Expanding the world of possibilities for business

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Intro to Special Section.

By: Madeline Bayliss
   Technology has a special heritage in this area, stemming from the inventions of Edison and RCA. Today, the innovation created by technology is much more widespread. No longer bound by laboratories and scientific genius, technology in the hands of users is yielding new ideas and results in many aspects of business.
   The Princeton Business Journal sought to capture the local view of current issues in technology. We touched a wide range of the business community: companies that use technology and companies that provide it; product technology and information technology; employers and employees.
   What emerged were some common experiences and points of view on the role of technology today. Technology is clearly not just a field, a department and a component in a product. It is integral to business today.
   The number of professionals in this business area and the skill requirements of local organizations are significant relative to other functions. There is a dependency created by the use of systems from basic financial functions to supply chain operations to the core of product differentiation. Not only does technology support a process — sometimes it is the process. In a time of heightened national security concerns, information and systems are considered critical to protect.
   The challenge of technology comes on many fronts. Sometimes the capabilities are so advanced; companies have learned to make things simple to get results. Sometimes those capabilities have been pushed further to do things smarter, as only advanced computing intelligence can provide. As integral as technology has become, sometimes the better approach has been to let other experts manage it.
   Adapting to new technologies is a continuous process. Companies have learned that even for the professionals there is a constant demand for learning and imagining how else the technology could benefit the company, its customers and its stakeholders. Sometimes that’s with new creations and sometimes that’s from the reapplication of existing technologies. Because it’s not about technology itself, but what technology enables companies, people and products to do.
   While the lessons learned and current experiences have common themes, imagining what else technology can do remains wide open. In this issue, a few members of the local business community share their experiences and thoughts on what lies ahead.