ICT as a resource in SMEs

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector faces a great challenge especially in the small and medium sized enterprises where the top management level perceive Information Technology as a cost center rather than a tool or ability which strengthens the employee output and boosts the business level in this globally competitive environment. In as much as there is a lot of obsolescence in regard to ICT infrastructure with the ever changing technology after a period of time, managers should appreciate how a company’s operations are integrated and the achieved goals and targets that has been perpetuated by their Information technology infrastructure.

The managers should understand that having a technological move towards ICT will champion their business operations and how they will gain a competitive advantage for corporate objectives. For a company to do well and achieve efficiency, examples of systems like the Customer Relations Management and Business Process Outsourcing  should be employed depending on the nature of these entities no matter what costs required for resources and infrastructure needed to support these systems if they are going to streamline the operations.

Despite the period needed as deployment time for ICT related projects, returns will take quite some time and these is where lack of patience and tension towards these systems from the managers is felt especially with the amount of investment done to acquire and establish the systems. Same to these is the user adoption period but when the users become familiar with the systems then technological growth is experienced though all the benefits will not be realized at the same time.

All in all, in as much as we are insisting on these ICT systems and the values they add to our organizations, there are risks involved. For instance in the markets, changing customer demands and competitors pressure delay such projects due to a lot of research that should be done by the adopting company. Furthermore, technology implementation is affected by early obsolescence and incompatibly. For the success of any ICT project, a timed road map should be drawn with specific ICT goals and objectives and it should include key issues that depend on it in the organization.