This week, our IS class dove in to this idea of business processes, which is basically all the hard work the IT department does for a firm to achieve a specified business outcome. This idea that technology achieves these tasks is actually a thing of the past. In fact, IT functions are shifting to a list of processes to achieve the goals of a firm. In order for a company to be a "blackbelt" in this business processes and in the way that it redesigns the way it conducts business, it must employ six sigma criterion, such as design, analyze, and control, to truly be successful in achieving its goals.
The process controls the type of technology. And this technology is every changing, as discussed in Dr. Schwartz's blog and lecture this week. In his lecture, he mentioned three processes and technologies that are currently trending and reshaping how a firm conducts its business processes. The one commonality that I found in these three processes is that it places control in the hands of the user, future enforcing the demand-pull theory.
First is cloud computing, which is simply using the Internet to move data in novel ways. Again, this places the control in the hands of the consumer. Cloud computing is demand-push. To truly get a grasp of cloud computing, I found this article, published in mid-July of this year.
Second is mash ups, which correlates with cloud computing. I ventured to www.programmableweb.com to check out this new business process trend. It appears the most popular mashup tags are mapping, photos, and shopping. It, again, allows the consumer to customer to control the content and manner in which they place data on the web. The consumer is in control of the operating system.
Lastly, Dr. Schwartz mentioned Web 3.0. Currently, we are in the Web 2.0 stage, which is basically user-driven content, like social media networking like Twitter and Facebook. The future of the Internet, Web 3.0, will take that user-driven content a step further and allow the consumer to control not only what the publish, but how it is delivered across the wire. This YouTube (an example of Web 2.0, user-driven content in and of itself) video gives a graphic depiction of the evolution of the web.
That's all for this week. The future of business process...it's all in YOUR hands.
I love the dramatic ending... LOL On a serious note, I completely agree with your assessment of the future trends of the internet. I am a firm believer in putting the control in the consumers’ hands, a-la Demand Pull Model. In my first blog I talked about how Apple has yet to relinquish its control and adopt this model. It will be interesting to see how long they can go without following trend.
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