First of all, let’s take a look back as to what ICT is. According to Wikibooks, a collection of open-content textbooks in the Net, ICT stands for “information and communication technologies and are defined, for the purposes of this primer, as a “diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information.” These technologies include computers, the Internet, broadcasting technologies (radio and television), and telephony.”

By this definition, it is largely supposed that a lot of what ALL companies do must involve ICT in whatever degree. From simple filing systems to sophisticated e-commerce implementations, no business can afford to ignore ICT if they are to exist at all in today’s world.

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Reading TechCrunch post today, it is a bit frightening that in ICT field alone, there are about 18,885 layoffs in the world this week. This is closely related to the ongoing global financial crisis that is happening. It is saddening, - especially for us ICT professionals, because although it may sound morbid, yet the fact remains and cannot be denied : we are in a crisis.

One question begs to be answered, though. Should you, - as a business owner, blindly cut back your ICT spending and erased it from your next financial year’s budget projecting ? By all means no. This was clearly argued by Sol. E. Solomon of ZDNet Asia in his piece titled “Global Crisis Hits Asian Finance Tech”. Drawing on authoritative sources like Ben Watson ( managing director of project management company, PTS Consulting ) and Malcolm Lister (CA’s Asia-Pacific and Japan vice president of alliances and industry solutions ); it’s hard to ignore his systematic arguments.

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Lister clearly made the point when he stated that what the crisis means is that the global financial sector is heading into an increasingly regulated climate. Banks will be battling with a number of key issues, including issues related to governance, risk management and compliance (GRC). According to PTS Consulting’s Watson, three common traits will be heightened in terms of governance, risk management and compliance: - need for information to be shared in a transparent fashion; - need to manage information flows; and - need to provide an audit trail of information flow, and any subsequent approval or rejection of that information.

Further, “Ensuring the correct technology is in place to facilitate these requirements will be key, and IT departments’ interaction with the overall business will need to be as close as ever to understand these changing requirements and deliver upon them,” he said.

Granted, this may have some limited applications to banks and financial institutions only. But the lessons are clear : ICT has become an inseparable and indispensable part of whatever business you are in. You owe it to yourself to bear this fact in mind.

What you can do is maybe striking out any large-scale IT projects for immediate cost-savings. Yet you cannot just leave it altogether because ICT is a platform where your business must stand to rise itself above the crisis tide. To do otherwise is simply unwise.