Master of Business Administration-MBA Semester 4 OM0018 Technology Management Assignment Set- 1 Q1. Define the term technology.

. Write a short note on evolution and growth of technology. Ans: Technology Technology is derived from the Greek word technologia in which "techne" means craft and "logia" means saying. On the whole, technology means having the knowledge of making something. Evolution and Growth of Technology The history of technology dates back to the time when humans were able to prepare some simple tools with easily available natural resources. History indicates that the advancement in technology had a major leap with the invention of the wheel. From the invention of the wheel, much usage of the technology has started. The technology in all the fields has grown to a larger extent and now we can see the technology involved in almost all the things we use in our daily life. We know that there are some advanced technologies at present which include the printing press, telephone and Internet which have helped us to communicate all over the globe. Technology management in India The Government of India is mainly focussing on the development of science and technology in the present world. The Indian industries are operating under the controlled and regulated economy. The technology management is generally lacking at the enterprise level except a few enterprises. There are many Indian companies which are able to develop and produce the internationally competitive products. The companies which use different kinds of technologies, and are excelling today, in India are the Punjab tractors, tata automobiles, amul food and certain drug and chemical industries. In the same way, there are many Research and Development (R&D) institutions which have developed and commercialised the technologies in the areas of drugs, chemicals, food technology, and computer software. The productivity of the Indian industries largely depends on the technologies that are imported. Most of the technologies that are used in the Indian industries are cost effective. In July 1991, government of India introduced the new industrial policy that mainly focussed on international competitiveness, quality, efficiency and exports. This helped in

the change in operating environment of the Indian industry. Because of this, very well planned technologies were developed at the enterprise level. These days, the companies are paying more attention on technology in order to be more competitive in the business market. It is not only the large scale industries that require the technology management; even the small scale industries also need a technology management to face the competitive world of today.

Q2. Citing an example, state and explain the reasons that compel a company to go for the new technology. Ans: Reasons Compelling a Company for Obtaining a New Technology The use of new technologies plays an important role in the industry. Whenever a company wants to adapt the new technologies, it has to make decisions related to the acquisition of the technology. The company has to see the experience of its R&D for the actual need of acquiring the knowledge. The acquisition of technology becomes critical when the market lead time and competition is more. The following explains the reasons that compel the company for technology acquisition. Technology acquisition helps to bridge the gap in technology, in the developing countries like India. The fastest way of bridging the technology gap is through collaborations. Acquiring the technology from outside company is more costlier than acquiring technology from the R&D of the same company. It will be better, if we develop the new technologies from the in-house R&D. The dependence of the company on the collaboration is bad and we should have the self-reliance in the company every time. Technology acquisition depends on the policy environment. Sometimes the economic policies do not allow the foreign countries to sell their goods and services in the domestic market. In such times, the foreign companies can get the financial returns only through the collaboration and selling the raw materials and components. Technology acquisition is the process by which a company acquires the rights to use and exploit a technology for the purpose of improving or renewing processes, products or services. It does not include retailed or mass market off the shelf software which is generally governed by non-negotiable "shrink wrapped" licences. Technology acquisition is mainly designed for business-to-business technology acquisition. In few cases, technology comes from a university or research organisation. The origin of the technology can take place in any area but it has ton be tested, proven and ready to use.

 Technology acquisition helps for enhancing the productivity of an organisation. The company planning for technology acquisition has to make the agreement between the two companies and even the details of the costs are also present as part of the application.

Q3. Describe some characteristics of technology forecasting. Explain in brief about the six phases in technology forecasting process. Ans: Characteristics of technology forecasting Generally, there are some characteristics that are associated with technology forecasting. We will now discuss them briefly. A technological forecast relates to certain characteristics such as levels of technical performance (e.g., technical specifications including energy efficiency, emission levels, speed, power, safety, temperature, so on), rate of technological advances (introduction of paperless office, picture phone, new materials, costs, so on). A technological forecast also relates to useful machines, procedures, or techniques. In particular, this is intended to exclude the items intended for pleasure or amusement from the domain of technological forecasting, since they depend more on personal tastes rather than on technological capability. A technology forecast can be for short-term, medium-term, and long-term. The forecasting process Twiss has suggested some general elements for the technology forecast process. The forecasting figure process involves three elements that are shown in the

The Forecasting Process As we can see in the figure, that there are three elements involved in the forecasting process, we will discuss them briefly. The first element is the input that has to be fed for

the process. This involves the requirements that we have to fed, so the decision-maker of the forecast will gather the information like the assumptions and data, and feeds the information to the second element named as forecasting techniques which will process depending on the output that it has to contain. Lastly the resources that are required to define the forecast are identified. According to our working definitions, the main function of the technology is to lead the decision making process towards profitable solutions with minimum uncertainties. We can figure study technology forecasting in six phases, as given in the

Figure: The Components of Technological Forecasting Process Let us now briefly explain these six phases. Identification of needs: This is the first phase in technology forecasting process. After identifying the expected outputs and the objectives of the future, a thorough analysis is done in order to make sure the relevance of technology forecasting. This phase ends with a decision of technology forecast. Prepare project: This is the second phase in technology forecasting process. In this phase, the forecasting activities that are planned and resources are allocated. The roles of each human resource are carefully prepared and explained. There are three human resources, clients, core tem and external participants. The client includes both customer and user of technology forecast. The core team performs the activities like defining references, 4

writing documents, creating the structure of the forecast and filling it. The core team coordinates the efforts of experts from team, external participants and clients which help to develop an entire forecast. The external participants help in providing data, information and experience. The major sources of information and data are identified in this phase. Define objectives: This is the third phase in technology forecasting. This phase once again goes through the objectives that are defined in the first and second phases. This phase decides the dimensions of the forecast. This includes both the normative and exploratory forecast. We use normative forecast, when the desirable future is seen and the normative forecast focus on finding the path, from the present to the desirable state. Perform analysis and develop Technology Forecast (TF): This is the fourth phase in the technology forecasting process. This is the central part of the present research. In this phase, we start with defining the boundaries of the technological system that has to be forecasted. This, in turn, involves definition of other four steps that are clearly shown in the diagram. The four steps in defining the boundaries include defining of the key functions and futures, defining system in relation with the laws of system incompleteness and energy conductivity, defining the system in terms of technological, social and environmental contexts and lastly the analysis of the drivers and barriers for the development of the system. After completing the definition of the boundaries, we get a shape of problem and also the contradiction network. We have to capitalise this set of problems. This also includes the four steps as shown in the figure 3.2. The first step in this, is reformulating the technological barriers into the contradictions. The next step is, defining critical-to-X features, and third step involves the revising and reformulating the collected contradictions to match with the critical to X features. The last step in this involves mapping of obtained contradictions as a network. The network consists of critical-to-X features, components of system and opposite values of features. The next step in the analysis and develop TF is the 'analysis of limitation of resources'. This helps to find the resources that are less and causes problems on the map. R&D helps to get the raw materials and solve the problem. This also helps in determining the time delays of the activities. The next step in the analysis and develop TF involves; build the time diagram'. This uses the results that we get after the problem mapping. The different order of critical to X features is developed by considering the different contexts. Validate results: The fifth phase in the technology forecasting process is to 'validate results'. This includes the customer satisfaction with the results of TF. There are different processes that are associated with the evaluation of the results of the forecast. Our R&D uses the traditional method of evaluating the result of forecast. We can do peer review with the external experts and our colleagues in between working hours of the forecast to make the evaluation easy.

 Application of TF: The last phase in the technological forecast is the 'application of TF'. This depends mainly on the needs and the formulated objectives. We have seen the developing of TRF using the contradiction networking. This helps mainly in all the projects.

Q4. Write a short note on technology strategy. Explain in brief about the innovation management. Ans: Technology Strategy A strategy is a long term view that describes a high level framework. This high level framework describes where the organisation needs to be in the future years. We can define technology strategy as a planning document that explains how technology should be utilised as part of an organisation's overall business strategy. The document is usually created by an organisations technology manager and should be designed to support the organisation's overall business plan. Most of the organisations use technologies in product and services generation, but all the organisations will not gain the positive competitive advantage from the technologies. There are many factors in competition, and technology is only one factor among them. Yet, some firms effectively use technology as a competitive advantage, and others do not. One important factor in the successful use of technology is the role of general management in technology strategy. In particular, it has been management's ability to foster corporate core technical competencies. The central idea here is that a business can be developed around a long-term, consistent focus on a core technological competency. What it means, is to have a core corporate technical competency, to lead in both innovating new-technology products and improving manufacturing quality and lowering cost of these products. With this, not only products can be improved, but also manufacturing process can be improved in future generations of technology. Innovation Management We can define innovation management as the systematic processes that help the organisations in developing new and improved products, services and business processes. This involves the use of creative ideas of an organisation's employees that brings new innovations to the market place, quickly and efficiently. In business, innovation should not be only limited to the big ground breaking ideas, creative workshops and product based companies. Innovation is often small, incremental changes to products, services and processes. The innovation involves all the managers from different departments. This needs to be planned and managed as a core business covering all parts of a business. This needs to be integrated at the strategic and operational levels.

The activities of the innovation need to be driven by the strategy and current business imperatives. The successful innovation culture consists of all the aspects of a business, and these aspects have to be managed effectively and efficiently like any other core business. Innovation can be built into business, at three levels. The three levels are the annual business planning process, quarterly innovation and day-to-day activities. Innovation is managed through some sort of platform or application. There are two types of innovation tools that are, an electronic suggestion scheme, and a management system controlling the innovation process. The management of the innovation system need to be given to the senior management to control the overall system of innovation. The best practices and tools are applied consistently and appropriately across the organisation. Any platform should encourage for the learning activity as a core feature. Installing the innovation culture in any of the company has leaders and teams with ability and commitment. In order to create culture of continuous innovation, the organisation requires leadership and commitment from the senior management team. The management team also sees that some staff members in the organisation are rewarded for the innovative ideas they put in. The senior management needs to encourage the innovative ideas from the staff.

Q5. What is the importance of technology diffusion? What are the benefits of technology absorption? Ans: Technology Diffusion The process of adopting the new technology by the customers who came to know about the technology from other customers is called as the technology diffusion. Diffusion involves special types of communication methods or system to help diffuse changes in practice, as well as changes in knowledge or attitudes. Thus, we can say that diffusion is the process of closing the gap between what people do not know and what they can effectively put to use.

Benefits of technology absorption

 Repeated collaborations for the same product/ process are avoided. Acquisition of further technologies becomes selective. Ability is developed to unpackage the technology. Savings can be affected in foreign exchange due to indigenisation /use of indigenous alternatives. Effective utilisation is made of available indigenous research expertise and facilities to achieve the desired results. Know-why and technology upgradation capabilities are built-up. Exports are increased. Technically competent groups of scientists and engineers trained in technology absorption get matured and strengthened. The base for technological self-reliance is enhanced. We gain the benefits of technology diffusion, ranging from R&D services to the larger sales. Technology diffusion helps in sustaining the growth of the company through technical strength. Many developing countries, including India, have liberalised their industrial policies in the recent past. In the wake of the liberalised nature of New Industrial Policy and other policy measures in Trade and Finance, it has become imperative for industry to accelerate its R&D efforts to meet the emerging competitive environment. While acquisition of technology is now easier, commensurate R&D efforts will simultaneously be needed to absorb and upgrade the acquired technology in order to become internationally competitive. The thrust as underlined below need to be ensured for effective implementation, absorption and upgradation of imported technology. Industry should attempt to obtain best available technology closest to international trends and provide R&D at the stage of project planning. Speedy indigenisation of raw materials and components. Efforts for unpackaging and indigenisation of tailor-made equipment in the acquired technology. Enhancing exports of products based on absorbed and upgraded technology. Continuous training of research personnel in India and abroad. Use of national and international research facilities and expertise.

 Involving users, suppliers of components and materials, research organisations in undertaking absorption exercises.

Q6. Explain the implementation of new technology. Briefly describe the automation decisions. Ans: Implementation of New Technology Sound planning is essential for the success of any technologys implementation. The failures that are likely to arise during the implementation process may be due to the poor planning or inadequate resources. Valuing the conflicts will facilitate the organisation to keep away from these problems, and for the management, to anticipate the likely trouble spots and ease it accordingly. You must keep in mind some vital preliminary considerations. These considerations are: Initial considerations: The management of the business needs to understand that the new system alone cannot find solutions to all the problems experience by the organisation. The whole implementation process involves the complete business process and/or academic practice, consumer services, communication with suppliers and a relationship among all other engrossed stakeholders. There are a number of less-substantial activities, which are critical and people those are involved must: Have an understanding of the organisation predominantly, in terms of its traditions and principles are essential. The underlying principle of any new system implementation should be able to provide all the better services to all concerned through it. This information has to be conversed to all concerned parties. A complete review of every business processes and, where required, academic practice, and developing and introducing new policies before tuning the system to meet the decided requirements should be undertaken. The complete approval of the difficulty and flexibility of the system should be determined. The inbuilt dangers of customisation of any software should be understood. A thorough system test procedures should be conducted, while accepting the likely need for software malfunction and improvements.

 The training and development to be conducted for the internal staff should be planned in advance. The users must be trained, to use the system. The users must be trained, to identify faults and correct freely. The essential nature of system documents has to be accepted and retain accordingly. Planning and implementation: A thorough plan with efficient management is necessary for success, and to work against the fear of high costs, extended time, losing key persons and common disappointment with the result Go-Live Considerations: Finally, it is essential that the go live day causes as tiny disturbance to the daily business, since it is practically possible. The various issues arising at this point of time will negatively affect the organisations status, sometimes irreversibly, with all stakeholders. Considerations for implementation Be aggressive: An important consideration when implementing a new technology is to be aggressive to set up a strong competitive edge. The competitive edge enhances production that may be related to the total system performance and authorising employees. A competitive edge will make the clients and customers more independent. For example, we can think of an ATM machine that will make the customers convenient by establishing it outside the bank. The competitive benefit may possibly combine several functions, partners, or flow of data that will lead to a effective business. Be cautious: If the new chosen technology provides revenue to your business, then it is necessary to be careful while making any major modifications in the new technology. Being cautious does not merely mean that you should avoid the advancing technology. It conveys to be more careful in understanding the consequences and secondary applications which may perhaps be impacted as a result of a very small change. If we consider examples, of some companies that had apparently made changes to billing, failed to produce invoices or statements to the clients. The consequence formed economic poverty for the billing company, and for the displeased customers, who abruptly received several months worth of amass billing once the accounting system problem was resolved. In addition to the impact on cash flow, the relationships with the customers become weak. Henceforth, you should be aggressive to increase the competitive chances to grow the profit and performance of your business. At the same time, you must be careful even while implementing changes that may affect your core business contributions, customers, or billing. Be quick: It is important for you to be quick enough to implement the small changes to your chosen technology and to supervise their impact. There should not be any delay, when it comes to performance improvement, internal proposal for simplifying routines or

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improving customer performance. We must follow a set of routines, to design small changes, test changes and schedule to bring consistent enhancements. It is pretty often, the minor improvements encompass the major impact to business performance. Be slow: If major changes affect your business, it is vital to make the implementation changes slowly. Normally, the centre design and functions of the business are wellorganised and updated. The processes that are more frequently in use are likely to get the majority attention and seem to be highly evolved. Basically, these processes are given the first priority, when it comes to implementing a transfer in technology. On the other side, you must avoid focusing on common ground, also conserve the primary processes until the changes have been tested on some of the more difficult and less used utilities. There will be remarkable information to be achieved with the experience and less effect on business by concentrating on most composite and least used functions. Be safe: During the implementation of a new technology, the better time to address the potential security needs is at the time of design and development. It is better to employ a security expert who will take care of the privacy of the organisation. If you have customers, credit cards, customer accounts, customer information, intellectual belongings, monetary information, health information, or employee information stored automatically, available on a network, or printed in files, then it is vital to consider safety. Also, if you are planning to undergo a technology change, it is the right time to reassess the associated documents by means of a security or privacy specialist. From this discussion, we can say the technology plays a significant role in organisations worldwide accomplishment. A well-organised management of people is crucial to the successful implementation and use of new technical systems. The management should take the responsibility to support the commitment to the new system. If the management supports a new technology, the employees will be liable to assist with the functioning. This proves to be right, while they understand that the success and sometimes survival of the organisation along with their potential security depends on the adapted new procedure. Automation decisions In general, we can say that automation decisions are the decisions that are related to automation. The automation decision is considered most suitable for coherent, evidently defined decision situations. The automation decisions act like legal support systems that instantaneously solve and offer solutions to the recurring organisation problems. They are directly related to business informatics and business analytics. The automated decisions are basically dependent on business rules. These rules can be shaped or activated by business analytics. One of the components of automation decision support is rules-engine. For the purpose of operational decision making, a rules-engine is used. The engine employs actionable analytics and business rules to make and deliver adapted alert. In addition, it relates the business intelligence to business users or to create and deliver action messages for processing by operational applications. To handle a particular business situation, it

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produces alerts and messages which might contain the announcement, warnings and suggested solution to solve a problem. A rule engine can also be invoked by a user in real time to assist in business decisions, whether to fund a loan to the client or in providing credit cards, or to calculate the risk occurred in a particular business transaction. The current automation design decision systems are well suited for the decisions that have to be made often and rapidly, by the use of information that is available electronically. The chief consideration is that the knowledge and decision criteria used in these systems have to be highly structured. If specialists are capable of readily codifying the decision rules, and if premium data are accessible, the conditions are favourable for automating the decision. The rule engines are implanted in a number of software products, including web application servers, and business intelligence tools, where they are sometimes called intelligent agents. The sophisticated stand alone rule engines are building up and advertised by the vendors. To fully exploit the advantage of the influence of a decision-making system, the analytics, suggestions and actions has to be linked and integrated with the overall business process. It can be achieved by means of business process automation (BPA).

Figure: An example for Automated Decision Making The upper portion of the figure illustrates an easy functioning workflow for dealing out a customer order. This workflow is used so as to establish the indications in the operational process, where business action desires to be supervised by a BI system. Application and

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data events can then be confined at these points and used to populate an Object Distribution Server (ODS) or a data warehouse. The ODS acts like an objectified information used by the clients to obtain and contribute knowledge. Event capture can be accomplished directly in the application itself, in an integration broker or at application and data interfaces like database API, application API, EJB interface and user interface. If an analytics workflow in a rules engine in the BI system discovers a business condition that needs action, the business user possibly will be on the alert and pass an action workflow to assist identification of the problem and decide what action to take. If automation is necessary, the action workflow possibly will be implanted in the rules engine, which would produce the suitable action messages to be sent to the functioning environment.

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