 0.2%.

Description of the Innovation Process

To identify how the Last Mile Mobile Solutions (LMMS) project took root within the
organization, can differentiate a number of different innovation stages.

Recognition Stage
World Vision is currently the largest implementing partner of the UNs World Food Programme,
in addition to handling food from the US Government and the European Union. World Visions
leadership recognizes that improved systems capacity and better processes will be required to
facilitate enhanced humanitarian programming. This culture supporting continuous
improvements enabled our team to table ideas of change and to critically assess existing modes
of operation with the encouragement and support of top management.
In the stages of problem identification, there were ideas brewing in terms of what inventions that
could be applied. One staff member for example, while on a business trip, observed how airlines
were organizing passengers at the checkin counters to take advantage of mobile barcoded
technology in an effort to speed up client processing. The initial review showed that could not
purchase the appropriate solutions purely through a market transaction, as there were no off
theshelf products available for food aid programming. The private sector in creating a new
product for the humanitarian context, in part due to recognition that the time to deliver a
workable solution could best be met through a collaborative effort. Fieldbased research and
stakeholder interviews identified fundamental challenges that extended beyond the logistical
arrangements in how services are delivered to people.

For example, the huge burden paperbased systems placed on the organization in terms of staff
productivity, its impact on our clients and on our donor accountability. At the early recognition
stage, it became evident how one good idea on managing and processing beneficiaries was now
enabling us to look at more fundamental changes across a breadth of food programming issues.
Remote information management became the trigger point for change.

Invention Stage
At the start of the invention stage, the recognition of problems and the consideration of
innovative solutions were seen as being driven by certain individuals who had a mandate to seek
change (i.e. innovators). However, practitioners in the field were not as ready to embrace yet
another change initiative. Perhaps a causality of too many pilots in our industry,
The statistical and behavioural research on innovation diffusion suggests that preferences to
adopt new ideas or products can vary a great deal even within a single organization. Aptitudes
and attitudes toward embracing novelty can range from early adopters to those whose
preferences lag far behind the acceptance of an innovation

Bellcurve distribution of types of adopters in the population

Such principles of innovation diffusion were considered purposely throughout the pilots
implementation process. Supporting the early adopters was a process of education and
negotiation during the invention stage to garner sufficient support from implementers for both
input and ownership of the impending innovation. The responsible business owner, the Food
Programming Management Group (FPMG) of World Vision International, has a reputation for
being particularly responsive to innovation. This proved tremendously important in terms of
getting the ideas to a concrete development stage once it overcame the initial inertia.
As mentioned, many of the original ideas were based on observed practices that the private
sector was using to improve efficiencies. During the identification of potential solutions the
scrutinized potential technology failure points. As part of this process, it relied heavily on the
field staff to identify likely problems and on the private sector partners to assist in the formation
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of suitable solutions. Therefore common Personal Digital Assistants or consumer grade mobile
phones would not be a suitable technology choice. It is also needed to consider simplifying the
IT architecture with respect to how data would be transmitted to a central storage area. Very early
into the invention stage, we decided to make use of a particular IT architecture that would enable
our teams to centralize data transmission over small, localized areas. This architecture would also
enables to bypass failed or nonexistent mobile phone networks in the transfer .Issues associated
with biometric data capture were another example of due consideration to failure points. While
technologies existed for the use of fingerprint readers, doing so would not have been a prudent
choice when simpler biometric information could be used (i.e. photo images). Photo capture
would also prove to be simpler to implement.
It is important to note that every point of IT systems development on LMMS entailed
deliberations on humanitarian programming needs. Fundamental to this has been leadership from
key staff that had both highly technical IT and humanitarian programming skills. As an example,
due consideration was given to the principles associated with respectful and dignified treatment
of beneficiaries. Simply automating the finger printing process would have merely extracted data
from the field, making the field more passive about ownership of the data and not proactively
involved in the process. Instead our invention tables the issues on data ownership rights. LMMS
uses computer readable identity cards that are owned by the beneficiaries. This is their data and
the process of submitting their ID cards is intended to encourage their participation in the system
and for them to have a say in terms of how their information is being used in both data collection
and in aid distribution programs.

Development Stage
While it was recognized that the LMMS tools were suited for wider deployment across different
business functions within World Vision, the implementation team was intentional about avoiding
expansion of our project scope by keeping the solutions focused on a particular business need,
namely food programming. The development process that is being used for the fullscale
development and the adoption of the innovation is based on an iterative release cycle with
continuous design, build, modification, testing and improvements planned for each period in the
release cycle. Further enhanced functionality and different IT architectures will be grown over
time

Iterative Development & Release Cycle

The development stage of the LMMS innovation required a balancing act to maintain interest
within the organization, while still meeting the original objectives given the resources at hand. To
assist in controlling scope and in keeping key stakeholders engaged, the development team
leveraged regular checkins and debriefings. A collaborative website was set up to document
milestone progressions and to serve as a repository for decisions that the implementing team
made based on inputs from various stakeholders. Freezing the scope empowered software
developers to start work early.

Implementation Stage
Prior to the start of the implementation, key partners and stakeholders were invited to a pilot
launch event in which information on the reasons for change as well as an introduction to the
types of change was introduced. This helped ensure early buyin from various stakeholders.
During rollout, FPMG appointed experienced personnel who understood the constraints of food
interventions and who were well versed in implementing new food programming processes.
Community leaders were informed of the projects design. This was led by our IT partners and
engaged World Vision staff from Kenya, Lesotho, Canada and Malaysia. Additional IT training
was delivered in Canada by our hardware and software partners. One trained Canadian staff
member travelled to the field and led a fourday training session for end users in both
implementing countries. These training events were supplemented with ongoing Q&A and
additional training sessions during this phase.
A formative review process was used during implementation. In general, while user expectations
were successfully met, there were areas that required changes to the software functionality.
During this stage, the implemented field trails as a dual process running the old paperbased
systems in parallel with the new automated system. While this ran counter to the designed
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process flow, field staff showed true ingenuity in adapting the system to a different business
practice. Further inventiveness was demonstrated when field staff found various ways to speed
up the process of basic data entry.
For example, staff found additional open source software that enabled multiple team members
to enter basic information on households simultaneously one could specialize in alphanumeric
text inputs on the laptop and the others could specialize in selecting radio buttons or drop down
boxes on the mobile devices.

Diffusion Stage
It was recognized that successful diffusion would entail: 1) managing expectations; 2) providing
education and training; 3) leveraging persuasion; 4) conducting ongoing analysis; 5) relying on
negotiation and 6) making use of authority when needed. Managing stakeholder expectation
from technologyled innovation can be modeled on the different stages of the technologys
maturity.

The Hype Curve (Adopted from Gartner Group) ALNAP Innovations

Education profiled heavily as part of the diffusion of innovation. A twoday review of the project
was intended to present facts and gather feedback from internal and external parties. Video
material was produced. A web log site and an extremely well received comic book version
depicting the innovations in practice were also developed. Unrealistic expectations on what the
technology would deliver would be inevitable. However, as deployment of the innovation takes
root in standard business practices, the lows in the Hype Curve will be managed by access to
additional resources to meet wider user needs and to add more strategic value through broader
application of LMMS. In part, our emphasis on modularizing software development and building
core infrastructure to support LMMS will also add to this greater adoption of the technologies
over time.
Additional efforts supporting diffusion are being implemented. On the education and
communication side, an improved LMMS website, new videos, newsletters, various case studies
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and an FAQ page are being produced. The diffusion process has also sought more proactive
participation from humanitarian partners in an effort to scale the innovation as an industry
solution and to further interagency coordination. Data to support ongoing analysis for WFP is
also being captured through this implementation. In the early stages of defining a more
collaborative effort to focus on analysis and larger scale plans with agencies in a number of other
regions in Africa.

Risks
At the launch of Phase 1, Kenya entered into a period of civil unrest and violence associated with
the 20072008 general elections. Those events came as a stark reminder of the fact that
successful innovations require comprehensive management of all risks from project related
technical risks to geographical and social risks. At this phase, proving the concept of mobile
applications in humanitarian work was seen to be of more importance rather than investing
heavily in alternatives to protect against project failure.
Acceptance of such risks had to be supported by senior managers within the organization. By
doing so, LMMS was granted an incubation period, in which we could focus on developing the
innovation, free from excessive risk control. While often the data being collected is not different
from paperbased methodologies, there are contexts in which electronic data collections may be
challenged. Such issues with data governance and the use of data will continue to profile highly
in LMMSs risk management.

Partnerships and Collaborations

By partnering with FieldWorker, World Vision was able to cocreate a new solution that was not
available on the market and that can now be made available to the wider humanitarian industry.
This was an important factor that we took into account at the design stage, due to the fact that we
understood that the underlying databases being used by other organizations would not
necessarily be the same as those being used by World Vision. While any migration to different
systems will require customization, the hope is that LMMS offers a solution for better
interagency coordination and interoperability for sharing information.
By partnering with a socialconsciousnessdriven private sector company, World Vision was also
able to leverage significant cost reductions in acquiring resources to develop the systems and in
the cost structure for software solution. The end result implied that the risks of project failure
were likely lower from a cost perspective, and were also shared. In addition, the very act of
partnering with an entity whose core business revolved around development of such systems
helped enormously in redressing technical project failure related risk.

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Lessons Learned and Evaluation Findings

The LMMS innovation was introduced in tandem with existing practices during Phase 1 to
mitigate technical failures and to avoid critical data loss. The running of simultaneous
processes enabled an external evaluator to run comparisons between the old and new
systems. The following summarizes key findings from Carr (2008): The incurred hardware
and software costs were lower than the projected annual savings on staff time, thereby
suggesting a positive costbenefit position when fully deployed. A 60% reduction in time
spent generating reports using LMMS was estimated when compared to the time required to
generate these reports using paperbased processes. The analysis suggested that the
introduced innovations are expected to have a significant impact on food programming costs
as its use is further expanded. The innovations were expected to positively impact on the
quality of service to end beneficiaries through better tracking of food project activities, as
well as through faster and more efficient processing of beneficiaries (preprocessing and
verification times were documented as being cut by 75%).
The technologies were expected to also lessen fraudulent claims in distribution applications
where personnel were not as familiar with community recipients (or their designated proxies) via
better photo verification processes. Improve real time analysis of food programming efforts is
expected to enable better formative assessment of food programming activities. Audit
improvements are expected through the innovations improved fieldbased stock control
procedures at final distribution points (more data is to be collected). LMMS enabled staff to meet
documented World Vision standards for monitoring food aid projects. LMMS will yield
opportunities for fostering higher value returns through increased field worker productivity. For
example, the technology empowers monitors to integrate additional data collection that is
normally outside of their job scope in food project management.
For example, LMMS was found to positively benefit quality of service to end beneficiaries by
improving the way in which recipient information is kept confidential (e.g. the health status of
beneficiaries is not made public to monitors as the system automatically calculates rations due
rather than a monitor having to do so in front of the beneficiary). New benefits were also
identified. For example, the technological innovation was cited as a positive move toward
becoming paperless and thereby positively influencing the organizations carbon footprint.
Closely associated with this was the need for greater user documentation (electronic help files)
and more training. There was also the recognition of the fact that realtime data processing is
much needed, but that implementing and supporting these features was challenging. Finally, the
lessons also identified the need to pay due diligence to the issues of data integrity and data
security.
In addition to developing applications for greater deployment with humanitarian industry
partners, working with the private sector on additional strategic partnering opportunities. The
LMMS tools are one subset of data management. There is much more that we aim to build on top
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of these solutions. Further, World Vision and our hardware partners like Intermec must look at
creative developments entailing the invention and customization of hardware. This is required for
broader applications within the humanitarian sector and to remove unnecessary hardware and
embedded software features from the existing tools.
This case study has documented how IT when tightly coupled with humanitarian programming
needs can deliver innovative solutions for the humanitarian industry. The success of the LMMS
innovation was achieved in part by enabling space to grow a good idea, by being open to
controlled risk, and through creative thinking rooted in humanitarian need. Further, the
innovation succeeded by building strong partnerships with the private sector such that the core
competencies from all partners were effectively channelled. In so doing, LMMS has opened
significant opportunities in which remote data management and data use is now available for
wider humanitarian sector impact

CASE STUDY ON FACEBOOK

In 2004, college sophomore Mark Zuckerberg wanted to build an online version of student
directory with basic information, commonly known to schools as face book. Harvard didnot offer
such a directory and the administration insisted that they were unable to aggregate the
information required. Thus, one night, Zuckerberg hacked into Harvards student records and
created a basic site called Facemash , which randomly paired photos of undergraduates and
invited visitors to determine who was hotter. After four hours, 450 visitors, and 22,000photo
views, Harvard administration
disconnectedZuckerbergs internet connection and took
down the site. However, Zuckerberg continued with this new project as he believed
thatinformation should be available to all students. He added applications and expanded
thenetworks to other schools, and to work networks such as employees from the Central
Intelligence Agency McDonalds and the U.S. Marine Corps. Eventually in September
2006,Zuckerbergs social networking website, Facebook.com, was opened to the
public.Presently, the site has more than 68 million active users worldwide. Facebook is ranked
2nd in the Top 10 U.S. Social Networking Site for November 2007 report released by
Nielsen Online. In January 2008, Zuckerberg reportedFacebooks revenue at US$150 million in
2007 and projected revenue at US$350 million for2008
This paper examines Facebooks revenue model and investigates on the factors that led to
thecurrent success of Facebook, to understand and illustrate the different
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technologicalmanagement concepts behind this success. While the emphasis in this case study is
on thelessons learnt for a successful innovation, it also briefly discusses the other issues
Facebook is currently facing and recommends some future strategies to maintain its
competitiveadvantages.

Revenue Model
There were several funding from venture capitalists since the launch of Facebook.
NotablyUS$500,000 from Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPal) in 2004, US$13 million from
AccelPartners in 2005, and US$25 million from Greylock Partners, Accel Partners,
MeritechCapital Partners and Peter Thiel.The revenue model of Facebook is based on the
following:
Display advertisements - Example of revenue from this is through outsourcingadvertising deal.
Besides the common banner advertisements, Facebook allows usersto make their own
advertisements known as Facebook Flyers at low prices based onnumber of clicks. These
advertisements are filtered according to targets gender, age,education status, and regional
networks. Direct advertisements accounts for majorityof Facebooks revenue.

Sponsorship - This is in the form of homepage sponsored stories and sponsoredgroups. In the
former sponsorships, advertisements are displayed in the News Feedsection of Facebook users
pages which most users pay attention to. The click-throughrates of such advertisements are
higher than normal banner advertisements by ten totwenty times. Levels of filtering (such as by
gender or location) for targeted users areapplied with a premium. Sponsored groups are groups in
Facebook created for 4particular brand of goods. These groups (such as Apple Students, PINK
VictoriaSecret, NBA Finals Trivia Challenge) are personal environments for users to gatherand
interact, transforming the brand into a participant of Facebook. The cost of eachsponsored group
is US$300,000 for three months. There were 186 sponsored groupsin September 2007.Gifts Users can purchase limited edition virtual gifts for other Facebook users atUS$1 per item.

Path to Success
From an innovation based on the believe of a sophomore, to one with 66 million active usersand
annual revenue of US$150 million, it is not difficult to see that Facebook has been a
greatsuccess. This is also evident from the significant investment made to the company since
itslaunch. In October 2007, Microsoft invested US$240 million for 1.6 percent stake
inFacebook . This values the Facebook at US$15 billion. Following that in December
2007,Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing US$60 million for 0.4 percent stake in Facebook. And
inJanuary 2008, German internet entrepreneurs the Samwer brothers also invested a
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significantamount in Facebook. This section will examine the factors which contributed to this
success.

The Untapped Market

Unlike other social networking sites which had been targeting the older demographics
orteenagers (in the case of MySpace), Facebook was designed by college students for
collegestudents. It targeted specifically the students within each university. Students needed
suchdirectory services and Facebook provided a better site than that of schools. With
endorsementfrom university students from reputable schools such as Harvard, Stanford and Yale,
students

Facebook is one of these many interactive applications

(such as eBay,Blogger, Wikipedia,
etc.) using Web 2.0 technology. Facebook will become the de factoservice provided of users web
content (such as photos, videos, profile, etc.), if it can expandbeyond its core website, and enable
users to easily integrate the full array of Web 2.0applications. The Facebook portal will serve as
the main shop- front for users activities andcontent authoring, which widgets integrated at
other sites will serve out the content to morepeople. This is another way of exploiting Network
Effect as reaching out to more people willattract them to join and improving on the content.

Corporation with More Brands

Brands can make use of Facebook as a tool to get closer to the consumers (offering
latestproducts and news) and gathering feedback (for improvement or observing trends) on
theirproducts. By relating brand preference more prominently to the users profiles, it is
likely thatusers in the same community will try these brands as well. Through customizing
andmarketing such opportunities to more brands, Facebook will be able to secure
moresponsorship and provide value-add to users at the same time.

Connecting to Trends
The Facebook users profiles are source of information on users preferences and
background.Facebook applications such as Books iRead capture the users interests. Besides
pushingthe advertisements to users through contextual-aware advertising, Facebook can link
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theseentities of interest (such as book titles or movie titles) directly to the internet shopping
websites (such as eBay or Amazon) of these items. Users browsing these profiles are
moremotivated to click-through these links than those in advertisements. There is a trend of
increasing online sales. In a 2007 Forrester report, it predicted a rise of 18 percent of onlinesales
to US$259.1 billion [16]. Thus, by connecting to trends and integrating with services,can
produce a business model that them to mutually benefit (such as sharing profitof directed sales
for internet shopping).

Looking Outside Social Networking

The modular architecture of Facebook can be applied to fields outside social networking.
Onesuch example is using it as a teaching tool. As college students are very familiar with
theFacebook interface, schools can make use of the Facebook Platform to be interactive tools
forinstructional purposes. Facebook Brand Culture As seen in many successful brands,
developing a brand culture is the key to sustainingsuccess. With the success of one single
product, users will be able to identify with products of same family (such as in the case of
Apple with the i products, eg. iPod, iPhone, etc.).Similarly, Facebook can continue to
target other markets by developing a brand culture andproducts from its initial success. Through
customization based on profiles of other targetedmarket, Facebook can launch hybrid versions of
its current social networking site and otherproducts using its brand culture (such as sites for the
older demographic).

Creative Organizational Culture

Creativity and innovation are absolutely critical in todays economy for firms to staycompetitive.
Facebook will also need to constantly innovate in its infrastructure andtechnology, to meet the
users needs and improve in its performance. There different ways tobuild innovation as part
of their organizational culture. It is necessary for Facebook torecognize the importance of
innovation in the organizational culture, and adapt the successformulas from innovative
companies to suit individual firms .

Conclusion
The key strength of Facebook is its modular and open architecture, which enabled it toexploit the
network effect. As a first mover in this aspect, it had rapidly gained market shareover incumbent
16

such as mySpace and Friendster. Strategic partnership ensured long termfunding. However,
the competitors, such as Google Orkut and mySpace, have also adoptedopen architecture. Thus,
first mover advantage will slowly be eroded. Therefore, it isimportant for Facebook to look
beyond its success factors and expand on them whenstrategizing for the future. This paper also
briefly highlighted the current issues andrecommended strategies to sustain the growth, such as
connecting directly to trends andmoving beyond the Facebook platform. While these
recommendations are merely possibleway forward, it is important to recognize that strategies
should change according to thedynamics of the competitors, complements, trends and
technology.

CHAPTER ANALYSIS

Technology Strategy
An Information Technology strategy (e.g. as in Information technology (IT)) is a particular
generation of an organization's overall objective(s), principles and tactics relating to the
technologies that the organization uses. Such strategies primarily focus on the technologies
themselves and in some cases the people who directly manage those technologies. The strategy
can be implied from the organization's behaviors towards technology decisions, and may be
written down in a document.
A technology strategy has traditionally been expressed in a document that explains how
technology should be utilized as part of an organization's overall corporate strategy and each
business strategy. In the case of IT, the strategy is usually formulated by a group of
representatives from both the business and from IT Often the Information Technology Strategy is
led by an organization's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or equivalent. Accountability varies for
an organization's strategies for other classes of technology. Although many companies write an
overall business plan each year, a technology strategy may cover developments somewhere
between three and 5 years into the future.
Typical structure of a (IT) technology strategy
The following are typically sections of a technology strategy:
Executive Summary - This is a summary of the IT strategy
High level organizational benefits
Project objective and scope
Approach and methodology of the engagement
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 Relationship to overall business strategy

Resource summary
Staffing
Budgets
Summary of key projects
Internal Capabilities
IT Project Portfolio Management - An inventory of current projects being managed by
the information technology department and their status. Note: It is not common to report
current project status inside a future-looking strategy document.
Show Return on Investment (ROI) and timeline for implementing each application.
An inventory of existing applications supported and the level of resources required to
support them .
Architectural directions and methods for implementation of IT solutions. Current IT
departmental strengths and weaknesses
External Forces
Summary of changes driven from outside the organization
Rising expectations of users
Example: Growth of high-quality web user interfaces driven by Ajax technology
Example: Availability of open-source learning management systems
List of new IT projects requested by the organization
Opportunities
Description of new cost reduction or efficiency increase opportunities
Example: List of available Professional Service contractors for short term projects
Description of how Moore's Law (faster processors, networks or storage at lower costs) will
impact the organization's ROI for technology
Threats
Description of disruptive forces that could cause the organization to become less profitable or
competitive
Analysis IT usage by competition
IT Organization structure and Governance
IT organization roles and responsibilities
IT role description
IT Governance
Milestones

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 List of monthly, quarterly or mid-year milestones and review dates to indicate if the strategy is
on track
List milestone name, deliverables and metrics
Relationship between strategy and enterprise technology architecture
A technology strategy document typically refers to but does not duplicate an overall enterprise
architecture. The technology strategy may refer to:
High-level view of Logical architecture of information technology systems
High-level view of Physical architecture of information technology systems
Technology
The systematic application of scientific knowledge to a new product, process, or service.
The methods, processes, systems, and skills used to transform resources into products

Innovation
A change in method or technology; a positive, useful departure from previous ways of doing
things.
process innovations - changes that affect the methods of producing outputs
product innovations - changes in the actual outputs themselves
The technology life cycle
a predictable pattern followed by a technological innovation starting from its
inception and development to market saturation and replacement
cycle begins with the recognition that applied science can satisfy a need
knowledge and ideas brought together, culminating in a technological innovation
rate of product innovation tends to be highest in early years
dominant design emerges when early problems are solved
technology reaches upper limits of performance capabilities
the technology remains in mature stage until it is replaced

Forces Driving Technological Development

1. Must be a need, or demand, for the technology

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2. Meeting the need must be theoretically possible, and the knowledge to do so must be available
from basic science
3. Must be able to convert the scientific knowledge into practice in both engineering and
economic terms
4. The funding, skilled labor, time, space, and other resources needed to develop the technology
must be available
5. Entrepreneurial initiative is needed to identify and pull all the necessary elements together.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology Leadership
Advantages

First mover advantage

Little or no competition
Greater efficiency
Higher profit margin
Sustainable advantage
Reputation for innovation
Establishment of entry barriers
Occupying of best market niches
Opportunities to learn

Disadvantages
Greater risks
Cost of technology development
Costs of market development and
customer education
Infrastructure costs
Costs of learning and eliminating
defects
Possible cannibalization of
existing products

Technology Followership
A managers decision on when to adopt new technology also depends on the potential benefits
of the new technology, as well as the organizations technology skills
Following the technology leader can save development expense
o can be used to support low-cost and differentiation strategies
o adoption timing is dependent on the organizations strategic needs and technology
skills
o potential benefits of the new technology also a consideration

Technology diffusion:
Diffusion of Innovations and Technology is a theory that seeks to explain how,
why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures.
Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain
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channels over time among the members of a social system. The origins of the
diffusion of innovations theory are varied and span multiple disciplines.
a. spread in the use of new technology over time follows an S-shaped pattern
b. adopters of new technology fall into five groups

Technology Adoption
"Adoption" refers to the stage in which a technology is selected for use by an individual or an
organization. "Innovation" is similarly used with the nuance of a new or "innovative" technology
being adopted . The technology adoption lifecycle is a sociological model developed by Joe M.
Bohlen, George M. Beal and Everett M. Rogers at Iowa State University, building on earlier
research conducted there by Neal C. Gross and Bryce Ryan. Their original purpose was to track
the purchase patterns of hybrid seed corn by farmers.
Beal, Rogers and Bohlen together developed a technology diffusion model and later Everett
Rogers generalized the use of it in his widely acclaimed book, Diffusion of Innovations] (now in
its fifth edition), describing how new ideas and technologies spread in different cultures. Others
have since used the model to describe how innovations spread between states in the U.S.
The technology adoption lifecycle model describes the adoption or acceptance of a new product
or innovation, according to the demographic and psychological characteristics of defined adopter
groups. The process of adoption over time is typically illustrated as a classical normal
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distribution or "bell curve." The model indicates that the first group of people to use a new
product is called "innovators," followed by "early adopters." Next come the early and late
majority, and the last group to eventually adopt a product are called "laggards."
The report summarised the categories as:
innovators had larger farms, were more educated, more prosperous and more risk-oriented
early adopters younger, more educated, tended to be community leaders
early majority more conservative but open to new ideas, active in community and influence to
neighbours
late majority older, less educated, fairly conservative and le active
laggards very conservative, had small farms and capital, oldest and least educated
less socially.

Intellectual Property and Technology Law

Intellectual property law B the body of law that is primarily concerned with providing protection
for the intangible creations of the human mind B has traditionally been comprised of three major
subfields: Patent Law, Copyright Law, and Trademark Law. The boundaries of each of these
three subfields are set largely by the federal statutes that govern each -- The Patent Act (35 USC
Secs. 1- 376), the Copyright Act (17 USC Secs. 101B1203), and the Lanham Act (15 USC Secs.
1051 B 1127), respectively.
Technology has long played a key role in IP law, particularly in patent law; the critical role that
patents have always played in the development of new technologies from the cotton gin, the
telegraph, and the transistor, up to and including the more recent innovations in biotechnology
and computer networking B has meant that patent lawyers often find themselves at the cutting
edge of technological development. As a consequence, entry into the field of patent law is
restricted to those with substantial technical expertise; for example, in order to call oneself a
patent lawyer and to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, you must
pass a separate examination (the Patent Bar examination) in addition to a State Bar exam, and the
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Patent Office allows only lawyers with demonstrated areas of technical competence to sit for that
examination.
Increasingly, however, technological issues are also becoming central to the othersub-disciplines
within IP law. While many trademark and copyright lawyers continue to have successful
practices without the slightest interest, or expertise, in technological issues, the rise of the
Internet, in particular, has meant that technological issues are becoming more important in these
subfields.
The adjective "intellectual" reflects the fact that this term concerns a process of the mind. The
noun "property" implies that ideation is analogous to the construction of tangible objects.
Intellectual property can be distinguished from other forms of property in that it is a bundle of
rights attached to the intangible form of an intellectual, scientific, or artistic creation. While
personal property law determines ownership over things, intellectual property law secures
ownership in the particular form or expression embodied in things.
Intellectual property laws and enforcement vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. There
are inter-governmental efforts to harmonize them through international treaties such as the 1994
World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPs), while other treaties may facilitate registration in more than one jurisdiction at a
time. Disagreements over such issues as software patents and the appropriate level of copyright
enforcement have prevented consensus on a cohesive international system.
A number of rationales explain the intellectual property laws. Some legal experts assert that
intellectual property laws are needed to encourage individuals to create new works of authorship,
inventions, and other innovative subject matter. It is believed that absent a system of proprietary
rights, free riders could readily exploit these works without having to bear the costs of creating
them. Individuals would in turn possess diminished incentives to devote their efforts to being
authors or inventors. In addition, intellectual property rights are said to facilitate market
mechanisms by creating discrete, well-defined property interests that decrease transaction costs
and encourage commercial exchanges.
On the other hand, intellectual property laws have been subject to criticism. Some assert that
intellectual property rights are unnecessary due to market forces that already suffice to create an
optimal level of creative activity. The desire to become famous, or to gain a lead time advantage
over competitors, may well provide sufficient inducement to write or to invent without the need
for further incentives. In an era where information can be readily transmitted around the globe,
the notion that an innovation can be an object of possession has also been challenged

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Conclusion
Technology leadership goes beyond managing the day-to-day logistics of a strategic tech
planning process. It is about a social-change process. An effective technology leader should be a
public advocate of the mission-driven use of technology, maximizing relationships with various
groups, both within and outside of the organization, and empowering others to get invested and
involved in planning for and deploying technology. I think forming a technology team
comprised of volunteer and paid staff and other stakeholders is key. Having the team to motivate
and enthuse others about the benefits of technology, as opposed to me as an Executive Director,
will help more people to be positive about the additional work involved with paying attention to
and working on the priority areas.

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