Information TechnologyApplied Computer Technology

 

 

 

 

 

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Key points offered by Gaylen Duncan

-Information Technology is more of a support industry than an industry all of it's own. Focus on increasing the productivity of other sectors through technology.

-ITAC studied the success of Ottawa's IT cluster. Clusters take a long time to form. Key ingredients that need to be there to facilitate cluster formation and a healthy economy are:

  • Access to Technology
  • Source of Qualified People
  • Entrepreneurial Involvement
  • Support

-The buyers of Information Technology need to work with the sellers of Information Technology. The creation of large Information Technology departments is actually hurting the regional economy because it excludes the entrepreneur, the guy that will resell the technology as a trade export. This point was further driven home when Gaylan in response to questions on how to build a more effective IT group within the city of Thunder Bay and Thunder Bay Telephone recommended that privatization of the Information Technology departments would be a good start.

-Everyone thinks that the IT sector is doing poorly, did you know that it is still out performing the whole Canadian economy by a factor of 1.4, sure it isn't doing 4 times the growth but it is doing OK.

-ITAC did a study of IT investment versus overall business performance on about 17 companies. Amazingly they found that there was a direct relationship between IT investment and business performance, all 17 companies ranked identically. This research has since been repeated in other locations and the same results were found!