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Letter from the GM

 

 

Dear Reader

Welcome to PDA's new website!

There has been a very significant shift in the focus of IT. Most of us have encountered the management triangle of People-Process-Technology. These are the three key elements we must address if we are to get the best from our investment in IT. Everyone accepts this as a self-evident truth. Yet throughout the nineties and right up to the dot-com crash, the focus of IT was overwhelmingly on technology. As technology raced ahead, with ever faster microprocessors and dramatic developments in networking, all you had to do was invest in the latest and greatest to get all the benefits of the brave new world. This all culminated with the ecommerce boom and then came crashing down with a vengeance in the ‘dot-com crash’. We knew something fundamental was wrong when board members from some of the fastest-growing dot-coms were heard saying things such as “profits don’t really matter” or “profits aren’t the main game”.

We have now had a major reality check. There have been significant, even savage, cuts in IT budgets. Now, much stronger justification is required for expenditure on technology. Now, just because it is new doesn’t mean you have to have it. IT managers all of a sudden have had to face a new word - ROI. And as the technology has matured, the focus has shifted away from the technology itself and has settled rather on those other two factors – People and Process. It is no longer the technology that has centre stage. Now it is a question of how you use and manage the technology, and how you manage the people who use and work with it.

The PDA Training Portfolio very closely reflects this significant change. Today, there is increasing emphasis on what is everywhere referred to as ‘best practice’. Whatever you may think of this expression, in the end it represents the attempt to get some sort of consensus approach on defining and implementing processes that help ensure you get the very most out of your investment in technology. A very worthwhile aspiration. The best known of these ‘best practice’ frameworks is ITIL, originating many years ago from within the UK government as a way of managing IT Infrastructure and now being rapidly adopted by all manner of organisations throughout the entire world. Other ‘best practice’ frameworks are PRINCE2 for Project Management and SABSA for Information Security.

PDA has been providing quality training to business and government in Singapore since 1989. We offer the PDA Portfolio as our response to the contemporary needs of business and government. In a time of rapid change, and with all the implications of globalisation and an increasingly competitive world, it is more important than ever to be able to get the maximum return from your investment in IT. We at PDA believe it is knowledge that will give you the edge.

Katherine Ryman
General Manager
PDA Professional Development Associates