Information Sheet Harambee University 2022/2023

Harambee University
Ethiopian TVET-System
Curriculum
Hard ware and network Servicing
Level IV
Based on
Occupational Standard (OS)
Learning Guide
Unit of Competence: Migrate to New
Technology

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MODULE DESCRIPTION:
This module defines the competence required to apply skills and knowledge in using new or
upgraded technology, with the knowledge, skills and right attitudes.
This Module covers the following Learning outcomes:
LO1: Apply Existing Knowledge and Techniques to Technology Transfer
LO2: Apply Functions of Technology to Assist in Solving Organizational Problems
LO3: Evaluate New or Upgraded Technology Performance

LO1: Apply Existing Knowledge and Techniques to Technology

Transfer

The need to identify new technology

When a new technology emerges, IT professionals wait anxiously to see how the technology could
be used to enhance the current business functions.

There should be a good business case supporting any decision to integrate new technology into a
business. When a technology is used to support a task that is not well suited for the functions and
skill levels of the employees, it is likely to be a waste of time and fail.

In the majority of cases, the lack of skills related to using and supporting new technology hinders
the migration into the new technology, causing missed opportunities.

Therefore, it is important for you as an IT professional to upgrade your skills in response to any
new technologies that are emerging in the industry.

Most new technologies require IT professionals and other employees to upgrade or acquire new
skills. This is critical to your survival as an IT professional in today’s competitive environment.

It takes experience and persistence to find the right technologies to meet the business requirements
of an organization. Your existing knowledge in the area of investigation will help you to find the
right solution to meet the business needs of the organization.

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Lessons learnt from other similar implementations, experiences of other IT professionals, and best
practice amongst other similar national/international organizations will give you invaluable
knowledge and skills when identifying new technologies for the benefit of the organization.

We cannot predict the future with certainty. However, it is necessary to look back, observe and
learn from history when implementing new technologies.

Consider the development of personal computers in the past twenty years. A trend can be identified
in the physical features (size, look, and color), speed, cost, power, storage capacity,
communication capability, etc. as the computers evolved over the years.

Our past experience suggests that in the next few years we can expect to see more powerful, faster,
smaller, high storage capacity and communication-ready computers.

In the last few years, attention has also shifted into mobile technologies, multimedia
communication (using voice, video and audio) systems and wireless access methods.

Sources for identifying new technology

As an IT professional, you need be aware of the trends of new technology emerging in the
industry. The following are some sources amongst many others that will keep you up-to-date with
these changes.

Trade magazines
Trade and business magazines such as Technology and Business constantly introduce IT
professionals to new technologies.

The Internet
The Internet, giving access to World Wide Web, forums, newsgroups and mailing lists, is also a
valuable source of information about new technologies.

Networking
Socializing with other IT professionals and joining professional associations is also a good source
of identifying new technologies available. Suppliers and consultants will also keep you updated
with trends and information about new technology.

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Formal training
Attending formal training courses will certainly expose you to new technologies available by
giving you an opportunity to identify new technologies — not only through the content of the
course but also by getting an opportunity to network with other IT professionals.

Identifying the impact of new technology

New technologies are emerging in the market every day. It is important that IT professionals are
aware of how to identify new technologies that are appropriate for their organization.

If you decide to adopt these technologies in your organization you will need to acquire new skills
in response to the new technology before successfully implementing it.

IT professionals need to follow a systematic procedure to identify the implications of the new
technology for all the stakeholders.

Implementing new technology means change. It is expected that the new technology will make life
much easier for users by providing better mechanisms for performing and managing regular
organizational tasks.

However, if we are to be successful in migrating to new technology then we must anticipate how
the new technology will impact all stakeholders.

You should also be mindful of the magnitude of the impact the technology will have on the
enterprise. Finally, you must bear in mind that user (stakeholder) acceptance is the key to
successful implementation.

Assessing the impact of new technology on the business

Gather information about the technology
• Talk to vendors and other IT professionals to learn as much as possible about the new
technology and other related technologies.
• Use IT magazines and other journals to learn about the technology including legal and
political impacts.
• See how this technology compares with the existing technology to get an idea of the
magnitude of the impact on the organizational functions.

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Gather information about the business strategies

Your choice of new technology should comply with the company’s overall business strategy.
The strategies of the business may promote or hinder the application of new technology.

Identify the stakeholders

Stakeholders are the people who have a share or an interest in the business and will be affected by
the new technology. The acceptance of the new technology into the organization will be increased
when you take the needs of all stakeholders into account before choosing the new technology.

Assess the impact on stakeholders

Assess not only the financial, educational and economic impact of new technology but also the
social, legal and political impact that new technology will have on the stakeholders.

Skills for acquiring and implementing new technology

IT professionals must refresh their skills and use their existing knowledge when acquiring and
implementing new technologies. The following are the types of skills essential in acquiring and
implementing new technologies.

Technical skills
Once a new technology is identified, it is fundamental that you gain the technical skills necessary
before migrating to it. These technical skills may relate to hardware, software, network, PC support
or programming knowledge.

Building technical skills is an ongoing and never-ending process for an IT professional. While you
rely on your existing technical knowledge to identify new technologies, you would need to acquire
new skills before you can successfully implement a new technology into the organization.

Interpersonal and psychological skills

When implementing new technology, an IT professional must further develop interpersonal and
psychological skills, so they can deliver the new technology in a user-friendly manner.

Interpersonal skills will be useful when you need to convey new information to the people that
would be affected by the technology. Psychological skills will give you the ability to create
harmony in difficult situations and promote better acceptance of new technology.

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As an IT professional implementing new technologies, you need to be skilled in customer

relations, oral and written communications, dependability, teamwork and leadership.

Managerial skills
It is important that the IT professional be conversant in managerial and design skills so that new
technology is chosen and implemented in line with business objectives.

Identify appropriate business use of new technology

Appropriate business use of new technology
We have grown to accept technological change. Unless businesses exploit the advantages of the
new technology, they will find that they can’t compete with businesses that do.

Consider the changes to our lives that have been brought about by such things as telephone
banking, the Internet, e-business, email and so on, and the competitive advantages such changes
have given the organizations that implement them.

Organizations need to be constantly aware of current or emerging technology trends and directions
in information technology (IT). However, unless new technology is used appropriately, it may not
bring the desired outcome for the organization.

Aligning business and IT strategies

In today’s competitive business environment, an IT manager should understand the link between
business objective, business strategy and IT strategy. Unless you align your IT services
strategically with the business, you will not have a case for management to invest money in any
new technologies.

Management must take all measures to ensure that information technology is part of business
strategy planning with a view to aligning IT with the business strategies of the organization.

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To ensure that IT is totally aligned with business objectives, IT managers need to:
• Provide business-focused leadership rather than technology-focused leadership. The IT
leadership must be connected to business management.
• Think about the impact of tasks on business as a whole rather than provide solutions for
individual tasks.
• Concentrate more on end-user experience with new technologies rather than the technology
itself.
• Focus on the business goals and let the technology follow.
• Play a strategic role in the future of the organization.

New technology and your business

New technology is used to enhance service, promote innovation, and improve communication and
quality while reducing the costs, and increase productivity and profits. The appropriate business
use of new technology should result in benefits such as:
• reduced costs
• improved quality of existing services
• existing resources being utilized to optimum capacity resulting in better products and better
ways of conducting business
• Increased flexibility.

A new technology that does not lead to real benefits to the organization cannot be justified.

Understanding your business

To be utilized effectively, technology must fit with the users’ goals. It is no good developing a
database that manages stock when the requirement is for a system that manages contacts of
potential customers. To ensure that you get off on the right track it is important to have an
understanding of the organization’s business domain.

What is your client’s core business? What does the organization set out to do and what are
the main activities it undertakes to achieve this?

Sometimes it is apparent what the organization’s core business is, but it is not always
straightforward. How can you find out what an organization’s core business is?

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Documents produced by the organization such as mission statements, strategic plans and
organizational charts are usually a good source of information for determining the organization’s
core business.
A mission statement states the main purpose of the organization and usually incorporates its
financial, social and/or environmental goals. A strategic plan defines how the organization plans
to achieve its goals, and includes the activities it will undertake to achieve them.

Organization charts can provide a graphical representation of the business in terms of how it is
organized to fulfill its core business.

Business planning and IT solutions

To understand how the business planning process relates to the development of IT business
solutions, we must first define the organizational needs and establish the business requirements.

The product selection process

The product selection process establishes a set of criteria that must be matched by new
acquisitions.

The product selection criteria are drawn from business requirements of an organization.
An organization’s business requirements will state high-level outcomes of any new technology.
Often, new business requirements arise when organizations experience problems.

This could range from the slow printing of invoices to poor response times of an online accounting
system distributed across nation-wide branch offices. Problems are expressed in different ways by
organizations, and, as we mentioned previously, they can be found in documents such as:

• corporate mission or vision statements

• long-term goals stated in strategic plans
• Product specifications from project plans and designs.

From these high-level outcomes stated in the business requirements, a set of criteria can be
established for selecting any new technology that the organization will acquire.

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For example, the high-level outcomes of the business requirements could implicate all or any of the
following criteria for selecting the new technology.
Compatibility
New technology will need to work with existing hardware, system and application software with
minimum changes to both.

Interoperability
The new technology must be able to interoperate with the existing network.

Maintainability
The current IT staff should be able to maintain the system even after the introduction of the new
technology.

Centralization/accessibility
The new technology must be accessible by multiple users at various sites.

Security
The new technology must be accessed by authorized users only.

Ease of use
Existing users must be able to operate new technology with minimum re-training.

Scalability
The system introduced using the new technology should be able to cope with growth of the
business, expansion of networks, and a growing number of employees, etc.

Evaluating and selecting new technology

Usually there is a gap between what new technology promises and what it actually delivers.

This gap will be narrowed if you align the new technology with current business needs and IT
strategy of the organization. Reducing this gap will result in maximizing benefits of the new
technology.

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How do you evaluate whether the new technology is successfully aligned with the business
requirements?

There are several tangibles (e.g., cost savings) and intangible (e.g., user satisfaction) benefits of
implementing new technologies.

These benefits will give you an indication of how well the new technology is aligned with the
business objectives.
Therefore, before new technologies are introduced, an organization’s management must agree on
the performance indicators that will help them calculate and measure benefits after implementation.

Assessing the appropriateness of a technology

This involves assessing the technical as well as economic features of the new technology in the
organizational context.

It is important to obtain reliable information about the new technology from various sources, such
as the Internet, consultants, colleagues and other IT professionals, IT supplements of newspapers,
magazines and trade papers, demonstration versions of software and vendor catalogues containing
drawings, designs and product specifications.

You can also ask for more information from vendors, visit show rooms and attend product
demonstrations, exhibitions and conferences.

Productivity and efficiency issues

Identifying and examining processes
Most organizational problems involve poor productivity and inefficiency.

To improve efficiency, you would need to look at processes linked to the problems and examine
the volume, rate and quality of the output of such processes.

Once the processes have been identified, you’ll need to identify measurable outcomes for the
processes. That way you can evaluate the output before and after introducing the new technology.

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Testing proposed solutions

When processes that are linked to an organizational problem have been identified, you will need to
construct tests to measure outcomes.

The simplest form of testing is to note the presence or absence of an outcome.

However, tests for enhanced productivity and efficiency require examining pre- and post-
implementation effects of new technology. Statistics collected before the application of new
technology can be compared with those collected after.

Problems arising from customer dissatisfaction can be hard to measure directly, unless you conduct
a survey. However, there could be a cause to reduced levels of customer satisfaction, such as late
delivery of goods or slow processing of claims.

In the case of goods delivery, you could measure the time taken to receive an order and dispatch it,
before and after implementation of the new technology.

Some IT technologies, when implemented, become an integral part of the business.

Then the profit brought in by the new technology will justify the implementation.

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