Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is a broad term that applies to a host of communication devices. These range from radio, TV, cell phones, and computers to wireless transmitters and receivers orbiting the earth (“satellite systems”). The significance of ICT lies in its power to enable people to work together, share knowledge, and improve learning and research outcomes. The quantitative and qualitative data, thus generated, serves as a reliable basis for making key decisions in business and industry. With ICT, decision-makers can make better and more rule-based decisions, instead of leaning on their gut instincts, in instances where it isn’t right to do so.
The power of ICT
ICT is helping C-suiters choose the best one from among various alternatives when it comes to business decision-making, in turn, leading to more efficient utilization of resources. Businesses whose decisions are guided by research-based data are more likely to enjoy a favorable position in the market in relation to their competitors and generate more revenue, margins, market share and mind share. So, by helping bring deep, accurate, and timely data to the fingertips of people who make important decisions in business and industry, ICT has dramatically altered business decision-making, making it faster and better.
The skilled workforce, the animating force at the heart of industry, traces its origins to the education sector. It’s ICT that brings into being the supportive environments that facilitate collaboration and communication (e.g., email, conferencing, document sharing, events scheduling) in education. This enabling ecosystem serves as a basis for information creation, storage, retrieval, and dispersal in various learning environments. Apart from making knowledge available to those who need it, ICT is also enriching our personal interactions and, by extension, our lives and without us noticing it all the time! Video conferencing, chat tools, social media, collaborative apps, interactive displays, and virtual reality are helping us communicate better as well as feel closer and more connected to others.
Explained: Procurement in ICT
Procurement, in this context, is the process of selecting and engaging with the most appropriate and favorable suppliers (or providers) of ICT hardware, software, and services, receiving supplies, and processing payments. Computers, laptops, smartphones, servers, file storage devices, networking equipment, printers, scanners, peripherals, wearables, and sensors are some of the ICT hardware businesses commonly use. Popular ICT software include software that facilitate project management, accounting, website building, customer relationship management, and document management. Various collaboration tools and cybersecurity software also fall under this category. Infrastructure management, managed IT services, cloud-based services, IT consulting services, software development and integration, hardware support services and customer assistance come under the ambit of ICT services.
