Keynotes and Speakers for ITx 2018
Senior Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington
Dr Andreas Drechsler is Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington's School of Information Management. His research focuses on understanding and improving strategic IT management, IT risk and security management and IT project management practices, with a particular emphasis on small and medium-sized organisations. He has published more than 25 papers on these and other topics in international journals and conferences.
Two challenges that organisations worldwide currently face are (1) responding to digital innovations threatening their established way of doing business and (2) exploiting, or even creating, digital transformation opportunities themselves.
In New Zealand, 97% of all organisations are small with fewer than 20 employees, which compounds their challenges. Outside the IT industry, such organisations usually have scarce IT management resources, rely on ‘involuntary IT managers’ and may not even have a single employee with a profound understanding of IT’s strategic potential and the related IT risks for their organisation. Over time, such organisations may be left behind on the wrong side of the digital divide (i.e. failing to adapt their business for the digital age), or the security divide (i.e. failing to cope adequately with information security threats).
This presentation outlines two uncomplicated and accessible ‘bare minimum’ frameworks - based on the outcomes of two recent research projects - that help small organisations alleviate this situation. The first framework guides the development of an initial (or refined) strategic understanding of IT in a small organisation, while the second one guides an initial (or refined) assessment of the associated IT risks from a business perspective. Together, these two frameworks’ outcomes enable small organisations to better plan and direct their journey towards their digital future, while being mindful of the associated IT risks.