Models are expected to present near real life situations and possible effects on the deliverables based on given input environment. However, models do not necessarily indicate the true solutions and provide scope to work on them incrementally. As discussed earlier, organizations may not follow similar paths to acquire IT and may not even derive desired results despite adopting one. This chapter considers it important to include IS as critical input to managing IT acquisition life cycles and delves further into the IT life cycle management principles to conceptualize a model to specific contributions to assess organizational preparedness for IT acquisitions. This model largely includes discussions on IS centric models and argues in favour of assessing the preparedness across three phases, pre-acquisition, acquisition, and post-acquisition. Each phase considers specific inputs with expected deliverables for successful assessment of the preparedness of the organization in that phase.
TopIt Acquisition Life Cycle
The best practices for managing, budgeting, and funding IT solutions persist to evolve. Organizations have realized that IT is a consumable asset, unlike a commercial vehicle. As a particular IT asset ages, it generally requires more maintenance and support, because of its age and more importantly due to relentless progression in technology innovations. Hence, alike other consumable assets, IT assets need to be renewed regularly. In this context creation of a technology life-cycle management plan that produces a framework to fund, renew, and retire IT equipment is rapidly emerging as an industry best practice. Moreover, higher levels of funding that is required to sustain the IT infrastructure, combined with the need to regularly renew assets, has led many organizations to utilize a range of leasing and financing options.
IT infrastructure has emerged as the critical communication, collaboration, and information facilitator of the modern enterprise, broadly enabling most business processes, decision making, practices, and innovation initiatives. To deliver these capabilities, organizations have evolved their roles beyond supporting a collection of servers and software into managing a well-defined and comprehensive suite of equipment, technologies, and services, such as the modern IT infrastructure. A major component of the modern organization’s expanded technology management role is an expanding requirement to effectively balance financial requirements of acquiring an IT infrastructure, as well as deliver and sustain it in a capable and secured way. Experienced professionals understand well that carefully evaluating and optimizing financial options when acquiring, purchasing, financing, or leasing IT equipment and services has become more important for sustaining an optimum IT environment. Furthermore, the best practices for managing, budgeting, and funding IT acquisitions continue to evolve. Many organizations have realized that IT is a consumable asset, not unlike a profit-making vehicle. As a particular IT asset ages, it generally requires more maintenance and support, due to its age and more importantly due to technology’s inexorable progression. Like other consumable assets, IT assets need to be rehabilitated regularly. Creating a technology life-cycle management plan that produces a framework to fund, renew, and retire IT acquisition is rapidly emerging as an industry best practice. The higher levels of funding required to sustain the IT infrastructure, combined with the need to regularly renew assets has led many organizations to utilize a range of leasing and financing options (Pucciarelli and Waxman, 2008).